By Ben Chapman
benbart.chapman@gmail.com
Carol Hays, Ph.D., is an environmental activist from Dewey, Illinois. She was formerly the Executive Director of the nonprofit Prairie Rivers Network (PRN), an affiliate of the National Wildlife Federation. She left that position in December, 2018.
Hays is now the Founder, President, and Chief Creative Strategist for The Strategic Collaboration Group, Inc..
With over two decades of leadership in activism and advocacy, Hays is now setting her sights on improving agriculture and the food system. She has developed a coalition of community groups and stakeholders who are examining new ways of looking at farming and the food system that will work better for people at every point in the supply chain.
Hays was able to answer the below questions for our publication.
1. You were previously the Executive Director of the Prairie Rivers Network (PRN). What are some of your proudest accomplishments from your time with PRN?
It was an honor to lead Prairie Rivers Network through a time of growth and expansion in staff, membership, and programs. Increasingly people are turning to nature for its healing and restorative power. As they do, they are discovering for perhaps the first time how beautiful the nature around them truly is and are developing an intrinsic impulse to protect it.
As people become more connected with nature — the soil and land we hold so dear in Illinois, the water and rivers that support life, and the wildlife and ecosystems on which we depend — they become its voice. I am proud that I was a catalyst for those who made that connection through the work of the PRN team.
2. What are some of the most important things you learned about environmentalism while working with PRN?
Environmentalism shouldn’t be an exclusive label for some. The environment — nature — is the life force that sustains and protects us all and will shape the future Earth our children and grandchildren will inherit. A desire to protect the environment shouldn’t be a choice that divides us.
People should not feel they have to choose between clean air and water and jobs, between healthy soil and abundant wildlife and personal financial risk, between access to healthy, locally grown food and economic prosperity. We must work to be inclusive, build bridges, make connections, and find common ground so that people can find ways to collectively protect the places they hold most dear. We and nature will lose in the long run if we don’t heed this lesson.
3. You recently co-founded ReGenerate Illinois, a partnership of businesses and organizations with the goal of restoring farm health, water quality, wildlife, and communities. What inspired the founding of this organization and what are your plans for it?
I believe that one of our biggest challenges in this time of hyper connection through social media remains isolation of people from others who want to find and build common ground, who are curious about new approaches and want to learn from others. ReGenerate Illinois is a collaboration of partners who are seeking to create opportunities for collective learning and exploration and to find common ground in our agriculture and food system.
Regeneration is a way of seeing the whole system and working with nature instead of against it. Our greatest opportunities for protecting the health of the land, people, communities and wildlife are in regenerative systems. ReGenerate Illinois seeks to connect Illinois farms, organizations, businesses, and local communities to this systems thinking approach and to catalyze local food economies that support regenerative farming and food production.
4. If people want to live more sustainably-minded lives on a daily basis, what simple steps can they take?
Connect with nature every day. The natural world grounds us, enlivens us, inspires us and keeps us healthy. Connecting to nature by walking, biking, getting out on a lake or river or just sitting and breathing in the air slows us down and is an important escape from our increasingly fast paced, distracted lives. People who regularly connect with nature are healthier and are more likely to fall in love with places they want to sustain.
Be mindful of what you eat, how it was grown and prepared. Eat foods grown closer to home to reduce the energy needed to transport them. Diversify your diet to include many types of whole foods—plant and protein. Our planet can’t continue to sustain a small number of plants grown so intensively. Seek out foods that are grown less intensively and in ways that protect soil, water and wildlife. Perennials that are grown to mimic the plants of the prairie are known for protecting the land they are raised on. Add these to your diet. And while you’re at it, plant perennials in your garden—especially milkweed—that provide habitat and food for Monarch butterflies, bees and other pollinators.
Forty percent of food grown ends up as wasted food in landfills. Reduce food waste and compost organics like food and shredded paper mixed with yard clippings. Can’t compost where you live? Consider sharing a compost heap with a friend who can and split the black gold for your container garden!
Consider what happens to everything you own and buy when you are finished with it. Reduce, reuse, rehome, repair or recycle everything you can. Let your retailers know that you want to buy things that aren’t encased in single use plastic. Avoid single use bags and straws by bringing your own. Buy in bulk—some stores with bulk aisles will even let you bring your own reusable container.
Increase energy efficiency in your home and office. These are typically the greatest opportunity for energy savings. Electrify appliances and look for opportunities to install or connect to renewable energy like solar. Consider a hybrid or even an electric vehicle–charging infrastructure is expanding quickly!
Most importantly, have regular conversations with your family about what it means to live more sustainably and develop mindful habits that work every day for your family.
5. ReGenerate Illinois’ website talks about author Wendell Berry. What are some of his ideas and how have they informed ReGenerate Illinois’ goals?
Perhaps Wendell Berry’s greatest advice is that we should take ‘nature as measure’. This means that we should learn from and emulate what nature has to teach us—where she is bold and where she is cautious.
6. Part of ReGenerate Illinois is the IDEA Farm Network, a network of farmers who talk about challenges and opportunities in the industry. What inspired this and what have some of the outcomes been?
Peer farmer networks have sprung up around the world as a way to connect farmers and build communities based on local knowledge. These networks allow the practical exchange of experience and ideas, as well as provide ways to share emerging knowledge.
The farmer-led IDEA Farm Network provides opportunities peer networking, farmer-led research projects, and for farmer-researcher collaboration to accelerate research beyond the University research plots into the real-farm context. The IDEA Farm Network’s listserv connects members who regularly share their on-farm experiences and questions with the network. Anyone who is curious about advancing farming systems is welcome to join the IDEA Farm Network
7. On March 14th, ReGenerate hosted a summit of farmers and stakeholders. What was the conversation like and what were some takeaways?
The goal of the Summit was to build relationships around a different conversation that will move regenerative agriculture forward in Illinois. The Summit united food producers, buyers, and other vital people throughout the value supply chain to reframe issues. The Summit welcomed over seventy attendees.
Over forty participants stood at the podium, one at a time, during the “Nutshell Show & Tell” sharing where they fit in the value supply chain, what answers they are looking for, and what regenerative agriculture means to them. The breakout sessions provided ideas and potential action steps that the ReGenerate Illinois partnership will review and utilize in our strategy development.
8. Your company, The Strategic Collaboration Group, is partnering with Registered Dietitian Erin Meyer of Basil’s Harvest. What are you looking to accomplish through this partnership?
My life’s purpose is to bring creative approaches to systems change through collaboration. I founded The Strategic Collaboration Group in the early 2000s to bring a systems thinking approach to communities seeking to improve their quality of life and wellbeing and make them better places to grow, live, work and play. This approach focuses on the underlying causes of community conditions and strengthens the strengths already present, relying on connection, communication, collaboration, conscious changes and continuous reflection. I have worked with communities across the nation to improve local systems that serve youth and families. I have had the opportunity to listen to the visions and desires of people across Illinois to make their community healthier and more resilient. I brought this collaborative systems approach to my environmental work.
I am now teaming up with Erin Meyer, Founder of Basil’s Harvest, to apply systems thinking to community food systems to benefit community health. More and more people around the world are realizing that the food system that drives the way we grow and eat food is one of the most powerful ways we have to improve the health of people and the planet.
Erin and I are working to build awareness of the connections between how food is grown and how health and nutrition professionals and community members can envision and cultivate a new, more localized and healthier food system for all.
9. For those wanting to learn more about ReGenerate and the IDEA Farm Network, how should they get in contact with the organizations? How can people help?
Links to the ReGenerate Illinois partners, the IDEA Farm Network, and a calendar of events and field days can be found at regenerateillinois.org. For more information about supporting regenerative agriculture, contact info@regenerateillinois.org
