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Regenerative by Design Podcast where we get to the root of health, climate, economics and food. Host, Joni Kindwall-Moore, is an RN, an Ethnobotanist and the founder of Snacktivist Foods. Join us on this journey as we explore the ideas, stories and personalities behind the regenerative food system movement including climate change, human health, economics and food as well as other deeply interconnected topics.
In this podcast, we will be “going there” and leaning into topics that might make you squirm… just a little. We want to challenge ourselves to think outside of the box and to discover the deeper side of our world’s problems so that we can better understand how to solve them.
We aim to unpack some of the most dynamic issues of our day with some of the most inspiring minds who are pushing the boundaries of our current norms and thinking paradigms.
We have seen incredibly disruptive events in the past few years like pandemics, climate events, disasters and war. These often trigger system changes that are reactionary and have short term gains. When these are practiced over the long term, they often have a degenerative effect on health and the environment.
Regenerative design thinking is the opposite, and is an intentional, premeditated process that involves a high level of observation, analysis, creativity, and looking beyond reductionistic principles while embracing systems thinking and additionality to create regenerative solutions.
Regenerative agriculture has become a powerful force for positive transformation and hope in todays world. And no discussion about agriculture is complete without a conversation about food.
Food is the connection between people and the planet so grab a cup of coffee or your favorite running shoes and get ready to take a mental and philosophical leap into the future of food and our planet.
Joanne, hello, everyone. You are
listening to the regenerative by
design podcast where we will be
getting to the root of health,
climate, economics and food. I
am your host. Joni quinwell
Moore, join me on this journey
as we explore the stories of
individuals and organizations
who are working to realign our
food system with both human
health and the health of our
planet. Welcome everybody to the
regenerative by design podcast.
I am so thrilled to welcome my
friend, Kate huffstad, CAD today
to the show. Welcome Kate.
Hey, Joanie, I am excited to get
to sit down with you.
Yeah, there's so much to talk
about. And you and I always have
literally no problem finding a
million things to discuss. But
today, I actually would love for
our listeners to get to know you
a little bit better. I've had
the pleasure of getting to know
you over the last couple of
years and spend some great time
in person last year at a
conference, and I just feel like
your story has so much value in
this regenerative by design
process that our listeners who
have followed this series we're
on, we're on season two of
regenerative by design, where
we're really just trying to dig
deep into that design process,
like, how do we design a world
that considers regenerative
thinking to be the core
operating paradigm, And that
requires a different way of
thinking that affects not just,
you know, agriculture or just
food or just fibers or textiles,
but also, like business thinking
and contract contractual
community thinking. It's, it's
just one of those things, and I
know that you you feel that way
deeply, and it's very much
reflected in your business. So
I'm just excited for you to tell
our listeners a little bit about
your history. About your history
and what you do today, and then
we'll dig into that regenerative
story.
I love it. I mean, at the
outset, to like frame what I'm
working on. I believe that
design at its best can inspire
people to see differently, think
differently, and thus act
differently. So at the outset,
whether it's a product design, a
business design, a farm design,
community, city planning,
design, if we do our jobs. Well,
the outcome of this work can
inspire a different world
through people's change
directions, and we can get to
like how in a tactile way. I'm
trying to use design to do that,
and I do it in a few different
mediums. So my design story, you
know, all start back in 2013 I
started apprenticing with a
custom Western hat maker, and I
started learning to become a
hat. Um, I think I can. It's,
it's been wonderful, and I'm
here in my hat shop with you
today. And I think now I'm about
11 years into being a hat maker.
I think I can now call myself a
master Hatter. And so that was
the beginning of like, my design
life in that tactile form, but
at that same time, in 2013 is
when I met my now husband on his
first farm, which was in Bend,
Oregon, and he was farming
organically and biodynamically,
and I had been introduced to
biodynamics years prior, and so
I was really attracted to his
farm, the community that was
attracted to his farm, really
incredible. People were working
there and volunteering there. So
starting in 2013 really like my
life in design, of like a
product designer, maker and
farmer really started in tandem.
So over the past decade, those
are the two areas I've really
focused on. The farm has scaled.
We started on just about three
acres of leased land, and we
were doing, you know, the
classic market gardening, three
farmers markets a week. We at
the highest point of output, had
150 person CSA. Vegetable
Production was our focus, but we
always did a little bit of
wheat, and we scaled that. So
now we manage about 400 acres of
farmland, and we've taken over
and transitioned about 300 of
that acreage from conventional
to organic, regenerative. And in
the midst of all of that, you
know, we live in an arid region
in the West, our farm has
experienced an 80% reduction in
irrigation waters. So you could
be the. Best farmer with all the
regenerative and organic
practices, but if you lose 80%
of your essentially operating
capital as a farm, which is your
water, you have to seriously
rethink your entire model and
redesign so the farm itself is
its own canvas in which this
work in design, you know, is
manifested. But these two
journeys have kind of like now,
crossed over in what has been my
newest venture, which is range
revolution. In essence, range
revolution is a regenerative
leather goods company that seeks
to pull some of the 5 million
cattle hides that are thrown
into the trash each year out of
the trash, getting them back
into the supply chain and
thereby also providing an
additional return to the
regenerative ranchers and the
processors, aiming to make them
more financially resilient in
the process, while also using
these tangible leather products
to reach a demographic of humans
in the fashion sector who live
extremely detached from the
understanding that everything we
wear and consume comes from the
soil, therefore every day, we
participate in agriculture by
getting dressed.
I love that. Yeah, it's like, so
that's full circle. Round. Yeah,
it's so wonderful. And,
you know, it's it, it
makes a lot of sense to me,
especially with your background
in in custom path making like,
you're already thinking through
the lens of like, fiber and
value added products, um, and
you know, when you think about
so many of the things that
happen at the agricultural
level, in ranching and in
farming both, you see all these
value streams that could
generate revenue, and they
don't, because they lack value
chain partners, which, you know,
for those of us who don't work
in this world, it's like the
It's the buildings or the
processes of the people or the
organizations that take a raw
good and turn it into something
that can be used, like leather,
and leather has a complicated
value chain. I mean, there's
just not there. We don't have
the infrastructure that we did
100 years ago for a number of
reasons and and I've really
appreciated the amount of, you
know, time and energy and
innovation, you know, focus that
you and your team and people
that you collaborate with have
put into really trying to
understand and map out that
value chain for leather. And
that's been a big that's a
that's a heavy lift. And
honestly, most of our audience,
they're involved in regen in
some way, shape or form, and
they're, they're familiar with
the complexities the value
chain, but I don't think we go
there enough. Could you let us
know? Like, what does it take to
take a hide is, you know, at a
slaughterhouse? I know that's
not a pretty word, but a
processing facility, um, like,
what does it take to actually
turn that into leather that can
be made into a handbag or a pair
of shoes or jacket, yeah.
So let's start with maybe where
the system is has been, and then
I'll talk about what we've been
building. So a current commodity
leather supply chain, a lot of
hides that make up leather that
you can get on the commodity
market right now, a lot of them
come from places like Brazil or
New Zealand, particularly the
Brazilian ones are a huge focus
right now, because a lot of
those hides come from systems
that lead to deforestation. So
it's a major focus. So say that
pride from Brazil, it might
travel to China for tanning and
manufacturing, and then from
China to Italy to be made into
handbag, and then from Italy to
its distribution center in, say,
Los Angeles or New York or
whatever, you know, in total,
and I ever tried my travel
25,000 miles around the globe
before finished product as a
person's hand? That is the
current globalized commodity
supply chain of leather,
extremely opaque and extremely
opaque, I think, for a reason.
Meanwhile, like as I mentioned,
in the United States, every
year, we have 5 million cattle
hides going to the trash. So
we've lost the systems for
aggregation. We have lost the
tannery partners. We have lost
manufacturing, as we all know,
here in the United States,
hugely. So to begin to do our
work, one, because I'm working
with regenerative ranchers, I
have to have the relationship
with the ranch to understand,
okay, you know, are you
monitoring, what certification,
or what monitoring protocol are
you using, so that we have
relative security, that indeed
what you say you're doing,
you're doing right, actually,
regenerative. So you have to
have that relationship with. The
ranch. You have to have a
relationship with the the
slaughterhouse, abattoir,
whatever you're most comfortable
with. You have to know, or at
least, yeah, they have to be
able to pull those hides off in
a way where you're going to
viable skin at the end of the
process. They also have to be
willing to do the work of the
initial preservation, salting of
the pride to keep it in good
shape,
added work, heavy duty,
industrial stuff. Yeah, this is
a, you know, a raw material rot,
just like anything else. So it
has to be preserved. That
slaughterhouse has to have the
capacity, infrastructure and
willingness to do that, knowing
that you are absolutely going to
provide the off take. Then it's
got to go to either stage one
tannery or, like a vertically
integrated tannery that'll start
with, like the wet blue process,
and then move into a finished
tan. You know, just like
everything else, we've lost so
many tanneries in the United
States, there's very few left.
So we've been working with a
family tannery in Wisconsin, and
they do a vegetable tanning
process, which is the more eco
friendly tanning process. And
then we are just beginning a
relationship with a tannery in
Lyon, Mexico, because what we
really trying to work on is this
ecosystem approach to the west,
or would like to really focus on
the prides in the West. And what
makes the most sense is to
aggregate from these western
states and take everything down
to this tannery in Leon, Mexico
from like, a streamlined
shipping perspective, yeah,
because we I
mean, what people don't
understand often when they don't
work in these industries is that
in order to hit economies of
scale, we have to have
aggregation. And that's how
things used to work. I mean,
community aggregation and
economic aggregation was very,
very common and has become very,
very rare the last 5060, years
and and it's why we've had, you
know, so few corporations
consolidate and take over so
much of our critical
manufacturing, and it's left
everybody else with a lack of
channels to get through and
with. Without aggregation. It's
not financially feasible. So I
love the way that you guys are
thinking about this. I mean,
ever since the first time I
heard the story, I was like, oh
my goodness, this is so, so
fascinating, because that's how
we can compete. I mean, that's
how, that's how things can
actually really get done, and
it's a collaborative systems
level approach.
Well, think about this. We have
a huge focus on creating a more
regenerative meat sector. This
is currently how the meat sector
works for all these regenerative
ranches. When we send our
steers, we raise, you know,
cattle. When we send our steers
to slaughter, only 65% of the
carcass is getting utilized.
That means, wow, 35% of our
asset is going to the trash.
That is a no way regenerative,
right? So, like Queen, we have
to work on the awful fat, the
bones, the hides. I can't solve
all those. So I am focused on
leather. And we have our
partners who are working on,
off, take for awful bones, hot
for fat. Um, I
mean, the tallow movement is
picking up speed. So I feel like
there's innovators out there,
which is great because that's
what it's going to take. You
don't vertical integration is
enchanting from the outside, but
it's like impossible to do. I
mean, if you were to, like,
figure out how to vertically
integrate and turn all of the
things from your cattle that you
raise and have a value chain in
place for every single offtake,
it would be insanity. I don't
even know how you do that. So I
like an ecosystems approach. If
we have an ecosystem we've
talked about, right, an
ecosystem of businesses that I
think brings a diversity that
lends to resilience, I'll tell
you the, you know, the So, the
height aggregation system, it's,
we're, we're doing it right. We
don't let perfect get in the way
of progress. So we are on the
road to what we aim to do, where
it's still vulnerable is there
has been really a couple of
bigger brands whose early on
commitments to these hides drove
a lot of the aggregation efforts
in which we were able to jump
into with others. Yeah, but
those companies, their
commitments have wavered, and
when you know management
changes, or a corporation is
sold to a different holding
company, if those commitments go
away, all of the other
businesses that are a part of
that ecosystem, their
aggregation is then threatened.
So I've been thinking a lot
about that in the last six
months and working on a B to B
supply chain opportunity that
might help other mid sized
businesses like range revolution
get in on this. So we. Can have
more diversity of businesses
accessing the supply chain,
because it's just like anything
else, if we have just a few
businesses supporting this one
drops out and the stool falls
over totally, Yep, yeah, and
that there's
a, I believe that there is a
real need for digitized
aggregation tools to help um
just see things that are risk
and vulnerability, using things
like AI and whatnot like to
rapidly think through scenarios
like, you know, you think about
strength in numbers, and you
lose one critical member. Now,
everyone's back to the drawing
board of like Google and phone
calls and like thinking and
reading articles instead of,
like, having a tool that can
help us find, like, a potential
second, um, you know, second
entity that could fill a role
like that. Yeah, no, so it's um,
those are the things that I've
been working on this year a lot,
um, and how we can have
innovation brokerages that help
bring that together and foster
that conversation and foster,
like, the contractual
relationships that help bring
those together. And so, like,
we're not constantly reinventing
the wheel, like good contracts
make good friends. And so, like,
I've often wondered, like, okay,
there's, you know, this yearning
to do more collaborative,
aggregative stuff. It'd be so
nice if there were frameworks
that already had some great
contractual things in place that
could be templatized and then
replicated and shared. Be like,
okay, cool. You know this, this
aggregate worked really well,
and they used these types of
contracts and to get it done.
Let's like, learn from that, and
let's use that same approach,
instead of everybody reinventing
the wheel every single time.
Yeah, it gets painful and
expensive, and the attorneys
love it, but sorry, attorneys
like startups don't have that
much money. Yeah, so it's good.
So you guys are actively moving
leather through the supply chain
right now.
Is that right? Yes. And in order
to, like, you know, really at
the get go, you know, create
offtake for it. Range revolution
is a direct to consumer brand
selling finished leather goods.
That's one, you know, leg of the
stool is the direct to consumer
brand. We spent the first two
years really heavy in r, d, as
far as you know, getting the
leather to where we needed that
leather to be, and then starting
to work on the design of the
collection. And now it's really
been this last year, brand
building, creating an E commerce
approach, and getting the brand
into people's hands and just
building brand awareness, I
think regenerative biggest
challenge right now, I'll just
speak from like a, you know,
regenerative food systems,
regenerative agriculture
perspective, is marketing right?
I think marketing getting on the
same page with the consumers, a
massive amount of education and
and making the benefits that we
all know and understand tangible
and understood by the consumer
is one of the biggest lifts.
Like, all this, yeah, the
technical supply chain stuff
like, I have no doubt we can
solve that. But like
consistently, what I see as the
biggest gap in all of this is
the marketing, which comes down
to the brands, which comes down
to having companies who are
truly authentic in their support
of this work, and pouring
dollars into that, just pouring
our efforts into the marketing,
yeah, yeah, and
that education piece is such a
big deal. I mean, we learned
this the hard way, at snack to
this that we'd spent years
developing regenerative farmer
connected supply chains for for
the ingredients that had that as
an option, we still had
ingredients in that product line
that had no regenerative supply
chain. So we couldn't be Roc
certified, we couldn't be
regenerified certified, because
those components didn't exist in
regenerative supply chains. And
then we, you know, it under
review, with like, sprouts
market, for example. She's like,
well, you guys aren't even
really regenerative. And I'm
like, would you like us to call
like, the four farmers that are
part of the supply chain and
tell them that right now,
because some of them have been
doing this for longer than
you've been alive, you know,
like, and like, it's it was like
a it was like an earthquake for
me that day, that day that that
buyer told me that changed the
trajectory of everything I'm
doing, yeah, because it was so
representative of the divide of
understanding that is out there
that they think that
regenerative is just simply a
verification, yeah, which
verifications are helpful and
all but regeneration is a
process. It is a shift in
systems, and it just it
literally changed the trajectory
of my professional life. Yeah,
yeah. No, I'm deeply. Price
trading.
Oh, girl, I I can so relate, and
I've sat in so many meetings,
and my heart is with you in
those moments when this is like,
yeah, your purpose and your
passion, and you know the people
who you're working with and the
good work they're doing, and
then somebody who sits in an
office who knows nothing about
this work just sticks that
stagger in you, and you're like,
oh God, the silos are so bad.
It's painful. It's painful. So I
agree with you on the marketing
need and that education need,
yeah, it's a big deal. It's a
big deal. And it can't be just
done by one brand or one
verification. And I mean, the
verifications that are out
there, I they're great people.
They're doing good work. I I'm
personally appointed with most
of them, and I respect and
admire them, but to have a hero
movement like one winner takes
all like, the essence of
regeneration is that it is
distributed, and that it is
community oriented, and that
there is diversity, because it's
going to be it's going to need
diversity to fit the needs of
like a diverse environment and a
diverse market. That buyer's
comment also reflects what I
hope is changing in that
the marketplace has to support
transition, just the financing
and not punish it. And, yeah,
right, and the financing has to
support the transition, and
that, I think, has been a
painful part of being the Spear
of this movement, whether it's
snap, divest range, revolution,
or whatever, when you fear of a
movement, you have to be so
freaking tough, because you're
going to encounter those
movements on The path to people
having a more nuanced
understanding of how we must
support transition,
yeah, yeah. And that's the
thing, it's like, you're like,
Okay, I've spent eight years
trying to champion this
regenerative model, elevating
these underutilized crops that
are essential to bringing
regeneration to scale, to
fruition in when it comes to row
cropping. And I just, and then
they and they were like, and
furthermore, we can't even have
you on the shelf because you
mentioned regen, and you're not
verified, which makes you a
green washer. And I just, that's
when I lost that. I was like,
we're talking about how these
ingredients support regenerative
agriculture. But you know, and I
understand where those buyers
were coming from where they were
trying to set some standards
around quality, but they
actually, in reality, their
policy is punishing early movers
that have been investing in the
building of this movement. And
to me, that was like crazy, and
I know you are dealing with that
in the textile space as well,
because leather cotton, you
know, regenerative cotton, is a
big deal as well, and the lack
of transparency and traceability
through all these supply chains
makes it very difficult to, you
know, have a provenance, intact
story about your sourcing. So I,
you know, it's we, we could
unpack this all day. But you
know, where can people buy your
products? Can they buy a leather
journal right now? Because I've
held and admired these leather
journals for a long time. So
I'm holding a mic one of our
leather journals. This one was
actually made for the Old Salt
cooperative, which is a
regenerative Montana meat
company. It says on it, land is
kin. Oh, that's so cool. Yeah,
all of our products are
available on our website,
rangerevolution.com we are in.
We got our first three kind of
independent boutique placements
this summer. And you know, we're
just going to kind of continue
to seek out independent
retailers to be in people who
know, you know, a sustainability
story, who admire heritage,
lifetime quality goods,
yeah, but you know, like, what
you said in the regenerative it,
I'll just say in the retail
space. Leather is a sticky one,
because animal agriculture
remains a sticky conversation.
And, you know, byproduct from an
animal agriculture model just
continue to be like a sticking
point in a world that for the
last decade, sustainability and
textiles, ironically, has
equaled biosynthetic materials
that are made of petroleum. And
it has been one of those moments
where I'm sitting in the
meetings and we're talking about
sustainability and textiles, and
they're showing me these all,
you know, vegan materials. And
then when I ask what this
compound name actually means?
Oh, it's a petrochemical
derivative. You know, you learn
that at this point in our fiber
supply chain, 70% of the fibers
in our clothing are petroleum.
Based. It's 70% it's the
magnitude of what we've lost,
the magnitude of how plastic has
been so woven into our lives. We
don't see it because it is
turned into beautiful textile.
Yeah. I mean, I'm sure that
there's some of it woven into
this sweatshirt I'm wearing. I
mean, I got it at the thrift
store. I have no idea where it
came from. And, you know, it's
like, it's everywhere, but what?
Where's this gonna go when it
ends up in a dumpster somewhere,
someday, like that, won't
biodegrade? Like, it's no to me
that we're giving preferential
treatment for sustainability to
things made out of plastic.
And again, like I kind of hate
but I keep coming back here, but
it's marketing, right? The
plastic three has been fantastic
in their market, so we get as
fantastic in our marketing, and
it does start with education. It
starts with nuanced
conversation. And it really like
in supporting the transition, we
cannot let a quest for
perfection stop us in our
progress. This is a long time
coming of like losing these
supply chains that support the
farmers, losing our
understanding of how important
provenance is, it's going to
take time and a lot of effort to
rekindle those connections and
help people see with a holistic
lens again, how our everyday
choices and how we clothe
ourselves, how we eat, how it
creates the world that we live
in? And that's to try and come
back to your thesis in this
podcast. How might design and
the products or the businesses
that we design help people to
see differently, thus think
differently, thus differently.
It's, it's everything I return
to, yeah, yeah. I
love that, um, because it is.
It's once we get the design
shifted, the design imperative,
then suddenly change starts to
have a ripple effect. And it's
like starts to create more and
more regeneration, but without
that marketing effort, like a
like a broader collaborative and
there's some really fantastic
examples of people who have come
into champion that group think,
like AC like Anthony corsero,
like, where he's like, let's get
regen brands together. Let's
evangelize for regen brands.
Let's tell their stories. Let's
create a group momentum which is
so critical and so needed. And
cheers to you. AC. But we need
more. We need more of that. And
we need those people to be more
capitalized and activated and
have more resources so we can
really put it on the map,
because there's still a huge
disconnect in the public. Most
people don't know what
regenerative is, and if they
were to try to define it, they
try to define it by a
verification binary standard,
which won't ever work for
regeneration. Regeneration, by
nature, is not binary. It's not
checklist driven. It is a
process of continuous
improvement and responsiveness
to nature, and that is a very
different thing. And I think
that's where we've had a lot of
trouble creating boundaries
around a definition.
Nor is it linear. As a land
manager, like right is some of
these meetings, you know, with,
again, sustainability teams at
bigger corporations, they're
expecting to see a trajectory
this line of improvement that
goes straight up. When you look
at our farm, we do EOB
monitoring on our farm and
ranch, which is savory
Institute's ecological outcome
Verification Program, when you
look at the trajectory of the
last five years of data, there's
peaks, some valleys, peaks, so
valleys, peaks. It if you were
to look at the entire trend it
is going on. But you have to
understand, oh, this summer, 80%
of irrigation water was removed
from this field. It went from an
irrigated field to non
irrigated. That's what that
means. Oh, this summer,
monitoring was done July 1,
which was two weeks after, there
was 116 degree stretch for two
weeks, things looked pretty
right. So, like, how do you
account for ecosystem processes
in Right? Like you said, like a
binary model, or a model that
just is like, Oh, can you tell
me what the carbon number is
that you've sequestered.
Yeah. You're like, well, carbon
intensity scoring is dependent
on water, plain and simple.
Yeah, you know, I mean, it's
that's the driver of the system.
And can I tell you an example of
like, when I walk into meetings,
we talk about Regeneration, we
talk about soil health and.
Become this abstracted concept.
When I walk into opportunities
to tell people about our work,
what I often tell them about
first is this incredible soil
temperature probe slide. These
are friends of ours who manage
with ballistic plan grazing
about three hours from us.
They've been doing this for a
very long time. In 2021 they
took soil temperatures on
neighboring fields. One field
they had managed for 11 years
using holistic plan grazing on
that model, the soils had kind
of reached a level of
functionality, and they had
truly become problem soils
again, the other parcel they'd
only managed for about four or
five years, so those soils were
still in process of healing,
still fairly dysfunctional. The
ambient temperature on this day
that they took these soil
temperatures was 116 degrees,
the temperature of the soils
that had only been managed for
five years by them, therefore
still fairly dysfunctional on
the path healing. That soil
temperature sat at 147 degrees.
That other field that had been
managed by them for 11 years,
where truly soil health had been
stored set at 89 degrees. Wow.
That difference between a crop
surviving or not. That is the
difference between humanity
having food to eat or not, like
to me as a just a human being,
heat, wildfire, those are two
extremely tactile experiences
that I think the consumer, the
average person can understand
what that temperature really
feels like. So like, instead of
going into the nuances of, like,
how much water, more water we
can hold in our soils, or, you
know, the quality of the water
in the tributaries, or how much
soil organic matter we've
increased on our property, those
become abstractions to the
average person, but the heat
buffering potential of help
they feel. Yeah, it's, it's
something that anyone of any
literacy level or, like cultural
angle, or whatever you know,
like, you could explain that to
five year olds. You're like,
this is really hot from around
the
world, from around the world,
city or rural, and that would be
meaningful. I think that's
really powerful. Kate, like, the
first time I ever really heard
and saw data sets about this,
you know, pertaining to the soil
temperatures, was Ray Archuleta
and Gabe Brown in two different
presentations like but within a
month of each other, and I was
like, I'd heard it, I'd read
about it, but like, when I saw
their slides, it just struck me
with such an incredibly deep
takeaway. Um, but I have never
really done a lot of pushing on
that from, like, a thinking
about it from a marketing
perspective, which I think is
absolutely critical, because
water carbon, carbon gets all
the attention. It's like, you
know, because it has a
monetizable market, water
scarcity and water infiltration
is a big topic, and people kind
of relate to it. But why aren't
we talking about soil
temperatures? Yeah, I
Yep. I just had a call with
somebody yesterday, and I was
like, this is where it's landed
the most when I'm, you know, in
London at a fashion conference,
and I'm trying to connect with
that fashion person, where
agriculture has just not been a
part of their
urban likely, completely not
part of a humanized ag system in
their mind, you know, like they
don't know the people behind
that. It's different when you
don't have a real like person to
person, humanized relationship,
it's like, that's a
divide, yeah, and it's it is
why, as frustrating as it's been
to enter the fashion sector in
this way, I felt very compelled
that it's an area that needs our
focus. Because I've spent the
past 12 years in in food systems
and and I know how to
communicate to the food
consumer. There's still so much
work to be done in the food
sector, but what I started to
see quite clearly is there's a
giant population of the world
where, if we can't reach them
through the food on their plate.
Style and fashion has a way of
leading cultural narratives that
I think is hugely impactful in
our Zeitgeist. And we are just
at the beginning of where I
think the food movement was, you
know, 20 years ago, as organic
started to really become a part
of the vernacular. Farm to Table
started to become a part of the
vernacular. I think we're just
at the nascent phase in that, in
textiles and in fashion. So like
we were talking about earlier,
God, you have to be so freaking
tough and really rooted in
purpose to be at the tip of the
spear of something. Um, and you
have to be flexible to
understand, you know, what your
ultimate mission is, and perhaps
how you think you're going to
accomplish that change. It might
change and look different. It
might become a totally different
iteration than what you thought
would be at the outset. What I
know I need, what I know I need
to do, what I want to do is I
want to create a cultural
conversation which helps the
average fashion consumer think
about how every day they wake up
and they get dressed, they are
voting for the form of
agriculture or support of the
petroleum industry. And how
might we get up and think about
the clothing that we put on or
the bag that we carry with us,
and What world are we voting for
as we do that styling, that's
such a good point. And when you
think about that, just the unit
economics of food and style too,
there's better margins. So I
feel like there's a different
approach to cost of goods sold
in the equations of goods, or
because you're going to use them
time and time again, they're
usually not $2 like, if you're
trying to talk about the, you
know, worth of, like, a pound of
flour, for example, you know,
people, it's they buy it and
they eat it, and it's gone
where, if you're talking about
buying a an item that you're
going to have for a long time,
like a journal, you're going to
have that for a while. You're a
hat, you're going to have that
for a while, maybe a lifetime.
Even it's just, there's a lot of
advantages to innovating and
educating around what
regeneration stands for in that
vertical, because it just is.
The unit economics make it more
approachable, I think, for a
variety of reasons, and also the
permanence gives it a great
place to tell a story. Like, if
you have a code on the inside of
a jacket, I mean that that can
be interpreted and learned from
day after day after day, year
after year, where it's like,
where are you going to put a
coat on a tomato? You know? I
mean, like, so it's like, a
totally different deal. So I
love it. And one of my dearest,
closest friends, who's like a
brother to me. He's a mover,
shaker in the fashion world and
modeling. And I keep telling
him, I'm like, Oh my gosh, and
he's a, he's a country boy from
Oregon, so he gets it. He's a
cowboy. And I'm like, we have,
how do we get, like, the big,
mega fashion industry aligned
with this? Like, you know, next
time you're, you know, in this
group, like, let's, let's create
it, let's make it cool. And
that's the thing is, fashion is
cool, and, you know, the
clothing industry is cool, and
it's a great place to redefine
the narrative of what rural food
and textile production is all
about and make it cool.
That's a totally different
Absolutely, yep, I love it. We
got to make it we got to make it
cool. We got to make it tangible
for people and and fun. This is
something I've been thinking a
lot about, like, our work is
heavy day to day. Our work
systems can be heavy and kind of
depressive, sometimes boring,
right?
But talking about a lot of times
we focus on the like, the bad
stuff that we're battling. But
like, I'm thinking a lot about
from the brand perspective, how
do we infuse this with beauty
and joy? Because honestly, the
average fashion consumer is not
buying based on the altruism of
a sustainability if they're
buying it because it's
beautiful, it's cool, it speaks
to something that is on trend or
has a heritage quality, and if
it is sustainable, that's the
cherry on top at the end of the
purchase decision making
process. So we have to lead by
design. We can't rest on the
altruism of the movement. So in
that sense, it makes the project
very fun for me, because I pull
in my design mind. I like
creating useful, functional,
beautiful things. And then, you
know, it is the Trojan horse by
which I get to do this other
supply chain
work. Yeah, that's a great,
great, great analogy, and I
think it's a fantastic place to
stop this session and give our
audience a little time to
ruminate on all of the things we
talked about today. Kate, thanks
so much for taking the time out
of your busy schedule and and
just, you know, getting this
captured so it can be shared and
learned from and and hopefully
inspire more more designers out
there in the world of
regeneration. So I know people,
I mean, we did mention where
they can find your products and
buy their products. If somebody
wants to reach out to you and
learn, you know, get to know
you. Ask you questions, like,
where's the best place to engage
with you?
So, um, you know, I'm on
LinkedIn, talking about various
business things. You can find me
at cassad, and in that context,
you can follow us on Instagram.
It's at range revolution, and
then also through our website,
rangerevolution.com there is a
contact form we do. Um.
Corporate gifting and white
labeling for other companies who
are looking to gift
regeneratively and to gift
according to their values. And
yeah, I mean, we're always
looking for kind of mission
aligned partners in all of the
ways so you can come find them
wonderful. We'll make sure to
put those in the show notes so
that people can follow your work
and spread the word. And
speaking of that, if you're
still listening, please take a
minute to rate this podcast.
Share it with your friends and
community. Share it on social
media that helps get the word
out and spread the passion for
this regenerative revolution and
range revolution is literally
leading the charge. So thanks so
much, Kate. It's been so fun,
and thank you so much for
listening. This
episode of the regenerative by
design podcast is brought to you
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