From the Soil Up: Regenerating the Economy
Not everything at DLD this year was on the growing US-European economic and technological divide. There were many speeches on the environment including from heavyweights like Kate Raworth. And I had the opportunity to catch up with my favorite advocate of regenerative agriculture, the managing partner at Acton Capital, Jan-Gisbert Schultze. According to Schultze, today's deepest problem is our spiritual disconnection from nature. We've lost 50% of our soil carbon, he notes, and with it the fertility that sustains us. We can save ourselves, he says, from the soil up — by embracing regenerative agricultural practices that prioritize local community activation and sustainable farming. Schultze is putting this into practice at Lake Constance, Germany's largest lake, where his Regenerate Forum is working to transform an entire county into what he calls a "climate landscape" — retraining farmers, rebuilding soil, and relocalizing the food system.
Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe
Orna Ophir: How a Pathology of "Schizophrenia" Might Reflect a Broken Society As Much as a Broken Mind
Leah McLaren: A Daughter's Memoir of a Mom Who Passed Down Her Trauma and Made Their Lives Impossible to Disentangle
Alice Mah on Plastics, the One Word That Best Describes Our Global Environmental Crisis
Harald H.H.W. Schmidt: Why "The End of Medicine As We Know It" Will Make All of Us Healthier and Happier
Ariel Ezrachi: How Cities, Rather Than Big Tech, Should Be the Engine for a More Equitable Digital Future
Monique Roffey: The Common Sense of Magic Realism and Why The Mermaid of Black Conch is a "Caribbean Novel"
Maureen Perry-Jenkins on Work Matters: How Parents' Jobs Shape Children's Well-Being
Saleem H. Ali: Do We Need a Science Party to Confront Existential Problems Like Global Warming?
Ari Mittleman: Does Criticism of Israel Inevitably Make One Guilty of Antisemitism?
Albert Fox Cahn: How Digital Surveillance In a Post-Roe America Isn't Substantively Different From Xi's China or Putin's Russia
Donald Robertson: Why the Graphic Novel Is an Ideal Form to Capture the Timeless Philosophy of Stoicism
Jacob M. Grumbach: Why the Crisis of American Democracy Is As Much a State and Local As a National Problem
Karen Cerulo and Janet Ruane: How We Can't Escape Social Class, Gender, or Culture in How We Dream