Now is the time

to restore the healthy land management practices of our ancestors and deploy the necessary infrastructure to support farmers to transition into certified, regenerative organic farming. Nature’s Atlas is about restoring a positive “relationship” with the land, Earth and all plant, animal, and human inhabitants.

 

Biodynamic production is one that follows a sustainable, holistic approach using locally sourced materials for fertilizing and soil conditioning, sees the farm as a closed, diversified ecosystem and often bases farming activities on lunar cycles. Many people refer to biodynamic farming as beyond organic because of the emphasis on bringing plants and animals together, creating the fertility needed by using manure and cover crops produced on the farm, encouraging diversity in plants, animals, and insects, and using open-pollinated seeds and heritage breeds of animals.

 

Nature’s Atlas is driving a paradigm shift away from the input-intensive crop monocultures and concentrated animal production. Planting a single crop over and over, while requiring various synthetic chemical inputs, destroys our soil while animals confined to a mud lot or cement floor are denied their natural habitats and instincts. It is time for authentic and accountable new players to enter the market and implement biodiverse, holistic systems that are indigenous to their region in order to stimulate interactions between different plants and species.

 

We believe in a community-centered sustainable economy committed to the deployment of transparent production models that focus on diversified, healthier diets. We believe in replacing synthetic supplements with our most important vitamins and minerals grown as nature intended, and not engineered in labs. We believe in the restoration of rich soils and grasslands with improved long-term land fertility, while minimizing reliance on chemical inputs and reducing our carbon footprint.

 

Nature’s Atlas will work relentlessly to ensure that formerly suppressed scientific, unbiased data is available to prove that such a system can compete with industrial agriculture in terms of total outputs, even with current environmental stressors, while meeting the needs of our growing population.

 

We are uncompromising when it comes to quality, rooted in diversification, localization, and a highly differentiated production system that will embrace the challenges radically impacting the current food system.

 

At Nature’s Atlas, we are returning fresh, wholesome, trusted products to its end-user consumer. When success is measured by holistic factors, disruptive change in our modern-day industrialized food system will happen!

We believe!

Now is the time

for a bold DECENTRALIZATION movement with a variety of diverse products grown, processed, and consumed regionally by family farms, small businesses, local grocers, and cafes owned by your neighbors.  In turn, these local people reinvest and revive the Main Streets of our communities! 

 

Nature’s Atlas is focused on a quality-based, holistic approach to the production of functional foods that promote optimal health with natural properties that can reduce the risk of disease.  We are making it affordable and accessible by reallocating profit and risk equitably among the food supply chain.  

 

We must redefine and think differently about how we view food and its purpose.  So much of what has been taught over the past 50 years in the west is based upon monetary influence of our policies and political leaders.  

 

Nature’s Atlas has an operational system that focuses on nutritional balance instead of volume, yield and payments to producers based upon metrics that simply measure more but have little nutritional value! 

 

Modern day industrialized agriculture has come at a grave cost to human and animal health as well as the sustainability of our natural resources. According to the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems, this type of production has caused widespread degradation of land, water and ecosystems; high GHG emissions; biodiversity losses; persistent hunger and micro-nutrient deficiencies alongside the rapid rise of obesity and diet-related diseases; and livelihood stresses for farmers around the world.  

 

With big ag – big pharma – big data merging as one corporate umbrella through a series of strategic, collaborative, licensing, and financial relationships, it is beyond time that we take a common-sense view of what is truly happening to our most basic and important human needs while questioning who is controlling the message, the products, and the markets.

We believe!

Now is the time

to eat for your health and the health of the planet without all the noise and confusion!  “Marketplace With Purpose” is part of the Nature’s Atlas system for a transparent and trusted market.  Where we are doing what we say and can verify that from “soil to shelf” because we ARE the farmers and decision makers who choose the practices and sourcing from the beginning.  We are making decisions at the most microscopic levels to ensure the highest quality of nourishing foods reach your plate. 

 

Our deployment of solution-oriented regionalized projects restores the dignity of our land and transitions our farming practices away from over-consolidated, massive acres of genetically manipulated crop monocultures. Our belief lies where the intellectual property holders control the downstream markets, and maintain a safe, respected workforce while prioritizing consumer well-being and addressing environmental challenges!   

 

Nature’s Atlas isn’t just talking, we are putting sound agroecological practices to work and proving consistent profitability on even the smallest acreages. This makes it possible, for the first time in decades, that young, minority and first-generation farmers to consider production agriculture as a viable profession. Our operational model minimizes the financial barriers to entry disproving the common saying that unless you “inherit it or marry it,” farming is not a career option.  

 

By reeducating and training communities of early adopters and leaders who share a passion for sound land stewardship while using diversified production with thorough planetary and animal respect, Nature’s Atlas is facilitating the transition of our production methods one project, one day, one region at a time.  

 

Together, we can and will build a shared understanding and ownership of these man-made problems to create a new food ecosystem. A system that reallocates the risks and rewards equitably among the supply chain while honoring our planet and its inhabitants. 

 

We understand the importance of proving the potential of profitable, replicable, and sustainable outcomes in production systems that are rooted in agroecological practices. Because of this, each of our regionalized projects is evaluated and implemented based upon these practices. Our leadership is committed to driving this paradigm shift and remaining true to the meaning and intent behind the word “agroecology”.  

 

Prior to launching publicly, our founders conducted significant, varied research. This included global market intelligence, review of other comparable models, the study of scientific findings from multiple sources and viewpoints, as well as demonstrating profitability on our own farms.  This research led us to determine and institute our leading, scalable implementation approach.  

 

With leadership and partnerships that are willing to challenge the powerful within the industrial food system and put standards behind words such as “natural”, “pure”, “real”, “family farms”, “sustainable”, “regenerative,” and “transparent”, Nature’s Atlas is committed.  We demonstrate, through actual production, strategic grassroots initiatives and correcting broken markets, that a different and improved way IS possible!  

We believe!

Now is the time

to unlearn what we thought we once knew.  Facts prove that America is no longer the “breadbasket” of the world and that we do not produce the safest, most abundant, affordable food supply.   

 

How such a bold and disheartening statement can be made involves a complicated history.  Our hope is that you will follow us on our journey to understand the evolution of what brought us to this point and how we are implementing corrective action. 

 

Nature’s Atlas’ operational and growth model contrasts with the current commodity-driven market. The current market has too few participants, too many controlling hands in the middle and too many ways to influence price and producer profitability that are not founded in actual supply and demand. In addition, the high cost of inputs and increased dependency on them, even if yield increases occasionally, does not translate into positive income for our family farms and communities. This industrialized system has resulted in an increased reliance on both credit and risk-based insurance, often provided by related corporate entities who also control the inputs and numerous government subsidies.  

 

Farmers often talk about how the subsidies were “eaten at the river”, meaning that their bottom-line profit was not improved with government assistance. This is because the costs of inputs, dockages, and the price offered in the market factors in these subsidies. In reality, the monies do not end up in the farmer’s pocket nor at work in their local community. This is not a sustainable system since it does not prioritize the importance of our farmers nor encourage production of products demanded by consumers.  

 

Nature’s Atlas drives the connectivity necessary for farmers to make a fair living, support the coveted quality of life in a rural community, and encourage farm succession within the family.  New, young, and minority farmers can then enter a dignified and time-honored profession.  

 

For functional, nutritional foods to serve as our first and most important defense to a strong immune system, fuel for the vitality of life, and allow everyone to be productive members of society, change must happen at the grass roots level and throughout each phase of the supply chain.  That is exactly what we are doing!  

 

Nature’s Atlas is working to ensure labels are clearly understood and “good” food is no longer a luxury item.  We are building bridges from the demands of consumer preference, to climate pressures, to regenerative farming practices, to accessibility.  

 

Our words are heart-felt when we say we are committed to the restoration of “the backbone of America.” We are tackling our food insecurities during critical and volatile times while helping bring our country’s foundational values into other allied, developed and developing nations.   

We believe!

Now is the time

to define success by more than monetary outcomes and to address the inequitable system of windfall profits in the hands of a select few.  When value is measured by metrics beyond the bottom line, we can truly achieve a harmonious ecosystem that places our Earth and the common good of the life it sustains back in balance! 

 

Nature’s Atlas is restoring dignity to the work force and bringing purpose and value into each stage of the food supply chain while promoting livable wages. This is done through alliances, education, and co-sharing of not just knowledge, but also innovation and intellectual property policies, immigration laws and policies, cultural sensitivity training and understanding, and basic management practices that just work. We must honor the workers that make our holistic food system possible and recognize the hard work and sacrifice that goes into a final product. This includes everyone from the farmer to the artisan processor to the truck driver to the chef to the dish washer through a fair wage and equitable respect. 

 

Nature’s Atlas is leading by example and will be offering work force and cultural sensitivity training through a series of collaborative partnerships. These will help capture the invaluable leadership skills necessary to survive this multifaceted, fast-paced, and constantly evolving work environment and will better facilitate a proper agroecological transition.  

 

Nature’s Atlas is passionate about bridging the gap and connecting talented leaders from all walks of life with employers as well as recruiting and training new and young farmers. We realize more efforts are needed to ensure meaningful, equitable employment opportunities are available to ensure success during the transition. This will require hard work, cultural understanding, open minds, resilience, and a commitment to a vision greater than oneself.  

We believe!

Now is the time

to correct the “feed the world” narratives and address the underlying issues of industry consolidation, control, greed, bullying, unfair business practices, anti-trust violations and market manipulations.  We cannot wait another day to right our wrongs and tackle the sizable undertaking ahead to reorganize societies, economies, politics, law and policy in a manner that simply does better for EVERYONE.  It is evident the current food chain system cannot and should not sustain any longer. 

 

Nature’s Atlas respects the human and social values within each region where it works and is breaking down the barriers between farmers and consumers through direct relationships and direct markets. When you remove the hands in the middle, it allows for faster progress in correcting a broken market and allows farmers and consumers to coexist in a more harmonious manner.  

 

Our operational system at Nature’s Atlas provides the platform to allow small stakeholders to enter a time-honored profession and succeed.  This happens while addressing the delicate balance of transitioning existing western production methods and ideologies to practices that restore the independence and significance of “the family farm”. The reality is even when the land is owned by the family, its operators are beholden to an industry that prioritizes their profitability over the health and well-being of other supply chain participants.  As such, production contracts and intellectual property rights are deployed in a manner that strips away a family farmer’s independence, innovation, and influence regardless of acreage size.  

 

Now that the time has arrived when consumers are driving markets with their purchasing preferences, the industry is taking that consumer awareness and co-oping (greenwashing) the terminology and family farm stories. Mainstream farmers are no better off today than they were in the 1970s regarding profitability.  The yield-focused, over-consolidated marketplace has detrimentally impacted the viability of rural communities and the health of its people while making even developed nations more food insecure.  

 

Although production methods may have become less labor intensive for the landowner, the model has positioned farmers into a more controlled and volatile state. One of the major challenges of ensuring the integrity of “agroecology” is asking how one deploys its principals in the developed west since most are driven by capital as the primary or sole measurement of success. 

 

Nature’s Atlas understands the importance of balancing this dynamic and fully believes a food system founded in agroecology is possible. We also understand it will take time to achieve for larger producers, and as such, it will take a combination of transitional short-term and long-term plans.  

 

We believe transitional and transformative change is possible and have a system to work with producers in developed nations that will allow them to begin reducing their reliance on modern-day, industrialized agriculture. This happens through a series of regionalized projects that facilitate localized ownership while prioritizing living wages and high standards of living for its workforce.  

 

Nature’s Atlas is aggressively advancing systems that free farmers from the current structures of industrial agricultural and instead, transition them into a healthier food ecosystem that prioritizes livelihoods with consistent, achievable profits for farmers regardless of acreage size and location.  This is in conjunction with facilitating a better and more respectful understanding and dialog among farmers and consumers, employers and immigrant employees, lenders, and producers just to name a few.  

 

We are also engaging in domestic and international public policy debates regarding how we better balance our food ecosystem while addressing the feed the world challenges. When at the controlling entity level, the measurement of success is based upon an equitable and socially just system that embraces the importance of quality of life for each participant in the supply chain, it creates a ripple effect in the environment. Success breeds success, one project, one community, one farm at a time.  

We believe!

Now is the time

to show respect for the planet and have faith in humanity for the sake of future generations of people living on this planet and all that call Mother Earth home!” In order to heal the Earth, we must focus on “relationship building” with Mother Earth and her inhabitants. If we can educate and remember that all living things (plants, trees, animals, humans, fungi, etc.) want the same things: safety in our home/habitat, clean air, water and food, community, sunlight. When humans think they are “superior” to others, whether that be toward other humans, animals, nature, or children, we are not able to accomplish the balance and healing needed to thrive on Earth. Instead, thinking and acting from the place of “stewardship” instead of “superiority” is the key to this relationship that will help us all thrive.    

 

 Kenyan environmental leader Wangari Maathai wrote, “If we live in wounded environments — where water is polluted, air is filled with soot and fumes, food is contaminated with heavy metals and plastic residues, or the soil is practically dust, it hurts us, creating injuries at a physical, psychological, and spiritual level. In degrading the environment, we degrade ourselves and all humankind…. In the process of helping earth to heal, we help ourselves.” We, at Nature’s Atlas, realize there is much work to be done but know this work is meaningful and essential to survival.    

  

We also realize our current food system is broken, which has led to increased food insecurity, poverty, and failed farms. We can make positive changes to correct this broken system that often rapes the Earth of fertile soil, thriving communities and healthy food for all. Fertile soil not only sequesters carbon and allows us to grow nutritious food absent of chemicals that destroy and create havoc in our bodies, it is created by using biodynamic farming practices in order to save topsoil and encourage nutrients and organic matter naturally.  By shortening supply chains, creating regional food hubs, developing value-added products from what we produce in fertile soil and being willing to make positive, meaningful changes in a new direction, we will heal the Earth and our bodies with nutritional, locally grown food.  

   

We view business as “personal” and make decisions based upon what is best for our own families, loved ones and future generations.  By bringing together forward thinkers and doers throughout each stage of the food supply chain and throughout each corner of the globe, together we can change our relationship with food production and consumption that will improve the quality of life and rewrite the narratives on how we feed the world the right way. Nature’s Atlas, along with you, can achieve what current industry leaders view as the impossible, together!   

  

The KEYS center around relationships with each other, Mother Earth, and Her inhabitants, as well as inviting open minds that are willing to listen, learn and share. Now is the time to Heal the Earth using sound AgroEcological practices and collaboration that result in thriving local communities, farms, schools, and healthy food grown in a responsible, regenerative manner. As the philosopher Cornel West says, “You cannot create paradise on Earth, you attempt to leave as much heaven behind as you can….” This is one of our goals.  

We believe!