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
Episode 2162: Bethanne Patrick on the Hypocrite, Hitler's People and Hum
Episode 2061: Mimi Casteel explains the how to fix America, one sip of wine at a time
Episode 2160: Steve Benen on how the Republicans have become the Orwellian Party of Big Brother
Episode 2159: Richard J. Evans on how leading Nazis were, in some ways, just ordinary middle class Germans
Episode 2158: Robin Bernstein on the Marriage of American Capitalism with the American Prison System
Episode 2157: Lindsey Cormack on How to Raise a Citizen
Episode 2156: James Muldoon exposes the hidden human labor powering the AI revolution
Episode 2155: David Daley Gets Inside the Far Right's 50-Year Plot to Control American Elections
Episode 2154: Shad White on Brett Favre's Mississippi Swindle
Episode 2153: Lola Milholland on Group Living and Other Deliciously Polyamorous Recipes
Episode 2152: Peter Wehner on the Fate of "His" Republican Party
Episode 2151: Edmund Fawcett compares the Futures of Liberalism and Conservatism
Episode 2150: Jonathan Taplin on why American Exceptionalism lies in its Powers of Creativity