Regenerative Ramblings

Weis Markets Closes Loop

eightyninetilinfinity — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 11:30:34 -0500

This Spring, fifty Weis markets throughout Pennsylvania will roll out a new composting program....

Do We Really Need Industrial Agriculture to Feed the World?

eightyninetilinfinity — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 16:10:00 -0500

Watch this video to find out why we don’t: Fun Fact: Humans consume only 1% of the corn grown in the...

Honoring Dr. David Suzuki

eightyninetilinfinity — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 15:41:11 -0400

Last week, I was fortunate enough to attend a symposium at Case Western University in Cleveland, OH...

Romney's Head in the Tar Sands

eightyninetilinfinity — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 20:26:57 -0400

Thursday, Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney announced his ‘bold’ energy plan...

Response to CNN's "The war over coal is personal"

eightyninetilinfinity — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 14:44:51 -0400

http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/17/us/embed-america-energy-war/index.html An excerpt: “If all coal...

Vermont's Waste Management Advancement

eightyninetilinfinity — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 10:55:56 -0400

Two weeks ago, Vermont legislators passed a law requiring all waste generators (commercial and...

For the Greater Good?

eightyninetilinfinity — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 18:51:43 -0400

There are so many ways to digest today’s Supreme Court ruling that upheld the Obama’s...

Pain Worth the Gain?

eightyninetilinfinity — Fri, 04 May 2012 12:39:30 -0400

The juxtaposition of the three events in the NFL over the past week calls into question the future...

Connecting the Nodes

eightyninetilinfinity — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:57:00 -0400

What do Monsanto, Philip Morris, the IMF, and Argentine farmers have in common? Agricultural giant...

Climate Change and Our Future: Does Culpability Matter?

eightyninetilinfinity — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:31:00 -0500

Are humans culpable in climate change? Are the problems human-induced? The following is a video from...

Redefining Business Success

eightyninetilinfinity — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 11:59:53 -0500

Watch Benefit Corporations Aim to Make Profit, Positive Impact on PBS. See more from PBS...

30 minute video from Al Jazeera’s “The Stream”...

eightyninetilinfinity — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:13:18 -0500

30 minute video from Al Jazeera’s “The Stream” on Monsanto

India v. Monsanto

eightyninetilinfinity — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:10:18 -0500

Last month, I wrote a post about The Agricultural Battleground and the dangers of ‘Big Agriculture’...

Re-imagining our Consumer Culture

eightyninetilinfinity — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 18:34:00 -0500

As I have explored before in some posts, minimizing waste, through either cradle to cradle and/or...

The Agricultural Battleground

eightyninetilinfinity — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 17:12:23 -0500

Our age demands a paradigm shift, which can be characterized in a number of different ways -...

I hadn’t come across the ideas of biomimicry before a year...

eightyninetilinfinity — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 19:09:58 -0500

I hadn’t come across the ideas of biomimicry before a year ago, until I attended a forum at Bucknell University with Neri Oxman - part material ecologist part biomimic. She got me thinking about design and how we can engineer infrastructure to be mutually beneficial, all while using techniques pioneered by nature.

If you haven’t heard about Janine Benyus, it’s about time you have. Janine has been at the forefront of biomimicry for a number of years now. She co-founded the Biomimicry Institute, which has morphed into various projects, including its current form as Biomimcry 3.8, a global network of scientists, thinkers, and consultants working together and learning from nature in order to solve humanity’s biggest challenges.

This TED talk is from Oxford in 2009, in which Janine gives examples of nature’s uncanny ability to perform complex tasks seamlessly and effortlessly. My favorite example, among many, is the Namibian Desert beetle’s evolutionary ability to collect water molecules from fog and turn it into drinking water for sustenance.

It is important to realize that for all of our strengths as humans, we are still a part of nature. For thousands of years, humans have been scared of nature because its complexities exist beyond our understanding. Our fear has continually given us humans the pretext to attempt to conquer nature and control its complexity. However, as we are discovering, the harder we push against nature, the harder it fights back. We must embrace the complexities of nature and learn from its intelligence so that we can inhabit Earth in an effective and mutually beneficial way.

By taking holistic views of our infrastructures and process, we might be able to conduct humanity in an efficient, productive way that benefits the planet and effortlessly connects us back to our nature.

Enjoy the inspirational talk!

"Is Your Marriage Sustainable?"

eightyninetilinfinity — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 21:08:38 -0500

“Is Your Marriage Sustainable?”

Regenerative vs. Sustainable: "Is your marriage sustainable?"

eightyninetilinfinity — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 21:08:00 -0500

That was a hypothetical question posed in an evening discussion at the San Francisco Planning and...

Amending "People, Planet, Profit"

eightyninetilinfinity — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 15:11:00 -0500

The phrase “People, Planet, Profit” - coined by author John Elkington - promotes the...