I got to spend a lot of time with my kiddo this summer. Too old for camp, too young for a job, he was just the right age for tagging along on field visits.
My kid in a Kernza field, July 2022
I’ve been doing what I do long enough that he knows what’s up.
Our recent family farming experience consisted of ten chickens that were more like pets than livestock but he’s been around enough big farms to understand how hard of a job it is. We probably visited six or seven different farms in as many weeks and what struck both of us each time was how each of these farmers was trying something incredibly different and difficult. And most of them are on a regenerative path, in the truest sense of the word.
Kernza, Regenerative, Climate-positive. All of these crops and words are used to represent types of farming that leave us all better off than if we did nothing. Which means it isn’t easy to transition to Kernza, stop tilling, add cover crops, plant pollinator hedgerows, or find an alternative supply-chain for by-products. These things don’t happen by themselves either. Changing the food system requires time, patience, community, and a team that’s willing to go the distance. Luke Peterson, whose farm is pictured above, is part of a group of growers called Perennial Promise. “Farmers need to speak together and have a much louder voice than we have individually.”
I like that. Both the combined strength of their voices and that they’ve made themselves and us a promise. And no one is naïve about the challenges. Peter Miller, co-founder of Sustain-a-Grain talks about how hard, but necessary it is to develop the Kernza market. He also describes traditional wheat as boring which I thought was both hilarious and accurate.
I’ve had my share of challenging projects. Some might say that I enjoy doing the hardest thing possible because, well, you can’t stop me. A few of these projects have worked out and some have blown up spectacularly. But I’ve always learned something and I’ve ALWAYS had a great team to learn with me. And despite some of the embarrassing failures, I still want to do the impossible. So this is Shine’s promise to you.
Shine promises to be your ride or die when it comes to doing the hardest thing possible. We promise to always be authentic and act with integrity. We promise to help you with your big, hairy, audacious goals and to never question your sanity, or ours for that matter. Shine will push you to make harder choices and to be even better than you thought possible. We promise to embarrass ourselves first so that you don’t have to. And we promise, no, we swear on our grandmother’s grave, never ever to accept vague, unregulated, and un-measured carbon offsets as the solution to climate change.
Be Well and Give Em Hell,
Beth
Samples of Kernza from different fields