Capstone OP3. Project Review 3: Introducing Regenerative Agriculture

Introduction: The Zamorano and Gaia University Exchange Program

The Agroecology Files

Introduction to Natural Systems Agriculture

Regenerative Agriculture Seminar, Zamorano

Regenerative Agriculture Seminar, UC Davis

Process Reflection and Digiphonote

Review Specification

In this Review I highlight my work taking opportunities to introduce Regenerative Agriculture to a diversity of students in Agriculture School context. I review the projects chronologically.

Project Specification 

There was a huge void in most of the academic environments I moved in when it came to Regenerative Agriculture. Creating learning opportunities in Regenerative Agriculture is what this project review is concerned with. I created curriculum that built on my experiences at Zamorano and UC Davis to frame introductory lectures and a seminar on Regenerative Agriculture.  I am including all the outlines and resources I created, culminating in the syllabus and reading list for the Regenerative Agriculture Seminar at UC Davis, which was the most scaled up iteration of an introduction to regenerative agriculture that I taught. I have distilled and included also the bare minimum of photographs. I have organized and archived my extensive documentation (photography, video and voice recordings of lectures) for later use.

In 2010 I took my PDC in Costa Rica and learned about Gaia University. I was approaching graduation from the Crop and Animal Science Program at Zamorano and I had been craving a way to become knowledgeable in environmental studies as well as food processing. Becoming a Gaia University exchange student at Zamorano was the way I could take advantage of my familiarity with the ag school environment and how comfortable I was living there. A couple of emails between Gaia University and the exchange student coordinator at Zamorano, Rosa Amada Zelaya was all it took. Food and lodging and classes were quite affordable at a fraction of the cost any university in the U.S.A. might offer these things. Zamorano has amazing potential for the practice of Regenerative Agriculture and there are many ideas and visions for the school that I would love to see come to fruition. The exchange program I created for myself allowed me to explore that a bit  and also to lay the groundwork to pursue some Regenerative Agriculture projects especially around education and ecological design process.

A Green and Resilient, Regenerative Zamorano

My vision for Zamorano as part of my regenerative future in Honduras is detailed in my original Learning Intentions and Pathway Design. This was a concept map I made a little bit after which started to organize some of my ideas around what areas we could work on. 

The main way that the exchange program played out was that I took classes at Zamorano which would round out my ability to look at the food system in an integrative way. Rather than having to focus on only one aspect of the food system like production or processing or environemtnal stewardship or business, I wanted to be able to vertically integrate my learning, and so the classes I took focused on filling in thouse voids in knowledge.

The Carbon Farming Course

I also was able to attend the Carbon Farming Course of 2012 and bring along two Zamorano students and so the exchange flowed both ways. Ehtan Roland was my advisor at the time and he really helped make it possible for my comrades Camilo Velez and Fernando Tamara to come to New York for the Carbon Farming Course with me. We translated material to spanish and we also wrote blog posts for the Carbon Farming Course Blog. Unfortunately the blog has moved and the links no longer work:

Carbon Farming Course Blog Posts

1. 8 Formas de Capital 
2. Diario Fotográfico de Carbon Farming Course
3. Descripción de los talleres de Carbon Farming Course (traducción con Vélez y Támara)
4. Wes Jackson y la Agricultura de Sistemas Naturales
5. Agricultura Perenne con David Jacke y Agroforestería con Eric Toensmeyer
6. Manejo Holístico

However I kept detailed Carbon Farming Course Notes and the sections of text in bold are the articles I wrote. Another important thing that happened during the Carbon Farming Course is that I met two of my most significant mentors, David Jacke and Eric Toensmeier. I go into Dave's influence on my work in great detail in Output Packet 4. I kept in touch with Eric after the course, visiting his place in Holyoke, Massachussettes, and teaching a small component of his workshop in Florida. He shared with me the powerpoint lectures he used to teach Carbon Farming before his book came out. Armed with that and the other materials I got at the Carbon Farming Course, I felt like I could share at least basic introductions to this material not as an expert myself, but knowledgeable enough to point people in the direction of resources and ways to learn more.

Grades from Zamo-Gaia Exchange, 2011

Grades from Zamo-Gaia Exchange, 2012

RAIZ The Almost OP

RAIZ was the title of a document I wrote at the end of 2012 which really tried hard to give an overview of what I was going through taking so many classes at Zamorano and trying to process that experience into an output packet. My frustraition is evident in the writing. Reading and looking back on that time I really want to advocate for not using the Gaia University format to process content, but to process experience. I know that suggesting a moratorium on projects that are about acquiring content seems selfish since I waited until after I did it to say it is not a good idea but honeslty making more meaning out of a bunch of information acquired is a lot more frustraiting than making meaning out of a bunch of things experienced. No the Gaia U format should not be applied to “anything.” This failed OP is one solid reason not to. Looking back I now recognize that making a project out of devouring content at Zamorano was setting myself up for disappointment because:

1. It is costly: Paying Gaia University for the program as well as paying for content is prohibitive.
2. It is frustrating:  Managing information is difficult. The Gaia University program allows one to extract the most meaning and learning out of any experience, so content is being created documentation is being produced out of our experience and meaning is being made. So making more information out of an excess amount of information is unwieldy, confusing and truly frustrating.
3. It is isolating: The Zamorano Gaia exchange led me to the very harsh realization that Zamorano could not be a community for me indefinitely, and that what I thought was a strong community on the other end whether I thought of it as Gaia University or the Permaculture movement, was not as solid or tangible as I thought. Moving to the states I learned that the closeness I felt at Permaculture events or Transformative Action Learning events was not the way people live day to day here and I have had to carve out a semblance of community from scratch.

The Agroecology Files was a project I created with Dr. Jeff Pack. We outlined an introduction to Agroecology together and over the sessions of the Agroecology we founded together filmed these lectures and started to edit them to publish online. One of our colleages in theclub posted the first one online while I acquired the skills and found an adequate platform for these videos. This is the snapshot project evaluation grid I filled for this project as I was taking stock of where my Gaia University projects stand leading up to writing my Output Packets. During my capstone phase I learned video editing and am currently preparing the Agroecology Files for uploading.

In my third year of the Crop and Animal Science program at Zamorano I was asked to lead a several hour seminar on sustainability in agriculture. I had not done a PDC yet and had very limited acces to resources, but presented on diversification as a step towards a more sustainable ag model. From 2009 to 2013 when I was given the opportunity to lead a 2 day seminar for over 100 students, there was a steep learning curve and following is the oultine for that seminar:

Natural Systems Agriculture Seminar

The following pages are an outline handout for one of the first two day introductions to Regenerative Agriculture that I ever taught. It was imparted in summer 2013 as I was teaching D-Lab in Zamorano for the first time.

Introduction to Natural Systems Agriculture

José Miguel Holguín Guerrero

Jorge Antonio Espinosa

In 2014 and 2015, José Miguel Holguín, one of my close friends and collaborators and I were given the opportunity to lecture for several hours on Regenerative Agriculture. We titled the lecture "Introduction to Natural Systems Agriculture" and engaged several hundred students presentation, lecture and discussion. Following is the basic outline for the 2 hour introductions we gave in 2014 and 2015 to the 2nd year Ecology students. A few hundred students got an introduction to these concepts over the two years.

Introduction to Regenerative Agriculture for 4rth Year Students

Based on the lectures we gave I was tasked with creating the first third of the syllabus for Fourth Year Students Environment and Development Students taking the Agroferstry class. They now receive a review of the basic patterns of regenerative agricuture in their agroforestry class. This is the outline of that part of their syllabus: 

Módulo 1: Introducción a la Agricultura Regenerativa

Hora 1

Inquietudes

Paradigma de Regeneración vs Sostenibilidad

(Agri)cultura de Resiliencia y Regeneración: Agricultura Perenne, Permacultura, Carbon Farming, Agroforestería en el Marco de Cambio Climático

Escenarios de Transición

Modelo de Sucesión Mosaico Dinámico

Hora 2

Patrones

Biomímesis

Sistemas Agroforestales

"El Bosque Alimenticio"

Necesidades y Rendimientos: La gallina

Las F y Calidad de Vida

Ver

Biomimicry Janine Benyus

Transición a un Mundo sin Petróleo

How to Restore a Rainforest

How I fell in Love with a Fish

Leer

Alnocultura Liguriana, Dave Jacke

Beacon Food Forest

1491 p. 8

Hora 3

Manejo Holístico

Lineas Clave

Granos Perennes y Land Institute

Ver

Greening the World's Deserts and Reverting Climate Change

Hora 4

Soil Food Web

Biochar

Fire Mimicry

Microgasificación

Leer

1491 p. 7

Hora 5

La Cuenca Alimenticia

Economía de la Regeneración

Ver

Sacred Economics

Leer

8 Formas de Capital

 Hora 6

Proceso de Diseño Ecológico

Próximos Pasos

Módulo 2: Sistemas Agroforestales

Módulo 3: Silvopastoreo

Finca Agroecológica Zamorano, Masters in Sustainable Tropical Agriculture (MATS) and Potential for Future Collaboration

After all the Regenerative Agriculture advocacy, awareness raising, and projects, then director of the Environment and Development Department at Zamorano Laura Suazo enlisted my help to write a grant to start an Agroecological Farm at Zamorano. I participated by giving a rundown of potential investment costs as well as listing the kinds of qualifications an instructor should have. I also gave input as to where the farm could be located.

Once the money had been secured by Dr. Suazo mainly from Swiss foreign aid, José Miguel Holguín successfully assembled a module for second year students where Ecological Design Process would be used to set up the farm. Our journey applying Ecological Design Process together towards large projects in Zamorano is detailed in my following OP on Collaborative Ecological Design. Many challenges which I was already somewhat familiar with led him to quit and return to Ecuador.

Dr. Suazo offered me the job I had helped write the post for (see screenshot of email below) but I was unable to take it because of my citizenship process. Also after my D-Lab experience I know that I cannot take an instructor position because instructors make instructor wages while applying their professor level knowledge and experience. Even though I have invested a lot into the teaching of Regenerative Agriculture at Zamorano, I have chosen to pass up this opportunity.

I am still interested in collaborating with Zamorano in the future. And hope to explore the possibilities in upcoming travel now possible because I have a U. S. Passport. There is a new Masters Program in Sustainable Tropical Agriculture (MATS,) and the possibilities for collaboration are more than ever before. I have other priorities and plan to put my wellbeing first. 

Regenerative Agriculture Seminar

In 2014 and 2015, while I was teaching D-Lab in Zamorano, we held meetings with the Agroecology Club. We structured the lectures according to the different patterns of regenerative agriculture, and took turns leading the discussions. These two pictures are of our whiteboard planning out the sessions and the meeting in which that was decided for the summer of 2015. Following are all the flyers I made for that year. I designed them like memes using my own photographs and informal language so that there would be a tidbit of information and at least an awareness that would reach the 1,200 students in the school and the entire teaching community, so that even if not many people could attend our gatherings, the entire school was becoming more aware of Regenerative Agriculture. Within a couple years a Masters Program In Sustainable Tropical Agriculture was announced as the first Graduate level offering at Zamorano. I like to think we contributed heavily to that.

The UC Davis Regenerative Agriculture Seminar

I had been wanting to create a Regenerative Agriculture Seminar at UC Davis and created these concept maps to my employer at D-Lab. The first one is a simple rundown of the basic concepts I had been using to introduce Regenerative Agriculture, and the main patterns in Regenerative Agriculture, with some of the teaching tools or resources for reference. The second map has a layer of potential appropriate technology prototypes that could work well for our D-Lab prototyping class. Finally the third map integrates some potential research or project connections to health issues because of our collaboration with One Health at UC Davis.

I brought it up several times and got turned down, despite creating a layer of related appropriate technologies to explore as well as health issues as these were areas of interest for D-Lab. I began to show them to other potential collaborators. After speaking to Mark Van Horn who was then the director of the student farm at UC Davis, and Will Horwath, Ph.D. who has done some research on climate change, I turned to Amelie Gaudin Ph.D., professor of Agroecology at UC Davis who liked the idea and began to take all the necessary steps to implement. The concept maps are for illustration purposes. Follow this link to a draft of this section on the Regenerative Agriculture Seminar to look at them more closely or read on for a table with all the same information. 

This was the refined concept map that would serve as a conceptual framework for the class, which we created as a student led seminar, a fairly free form structure at the UC.

I visited the Soil Not Oil Conference in September 2015, where I met Miguel Altieri and I told him about the project. Professor Gaudin would later reach out to him and invite him to give the closing lecture to our class. This was the flyer we created for outreach:

Over the course of the next ten weeks we grappled with how to define “regenerative agriculture” as it was the olden days where wikipedia still defined it as a “subset of organic agriculture.”

We all brainstormed the why’s and what’s and how’s of Regeneration and came up with some good thinking which I summarized into these concept maps:

We all took turns researching and lecturing and leading class discussion on one of the big regenerative agriculture patterns. For the last session Miguel Altieri came and spoke to the class and also gave an open lecture to anyone who wanted to come.

Some important reflections regarding this experience.

1. We wanted to do create a white paper and/or a blog for the outcomes of our seminar. We grossly underestimated the resources necessary in pulling those things off, and neither thing got off the ground.
2. We also did not think there would be criticism or backlash for a simple seminar like this. Our Professor did receive criticism and has been reluctant to take on the seminar again.
3. This seminar happened once at one of the major agriculture schools in the country perhaps the world. I did it for free, while working more than full time. There needs to be a way to get compensated for regenerative work, or it is not regenerative.

Links to some of the outcomes and evidences of learning:

Syllabus

Reading List and Bibliography

Evaluation

Being ready to jump on the opportunity to lecture and help inform agriculture school students about regenerative agriculture taught me to stay on my toes and be flexible. 

This Project Review is one of the simplest in form but was the hardest to wrap my mind around. The extensive amount of documentation done, literally thousands of photographs, hours of sound and video documentation and maps and more maps made this quite daunting. I chose to distill the most essential aspects of each experience simply to make processing these projects possible. I also drew hard lines around not spending more time, energy and resources of my own on projects that do not help my day to day survival. This has been crucial for wrapping up the projects I include herein. I believe in our Gaia University community we need to better caution each other about this. Any time a project does not help a person support themselves as they go about their world changing endeavors we should be raising red flags for each other, looking after each other's backs.

Digiphonote: Word, Mahara, Drive, VUE, Powerpoint, Canon 5D Mark ii