The Bipartisan Policy Center, a respected think tank in Washington DC, is hosting an event called "Toward a Sustainable Future in Food and Agriculture" (You can go!). The announcement explains:
food and agriculture companies are hard at work figuring out how to feed a growing world population while meeting consumer needs and minimizing environmental impact.
Here's the puzzler: Why set a goal of minimizing impacts? Probably because the impacts are negative. If food and agriculture companies were hard at work creating positive environmental impacts, we'd want them maximized, not minimized!
More to the point, why aren't they considering the option of maximizing environmental goods? I suspect the answer is "mental blinders". The extractive mindset is so embedded that the option of regeneration - making the environment better while feeding the world and meeting consumer needs - doesn't occur.
Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky explained how framing a problem affects how we react to it. By assuming the negative, we'll fail to see opportunities for the positive. Mark Twain had an even simpler explanation:
What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know. It's what we know for sure that just ain't so.
A regenerative economy helps us remove our mental blinders, change our perspective, and find positive outcomes where we previously didn't see them.
Have examples of mental blinders and ways to overcome them? Please share!
Combining Capacity with Possibility
Last week's edition of The Wave discussed the massive increase in global human "capacity to contribute" that is underway. What can we do when we remove our blinders and combine this capacity with a regenerative mindset?
Luis von Ahn, a professor and entrepreneur, is a wizard at seeing possibilities.
This TED talk is a little dated - 2011 - but still very funny and inspiring. What's more, the product he talks about at the end, Duolingo, is just coming into its own, helping millions learn a new language while translating the Web quickly and accurately. (16')
It's a 2-acre farm, packed into a shipping container that doubles as a farm building. Designed to feed 150 people per year, and includes drip irrigation, all of the tools, and its own renewable energy setup.
Innovation that encourages the circulation of a spectrum of nutrients through land, plants and people and back again, fostering benefits for people and the environment in parallel.
Talking about growing capacity to contribute!
For those born in 1900, the modal year for death was before age 1.
For those born in 2010, it will be age 90.
And, in closing
We are very early in the process of defining what it means to build a regenerative economy. While the terminology will continue to evolve, we're convinced the ideas are directionally correct. Now we are studying, testing, plotting, and building interest, support, and resources.
Thus this newsletter, which will come out about weekly with brief observations and links to related materials exploring innovation and the regenerative economy. With effort, and a bit of luck, we hope support for these concepts becomes a wave sweeping the world! Check out the archive to see if this newsletter is right for you (or a friend).
If you find this email valuable, please share with a friend. If you don't, please unsubscribe (link at the bottom.) We also much appreciate comments, advice, and suggestions for links to highlight.
