Episode 41 - Reconnecting with Soil

Each of us is deeply connected to soil, whether we see or feel soil directly. It is the source of our food, medicine, and clothing, and is critical to the liveability of our ecosystems and to our lives. Healthy soil can also help us rise to meet biodiversity loss and climate change. We can grow soil, and sequester carbon, feed ourselves, and strengthen local communities and economies in the process. 

Guest Antonious Petro is the Executive Director of Régénération Canada and a Masters Candidate in Soil Science. His background is in biology and in community economic development, and that intersection lends itself beautifully to his role leading a national project in regenerative agriculture. Régénération Canada started as a grassroots initiative, when a handful of Montrealers with a mutual passion for living soils met up in the fall of 2016, hoping to create a national conversation about regenerative agriculture. Since then, the group has grown to become a Canada-wide organization promoting soil regeneration in order to mitigate climate change, restore biodiversity, improve water cycles, and support a healthy food system. 

In this episode, I visit Antonious in a barn at a local farm, and we also have a conversation where we get into the principles of regenerative agriculture, barriers that farmers face, and the importance of soil. We look at the hopeful ways in which we can help nature and soil heal themselves. Soil is a connector: regenerative agriculture is deeply connected to the well-being of human beings and animals, and the health of our communities and economies. We need to make sure environmental, economic, and social well-being work together, if we are to have any hope.