Ep 36. Embodying Regenerative Leadership to Build Regenerative Food Systems (Rirhandzu Marivate, Lead Living Soils Initiative)

My guest in this episode is Rirhandzu Marivate, a regenerative food systems practitioner and socioecologist currently based in the Western Cape of South Africa.

Rirhandzu leads the Living Soils Community Learning Farm initiative, which aims to empower young black women through jobs in regenerative farming to grow nutrient-rich produce, strengthen local community food security and create sustainable livelihoods.

In this episode we talk to Rirhandzu about how she collaborates with the team and the community to really embody regenerative leadership while they do regenerative agriculture.

We cover:

  • How Rirhandzu’s career path diverged from working with apes to working with food!

  • How Living Soils simultaneously tackles unemployment, food insecurity and unsustainable farming.

  • What fosters the special energy in how they collaborate so that people ‘feel’ more than ‘see’ the project.

  • How systems approaches need constant learning and adaptation.

  • What intentionally building and nurturing community looks like.

  • What it means to center individual and community growth, learning and development AND make a tangible impact.

  • How they use regeneration as a lens for their work - not only in terms of how they produce food but also in terms of human development.

  • The daily practices that help her embody regenerative leadership each day.

Further information:

Find more information about The Living Soils Community Learning Farm here: https://www.sustainabilityinstitute.net/research-learning/collaborative-projects/living-soils-community-learning-farm/

For more information about Rirhandzu Marivate go to Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rirhandzu-marivate/?originalSubdomain=za

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Michelle GrantComment