Regenerative Resilience: Building a hope in plant sustainability
October 10, 2024
A gradient of green swallows the backyard of an ordinary house. Shifting in shades and sizes, neat, orderly lines of vegetables stretch across the yard. On the right are the tufts of carrots that just sprout from the soil, leaves of chard with stripes of magenta down their centers, and bright red tomatoes hanging low from vines. The yellow tops of dandelions blend with the light purple of the lavender growing. Lettuce bulbs in bunches next to cabbages the size of bowling balls. Casting shadows onto the vegetables next to them, stalks of almost yellow corn grow tall next to the greenhouse. Fading and swelling just like a tide comes and goes, a low hum can be felt. The drone of bees is something that cannot be mistaken. They cluster together as they repeat their daily life of work.
Kunlong Von Cousin and Leah Cousin handcrafted their farm from scratch. They originally met through farm volunteer groups and shared an interest in local food. Leah worked long hours to create an increase in soil biodiversity through compost, cover crops, and crop rotation. After a year of constant labor, their first plants were finally sprouting. Leah explained that it was worth the wait.
“The actual physical labor is super gratifying,” said Leah. “It's also just fulfilling, to take a piece of earth that can be regenerated to create healthy soil.”
Regenerative farming, an old concept, is becoming more practiced in modern times. The cover crops, such as clover, oats, and buckwheat, help nurture the dirt that provides more nutrients, which then, in turn, can create more sustainable and long-lasting soil. Farmers can restore health to dry and infertile soil. In a local home or student-led movement, building climate-resilience is one of the most impactful ways to create change.
Plant Futures seeks to change hearts and minds through campaign events, educational boards, and collaborating with festival events to create a buzz of awareness around sustainable food systems. They have crafted a list of values that each chapter at each school applies in a unique and personalized way.
Focusing on the intersection of food systems, climate change, and human health is one of the motives of an educational and advocacy nonprofit called Plant Futures. Committed to switching to a plant-centric future, Plant Futures aims towards the youth. With now over 80 chapters in North and Latin America, Plant Futures is coming to Boulder. Already a hub for climate activists, Boulder is a perfect place to continue their transformative action goals.
Co-founder, Eric Sirvinskas partnered with Samantha Derrick in 2022, just after COVID-19, to create the platform.
“A social venture committed to accelerating the transition to a plant-centric world for planetary, human, and animal well-being. And we do that by empowering the next generation of food systems and sustainability leaders to shift culture, education, and careers in their communities around food,” said Sirvinskas.
A space for education, awareness, and conversation, Sirvinkas describes their work as a “social phenomenon”. A way to engage with the middle-tier form of advocacy or change. He believes that when like-minded people come together, most changes occur, especially in youth settings. Due to its population of environmentally friendly forward students, a new chapter is starting at the University of Colorado Boulder. Plant Futures intends to help build communities that nurture the advocacy for climate-friendly practices but also equip students with the opportunities needed to continue working in the field.
“And so, for us, can we find these socially entrepreneurial-minded students that are looking to address the social, cultural side around sustainability,” said Sirvinkas, “and I think food can really present that in ways that energy or transportation might not be able to.”
Senior at the University of Colorado Boulder, Angelina Kondrat, gets her passion for the environment from her hometown of Durango, which lies in southwest Colorado. Being engulfed in the San Juan mountain range, Kondrat was naturally immersed into being a conservationist. She is collaborating with Plant Futures as the lead of Boulder’s new chapter.
“I try to be conscious about this,” said Kondrat, “I believe it is a part of my human responsibility to be [a conservationist].”
One of her goals is to partner with local farms to create a community dinner where there can be conversations and education about climate resilience and plant sustainability. Career workshops are also important to create future opportunities for students.
"There's so many students who have a love for nature, and they're seeing it being threatened,” said Sirvinkas, “and they don't have a clear context to apply their interest into a career that's really going to help them promote that.”
