Dr. John McMillin - Feeding People, Ending Famine,
Regenerating the Land even as an 80 year old
Regenerating the Land even as an 80 year old
While John makes few, if any claims for himself or his work, the reality is that his life and work are exemplars of genuine compassion. He has deep respect for the individual circumstances of every person he encounters, and is particularly attuned to the situations of women and children. In every project, no matter where on the globe, John attends to the unique characteristics of the culture, beliefs and economic conditions of the people he works with. His work is truly interdisciplinary, focused on long term sustainable solutions, and is nowhere stymied by the conventional wisdom when that so called wisdom stands in the way of finding a solution or feeding the hungry. This work is truly holistic and integral in the best sense, even if John would claim he has no idea what those words mean.
Both practically and spiritually, John embodies the notion that it is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness. When the conventional wisdom said there was nothing left to do, the application of ReGenerative Science and Generative Thinking (a step beyond or beneath the creative) sets in progress solutions to seemingly intractable problems and provides hope and nourishment to untold numbers.
Dr. McMillin is probably best known for his work to end the Ethiopian famine of the 1980’s. One of the prime inspirations for our starting the Institute for ReGenerative Learning has been the impact that John has had on each of us. Both his capacity to maintain a positive attitude in the most trying of circumstances, and his post conventional, interdisciplinary knowledge, that allows him to solve systemic problems in a comprehensive way, are fundamental to our sense of purpose. Those of you who have met him will understand what I mean, and those of you who have not yet had that pleasure should glean a sense of what I mean in the narrative below.
John is an exemplar of a Solutionary, a master mentor and a creative problem solver.
Give a man a fish... and you will feed him for a day. Teach a man to catch a fish.... and you feed him 'till the fish are gone. Teach a man to raise a fish...and you feed him and his family for life.
…at the Island School … nothing, absolutely nothing goes to waste. ……all the classes [include] hands on learning… tied to preservation and restoration. Teams of learners are engaged in different projects. ..One team tagged sharks and followed their population… while another group did something similar to what John McMillin did in Ethiopia in [the 1980’s] and …[did recently] … in Honduras. This group is raising tilapia … a very fast growing fish… They are doing pieces of McMillin's work, but have not as yet recreated his fully integrated aquaculture/agriculture system.
Early last summer I had the chance to meet [this Dr] John McMillin and learn about the amazing work he has done concerning famine. He is a social scientist whose group, Land and Water Resources International (LAWRI), basically saved the people of the Ansokia Valley, Ethiopia in [the 1980’s] by introducing interdependent fish farming and gardening techniques. Before he arrived, many had died of starvation and malnutrition; most survivors had bloated stomachs. The Ansokia Valley was comparable to a living hell.
The Valley …was a dustbowl filled with men, women and children waiting to die when McMillin [first] arrived in 1984 …. He set to work, not only distributing food, but starting a regenerative agricultural program that would restore the fertility of the valley’s soils and develop healthy farms and crop distribution systems that would ensure that such a disaster never happened again.
Those of us at the Institute for ReGenerative Learning, working jointly with John and LAWRI, are seeking to liberate the passion of our emerging adults to find their deep calling. As they come in contact with that calling (traditionally called a vocation) they learn to think with the generative power that allowed John to address the underlying problems causing the Ethiopian famine (as an aside, no one else successfully addressed these fundamental issues). An additional focus of our work is to document the art and science of John’s work in ReGenerative Science for future generations.
What we will be doing with your help is: Training a new generation of enthusiastic young leaders who can follow in John’s footsteps, both at home and around the world. Their charge will be to find solutions to intractable problems even when there is nothing left to do. Learning and teaching others how to think beyond the bounds of conventional wisdom, and to solve problems creatively in order to ReGenerate the soil, provide life giving nourishment and feed the hungry no matter how difficult the circumstances.
One of John Dr. McMillin’s first tasks in the parched Ansokia valley was locating a water source—using, to everyone’s amazement, a makeshift divining rod. “When I first struck water, the camels stampeded us to get to it,” recalls John, who now runs the Oceanographic Institute of Dominica. “I knew better than to stand in the way of a thirsty camel after spending months riding them from Pakistan to Tashkent. But, for not moving promptly, I got a nasty bite on my shoulder that still bears a scar.”
The first priority was to feed everyone high-protein porridge …Once people felt strong enough to return home, …John’s team started a massive agricultural recovery project. A 250-acre pilot farm served as a testing ground for new farming methods and crops never before grown in the valley, such as sweet potato and cabbage. A tree nursery raised fast-growing eucalyptus for building materials and local tree varieties for controlling soil erosion. The nursery created hundreds of jobs by employing people to tend the grounds and pack tree seedlings in a special blend of alluvial soil and fertilizer. To date, Ansokia's farmers have planted 20 million trees.
Close to thirty years [after McMillin first arrived], crops thrive in this 31-mile valley in the country’s central highlands. … and the trees are laden with oranges. Children are happy and well-fed and go to school. The market sells locally grown produce. Amazingly, the local man-made tilapia fish ponds McMillin designed to supply high quality protein to thousands of residents … have proved so successful that the valley now exports fish.
The Ansokia ReGeneration project has produced more than an oasis. It has helped spawn a new science of global regeneration that is multifaceted and highly effective for restoring not only a region’s agricultural base, but its economic and cultural vitality as well. …giving the planet and humanity a second chance to restore the Earth and create a different future where a sustainable balance can be reached with Nature.
The plan is incredibly simple and begins by building up the area’s agricultural and economic base. … By combining intensive tilapia farming with bio dynamic gardening, we complete the nitrogen cycle, and can raise yields five to ten times [or more] greater on the same piece of land," says McMillin, who has been at the fore front of developing technologies designed to increase the viability of regional food production … "It’s a zero-pollution process, using natural lagoons and special plants to absorb waste. The water that leaves the farm is pure." And so is the food. … Minimally processed, locally grown organic produce is one of the foundations of health
That capacity, to grow healthy food and to create resilient economies in every corner of the earth, will be of value to all of us today and of even greater value to our children and our grandchildren. As we begin 2013 and hope for a shift to a more world centric consciousness and a better future for all of us, we believe that making ReGenerative Science and Learning a more widely available resource can make a vital contribution to that aspiration
The Institute for Regenerative Learning is conceived as a meaningful response to the overriding personal and planetary needs of our time. We are keenly aware that the planet and its people are calling out for solutions to the ravages of climate change, population growth, environmental damage, loss of fertile soil and the list of unprecedented challenges that goes on.
At the same time today’s emerging adults, well educated and idealistic, are calling out for the inspiration and skill to follow their souls’ deepest longing and to create a future that works for us all. They crave a meaningful life and a living that nourishes rather than despoils the earth. The Institute for Regenerative Learning is aimed at meeting that longing in a comprehensive way.
At another stage of the life cycle are the boomers reaching retirement age with gifts and experience of great value to those becoming society’s next generation of leaders. Many of those taking up the mantle of becoming wise elders would delight in mentoring these young college graduates, and to join with them to co-create a community of “ReGenerative Learners” and 21st Century “Solutionaries.” Supporting this emergence is an important part of our mission.
John's work, his scientific understanding of ReGenerative Science and his attitude (that no matter what, there is something to be done) is an integral part of our curriculum. That curriculum, and the associated mentorships and apprenticeships, will be offered in a variety of formats. These include blended learning (intensives teamed with online learning) and residential programs - either of which can lead to a certificate or a graduate degree. In every format our programs will be held within four Universal Program Contexts. These contexts address the fundamental questions we all face on our journey from birth to death. They address four fundamental questions, no matter what the topic or module, hard or soft, from accounting, to parenting, to emotional intelligence, to soil science and beyond. The fundamental questions addressed by the Universal Program Contexts are:
> How does this help me make sense of life?
> How does this help me relate to others in meaningful ways, no matter what the circumstances, where we learn from each other and relish the connection?
> How does this help me behave skillfully as I stay healthy and vital? and
> How does this help me earn a living while making the world around me a better place?
This approach allows us to offer substantive education that is simultaneously rigorous, practical and personally meaningful.
Our 21st Century approach bears strong resonance to the Shaker values of equality, peace, community, sustainability, responsible land stewardship, innovation, simplicity, quality in work and the application of spiritual principles to life. The Shaker’s practical spirituality took the form of good design in furniture and textiles, intelligent use of energy, sustainable agricultural practices and the use of herbs and food in maintaining a high level of health and vitality.
If you feel moved by John’s work (which, can be sampled on YouTube at ( www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbCuPgvYaUs ), or by our vision of bringing emerging adults together with boomers taking on the role of wise elder-hood then, as we enter the new year of 2013, you may want to add your time, talent or treasure to help us make this vision a reality. As John offers program participants the benefit of his knowledge and experience, we will be documenting both his attitude and his ReGenerative knowledge in transcripts and video teaching modules. That work will continue through out the next few years. Our entire curriculum is designed to support a new generation of leaders to develop deeper wisdom and more refined skills earlier in life. As they embody this wisdom and skill they will be far better equipped to take us beyond sustainability and to address the pressing challenges of the 21st century. John’s example of solving some of the most daunting instances of famine over the years stands as a guidepost for all of us as we face the future.
Some of the steps necessary to make this vision a reality, include:
> Completing the lab to train students
> Sponsoring students
> Finding and enrolling students
> Developing educational materials
> Supporting student apprenticeships locally and overseas, beginning in the Berkshires and Dominica
> Refining the curriculum
> Launching the program
> Paying the faculty
> Purchasing equipment to document John’s legacy
> Creating the ReGenerative Science documentation
> Purchasing and building year round greenhouses to model challenging climates and environmental circumstances for experimental and educational purposes.
Thank you for being interested in John’s work and for becoming aware of the potential for ReGenerative Science, teamed with a consciousness that feels concern for the entire planet, to help us address the many issues we face today. While these challenges may seem intractable to the conventional wisdom, with a renewed sense of hope and a deeper body of knowledge that extends beyond what has been thought possible up to now, the next generation of Solutionaries will find their soul’s deep purpose as they generate a future abundant with Radical Nourishment for all the earth’s creatures and for the planet herself.