So a few years ago a film came out called Kiss the Ground and Woody Harrelson produced it, and it was basically about the importance of soil in the fight to stabilize our planet. And there's this new film directed and produced by the same team as Kiss the Ground. It's got some pretty big Hollywood names involved. It's called Common Ground. I was lucky enough to get a special screening of it, and let me tell you, it's very powerful. Film just really really knocked me out and made me think.
Taught me a whole bunch of stuff that I had no idea about, having to do with soil and farming and food and the environment, etc. I really recommend it. My guest today is Ian Summerhalder, who was one of the producers on the film. So if you're someone who is environmentally minded and looking for ways to weather this moment in our planet's history, so to speak, you're going to enjoy this episode. So I am glad you're here. Leaning. Hey, it's good to see you man.
Good to see you man, Thanks for thanks for doing this. Congratulations on this. These are these are cool, man. This is like, this is a cool thing to be, a worthy thing to be spending time on you.
Know, yeah, I I it's been it's been great to you know, everybody and their mother has a podcast, and it's been really really fun to to you know, connect with people, but also to see the things that they're interested in, and you know, it's it's often really really inspiring and and and also I think the people are are you know, getting a kick or or oftentimes being you know, moved or or touched by some of the
stories that they've they've heard. But you know, you were just talking about your roots, and I'm really curious about that. He grew up in Louisiana, right.
Yeah, deep, deep, deep, right outside of New Orleans.
And you were saying that your dad was of Cajun descent.
So my grandfather was born here. A great grandfather was born here in seventeen forty seven, so I think his parents had already been here for like twenty years. So I think they got here in like the seventeen twenties. Man, Wow, long time ago and all Louisiana. Yeah, my grandmother was born in nineteen oh six. She didn't speak English until
nineteen thirty, so she was twenty four years old. And yeah, so people don't realize like in until until like the forties, you could live in the United States, Louisiana in particular, and never have to speak English. It's so funny. It was just looking up my grandmother's My birthday just passed on the eighth, and my grandmother was on the seventh. You know, my last birthday whatever three days ago was forty five. And I called my mom and said, happy birthday,
is the day you gave birth to me. But I'm now on the other side. I'm technically closer to fifty than I am to forty. And at that point that sound like, you know, like a morbid thought. This is just I'm a numbers guy, so you're more than halfway through. It's like whatever we consider a life cycle. But what's crazy is because of our health situation in this country, food, medicine, healthcare, lifestyle, all that stuff the United States. And don't quote me
on this data. I typically have so much data here in front of me. We are the only developed nation in the world where life expectancy is declining. Interesting, but I always offer up this and I learned this twelve thirteen years ago. So if you look at the planet right, you look at trees, you look at water systems. If you look at them, there's a reason that they're carbon copies, right, They're coral in the ocean that look identical like a lung.
If you take a you take a pine tree, an oak tree, turn it on its side, it literally looks like a lum. So if you would imagine just for a second, like taking a step back, that the earth is the same biological process as us for not any different. Those river systems, I mean, those forests are basically our lungs, right. Those river systems and oceans are those party of vascular systems carrying all the vital nutrients and organ nutrients to
the organisms. So if you think about it, once you dam and pollute all the waterways, than the organism can't get all those vital nutrients. If you cut and destroy all the forests, that organism can't breathe and recycle so effectively. We you know, when you put it in those terms, people start really looking and go, oh my gosh. And then you go to the soil. Well, the microbiome of the soil. The health of that depends on the health
of the soil and what grows out of it. The same way we think about it from health perspective, the human body, the health of the human being is directly related to the health of the gut microbiome. It's the same, right, Without a healthy gut microbiome, there's no healthy human and without a healthy soil microbiome, there is no healthy soil. So you know, we keep forgetting that what we do
to the earth, we do to ourselves. And that's why going back to what you were just asking, diving into I want to know where I came from, whom I came from, and when I go back to my roots, like way way way back, both on my mother's side and my father's side, they were farmers. They were long long lines lineage of farmers. That is who I am in my.
Blood, maybe even before they got to this country.
Most likely in the forties. My grandfather was an agricultural inventor. He was the first guy to introduce in Mississippi, like nineteen forty. The idea was taking the manure from all of his cattle, cow's, chickens, hogs, everything. He built the press that took dried it out, took the manure and pressed it into these little cups where he would then germinate all of his seeds, and that's how he he germinated all of his seeds to plant. So you know,
we've all seen those. I wish you would have patented those. We would probably have been a very different family. Anyway, The long im was short of it is people always say like, how and why is this like your you know, you left acting, you literally walked away.
From Let's talk about that's let's talk about first why it is that you got into it, because I'm guessing that probably you were at least in the mind already of people in your family who who who found at least at least initially a life in the theater. So what was it do you think that pushed you in that direction?
Since I was a kid man, since I was a little kid, and I hear this, you know, I'm sure it was the same for you and a lot of people I talked to. It was just in me from the beginning, you know. And I started doing local theater when I was six or seven, and it was my mom that brought me to all the auditions and read everything with me in the car and singing and helping me through it. And then and we were we had
a very intimate relationship with the poverty line. So we didn't you know, like I wanted to play the sacks. We couldn't afford a saxophone. I wanted to play the trumpet, couldn't afford. So we were going to school and it wasn't like it was disappointing. But my mom was so great at explaining things. It's such a great you know, we were just so tight bros. And but yeah, one brother, one sister. They're seven and eight years older than me. And it was my mom's foresight that when she it's
like that, it's like, you know, it's so funny. Man. I'm a huge Malcolm Gladwell fan, and I know that when Outliers came all came out. When Outliers came out, we all read this book and we looked at society and we realized, oh my gosh, she broke it down in such a beautiful way. But in all of our lives, we have those outlier moments that allowed us to get
to whatever we got to do right. And my mom received She worked at a state hospital, a mental hospital, but she wanted to be a massage therapist and do actipressure and roam the therapy stuff. She couldn't get out of that rut. She got laid off and the state gave her a severance check. I think it was ten thousand dollars, and no one in my family had ever seen that amount of money in one piece of paper.
And it's crazy, dude. You know what she spent every single dollar of that on and in a borrowing money from my aunt Nancy on top of it, was to send me to modeling and acting classes in New Orleans when I was ten years old. Every dime of that plus some went into me getting a contract with Ford for three years when I was ten.
Well, were there ever moments when you thought this is something I'm not sure I want to do this, this is something that you want to do for me?
No.
I loved it. I was already I was already doing theater and stuff, you know, like the head of like the young theater department at school and going to all these local playhouses and not getting the roles for the most part, the ones at school because I think they had to. They had to, you had to have like a level of participation. But it was that moment she came to me and she goes, look, I have a I have a deal. I have a proper position for you. You know, we don't have a lot, but I can
give you this opportunity if you really want it. But you gotta want it. She literally said that, She's like, this is not for me, and I want absolutely no way get me in. And so she would slept me back and forth from you know, the North Shore to New Orleans every week so I could train and train and train. And then there was a model scout, you know, a lot of it. It's like people did get a lot of people did find contracts out of it, but it was a huge, big money grab for these people.
They made a lot of cash. So when I was ten, I got this contract with Ford because I went to this big convention and model convention and like a talleentn.
Ford modeling right not for motors, yep and.
Hillton Head, South Carolina, dude, in nineteen ninety you can believe that. And I got this contract and so we would she would take some you know, she would take off work and we'd go to New York for the summers and and that's how I started working, you know, and doing Ralph Lauren and Gap and all these cool things. So you're ten years old from the bides Louisiana. All of a sudden you're thrust into you know, these huge sets with art directors and photographers and you know, all
these just super cool people. And by the way, this is nineteen ninety, right, so like everyone is, you know, it was a very different time. People are in these studios, they're you know, they have big mood layer mood boards laid out, and everyone's around tables and they're smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee. And the French are like, you know, boring Bordeaux at noon and you know, we're sitting there eating like steaks and lobster and shit, and you know,
at lunch on this job. And I looked at it. I remember looking at my mom once she goes, this isn't so bad as a kidd and I said, not at all. Along this is pretty this is pretty awesome, and so I and so anyway, that was three years of that. I went home for two years back to Louisiana and did normal stuff, played football and sports and rode my horses and you know, did stuff. And then at fifteen I realized, like, wow, this is not exactly what I want to be doing. Mom, I want to
get back to doing what I was doing. I think this is like where I want to be. So again, we did another convention on my sixteenth birthday and then that was it. I met agents and three days three days later or five days later, get a call that they had taken a bunch of polaroids from me and this photographer Stephen Myzell. So if you remember Stephen Myzell in the nineties was the biggest photographer pastiptographer in the world.
It was like Steven you know, Bruce Weber, any Legal, It's you know, a couple of Richard Avedon, Like those guys are still around. So anyway, two days after that, I was on a plane. So one week after my sixteenth birthday, it's December fifteenth, I think I land in New York City to shoot like they Stephen myself booked me for like twelve pages of at the time, the Warmo Vogue, which the time was the biggest men's magazine
in the world. And that was it. And you know what's crazy is because it was just the the sixtieth anniversary of fiftieth anniversary of CBGB's and they were going to do it at the store because it's a John Breveta store. Now I was going to go for that, but they put it into the Grammy Museum. I went
to CBGB's that night. I was, you know, I was a week out of having like my emancipation paperwork done and anyway, so that's like that started to imagine you're sixteen, you're one week over sixteen, you fly to New York City, you land drop your stuff at the hotel. You know, the other people you're shooting with, like, Hey, come down to the lobby. We're going to this place. CBGB's cool,
let's go listen to some music. You walk in and it's like Patti Smith is there and Debbie Harry are there, and you know, you're just like, what the hell is going on? And so that was my that was my childhood. Yeah.
Yeah, and then you obviously you were doing it sounds like you were doing a lot of modeling as well as having the roots in the acting. But then that pretty quickly turned into, uh, you know, an acting career with television and movies, and you know, we always thinking about, you know, connections, we have the connect I mean, I know there are paths have crossed in the past, but we have the Kevin Williamson connection, and.
That guy changed my life for sure. Man.
How long were you on that show on Vampire.
Diveris We did eight years?
Eight years in what was the town Atlanta? Atlanta? Right right, yep? Right? Were you? Were you mostly right in the center of Atlanta or did you there was a I feel like I feel like I was recently in a small town shooting something, and they they it was almost like a like a Vampire Diaries museums or of thing. I mean, is there a town Covington, Yeah, Georgia, that's it, Covington, Georgia.
I was down there making a movie and living in Covington, and it's it's like they practically have like statues in the town square, you know, for Vampire Diaries.
They call it Coveywood, and it's a that was the fictional town of Mystic Falls, Virginia. Was Covington, Georgia as wild because I was born in Covington, Louisiana.
Yeah, right, and then that's weird.
Now I'm in Covington, Georgia. And obviously, you know, when you first started shooting and show, you think, oh man, this thing is probably gonna go five years cut to eight years later. But people in Covington, the police, the friends, the business owners, is we're all so tight it now. The Covington You know, if you go back and you look at the Chamber of Commerce numbers, Vampire Diaries brings one hundred and sixteen million dollars a year to that town.
Still, yeah, every year.
Wow, that's how much. You know, because the show has been seen by over a billion people now, so at that time point is just a numbers game, right, you figure one in eight people in the country or in the world have seen interface understand or know or have heard of this ip and so it's just a testament to the power of story and how story can bring
us together and shared experience. Right, That's what bonding is, and that's it's actually where the reason you know, Paul and I actually built this brand, Brothers bond over that same ethos, which is this is about bringing people together.
And I think you can argue right now, actually not argue right now, we need togatherness more than ever and so and so whether it's sitting sharing a dram of whiskey, or your health and wellness journey or your meditation, whatever it may be, we need that connection and Paul and I, you know, I might not be the smartest guy in the room, but I'll I'll try and outwork everyone in there. And I realize, like, I might not be the smartest guy in the room. I don't even have a college degree.
But the one thing I realized I could do is leverage entertainment value to create quantifiable change in the world, right, whatever that may be. And we've the data don't lie, you know what I mean, We've shown that in a couple of different instances. There are definitely some use cases for it, and it's been un you know, it's unbelievable. As you know, He's like, how long were you guys on The Following?
We were only on The Following for three years, three years, and and that's the longest that I've ever done a show. The last series I had was three years as well. You know, it's it. I got sort of secondhand knowledge of this eight year cycle from Kira because she was on the on The Closer.
For those years.
Yeah, and that was you know, it was an interesting it was an interesting thing to watch from Afar. I mean, up until that point, I I often used to say that, and this just shows how different. How things have changed so much in terms of you know, what we call television. I used to say that if my agent called me and told me that they had a series for me, I would fire my agent because there was such a division between being a movie star and being on television.
It was like something you would never ever ever do. That's all gone completely, you know, I mean just it's it's dissolved into this other world that we have. You know, I'm I'm fascinating you. You you have the Brown liquor, and yeah, I'm incredibly successful, and you also just do so much sort of charitable. The charity is not even the right word. I mean, it's more awareness and very very hard work on all kinds of things having to
do with excute and the environment. I mean, I watched this movie Common Ground that you Oh.
You saw the film.
Yeah, that's spectacular, I mean spectacular. But you know, I guess my question is is that you're you're not really doing too much acting right now, am I right? It's mostly producing and doing other kind of stuff.
I you know, man, I walked away from acting. The last time I was on SHOWM. I can tell you it was October, sorry, August nineteenth, twenty nineteen.
Okay, so this is what I've I want to know about it because.
I know the day.
I mean, that's when I walked that's my wife's birthday, by the way, August nineteenth. Yeah, you you as you walked away on Curious abtects birthday. You know, so I would say.
That, which, by the way, was one of my biggest crushes ever. I used to watch singles over and over and over again. And obviously, you know, we we've had the same pubblicist for you know, Anik Mueller has been with me. We've been I've been with her for eight nine almost nineteen years, so it's like I've always we've always been in the same sort of like ether. She's such a special you guys are such a what an inspiration you are to a lot of people.
You guys have really thank you.
It's pretty amazing.
Yeah, she's she's a lot of fun to hang out with. But you know, you there's not that many people. Uh, people will leave the film business of acting. I'm mostly talking about acting, Yeah, because they retired, because they get old. People will believe because they just don't have any money. A lot of people leave mysteriously because of you know,
drugs or alcohol, or or scandal or getting cancer. There's a million ways to leave, but there's very few young actors who are willing to just stop and say I don't want to I'm not gonna do this anymore. So I'm I'd like you to just kind of And I can tell you that at the point, Well, first of all, I don't think I'm ever gonna stop. It's just I know that it's just too If it's too much, I'm
too I'm too wrapped up in it. In terms of my own ego, my own sense of self worth is so so completely tied to being a performer and being I know, but still so one of the most.
Well known actors in the world period ever.
So I'm just wondering what that was like, how how did that how did that feel? And and and do you ever do you ever miss it? Or or or are you completely satisfied and happy doing what you're doing.
I loved what I did. You know, I didn't have a lot of success in films, and that I did not like you did. I My success came from television. There was some life changing moments on film, like doing life as a house when Hayden Christiansen was a baby and I was a baby, and uh, you know, Kevin Kevin was just Kevin kleinb was obviously just you know, it's just one of the greatest. He's like you you
just you watch him. You believe every second of this man. Anyway, I had a couple of really great film experiences, but TV was the bulk of that success. And I think what I realized was it came as no surprise to anyone in my inner circle except my management team that was.
Like, it's like, that's a definition of a spit take when they they're just sitting there drinking their coffee and they get the call from you before you know.
And but I, you know, I had, I had in that time when I had completely stopped. They convinced me to put myself on tape for two things that were just absolutely mind blowing. One was the dope sick that won the thing with Michael Keaton, which is amazing. And then there was another one. Jessica Chastain like, look, we know you don't want to do this. Just do it. You're too good in this, Just make it happen. So I did it, and it was all very close, and but the roles were they needed to scan a big
a little older, and so it was all fine. But I've never felt more at peace with the decision ever. But it's scary, man, because when you walk away and I have a wife and children, and when you walk away from the only thing you've ever known that supports your life. And also too, you know, I had gone through a really wild financial mishap, which is during Vampire Diaries.
I was using all the money I was making to finance and build companies, right that was, And so being an entrepreneur versus being on a successful being an actor on a successful television show is very different. And I used a lot of that cash to finance a company that should have been worth a fortune that I owned a third of. At the time, we had the most powerful LED light system in the world, right and we were saving lives in the oil patch because of our
safety mechanisms and all sorts of cool stuff. Only to find out that our biggest customer was stealing from us, Like to the tunes of Like Millions, the CEO was embezzling its that old famous story, young actor person gets into a business they don't necessarily know, and they just get posed. The big problem was I had made personal guarantees on all of the loans, which.
Is so stupid.
What are you thinking? You know, you're like, you're in your early thirties, you feel like you're invincible, super idealistic, you know you've got this, and then one day you find all this stuff out as you're transitioning out of a television show, a successful one where you should be retiring. On that faithful day, I get a phone call, Hey, are you sitting down money chance? Uh huh from my
team for my lawyers. When you literally get that phone call, Hey, I know you're wrapping one of the biggest TV shows world, but I just want you to know you're in an eight figure hole that you're gonna have to get out of. And my wife is really a gangster and spent eighteen months negotiating us out of this, figuring out how to do it. But it was I mean, obviously life changing right throws you upside down and so you pivot. And I would have never been able to do that without her.
It's her genius and tenacity and finesse that allowed us to do it. But I had to rebuild on top of walking away from the one thing I knew. So it was bizarre, but I've never felt better. And I think, what when you step away from acting, what it does is it gives you the clarity to focus on what's real, which is your family, your children, your health, because I lost my health, you know, going through this. And I looked at my wife and I just said, she said,
is this something you really want to do. I'll support you in every way you need. And I left. I left the entertainment business to build my companies, raise my kids, and launch these films, which there's three of them.
And I want to talk about the films, but I also simultaneously want to bring on Mea Vaughan's who is the CEO and founder of Good Neighbor Gardens. Hi Mia, good to see you. Thank you so much, Kevin, thanks for joining us.
Hi Maya, it's my honor, it's my privilege. Really, thank you so much for this blessing.
Hey, you know, first off, well, you're you're living on a farm. Is that correct? You live on a farm.
Now we are we're in we're in the city right now. We're actually I'm going to go back out there in just a little while.
I was so knocked out by by the film.
Thanks you.
It's really it's simultaneously. For those of you that haven't seen it, it's it's it's it's a little bit hard to pitch. It's a it's a lot about food. It's a lot about soil. It's a lot about farming. It's a lot about uh, you know, uh, chemical companies. It's got conspiracies, it's got the government. I mean it's you said, so Common Ground is the one that I watch, and it's part of it. It's it's part of a trilogy. Is that right?
There's three of them.
Okay, so what's the first one called.
It's called Kiss the Ground.
Kiss the Ground.
I gotta go by the way that that's on Netflix. You can find that right so easily. I don't know what Harrelseon narrates for us. So it's like that great melodic you know, it's.
Like he's got a great voice.
What do you It's it's such a great voice, like guys like what do you Harrelson or McConaughey, Like you could just listen to those guys all day long. And so we're really grateful that what he did that and me and much too. You know what, the amazing work that me has been doing. Kiss the Ground was the beginning of this. And I and I think you know Mia, like remember when we all saw that film cut together. It changed, it changed, It changes your life, right, you
can't unsee it. So kiss the ground and common ground. Kiss the ground was the promise of regeneration. Common ground is why it happened and how we can get out of it. Ground Swell is going to be the international version and why and how it can spread globally and the economic value of it.
So me, for those of us that don't know this this term, can you please describe to us what regenerative farming is in a nutshell so to speak.
Well, you know, to be honest, there's not one one definition of regeneration my mind and in my spirit. But essentially what the utilitarian use of the word is that we are doing what we can to benefit the earth in our practices here on the earth, Okay, instead of taking away from the earth, depleting the earth, you know, I mean I have to borrow from my own African roots in that. You know, in the Western world, you're taught that the earth is yours, you know, and that
you're the master of it. But you know, in African cultures, you're taught that you're the Earth's you know. Yeah, And so you know, not to get caught up in the language, but to understand, like Ian was saying in the beginning, you know, your composition is so much like the composition of the earth. And that's what I teach the children in the schools. You know that you are a living organism,
so as a plant, so it's a bug. Then I ask them what else and they say, a tree, you know, and you need five things to thrive and not just survive. You know, you need water, you need air, sunlight, nutrients, and you gotta have love in order to really thrive. Right, And so does a plant. Plant needs that too. The soil,
the soil needs that, you know. And so regeneration is really about for me, it's about teaching the next generation so that we have the opportunity for sustainability to truly give back to the Earth, to become engaged with the Earth, to understand it, to start to identify with it in such a way that you're motivated to develop a conscious
relationship with it. That's really for me what regeneration is about and you know if you put if you pick up a handful of soil, there's more living microbes, more living organisms in that handful of soil than all the human beings that were born on the face of the earth. And I don't think they're completely unrelated. And it's my it's my passion, it's my developed, it's my cultivated passion to make sure that that I get that out there.
Okay, So now I want to know before we get into the details of the work that you're doing, I want to know what it is that you think drew you to this. Have this as a passion, right, Some people are passion about music, some people are passionate about acting or politics or whatever it is. What was the connection to the earth. Do you think in your life or your child that or your upbringing them?
Well, you know, it's a great question. Some things are known and some things are unknown, right Because my mother would say, do you really think you lead your own life? Honey?
You know?
And so little did I know that I have a history? Like Ian was saying, his family come, they were farmers. You know, little did I know that I really have a history of that, Because most families don't necessarily. I don't know. My family didn't really talk about that too much. We were just dealing with the day to day.
But to be honest, where you grow up just out of curiosity, and.
You know, I was a military brat, so we grew up everywhere and I didn't really have a place to call home until I moved to San Diego in eighty three and I've been here ever since. But in two thousand and eight, after being a financial planner for more than twenty years, I was kind of I started dating a new guy and we both were praying to live in our purpose. We were like, what, you know, what were we really put here to do? You know, whatever that is, that'll be our form of worship, that'll be
how we live, you know, what is it? And little by little, you know, when you ask that question, it's almost like, did I really ask that question? Now? I'm scared. But my old life started to pass away and I found myself digging in the dirt and I remember I had a hoodie on, you know, a raincoat over that, and I was it was actually raining in San Diego, which is rare, and because I was losing so much of my prior life, I was crying while it was raining.
But I was digging in the soil at this garden that we had planted together, and I was feeling depleted. But the soil was just wriggling with worms and the nutrients that we had just hoped for the plant. I mean, we were I was pulling up turnips and I couldn't believe how plentiful and bountiful. And I just felt like, this is what I want to do. I can hear what I'm doing this. There's something in this that is compelling me, you know, And so I thought, you know,
we've got to do this for other people. Because the very first gift that this gentleman had offered me, he said, can I build you a garden? And I thought, oh that's.
Hey, that's the best pickup line ever. Hey, could I build you a garden?
Well, you know, three hundred and fifty home garden installations.
Later, I tell us about that, tell us about good neighbor gardens. I want to hear. I want to hear how that, how that goes, and how you do it.
And what Okay, Well, you know, I remember one day we're on the phone, we were arguing, and I said, you know, I don't think we're supposed to argue. You know, we just harvested this garden and it was more bountiful than we could ever imagine. We prayed over every seed we put in the ground, and it was just so productive.
But the sad thing is is that we ended up well it's not so sad now, but we composted two thirds of it because we just didn't know who to share it with, because we were in a new space.
And get that one giant zucchini that could feed you for the rest of your life, and you don't know what to do with it.
And so I thought, you know, this would be much sweeter if we were able to share it, you know, And I said, I think I'm hearing something. I think we're think we're supposed to start something, and I think it's supposed to be that we share this act with others and we generate food for each other. You know, people were so adamized at that time, and I just felt like neighbors really needed to open up and love each other and this will be a loving my neighbor
and neighbors feeding neighbors thing. And so there was a garden across the street I could see the raised beds. They are completely full of weeds and the people hadn't done anything with it, and I thought, I'm gonna go knock on the door and see if they'll let us, you know, farm that land. I mean, I'm living in a neighborhood here in San Diego, two blocks north of the San Diego Zoo. You know, craftsmen's and Spanish style homes.
There's small yards, but man, there's twelve raised beds right there. And sure enough they were like, do you really do this for us? We've been looking for you, and you know, it's a front yard garden. So we didn't have to put out the word. Everyone's like, I want that, you know. In the moon COVID hit, it was like, Wow, everyone wanted a garden. Everyone wanted to learn that. Yeah. Every so we you know, have installed over three hundred and fifty gardens in people's yards in the last ten years.
And I haven't done much social media because I've been in it, you know. But what happens is the gracious neighbor, the person who allows us to grow food in their yard. It's their garden. They get to eat their fill. But if and when there's ever too much because we're maintaining it weekly. We basically hire and train people how to do it. Call those people the urban farm hands, and they they will ask the homeowner, Hey, there's a lot of holopanos there. I don't know if you can eat
all that? Would you like to share it? So it's really about the ask and please share it, take as much as you'd like. So every other Wednesday, we aggregate all the harvests from all of the surplus from all these yards and we bring it to our urban barn which is on the alley, and we make harvest boxes that other people subscribe to, so they get a box that's got ten items in it from all the aggregated
gardens and local regenerative farmers. So that way we're connecting these local regenerative farmers with the homeowners, the people that are patronizing them with you know wherever at the farmer's markets or whatever. We're driving their business hopefully. And so really what this is is this is a community development project, right because those people that get that harvest box, a portion of the proceeds goes to support school garden education.
So we've taught in sixteen schools. I wrote my own curriculum eight lessons that we administer in schools, elementary schools, and you know, that's really regeneration to me when we can inspire the children to develop that relationship with the earth in such a way that they're willing to care for it and to understand that when they do that, they're caring for themselves.
You know, that's awesome and is a So is there the possibility I would think that something you know, this is in San Diego, but something this kind of plan or this kind of structure could could be started all over the country, all over the world.
Oh yeah, that's my goal. I mean right now, you know, I'm trying to flush out what I consider this regional co op here in San Diego. Even though we've installed over three hundred and fifty gardens, and we've installed gardens and schools and we had the opportunity to teach children, we want to be able to dim and straight to schools and to policymakers that this is critical. Every child
should have the opportunity to learn outside. And if we are given the opportunity to demonstrate that here in California, then we can replicate this in other areas. You know, Package it because the program works because it's regional. It's neighbors feeding neighbors. The harvest boxes are picked up at the local yoga studio or the local you know, wherever. We've got a bagel shop, you know, and that way, people walk in, they buy bagels, or they walk in
they pick up a yoga class. You know. Again, it's a way to feed one another, not just with food, but other ways. I can't tell you the stories.
But the big word is is connection.
Connection. That's it.
That's and now, because these things are so prevalent, what you're doing, Mia is you're You've created a form of connection that is untouchable. It's like that is more powerful than pretty much anything, you know. And the states or municipal governments, we can spend billions and billions of dollars a year, but if people don't have a way to connect, you know, or kids don't have things to do after school, then we lose them. We lose that connection.
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You know, I want to ask you Ian about uh An and please me and feel free to You've had your fingers in the dirt quite a bit. So my question is, you know, I'm watching the film Common Ground and and it is at times really overwhelming in terms of the problems that exist in our food chains, with with the chemicals, with the lobbying. You know, there's a lot of big, big issues there that are existential to us. And and then you I kind of think to myself, well,
I have you know, a small farm. And I started kind of going, you know, online and seeing how to approach this just on a personal basis. And I'm wondering if either one of you have any direct sources resources in terms of how people can either get involved with a community garden or if they do have farms farmers or small farmers or gentlemen farmers or whatever happens to be, you know, actually start to start to do this, to try to embrace this regenerative idea.
If you're in San Diego, you're going straight to me. But if you're not, you know, one of the things, so Mia one of also the things that just blew our mind. So we released, we released Kiss the Ground. We cut a forty five minute educational version that we released to thirty five million students globally for free that changed the way kids saw the world. But Kiss the Ground the website, because it's also a nonprofit, the Common Ground is not tied directly to the five oh one
C three as Kiss the Ground was. But you can go on our Kiss the Ground website and you can find people well, first of all toolkits, but then find people in areas where you are that all of a sudden directly connect you not with just tips, but with actual toolkits and people. And I think that is the big thing, because you know, and I know because and I know people ask me of this all the time too.
But people literally look at me and and and a lot of journalists and and they're they're they cut through the bs because they don't want to. They don't. Everyone's sick of like greenwashing. Same, what is this regenerative agriculture, and why should I care? One of the biggest things is not just bringing people together. No matter what side of the aisle you sit on, regeneration, regenerative agriculture not
only will stop climate change in its tracks. The greatest existential threat to humankind is climate disruption, right, because it's going to disrupt our food system. It's going to cause a whole lot of issues that we're staring down the But not only that, Regenerative agriculture produces higher yields, which produce bigger profits when used. Because so money talks bs walks, right, regenerative agriculture produces more money. So you can't argue with that. Right.
So when people say why regeneration, what is it? It's just the use of planned grazing methods and using living growing plants literally agriculture at scale to sequest the enormous amounts of carbon dioxide, store it safely back in the ground belongs. Now, when you do that, you feed all the vitaminal organs in the soil. Healthier soil, healthier plant,
healthier planet. But then higher yields, more money for farmers, higher tax bases, school districts get better, and rural area water districts gets better, you know what I mean, It's like we're doing it together and that's the beauty of regeneration, you know.
Yeah, I wrote a poem. I mean, yes, you know, we tend to relate to one another sometimes in terms of the dollars, the potential dollars, but I think on a spiritual level, you know, we're really disoriented as it relates to the earth and how we are the earth. And I want to make sure that the children don't get missed because they are the next generation. They're the ones that are going to inherit whatever it is that we're doing. And so you know, I wrote a poem
about it that kind of guides me. And it's essentially, I don't know if I have time to read the poems, very short, but you know, making sure that if we do amass these dollars, that we put it back into educating the youth, you know, so that they can carry this torch forward. You know, that would be the most responsible and sustainable thing we can do.
I think that's great.
Yeah, all of this, Yeah, this is all for them.
It is yeah, exactly exactly, and we you know, we haven't done so well, so let's let's hope that they can they can do a little do a little better.
Yeah, they're great ambassadors, you know. I mean they believe, you know, they still have the ability to imagine and believe that seed that looks nothing like what it's destined to become can actually become that thing that we're telling them, you know. And so they're great ambassadors. And if they'll eat it, they can. Their parents will eat it. But if you try to offer it to the parent, they might just say, oh, I'm good, but hey mom, I grew it. Okay, I'll try it.
There you go, there you go. Well listen, I want I thank you guys so much for saying here common ground film you really need to see and kiss the ground I'm going to watch and what are and and also uh, where are the websites that that we can uh find out about the work that you're doing? Me me and and uh and as well as the films and where this is the call to action? How can people get involved and how can people check out the good work?
Tell Mia?
Okay, well, my website is good neighborgardens dot com and it's plural gardens, uh single singular neighbor good Neighbor Gardens dot com. We've got a couple calls to action right now. We're trying to raise money to put more gardens in schools so that we can, you know, create this opportunity for kids to learn outside. So we have a donate button on the bottom of our front our home page of our website. We're trying to raise a substantial amount
of money. I'd like to see this these gardens be established in different states, not just here in California, because the school is really the hub of the flower of the home gardens, which are the pedals that will drive this big garden of us all being interconnected in this country. We also, you know, we're always looking to be familiar with who is our local farmer, who wants to grow food in this town, who wants to get food in
this town. So we have a button for each of those things on our website because our goal is to connect all of these people together. People who build good composts, we want them to be a part of our co op. You know, anyone who wants to grow food in their yard and it just continues to ripple outward. So it's all there on our website.
I love that. Well, maybe as a way to close this episode out, you could read your poem.
Oh, you gotta read that poem.
All right, we go. We're following the path of little feet, that's what it's called. It says. Most adults are feeling it now, although the promise of spring is here. I wrote this a while ago, and the weight of the unpredictable virus seems profound in our environment. Thankfully, the children keep it light and are eager to plant new seeds in fresh soil. Let's be like them. Every time I tend to one of the sharecrop gardens, I heed the
call for childlike submission. My questions are elementary. Did I water the kale enough at the root level? Well? Well, the aph it's take over my broccoli or wild mind astursium? Trap crop and prayers prove effective. If I prune this tomato, will it yield good fruit? And where exactly should I cut it to direct its energy? Plainly put, I'm seeking spiritual guidance, and these are my humble conversations with God.
It's grounding. It's where I express my curiosity and intelligence, hope, creativity, and patience. It's divine relationship. No one not Sandra Bose or even George Washington Carver ever uncovered all the sensitive secrets of mother nature. But they were compelled and they prove that as your birth mother, she just wants your love. So come spend time with her. She will nurture your inner child and reward you dearly. If not with food, then at least with practical wisdom for trying. How much time,
that's your choice and how will you spend it. That's up to you as well. Just follow the path of little feet and get in there.
That's amazing for sharing us with that and someone Halder, thank you guys so much for being here. Thank you, thanks for having it fascinating and insightful conversation and I appreciate the great work that you guys are doing, so thanks. Thanks for doing this. Hey everybody, thanks for listening to another episode of six Degrees with Kevin Bacon. And if you want to learn more about the Common Ground Film or Good Neighbor Gardens, head to Comicgroundfilm dot com and
Good Neighborgardens dot com. You can find all the links in our show notes, and if you like what you hear here, make sure you subscribe to the show and tune into the rest of our episodes. You can find six Degrees with Kevin Bacon on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast