Never in my life, has the path to a prosperous future for everyone felt so clear. And yet the current reality stands in contrast. All too often, it seems that, at best, we are in a state of hopeless mass confusion and,at worst, blatantly headed in the wrong direction.
But many years ago, I learned about the military principle of the ‘opportunity moment.’ This principle states that bold and definitive action is most likely to have success precisely when all hell is breaking loose on the battlefield. Therefore, the role of leaders who would shape the future is to take bold action precisely when, for others, all hope may seem lost.
Today, some people fear for the planet. Others fear for their own health. Some – especially people in rural farming communities – just fear whether or not they can continue to make the ends meet. It’s easy to see why hope feels a bit thin around these days.
Allen, Todd, Bill and I are all innovators by nature and experience – Allen in agriculture, Todd in food, Bill in beef production, and myself in energy. We’ve banded together in what we see as our opportunity moment – to create a new model for capturing solar energy in grass using cows and turn it into healthy food and healthy land and large scale. This model uses biology to work with nature, not chemistry to fight it. The genius is not our own, but flows directly from nature herself by one simple truth: life just wants to capture sunshine.
How the living system works to do this is incredibly complex, but extremely effective when nurtured to work. Both rain forests and prairies are awesome to behold when truly alive. We stand in awe at nature’s genius. The birds, the grass, the microbes, the butterflies, the cows – they are all interrelated to each other in ways we may never fully understand – but we do understand that when the land is healthy, they all thrive.
Our role as humans, therefore, is to nurture the system with humble respect and wonder to help make the whole system thrive. Doing so is not about linear execution of some protocol, but constantly learning and adapting to feedback.
Although some may think of farmers as masters of nature, we see ourselves as students. Thus, in this blog, from time to time, we’ll share with you what we think we know, why we’re doing what we’re doing, and what we’re learning along our journey stepping forward into this opportunity moment. We will apply what we think we know in order to gain insight about what we don’t.
Right now and likely forever, although we stand humbled before nature, we set out with confidence and commitment on our journey. Think of this blog as our journal from our particular place on the frontier of regenerative agriculture. We invite you to join us if you wish.