The Site

The Regenerative Design Institute (RDI) is a 17-acre working permaculture farm and education center.  Tucked into a small valley between two low hills, the site faces west with views of the ocean from some points on the property.  The land is home to about a dozen humans: The two founders, James Stark and Penny Livingston, the farm manager, the grounds manager, and about six interns.  In addition to the people, there are goats and chickens, organic gardens and orchards, multiple grey water systems, ponds, a green house, a yurt classroom, and several natural building structures (cob, straw bale, and cord wood) that serve as sleeping quarters for the interns. There is also a main kitchen/common building.

The center hosts hundreds of visitors and course participants every year.  Their course offerings focus around three main themes: Regenerative land management, nature awareness, and personal healing.  The courses vary in length, from a weekend to a year.

Regeneration

RDI is striving to be a living example of the kind of healing, growth, and resilience that they believe all humans have the potential to create.  When prompted for their feelings about the sustainability movement, staff members and interns often responded by asking some version of “What exactly are we trying to sustain?” They expressed their belief that the current state of things - many human’s relationship with each other and the land - is not something that makes sense to sustain.  Instead, what they call for is Regeneration. Healing.

Those at RDI believe that we must begin the work of bringing the natural systems on which we depend - those that have been so polluted and degraded - back to a state of health before we begin the work of “sustaining.”

The ecological designers and farmers at RDI have taken time to live on the land, simply observing the many elements of this complex ecosystem so they may better understand how to support and catalyze healing. The land development and design has been a thoroughly thought out, and naturally slow process.

The Community

Much of our time at RDI was spent with the group of young adults who were interning on the farm (mostly women).  We arrived on a Sunday afternoon, which is a bit of a down day for the workers. Though still completing their chores, the interns and staff also took time to practice yoga in the yurt, check email, or take a run down to the beach.  Every Monday morning, the farm manager (Tammy Davis) calls a meeting with the interns and grounds manager to check in with one another, share thoughts and ideas about the general function and wellbeing of the farm, and go over chores assignments for the upcoming week.  The tasks include things like milking the goats in the mornings and evenings, caring for the 30 odd chickens, cooking three common meals a day, emptying the humanure bins, and [of course] weeding, planting, and harvesting.

This group of very capable people have created what seemed to be a tight knit and loving community. 

The Well-Being Meeting

At the core of RDI’s philosophy is the belief that humans are not other than, but truly are nature.  This may seem intuitive, but it flies in the face of dominant western cultures, which treat earth as something simply here to serve our human needs and pad our pockets.  Built on a philosophy of oneness, the folks at RDI see each individual’s inner healing as foundational to creating healthy ecological systems. Every other Monday evening, James, Tammy, Penny and the interns meet in the yurt for their “well-being” meeting. Using communication models inspired by Non Violent Communication (NVC) they each take time to check in with one another, ask each other challenging questions, and support each other on their individual journeys of personal growth and well being. 

Accessibility & Funding

RDI is primarily funded by their educational trainings, retreats and conferences, with foundation and private donor contributions only accounting for a small part of their annual budget.  This brings up a challenging but important conversation about financial accessibility; their courses cost about $100 a day, thus making it difficult or impossible for many to attend.  James and Penny, to paraphrase, “...are committed to keeping RDI financially independent and self sufficient, so as not to depend on large investments by donors and foundations, whose financial abundance - when traced far enough back - is often the product of oppression and greed, and does not align with RDI’s values.”

For most, RDI can only be reached by car, (again limiting the people to whom it’s accessible) though several students have arrived by bike (“they got front row seats in class” joked James).

Thus far, RDI’s workshops and courses are primarily attended and taught by middle class white people. RDI’s hope is that the socio-economic demographics within the classroom will become more and more diverse as RDI becomes more established, and their capacity to offer scholarships increases.  Still, this calls to question whether “more scholarships” really is the answer to socio-economic diversity. Our impression of RDI is that it has been primarily designed (unconsciously perhaps) to serve relatively affluent white people. Because of it’s location, teachers, and staff, we wonder about the ways the very fabric of RDI may or may not welcome in much human diversity.  Being relatively affluent white people ourselves (RAWPs), we are trying to be courageous, humble, compassionate and conscious as we ask these questions.

There is an even ratio of women to men among the teachers and staff of RDI.  Three of the four paid farm positions belong to women.

The center is not really designed to be wheelchair accessible, with narrow unpaved paths, and steep inclines. Most of the buildings are single story, but not all are ground level.  Most students camp in tents, use composting toilets, and take their showers outdoors.

All In All

We found RDI to be a beautiful community of humans, plants and animals.  The people at RDI are actively working to cultivate and nourish a harmonious and joyful reconnection with, and regeneration of, the ecosystems in which we are a part.

http://www.regenerativedesign.org

P.S.

RDI was nominated to be featured by the Learnalism Project by Ethan Rolland, a permaculture designer extraordinaire and friend (www.AppleseedPermaculture.com). 

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