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Episode 034, Lexie Gropper: Restoring Ecosystems, Health, and Community in the Amazon

Soul Soil: Where Agriculture and Spirit Intersect with Brooke Kornegay

Release Date: 08/04/2020

Akiva Silver - 3223 12.11 PM show art Akiva Silver - 3223 12.11 PM

Soul Soil: Where Agriculture and Spirit Intersect with Brooke Kornegay

Akiva Silver has been studying and working with nature for the past 20 years. His endeavors have ranged from primitive wilderness survival to planting and maintaining diverse fruit and nut orchards, and to running his nursery business at Twisted Tree Farm. Akiva raises tens of thousands of trees every year, propagating from seeds and cuttings. He is an avid forager and observer of wildlife. Akiva has written three books, Trees of Power, The Conversation, and The Ocean of Dreams. In this episode… An approach to creating change through inspiration and alternative solutions rather than...

info_outline Akiva Silver - 3223 12.11 PM show art Akiva Silver - 3223 12.11 PM

Soul Soil: Where Agriculture and Spirit Intersect with Brooke Kornegay

Akiva Silver has been studying and working with nature for the past 20 years. His endeavors have ranged from primitive wilderness survival to planting and maintaining diverse fruit and nut orchards, and to running his nursery business at Twisted Tree Farm. Akiva raises tens of thousands of trees every year, propagating from seeds and cuttings. He is an avid forager and observer of wildlife. Akiva has written three books, Trees of Power, The Conversation, and The Ocean of Dreams. In this episode… An approach to creating change through inspiration and alternative solutions rather than...

info_outline Ep 049, Jared Sorensen: A Regenerative Approach to the Family Ranch show art Ep 049, Jared Sorensen: A Regenerative Approach to the Family Ranch

Soul Soil: Where Agriculture and Spirit Intersect with Brooke Kornegay

Some people do things the way things have always been done. Others develop that curiosity muscle and are able to take in new information, weigh it against experience and, yes, intuition, and ultimately create new systems that work. The first thing Jared teaches a new farmer is “know thyself.” Jared and Selena have been married 26 years and are the parents of nine children and one grandchild. They are 3rd generation ranchers, managing the operation Jared’s grandfather and father built in Secret Pass and Clover Valley, Nevada. Jared is a life-long learner and has been applying and teaching...

info_outline 048, Amy Dempster: The Nature Experience show art 048, Amy Dempster: The Nature Experience

Soul Soil: Where Agriculture and Spirit Intersect with Brooke Kornegay

Amy Dempster helps others understand the healing power of the earth. What began as openly sharing her spiritual journey on her popular blog Following Hawks, has become a resource for others wanting to learn how to communicate with nature and share their own unique healing gifts with the earth. Together with the Spirits of the Land in the mountains of northwest Montana, she tends seven portals on the land where she lives, along with any grid keeping work she is assigned. She also leads the Earth Tenders Academy, an immersive online journey to help others reestablish their connection with their...

info_outline 047, Asia Suler: Earth-Centered Personal Growth show art 047, Asia Suler: Earth-Centered Personal Growth

Soul Soil: Where Agriculture and Spirit Intersect with Brooke Kornegay

Asia Suler is a writer, teacher, earth intuitive and ecological philosopher who lives in the folds of the Blue Ridge Mountains. She is the founder of One Willow Apothecaries, an Appalachian-grown company that offers handcrafted herbal medicines and educational experiences in herbalism, animism, ancestral healing and earth-centered personal growth. Asia has guided over 20,000 students in 70+ countries through her immersive online programs. With her writings and teachings, Asia helps people embrace their own unique medicine through a joyful engagement with the natural world. Asia’s first book...

info_outline 046, Seán Pádraig O'Donoghue show art 046, Seán Pádraig O'Donoghue

Soul Soil: Where Agriculture and Spirit Intersect with Brooke Kornegay

“Our sense of ‘the individual’, which really began with the rise of capitalism and the forceful severing of people from land and community, led to the concept that there are categories of being that do and do not have consciousness, that are and are not alive, that do and do not have their own right to existence…and when we actually drop into our senses and allow ourselves to experience the living world, we discover that so many of the things that were not supposed to be intelligent, or sentient, are speaking to us and with us. And that changes everything.” Seán Pádraig...

info_outline 045, Deatra Cohen and Adam Siegel: Ashkenazi Herbalism show art 045, Deatra Cohen and Adam Siegel: Ashkenazi Herbalism

Soul Soil: Where Agriculture and Spirit Intersect with Brooke Kornegay

75% of the world’s human population relies on traditional healing practices, most of which is herbal medicine. Herbs and other plants have shaped human culture and traditions since the beginning of time. The Ashkenazim of Eastern Europe’s Pale of Settlement have a well documented history dating back to the Middle Ages, but until now, accounts of their herbal healing practices have been absent from public record. Deatra and Adam have put together a snapshot of not only the herbs used by this culture, but also tell the story of its healers. Deatra Cohen is an author, herbalist, master...

info_outline 044, Amy Dempster: Gridkeeping 101 show art 044, Amy Dempster: Gridkeeping 101

Soul Soil: Where Agriculture and Spirit Intersect with Brooke Kornegay

Amy Dempster helps others understand the healing power of the earth. What began as openly sharing her spiritual journey on her popular blog Following Hawks, has become a resource for others wanting to learn how to communicate with nature and share their own unique healing gifts with the earth. Together with the Spirits of the Land in the mountains of northwest Montana, she tends seven portals on the land where she lives, along with any grid keeping work she is assigned. She also leads the Earth Tenders Academy, an immersive online journey to help others reestablish their connection with their...

info_outline 043, David O’Carroll: Korean Natural Farming for the Ultimate Sustainable Solution (continued) show art 043, David O’Carroll: Korean Natural Farming for the Ultimate Sustainable Solution (continued)

Soul Soil: Where Agriculture and Spirit Intersect with Brooke Kornegay

David O’Carroll has been educating growers in the United Kingdom in Korean Natural Farming methods for the last 6 years at Ballagh Micro Farm, based in Devon, where beneficial microbes are being used to create healthy soil through powerful natural fertilizers. Having used Korean Natural Farming for a number of years on a smaller scale, such as establishing an agroforestry project and learning centre, he combined Korean Natural Farming and other methods of natural farming to accelerate the change in soil biology to showcase how healthy soil can be created. Working closely with many United...

info_outline 042, David O’Carroll: Korean Natural Farming for the Ultimate Sustainable Solution show art 042, David O’Carroll: Korean Natural Farming for the Ultimate Sustainable Solution

Soul Soil: Where Agriculture and Spirit Intersect with Brooke Kornegay

David O’Carroll has been educating growers in the United Kingdom in Korean Natural Farming methods for the last 6 years at Ballagh Micro Farm, based in Devon, where beneficial microbes are being used to create healthy soil through powerful natural fertilizers. Having used Korean Natural Farming for a number of years on a smaller scale, such as establishing an agroforestry project and learning centre, he combined Korean Natural Farming and other methods of natural farming to accelerate the change in soil biology to showcase how healthy soil can be created. Working closely with many United...

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Today we have the opportunity to glimpse what it means to stand for community and healing in the midst of the fallout of Western extractive corporate interests. Lexie Gropper is a biologist dedicated to deepening her understanding of the life cycles, with a passion for the processes of decomposition leading to fertile grounds and new opportunities. She dedicates her energy to the cultivation of plants, fungi, bacteria, relationships, community, and healing.

Lexie has been living in the Ecuadorian Amazon since 2014. She lives on her family's reforested edible jungle, a literal island in the middle of a sea of deforestation and ongoing contamination from petroleum extraction, cattle ranching, and cash crop monocultures. The name of their project is Amisacho Restauración, where they've dedicated themselves to three direct lines of action with communities in their region: restoring ecosystems, restoring health, restoring community. 

In this episode…

  • About Amisacho Restauración, reforestation, and education
  • Rescuing ancient soil building practices such as terra preta
  • The history of resource extraction in Sucumbios, Ecuador
  • The ongoing 27-year legal battle between the indigenous population of Ecuador and Texaco (formerly Chevron) for the crime of ecocide and challenges of watching a corporation exploit loopholes in the legal system to avoid responsibility for damages
  • Involvement with Environmental Reparations Committee, organizing social approaches to environmental restoration and reparations
  • The health therapy program which sends health specialists trained in permaculture, biomagnetism, and holistic psychotherapies to support cancer patients in areas affected by the contamination of the waterways by petroleum industry byproducts
  • Growing mycomedicinals (medicinal mushrooms) and donating tinctures to help support the remote indigenous population
  • Offering courses in soil regeneration and returning indigenous forest microbes to the land
  • The magickal mystickal Wood Wide Web, bokashi and biochar
  • Biomagnetism

Resources