The Manual Lighting BREAKTHROUGH with Matt Powers

Have you ever looked at the world
& felt that it was upside down?

You felt like something was OFF or just didn't make any logical sense the way it was done, built, designed, run, or created?

Do you know how Bright Field microscopy works?

It's simply shining a light from below onto a glass slide while we view the same slide from above. Because we are using such thin sections to view (usually a drop or two flattened between two pieces of glass: a cover slip and a slide), we can see through the microbes and see their insides even!!

BUT for ROOTS: they are THICK, so folks tend to slice them up or crush them to view them, and even then we are looking at silhouettes. 

A Silhouette is NEVER an accurate representation of
a three dimensional object.

The Story of Manual Lighting 

I just felt like it was strange - Why is the light only linear? I can't tilt things, I can't manipulate the light enough... I should give you some context: my roommate in college was a photography major. One thing I picked up from him about image creation was LIGHTING is EVERYTHING, so I do things differently from everyone I've ever seen with a microscope. I turn off the lights in the room. I don't use the eyepieces - I don't want to damage my eyes, and I like to work for extended periods of time, and I also prefer to show what I'm doing to others and to capture the images at the highest level of resolution I can because clarity is the key to identifying anything properly with a microscope, so I use a 4k camera and a 4k screen. I see what the images will look like as I record them. It's also so much more enjoyable and easier to use, and if you are following the progress of labs worldwide, they are all getting attached screens over eyepieces - it's not the future, it's already here. 

SO, I'm playing with the lights - I already have a dark field condenser (which is dispersed indirect lighting - it makes things look like deep interstellar space or the bottom of the ocean) and epifluorescence lighting (a targeted wavelength of excitation that reveals fungi and phosphorus visually - it glows NEON GREEN), and I'm doing things like turning off the base microscope entirely, boosting brightness compensation to explore all the capabilities of the microscope... BUT THEN...

I tried something novel - something I can teach people everywhere. I figured out there is an angle at which the roots will LIGHT UP, and it's not hard.

LOOK AT WHAT IT REVEALS:

What ARE We SEEING??

This is what the root looks like in low lighting - it's clear. In fact. all the plants I've ever visualized with epifluorescence and manual lighting have appeared as if the cells are made of glass. This makes sense when we think about how a greenhouse traps heat and energy - plants are absorbing light, performing photosynthesis, and even shining light out of their roots in the soil. That last one (the shining roots) didn't make any sense to me until I started working with different lighting. Once I saw that it was like glass and the soil clay, sand, and silt are all like bits of broken glass too (they're all silicates!!), I realized, that light was being conducted and refracted through organisms both to capture the energy and to allow it to conduct further down into the soil profile. 

Both epifluorescence and manual lighting are light from above. That's why they appear this way.

Why is this Important?

 We're seeing the roots and leaves for the first time all over again as we change the lighting, understand more of what each new image means, and map out further the new regenerative science of plants, soil, and microbes. 

We can see a color difference in the meristem (tip) cells of the root and we can see the root itself more clearly than any other method that I've ever encountered. 

 We can see the root as a three dimensional object: it's not a silhouette or something you are blasting with light and distorting the image. We can examine the root hairs in real-time on top and at angles which allows us to diagnose how effectively the plant is performing rhizophagy (root hairs are a result of this process).

We can see things as they really are. This may be the most important thing. We need tests that show us as close to reality as possible. These roots are not stained. They aren't drowned in water. The minerals are still sticking to their root hairs. They aren't cut or crushed between glass. These are roots that are literally placed below the microscope lens on a single glass slide.

It's just that easy.
It's the fastest and easiest method EVER!! 

But what's more is it is also the most natural, freshest, and therefore the most accurate way of imaging our roots. And it all started with a question:

What's the most natural in this situation?

And that has been the guiding principle in my microscopy work. That is what is at the core of the new book: https://www.thepermaculturestudent.com/shop/regenerative-soil-microscopy

 

Grow Abundantly, Learn Daily, & Live Regeneratively,

Matt Powers

Discover Soil Microscopy Begins This Week!!

If We Don’t Look… We Don’t See!!

Let's Explore #Soil #Microscopy Together This Week!!

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Unlock the Mysteries of your Soil, Compost, Roots, Microbes, & More!

The Argument for the REGENERATIVE ECONOMY with Matt Powers

It’s how the world works

It’s how the economy should work

A regenerative economy for a regenerative world.

We live in a regenerative world — it adapts to change, to challenge, and even to attack: it has systems that are anti-fragile if they are allowed to run their preset genetic programs. Life begets life, spreading and supporting the creation of more life. And isn’t that the ideal economy, one that continuously grows and provides exponential benefit to the earth, its peoples, and the future care of all?

We ALL want to live in a world where making money helps other people and the planet by DESIGN — Shouldn’t it be NATURAL yet we all have this stigma against earning a lot of money because we ALL KNOW How the degenerative economy works: it enslaves, appropriates, exploits, and destroys in order to create new wealth. You have to liquidate natural resources and human capital into products and labor to to get out of the rat race… or that’s the story we’ve been told, but do we have to drink their Koolaid?

Economies are just social contracts & History has shown time and time again that the social agreements CHANGE dramatically, quickly, and irrevocably CONSTANTLY, and we live in EXPONENTIAL TIMES. It holds truer today than it ever has before & it is daunting — especially as a parent.

Where will the jobs be for them in 10 years?

They are expecting 20–50% of the jobs to be GONE in the coming decades while populations are expected to continue to rise and wealth to shift outside the reach of our children. We can no longer rely upon the traditional educational, collegiate, generalized educational, liberal arts pathway — our kids and frankly ourselves no matter who we are RIGHT NOW need skills appropriate for the times and the ability to generate their own wealth independent of the established business and government tracks. They also need work with real meaning, purpose, & freedom — they’ve been suffocated by decades of meaningless education & busywork, depression & loneliness is high & rising, suicide rates are high & rising, and drug usage is taking more and more lives — we have to say NO MORE. This STOPS HERE. Many places where I grew up are too dangerous to go to now — entire towns and malls I once went to when I was a young parent now stand abandoned and derelict.

All those areas can come back — all that abandoned land, infrastructure, and space can be stewarded, productive, and profitable. Market gardeners, mycologists, herbalists, naturopathic doctors, fibershed businesses, and cannabis growers are flipping farming on its head and showing how much good can be done while making exponentially more money than traditional farmers in a small space through regenerative means, starting small, & scaling into a full-time business — some with a full team of employees. 100k in market vegetables to millions in mycology & cannabis. Those communities can be reborn regeneratively.

Imagine this…

It’s 10 years from today — you still remember this talk and where you are right now because you took the initiative and invested in the regenerative economy by investing in yourself. You made a plan. Quit your dead end degenerative job & you started small & built your dream from the soil up, doing the right thing every step of the way, zero waste & benefiting all — you see it all as part of the journey, part of your integrity, part of who you are, and today is the day you can step back and CHOOSE whether to run your businesses yourself or take time to do WHATEVER ELSE YOU WANT TO DO: Vacationing, maybe visiting Spas & health retreats, perhaps quality Time with Family & Others, or for you it’s Investing in Others. You look out upon your life as a testament to your dedication to showing care for people, the planet, and the future, and it is FULL of Possibility, Freedom, & Choice because you chose join early & help create the Regenerative Economy.

But if we don’t step into the regenerative economy we will witness the total loss of the Nature as we know it. All the animals we knew and learned their names and sounds as babbling babies will be GONE — how will we FEEL? Looking out from our homes at a world barren and empty of life, a green world gone harsh and cruel. We’ve done it before: the Fertile Crescent, the Loess Plateau, the Sahara, Australia… but the whole world is at stake now — and it’s not just nature, it’s the soil, our own food source and hope for the next generation. We may witness the end of all life as we know it if we do not return to a regenerative relationship with nature.

Now is the time for an economy that not only serves people but serves the planet on into the future exponentially spreading meaning, purpose, wealth, and anti-fragility holistically. Our current economy is falling apart, our culture and society are collapsing, our education system largely leads to nowhere, and in decomposition, in composting the old ingredients that are now dead or dying, we can create something new, we can use that experience, that understanding of what we DON’T Want to guide us to a New Way, a Regenerative Way, where we can make money meaningfully, ethically, regeneratively.

I can see you there. Standing tall. Proud. Strong. Knowing. Wise.

Let’s build a better tomorrow, TODAY.

Click the Link below & SignUp for the exclusive Video series:

Regenerative Entrepreneurship: Making It Happen

(https://matt-powers.mykajabi.com/makingithappen)

I’m Matt Powers

Grow Abundantly, Learn Daily, & Live Regeneratively

LinkedIn Regenerative Entrepreneurs Group:

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13834504/

Facebook Regenerative Entrepreneurs Group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/757945157664218/

Social Permaculture 101 - the NEW Mini Course with Matt Powers WATCH NOW FOR FREE!!

At times like these, it's critical to step back and look at the the 3 ethics as a whole, because we often, in Permaculture, get stuck on Earth Care with a narrow view of Future Care: our food forests, our soils, our local bioregion, and we can lose track that we are after a whole systems thinking and living, something that is community-based. 

When I first realized Permaculture didn't have principles for People Care I was a little surprised. David Holmgren's approach has a holistic edge that gives it traction in this area, but I've never seen any principles anywhere. Reading the opening of A Regrarians Handbook, I was inspired by my mentor and friend Darren Doherty's opening list of principles, ethics, and wise words from his mentors - it was a humble, earnest, and straightforward. The kind of thing that cuts through and hits you in the heart. Permaculture is about CARE, so let's be clear about it is what I felt then and what I feel now. I created a proposed list to start the conversation around what principles we should have and how they should be worded. I have done the same exact thing with Permaculture Education Standards - we didn't have them, so I made them public for comment and ended up editing them a lot and now they are amazing and being adopted in schools all over. I want the Social Permaculture principles too to evolve and go out into the world. 

I'm sharing the lectures from my Social Permaculture section of The Advanced Permaculture Student Online, not because I think it will sell more signups - I'll share the entire section in complete, but because it is the place that is unlooked at by most of the permaculture online community. In permaculture's action-ables and busyness, we can all too often externalize our problems and fix things around ourselves to fix what is within, but in People Care, we have self-care too, and in fixing ourselves, we can better serve others and more deeply partner with nature itself from that place of centered clarity. 

Here's the 4 part series in its entirety so if you've missed any, you can click to it specifically:

There's been a lot of contention lately online and in the world, and it has led to many people declaring where they stand. If my work and my actions have not so far made that clear, I do so now to make doubly sure: I'm on the side of Care, of Peace, of Equality, of Justice, of NonViolence, of Love, of Compassion, and an Ethical & Abundant Future. 

Grow Abundantly, Learn Daily, & Live Regenerativey,

Matt Powers

Powers Family Update + Making Biochar as a Family

Powers Family Update

WE MADE BIOCHAR AS A FAMILY!!

It was easier and harder than expected in different ways. We didn’t spend money aside from the burn permit (it was the LAST DAY of the Burn Season), and it was QUICK… even a bit unnerving with how FAST IT BURNED!! It really is a potent lesson for anyone in California - this stuff burns faster than can be believed unless you’re doing it yourself seasonally. The power of the FIRE is humbling and the transformation is awe inspiring. I’m grateful for fire, for biochar, and for correct practices that keep us all safe!!

So, HOW did we do it?

1st - we used the Conservation Burn Method, so no pit and no sealed giant metal containers. This was taught to me by my good friend and Biochar/Em/Bokashi mentor Cuauhtemoc Villa (who is working on his first book right now!)

2nd - we put out the first two fires based on the smaller pieces status rather than the larger - only in the final fire did we let it go longer and focus on bigger sections of wood. I didn’t want to lose anything to the air that I didn’t have to - I wanted the cleanest burn, the least loss, and the best biochar, so we babied it a bit ;)

3rd - we DIDN’T put it out with EM though I would have liked to: I wasn’t expecting to do the biochar until the day it came to me like a lightening strike that I needed to do it, and then I applied for the permit and the next day was the last day, so I have EM brewing and I have some in reserve as the mother for next batches - the incredible mother culture is from Cuauhtemoc Villa! 

How will it be USED?

We are planning on using it strategically because it’s a finite amount. Those 3 big piles made about 2.5 wheelbarrows worth of char. Our first step is to inoculate it with compost/compost tea/EM. I can wait and let it dry out and then inoculate it with my freshly brewed EM or I can use it in compost heaps I’m building since the grasses are just beginning to brown, so scything them up into piles with some comfrey in the centers makes for easy composting - especially if I can spray them down with diluted EM a couple days into their thermophilic reaction. It’s going to be fun: SO MUCH COMPOST!! And we’re going to be using it in the Cold Hardy Avocado Food Forest - now you may ask yourself WHY Avocado - seems monocultural perhaps? Avocados are going to be the canopy in this small food forest section with a great diversity of other plants with them like Desert King Fig will go in with a variety of herbs and cover crops at the same time so there’ll be diversity. We are spacing it out in a net and pan variation in anticipation of the full tree size and having to capture as much rain as possible. We are also planning on working with cold hardy MACADAMIA NUT TREES - yes they exist too!! The idea is very few food forests focus on FATS - almost all are focused on sugars aka fruit, which I love too but I need the fats for my brain lol!!

Without further ado, here’s the DIY Biochar video I made with my family:

It’s my #2 all-time most popular video in the 1st 48 hrs, so I think you’re going to like it ;)

Btw, did you know that I’ve been making huge progress on the artwork for The Regenerative Soil Science & Solutions Manual? I’m polishing up a bunch of things and I’m actually quite close to “filling in the blanks” of the book - I tend to create an outline and flesh it out, filling in the blanks as it were, and I’m currently at 150 pages with dozens of diagrams completed. I’m likely more than half finished with the artwork, and the best news is I’m getting really FAST at it, so the 2nd half will take a fraction of the time to complete, and from now on I can do a LOT of the diagrams THOUGH I will also be working more with the incredibly talented Janice Asayo Kubo, an artist who has worked with Disney, Warner Brothers, and Netflix for years and who took her PDC with me and met me at Permaculture Voices 2 where we planned out a book… the next Kickstarter is for that book which is finished and waiting on me to finish this soil book. I hope to share the soil book with my Kickstarter backers while it’s being peer-reviewed by our team of soil experts, and in that timeframe launch the Kickstarter for The Forgotten Food Forest, so I can print both at the same time and save money on shipping. What do you think of that? OR do you think I should keep it fully separate and hold off longer… I feel like FFF is so perfect for RIGHT NOW with families at home teaching their children themselves. Either way, I’m pushing HARD to finish while also going full out on this 90+ acres we are on in Guerneville, CA. 

Here are some new diagrams I’m working on - I’ll likely still tinker with them ALL, so if you see something I miss or could do better: TELL ME!! <3 <3 <3 I am a solopreneur and rely upon all of you immensely to help me create the level content I do: I couldn’t do it without you and hundreds of peer-reviewers and volunteer editors over the years. Thank you!!

WE ARE NOT MOVING ANY LONGER THIS SPRING!!!

We’ve wanted to share that for a while - our family is staying on this enormous and amazing site in California, and we are developing it into a PARADISE. In the year we’ve been here, life has exponentially shifted into an abundance. We now have clouds of butterflies hovering around the gardens, armies of bees, and dark, rich soil where we have silt over hard clay the year before. We are staying here indefinitely - we are working with neighbors, the land owner, and new neighbors all across our little valley and ridge, and it’s AMAZING!! Though we are all in a crisis, we are seeing a regenerative reaction within ourselves, with each other, and with the land. It’s both humbling and stirring in the heart in ways that are hard to communicate, but the abundance, the syntropic cycling, and the joy that comes from being part of it all is very real and fills us with peace. 

DO YOU HAVE SEEDS THIS SPRING?

If not, message me, and I’ll send you a care package of Baker Creek Heirloom seeds - our gift to you at this time of crisis. They actually were meant for the R-Future.world event but that’s indefinitely postponed for now - I’ll likely relent and make it an online experience (and free), but for now I can’t address it and I don’t want to let go of the vision that that event holds. 

Grow Abundantly, Learn Daily, & Live Regeneratively,

Matt Powers

PS: Signup for the Advanced Permaculture Student Online (APSO) for only $50 a month with a 60% discount on the standard price RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW & see Why 730+ APSO Members are EXCITED, INSPIRED, & TAKING ACTION!!

THE COLLAPSE of the Status Quo

We Knew It Wasn’t Going To Be Pretty…

BUT first things first:

HAPPY EARTH DAY!!

We’ve never had a more important celebration of our planet than this one.

WHY? We’ve never had these levels of pollution, extinction, and threat to all life and ourselves before, and at the same time, we’ve never had better proof that the Earth Can Heal than this coronavirus pandemic lockdown and global economic crash.

It’s certainly not pretty, but we all knew the end of an era would get ugly in some ways — we just didn’t think it would be like this: oil producers are paying buyers $40 to take barrels of oil, wild animals have returned to unlikely places, the air in the most polluted places on earth is crystal clear, Venice’s canals clarified within days and look almost Bahamian, and it seems that ALMOST everyone online is questioning the status quo, our old economic system, and even our political structures as NONE OF THEM can respond to the current crisis. That means quite simply they don’t have the ability to respond to this i.e. they can’t take responsibility: BUT it’s more than the individual, it’s the entire system they are couched in.

Dan Barber, famous chef, is even saying that the Farm-to-Table system is broken and failed us — we are in completely NEW TERRITORY. Folks are realizing we need something NEW but for almost everyone, there’s no clarity YET on what that is.

We can tell a few things about what people need even if they can’t articulate it well YET:

#1. An AntiFragile Economy — it can’t be based on speculation, oil, war, or even trade. It has to be bioregional and adapt and grow stronger with disruption and shock — the exact way that natural systems or organisms strengthen in nature.

#2. Jobs and Careers of Meaning & Integrity — people don’t want to go back to work. They are happy being stuck at home though they are increasingly worried about money, the future, and their friends and families stuck in the same situation.

#3. Real Healthcare — our healthcare systems must spread health, not just react to health problems. Currenlty, our healthcare systems foster fragility and dependence on patented medications and expensive procedures. In the US, we’ve always touted our miraculous healthcare system to solve problems, but it’s failing miserably at this current challenge because it looks to a patentable solution only to the current problem. We need preemptive and preventative care — we need honest solutions, not patented and profitable prescriptions. We need to be outside more, physically more active (i.e. cardiovascular workouts are needed), eating regenerative organic food (organic is NOT good enough), and we need to recognize that our Health is intrinsically linked to the health of ALL LIFE on this planet. Cities are hardest hit by coronavirus especially because they are places lacking nature: they don’t produce their own oxygen, they are low oxygen environments to begin with, and in winter fresh oxygen comes from the oceans in areas where everything is dormant, and places like NYC are far from the West coast and have very low oxygen levels in winter which is likely why we are seeing such a divergent reaction between California and New York in relation to the coronavirus (also proximity is a factor: Californians have built-in social distancing compared to Manhattan). SO the west coast’s kelp forests, the bacteria in the air that form clouds, the gut bacteria inside of us — they are ALL part of nature and we must recognize, respect, and work with them if we want to be truly healthy.

The fact is we’d be healthier and happier if we had a system that honored people, the planet, and our collective futures — it just wouldn’t make hand over fist profits for a small group of people: that’s the reason we don’t have an ethical system yet. A small group of people in power in each of our individual cultural and governmental systems and global economies makes these decisions and that too is fragile, prone to failure, and spreading problems just by its flawed nature, BUT at this time, their control, their power, and their profits are EVAPORATING. They are losing everything, and opportunity for real change is COMING FAST!!

What Can We Do?

#1. Plant a Garden — there’s nothing more revolutionary, health-conscious, ethical, or pragmatic than planting a garden, saving the seeds, and preserving the harvest. DO IT TODAY!

#2. Plan Your Future — there’s nothing worse than someone else deciding your future for you: that’s what it is to have a boss, to be stuck in the status quo hamster wheel, and to be in debt. While we are stuck in our homes, this is the time to plan to rise like a phoenix out of this situation, to break the bonds on our imprisonment, and step into the life we were meant to live.

#3. Make Big Moves — I’ve said before and I’ll say it again: we cannot shift into a regenerative future by taking steps in the right direction, we must instead take bold LEAPS to make it happen. The opportunities to reverse the damage to our planet, ourselves, and our future are further apart every day, so it’s increasingly harder to make these changes as the situation further degrades rapidly. Desertification is spreading like wildfire, Oxygen levels are dropping in cities, Ocean acidity is rising FAST…

…And there are things outside of our control that are going to make things HARDER:

“Famines of Biblical Proportions” Are Coming if drastic actions are not taken now and may be unavoidable. Locust swarms, record low rainfall, drought, and the coronavirus crisis has brought our fragile globalized economy to its knees and the most vulnerable are already feeling the severity of it. From the BBC, though it’s nearly everywhere as a headline:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-52373888

The Poles ARE Shifting (the US Navy has requested new maps with a new location for the North Pole) — this could have totally unforeseen consequences, like plunging Europe and the US East coast into a localized ice age, OR it could just mean incredibly bad winter storms and deathly cold spikes. Despite almost 100 years of patented weather modification techniques, we cannot turn off weather events, we only can nudge existing patterns and without true precision still. If you think this is conspiracy theory, please check out what the US Navy, Washington Post, & scientists are saying here & WHY the Crisis is Making it Harder to Track: https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2019/01/17/north-pole-is-moving-shutdown-means-we-arent-keeping-up/

Food, seed, & medical supply shortages, supply-line disruptions of all kinds, and bioregional collapse of economies and governance are going to continue because our policy makers and governments have no plan for fixing the current system. They are only trying to react to the current problem and get things back to status quo, BUT nothing can go back to the old system in reality: it’s TOO FRAGILE, and we all know it now.

There’s always a 2nd Wave in these Pandemics. With the 1918 Spanish Flu outbreak that killed millions, the 2nd wave was the MOST DEADLY. Keep that in mind as people push and rush to get back to the status quo, back to work, back to the crammed subway cars, back to pushing ourselves for a paycheck, back to bosses and meaningless deadlines and objectives… they are risking their lives and the lives of everyone they encounter.

So… What is going to happen?

It’s really up to us to determine what is going to happen — we have the ball and it’s up to us to run with it. I think folks are finally beginning to realize that right now — this is our moment.

My hope is that we will double down on regenerative living and bioregional economies. Local regenerative businesses and permaculture homesteads are the best safety measures in these kinds of crises because they rely upon local bioregional abundances that are either naturally available OR self-generated. They do not rely upon outside and unnatural patterns — they are antifragile, adaptive, living systems that we can participate in and strengthen. The grazier with his cattle and holistically managed acres doesn’t change his pattern during this crisis. The market gardener and mushroom farmer are likely sold out every week already this year. They’ve added new protocols for safety but everyone is desperate to get a stable local supply of food setup right now: they are NOT threatened by the current situation but encouraged to step it up, to adapt, and to even thrive in service to their community. Homesteaders are planting more, sharing seeds, and stepping deeper into their understanding of permaculture and applying it more and to more aspects of their life.

It is a time of adaptation, alignment, and reflection.

For me, it has been a time of deep gratitude for the preparation we’ve been able to have the past decade or so of time — we had the food storage, the seed bank, the gardens, the biodigester, the generator, and the greenhouses. My business was already online and robust — I was prepared for this and we even went into isolation weeks before that even became a talking point because we had the luxury of reflection and perspective to guide us. That doesn’t mean we are perfect or that I’ve always done everything right — hehe — I’ve learned almost always by doing things wrong first, but I’m very grateful this time that my family, my boys and my wife, didn’t have to learn this lesson first hand. Seeing how many people have been affected, how many healthy people have succumbed to it, and knowing our family’s history of health — we are superbly grateful for the land we are on, the preparation we’ve been blessed to have, and the resources we have to share with others that can help and protect them at this time.

#1 Share Free Resources — Many if not most of you have already downloaded the free ebooks I offer on my sites — there are also free courses and other downloads that can serve at this time. Please share my resources with people who could benefit from them. They all can be found at ThePermacultureStudent.com — now is the time to help everyone out & share free resources that can help them in real-time. Send them the link to The Permaculture Student 1 which is like a PDC on paper, endorsed by Rosemary Morrow, Neal Spackman, Maddy Harland of Permaculture Magazine, & Geoff Lawton & even used by him in Arabic in his Greening the Desert PDCs, it’s a FREE DOWNLOAD with a Free Introduction to Permaculture:

https://www.thepermaculturestudent.com/get-the-permaculture-student-1-free

#2 Invite your Friends & Family to a Permaculture Course — Are you encountering folks that were uninterested and close-minded before the lockdown that are now suddenly very interested in gardening and regenerative solutions? They’re home, spring is coming or arriving now, and they now realize it: they NEED to start NOW. Help them out: send them a free course or invite them to a course to get them started or to a next level they are needing right now. Maybe invite them to Your Best Garden, the free gardening course to get them started:

https://matt-powers.mykajabi.com/yourbestgarden

#3 Level Up Yourself — Join a learning community or program that challenges you to level up, to take your practice to a new stage of performance. Gain new skills and understanding, connect with experts from around the world, and build your regenerative repertoire despite the chaos unfolding in the world around you. Currently The Advanced Permaculture Student Online has a 60% discount and $50 a month payment plan NO INTEREST scholarship/hardship signup option for everyone affected by the lockdown — you can signup for that here:

https://matt-powers.mykajabi.com/the-advanced-permaculture-student-online-signup-page

This Earth Day is a CALL TO ACTION

We don’t have much time, but we have an opportunity to make real change in our lives, in the lives of every living thing around us, and for the future of all life on this planet. Your impact is immeasurable — it’s time to make it happen, to take steps to live regeneratively, to embrace Permaculture ethics, to partner with Nature, to live the life you were born to live.

JOIN US IN THE REGENERATION!

EARTH CARE, PEOPLE CARE, & FUTURE CARE!!

Grow Abundantly, Learn Daily, & Live Regeneratively,

Matt Powers

The Good Life | Matt Powers

The Good Life

How to live a good life? to find happiness, meaning, and fulfillment?
What are the steps, the pieces, the ingredients? is it like Oprah said, we need 70k a year minimum? or is it a higher goal that forms a life of purpose? How do we obtain this “good life”? It was not mentioned in schools, my family didn’t focus on it, and it’s from this place inside me that I feel this need for change, for something more, for something to radically change, for something to grow. 

There is a cultural awakening - we are bankrupt, not only of ecological capital but of our social capital. We’ve run low on care, stewardship, and compassion. But there is hope, wherever there is recognition, confusion, discussion, debate, and disatisfaction, there is opportunity for growth and change, even in the unlikeliest places and persons: we ALL want a good life and it is fleeting.

If we have children we want the peace and assurance that they will be able to live to an old age and not be the last generation and live only to see the rest of the earth’s ecologies die, as we are currently. 

If we are under 50, we will live to see the end of all the animals we grew up learning the names of as children. The chimpanzees, the rhinos, the cheetahs, the whales, the tigers, the elephants, and so many many more.

What did they do to deserve this end? 

We are realizing there’s an abrupt end to the story coming unless we get out of our seats and leave the theater. We are realizing we can no longer be passive if we want a good life - that my good life is your good life, and that it always has been; we’ve only been tricked into thinking this all is a zero sum game by the cultural systems we were born into. We share this air we breath in and out, this water we take in and release with every breath, every step, and every tear, we breath the oxygen the plants on land and in the ocean release and they take in what we exhale along with everything fungi exhales and decomposition and oxidation releases. The plants use our exhaled breath to trade with the soil for what they cannot get themselves. We are all in this together, and a good life acknowledges and magnifies this deeply intimate relationship with each other and all the natural processes.

If you dream of a good life, you likely see yourself eating the best food, living in a safe, wonderful home, having wonderful relationships with your community, companion, and family, expressing yourself, building an ethical business of purpose and service, and living in a way that spreads peace, regeneration, and abundance with all that you interact with. All abundance, all wealth, comes from Nature - natural capital begets all other forms of capital. If we want a good life, we want a regenerative life, economy, culture, and that means we need permaculture education: the 3 ethics: Earth Care, People Care, & Future Care, universal and bioregional natural principles, and regenerative methods, frameworks, and design. 

We can’t just hope for a better tomorrow - we have to make the choices today that will form a strong bridge to that specific future. We can’t leave it to politicians, protestors, or disaster to spur us on - we must knowingly, consciously, and perhaps even publicly make these choices.

To live ethically.

To live abundantly.

To be free. To have peace.

To know that tomorrow will always be a brighter day. 

That is waiting for us all - everyone is entitled to a happy life, a life of richness, of service, of meaning, of health, of abundance, and that doesn’t mean we don’t have our individual challenges or that my happiness looks like your happiness, but to arrive at this place, we ALL need to start living differently. 

It’s not just the trash. It’s not just the atmosphere. It’s not just the pollution. It’s not the numbers. It’s the entire symphony of life that we are missing out on - the natural world is a mirror into our own, we are it and we will never escape that fact. It does not matter if technologically a fraction of humanity can survive on a hostile earth - we will not survive the loss of nature emotionally. We cannot backup Humanity using Mars - this is our home, our future, and the hidden half of our own nature. Hospitals are adopting forest bathing, scientists are discovering antidepressants in the soil, and so much more - we belong to Nature - she is our Mother. Our bodies are born of soil and return to it to serve again and again and again through all the permutations of creation. When we can see the soil as our future, our past, our ancestors, and our grandchildren, we will not only see the truth but we will see ourselves because we are also made up of them as well. Humus, Humility, to be human - it is who we are and our greatest challenge to see past our pleasure, our pain, our confusion, distraction, and fear. To RISE, to BELIEVE, TO KNOW that WE are regenerative forces, that a good life waits just beyond that thin veil our culture has dropped over our eyes. It’s time to lift that veil and see the world and our future plainly for the first time. We don’t have much time. The next decade will decide everything. Are you ready for a good life? We dont have to wait for tomorrow - we can start today with how we eat, how we compost, how we plant, how we grow, how we shop, how we build, how we interact, how we observe, how we design, and who we share with, care with, and teach along the way. 

A good life is waiting, but we need to seize it before it slips over the horizon beyond our reach. We are in this together - intertwined, our fates are fused. As with all nature, we are one thing, not many. The loss of one is a loss of part of everyone and everything. It’s time to flip the script, to empower Mother Nature again, and to partner with her again with every step we take. A good life is waiting - the best food, abundant health, true wealth, amazing relationships, a future to look forward to, and peace instead of fear and anxiety. We don’t have to live in a scarcity model - our economies and cultures are only social agreements that have always changed - it’s time to adapt, to grow, to change, to diversify, to explore, to expand, to rewild, restore, and regenerate. The time is NOW to start on that Good Life, to seize it, and to carry those around you with your conviction, with your vision, and your care.

Now is the time to speak up, to share, to inspire, and to let them all know - we CAN change, there are BETTER options, and a GOOD LIFE is Waiting.

Why Isn't Earth Day Every Day??

Don’t We All Live On Earth?!?!

How do you feel about the current state of things?
Should we continue as we are?
Should we settle for the status quo?

Are you happy with the way things are???

Over a Year of Cardboard & Paper?!?! What to do??

THE PROBLEM IS THE SOLUTION!!!

-Matt Powers

PS: Lifetime access ends MONDAY, so if you'd like to join The Advanced Permaculture Student Online: NOW IS THE TIME. CLICK HERE & get Lifetime Access for only $50 a month!!

HE REWROTE HISTORY!!

And I was a History teacher...

Or at least I passed the test to be credentialed as one while I was serving as an English teacher in Madera County, California. HOW WAS HISTORY BEING REWRITTEN FOR ME?!?!?!

Did you know that the desertification of North Africa was caused by agriculture? Did you know that Rome couldn't support itself because it had lost all its soils? Did you know that Plato, Aristotle, Jefferson, and Washington all were concerned over the same thing? SOIL - the erosion and loss of the fertile topsoil layer was seen as directly linked to civilizations rise and fall throughout time but no today in our textbooks, but that may soon change because of the work of David R. Montgomery and his wife Anne Biklé - both scientists but one focused on geomorphology and the other biology. I spoke with Prof Montgomery last week about this incredible rewriting of history as well as what can be done & we even dive into debunking some popular myths!! DON'T MISS THIS EPISODE!!!

Listen on Soundcloud:
https://soundcloud.com/abundantfuture/episode-107-beyond-the-erosion-of-civilizations-with-david-montgomery

Listen on iTunes:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-107-beyond-erosion-civilizations-david-montgomery/id996293969?i=1000434894815

For my Advanced Permaculture students, the entire filmed interview is available as a new additional 45 minutes of video on top of the 155+ hour course. You can watch it too by signing up today - lifetime access ends soon!! Join the lifetime members because you don't want to rush or miss out! This course is considered the most advanced, in-depth, and supportive permaculture course available by our students, and these are teachers of PDCs and university professors as well as home gardeners and elementary school teachers: the community is diverse, global, well-informed, and highly interactive. CLICK HERE and Join Us Today!!

Grow Abundantly, Learn Daily, & Live Regeneratively,

Matt Powers

PS: We have found our next location and prepping for our move. Thank you all for your support & networking!! It was through community and communication that this series of miracles happened!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!! Get ready for an all-new location & series of videos starting in May!! 

PPS: My wife and boys are doing better too: we are in a safer location & all healing faster :) :) :) She's going to beat this cancer like she has all the others!!!! If you'd like to support us on our journey of healing and relocating, we need it! And we would appreciate it immensely, we have a GoFundMe for that purpose here. <3 & thanks! -MP

The 6 Keys to Time-Wise Gardening

The 6 Keys to Time-Wise Gardening

Don’t have time to garden?

• 9-5 Job + Family + Staying Fit?
• Can’t be Consistent: Things always come up?
• Don’t want to spend all that time only to see it all go to waste?

My Story

For nearly a decade, I managed 2 acres primarily with a knife - it's all about design, prep, & management that supports your goals! I was balancing it all too: my wife fighting cancer, my full time job, homeschooling my boys, & the kitchen's endless cycles. I managed to do it, and you can too!

The 6 Keys to Time-Wise Gardening

1. Weed with a Knife or Scythe

2. Throw Sow Planting between Perennials

3. Automate Watering

4. Zonal Planting

5. Soil Prep: Winter cover crop & Compost: A Stitch in Time Saves 9

6. Calendar Approximate Harvest Times

Don’t have time? Get Organized & Make Time this Year! Grow an AMAZING Garden without Wasting Time!

Join Permaculture Gardening LIVE with Matt Powers - starting Jan 8th! 8 weeks of in-depth gardening learning to get you ready for your BEST GARDEN EVER!! 

Grow Abundantly, Learn Daily, & Live Regeneratively,

Matt Powers

Choose Today - Don't Wait!

Choose to Regenerate - Don’t Wait!

Today is the day we choose. Today.

What kind of world do we want to live in? What kind of person do I want to be? What will it actually look like? How will I feel? Who will I be? How will I make money? How will our institutions adapt? These questions are at the heart of the transition we currently find ourselves in.

Some of us feel trapped like we are on a dead end street or that we are sinking - I know that feeling. I lived there most of my life. I grew up there. Only when I disregarded everything put on me did I free myself. Only when I did the thing that everyone said was impossible did my life change and the world changed around me. This is the only path to change - you have to have faith that change is possible. Once you begin, it begins. 

Take today: Seize it.

Make this the day you start that compost heap, open your business, plant those trees, inoculate that substrate, have that talk, surprise your wife, slow down and listen to your kids, or go on that walk you always mean to go on. Meditate. Make big plans. Eat Healthier. Make Bold Promises to yourself & others. Write the steps out, and find the path to that grand vision. There’s always a path.

Don’t have money? 

Gather wild seeds. Buy cheap seeds and grow them out to seed organically: make those seeds your organic adaptations. Eat em the next year. Building a garden only takes a shovel and commitment. All the rest is variable. You can get free trees, seeds, free animals, fencing, you name it - as long as you’re part of your community and giving what you can - even if it’s a kind word or an patient ear or a helping hand, if you give, you will get. 

Want to start a business? 

Scale up your life, your garden, your mind, your heart. Go BIG and you’ll find that extra cash, that abundance to sell, that network, that mentor and those customers. They will flock to your abundance like bees to a field of wildflowers, but you have to plant those seeds today to harvest that yield. You have to read that book today to implement its insights tomorrow. You have to start your plan today to start on it at all.

We’ve never had this kind of access to people, to the market, to resources, and information - it is our moment NOW to make bold changes to our culture, environment, and ourselves before its too late. We must transform and in doing so alter the world we live in holistically to be something unrecognizable. As profound as the internet has changed our world, we will have to change it again to partner with nature to survive this climate instability we are only just now entering. We can create areas of stability and regularity, but it will only come out of what we do now, today, while we still have these powerful windows of opportunity. Our moment is Now and if you are listening to this, you know what you can do to help. If you hear my voice, then you are someone who is aware of something that can be done and you’ve yet to do it. No matter what you’ve already done, you already know something more that can be done. That means you are gifted with a vision that can change the world, maybe it’s just your corner of the world, but it’s still needed. That dream is needed, and the seeds must be planted in fertile soil of the present - today.

So I ask you to ask yourself. To Choose.

Who do you want to be? Your best self? What do you want to do with your life? What’s your permaculture vision? Your regenerative dream business? Go out and make it happen. It won’t happen overnight. It will take planning. Adaptation. Setbacks. Hardwork. Teamwork. Reflection. But start Today. The Miracle of Life we call Nature is always waiting. It’s a promise of abundance in every hill and valley, in every person and community on earth. There is a potential for greatness, for change, for syntropy, and you already feel it. Grab hold of that feeling - pull it into you. Use it as fuel to get you to your destination. Your heart and mind are your engine and compass; listen to them carefully - you can make it real. You can make those changes. You can become that person. If you can see it, you can be it, so Seize it with Joy, with Determination, and do it today.

I’m Matt Powers. Grow Abundantly, Learn Daily, & Live Regeneratively.

Finale Signup Bonus #1 for Regenerative Entrepreneurs & Educators!

Signups Close Sunday!!

Join us for an extra 2 weeks of learning: 

Crowdfunding & How Easy How To's!!

http://www.thepermaculturestudent.com/course-signup/regenerative-entrepreneurs-educators-the-online-course-with-matt-powers

Fresh from Peter McCoy's Mushroom Cultivation and Application Course in Portland OR

I thought I was a mycophile before the course...

Now, I'm so committed to making mycology a mainstay in our daily lives that my son James and I are setting apart time each week to work and plan out our mushroom farm together. James has just turned 11 but he joined us for the adventure, and it was incredible. He's completely committed to growing and studying mycology as the focus of his homeschooling now! I'm excited to see where it leads. 

Peter teaches James the Mycelium Fist Bump

Some take aways from Peter McCoy's incredible course:

1. It's important to get your information (and mushroom strains) from trustworthy folks - there's a lot of sleight of hand out there that Peter does an amazing job of teaching past, so you can see through those types of things more easily. 

2. The future is fungal and beyond our conception. We have no idea what fungi are actually doing - they are doing it so fast and on such a micro and macro level at the same time that it's impossible for us to track in situ. 

3. We can make superior medicine and food to anything found in the stores for pennies at home especially with liquid culture mycelium methods using the airport lid (thank you Hippie3).

4. Anyone can learn to partner with fungi. My young son's enthusiasm and interest carried him through the drier portions of the course with ease. 

5. Fungi is the missing link in all our understanding throughout history - they are the architects, chemists and artists of our very world and reality. They are in us and in everything else all around us even in each breath we take. They are our ancestors and yet entirely alien and ancient as well.

6. Peter McCoy is an amazing teacher that everyone should seek out to learn from. His book Radical Mycology is one of the top 3 best books I've ever read - it's changed my life and how I see the world entirely. You can buy it HERE.

I hope you incorporate fungi into your life for better health of yourself, your family, and your environment. 

Grow Abundantly, Learn Daily, & Live Regeneratively,

Matt Powers

The Glove Box 

Fruiting on grain spawn - this one is a bit over mature - you can see the fruit inside, condensation, and the mycelium trying to climb the walls.

The Airport lids and syringes made an elegant solution to a complex dance of agar and aseptic conditions. 

Learn more about Mycology with Peter McCoy on his site: https://radicalmycology.com

Be sure to join us in the spring in our advanced course with Peter as our mycology instructor as well! You can sign up early at a discount here: http://www.thepermaculturestudent.com/course-signup/the-advanced-permaculture-student-online

Wildfires: Observations & Actions

If you've been watching my videos over the past few years, you may have noticed some videos of addressing wildfires. Now that folks are starting to pay attention, I thought I'd go back and collect them all in one place. These videos showcase what's going on, why, and what can be done. We must act in concert and quickly if we are to save the forest systems we have. - Matt

How Will We Regenerate Our World?

How are we going to restore the biodiversity, rebuild the soil, regrow the forests, sequester the carbon, clean up the pollution, clean the oceans, and rewild our world?

This question has been on my mind for years - it can't just be isolated individual changes as we have seen so far. It has to become the new normal. It has to become part of our core culture: part of education (that which creates the foundation for our culture) and part of our economy (that which reinforces and builds our culture). Education is the key - I've been working on this for years, and now this is the moment we make the bridge from K-12 to professional. It's time to take that LEAP of Faith in Humanity & Nature, so we can make regeneration a way of life and so we can regenerate our degrading world. 

Change Your Life, Change The World - Join Us Today: 
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mattpowers/the-advanced-permaculture-student-online

Get your Advanced Permaculture Certification - learn a diversity of advanced paths and practices within permaculture from experts, so you can delve deeper and more holistically with your own projects, homestead, and business. Styrofoam into trees, regreening deserts, permatecture, holistic management, sociocracy, mead, mycology, hemp, Korean natural farming, biochar, bokashi, plant breeding, nonviolence & more - the most up-to-date, advanced, and inclusive permaculture course yet. Our program has more teachers in it than most students in high school encounter their entire time there. This program will complete your knowledge of holistic permaculture and guide you to holistic mastery or a regenerative career in a 4 month program + we enroll signups in our entrepreneurship and educators program for free when they join the Kickstarter. Help your local economy take off as you learn to educate and share the patterns of nature with your friends, neighbors, and family. Help others, make it your lifestyle, or make it your business to grow soil, grow forests, preserve or generate biodiversity, and/or restore the landscape in your daily life. 

Join us in the Regeneration! There's so many bonuses & amazing teachers in this course! I'll be designing it like all my materials to be easy to understand and incorporate. Check it out: 
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mattpowers/the-advanced-permaculture-student-online

Grow Abundantly, Learn Daily, & Live Regeneratively,

Matt Powers
 

Why We Only Eat Organic In My Family

It's personal.

It's real.

It's our story.

This is why we only eat organic or better in our family. 

It's also why we plant gardens everywhere we go.

Are you searching for answers? Are you looking for healthy foods? Often the only answers and truly healthy foods we can find are in our gardens. I hope that you find a local farmer that is beyond organic or start growing it yourself.

I'm running a new course to try to make this a normal part of life, so we can stop the cancer epidemic which is only caused by: deficiency and toxicity. Both of which can be addressed largely with good food.

Thank you for reading,

Matt Powers

PS: The Kickstarter is still going - we are 50% through the campaign & 50% Funded!!! Help us reach our goal & help the world and our culture to find a regenerative path. Click Here to learn more: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mattpowers/the-advanced-permaculture-student-online

Gardening with Deer? It's Possible!

YOU CAN GARDEN WITHOUT FENCES - they can be really expensive and inconvenient when plans change. They might also attract wildlife. Hide your food with plants - create living fences! Use native cousins that are edible on your edges, use polycultures, use contour, and use inedible edges just past your edible edges (which are semi-interesting but edible) - this created a living fence. Anyone can do this with their own areas polycultures.

Grow with the Wildlife!!

Learn What's Possible with the Advanced Permaculture Student Online

Are you Dreaming of Regeneration too?

I've been dreaming of a rich and abundant world that doesn't exist, of stable and prosperous cultures that don't exist, of rich, diverse forests and oceans that don't exist... yet. I've been dreaming of you, our communities, our friends and families, and even our governments and schools all working with nature to create an entirely new world. Today we are taking a huge step towards making that world a reality. 

Working with an Amazing Team of Teachers from across the spectrum of applied-permaculture, I'm so honored and excited to announce the Kickstarter Launch for The Advanced Permaculture Student Online - the first regenerative trade school!

Check out the Campaign here & See What's Possible:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mattpowers/the-advanced-permaculture-student-online

Thank you for helping spread the regeneration of our world and cultures,

- Matt Powers

PS: If you have a  moment, can you share the above video on your Facebook or twitter? Thanks!