We believe that the WAY we do business must be nourishing in order to bring about a nourishing food system that tends to personal, community, and ecosystem health in multidimensional ways

Do you agree? If so, what might that mean for the way you participate in Expo? And what does it ultimately mean for your work in the food system?

At reNourish Studio, we are evolving the way we do business so that our food system can nourish all life. We are disrupting our assumptions about business as usual and engaging in living systems thinking and regeneration as a process

Curious how this feels in practice? Select an activity below, send us a brief note about your experience, and earn 50% off one of our upcoming virtual workshops. In these upcoming interactive sessions we will be challenging current notions about regeneration and seeing how our businesses can play an active and impactful role in evolving the system in which they are a part.

ACTIVITY #1: PLAY WITH THE MAP 

Living Systems in Context: Get curious about where you are! 

Living systems are always regenerating through developing themselves and their environments to be able to contribute and thrive. Businesses can work this way by evolving ourselves and larger systems. But first, we need to perceive the systems’ unique potentials. We can start right where we are: Anaheim.

Anaheim isn’t just where we attend Expo West. It’s been a gathering place for 5,000+ years, a crossroads of trade where the Santa Ana river valley opens into this fertile basin of coastal plains, and rich soils attract people to gather fruits, fish, & acorns– as well as experiences & connections. Today, Anaheim is one of the most visited places on the planet, and historically this place grew large indigenous villages, Disneyland, the city of Anaheim, and of course Expo West.

We gather in this unique place every year for Expo, but don’t necessarily pause to consider the unique underlying essence of where we are. Understanding the whole we are a part of in any given moment is a core principle of living systems thinking, as we begin to see the roles we can play in evolving the systems of which we are a part.

So– how does the nature of this place affect us, and how are we affecting this place by being here?

Take a breather from the busyness of the show and consider visiting one of the places on this map. You can apply this same inquiry to your business–what Wholes are you nested within, and why do they matter?

Remember! Regeneration isn’t fixing parts, it’s working with real living systems to evolve themselves. This doesn’t happen when we’re projecting our ideas (even good ideas!) onto Life.

How does this context change the way you experience your time here?

ACTIVITY #2: SELF-REFLECTION OR ICEBREAKER WITH SOMEONE NEW 

If you are engaging with this as a self-reflection, try journaling as you go through. Or, meet someone new and use these questions as an icebreaker. Stay curious and think together. Restrain your desire for judgment. 

Questions: 

What do you sense is imperative to evolve in our food system? How do you know? 

Envision the current approach that your business is taking to evolve the system that it is a part of. Image 10, 50, and 100 years out. Are these actions going to bring about what is necessary to evolve our food system? For example, will ESG metrics, soil carbon sequestration, standards and verifications, or your product actually bring about the evolution of the food system you see is needed? 

What does regeneration mean to you? Could there be more to regeneration than carbon sequestration? 

At reNourish Studio, we act under the belief that regeneration is not something that can be certified or defined as a simple set of practices.Regeneration is a process that begins with the potential of a person, place, business, or system and seeing how it can evolve given the context of the present moment. living systems are constantly processing energy and in motion, otherwise they die. In ecosystems, regeneration happens naturally through a process of disturbance and continues with beings working toward a shared aim, conscious or otherwise. In human systems we need to initiate regeneration consciously. Our businesses can play roles in building the capabilities and capacities of the systems we are nested within to enable the system to self-organize and regenerate itself to a higher order of effectiveness. 

Play with some of these premises below. What would functionally change in your work if you took these premises on? Do these premises view how you interact with “regenerative” claims and verifications at Expo. What potential is being missed that we could work on as a community to bring into being? 

• The process of regeneration cannot be engaged in with a mind that views the world as a machine. 

• Potential needs to be sourced from the restraints of the real world not abstract or generalizations (it’s really different thinking about a family versus your family, or an ecosystem versus the place you live)

• Regeneration is about growing the ability of systems to self organize and evolve themselves like living systems do. How could you shift your business from a command and control strategy to self organizing and developing?

• See yourself as part of the system that you and your business are a part of instead of believing that you are separate from the system and can force it to change. 

Are you curious about anything that you weren’t before?

Send us a message and we’ll send you 50% off our upcoming March or April Virtual Summit (same topic, 2 dates) 

April 30th 2pm-5:30pm PT April Virtual Summit