by James Samuel, Growing Radicles
The Curve We’re On
This month felt like a hinge. At our Whangarei Fast Track your Food Forest session on 31 August 2025, participants leaned into collaboration tools, laying the foundations of a shared regenerative culture. Meanwhile, a gathering of Kiwi and Aussie dairy farmers in Leeston signalled that regenerative systems, with their reduced external inputs, are no longer fringe. These aren’t parallel threads—they’re weaving together into something stronger.
Field Notes
- Fast Track your Food Forest, Whangarei (31 August) was session one of a three-part series, landing the principles of syntropics. We explored the four essentials of collaboration that lasts—shared intention, clear agreements, communication processes, and bridge-building skills. For upcoming events: 👉 Event page
- Farmers are talking about integrating trees and livestock, and we’re seeing a registered mobile abattoir enabling farmers to sell meat direct to customers in their community. Wild Meadows Farm and Mangarara Farm are a couple of examples.
- Auckland Council is supporting Future Ready Farms, a project to connect and support farmers with know-how for transitioning to more regenerative practices. Expect more of these initiatives to pop up around the country.
- The Savory Foundation is now drawing institutional capital into grassland regeneration, starting with a project in Uruguay to regenerate grasslands at scale. That’s institutional money saying regeneration isn’t niche—it’s investable.
- At the Quorum Sense symposium in Leeston, more than 70 farmers and advisors gathered to explore regenerative, low-input dairy. It feels like watching a gate open, not a mere trickle.
On the Curve
We’re seeing layers converge: capital recognising regeneration, and the shifting of mental models from an industrial to a nature-led approach.
The exponential isn’t just coming—it has started. While some see these as siloed trends, they’re not. People focussing on the soil through finance, regen agriculture, or food forest trainings, all feed the same regenerative impulse, and when we step towards and give nature a chance, she rewards us many times over.
Looking Ahead
Who else is weaving these threads? If you’re working at the intersection of animals, trees, people, or capital—I’d love to hear from you. Share your next field insight—or failure. Regeneration grows fastest through honest, grounded stories.
