On the 26th of September, I attended the launch of the Nature's Blueprint event championed by Annie Lee and supported by Lucy Williamson, Cara Wheatley-McGrain and Aysha Tupman.

I guess that makes us all virgins

It was hosted by FarmED, a wonderful initiative that models sustainable regenerative farming. The perfect venue to show and tell what the future of our food-producing system could look like if we put nature first and not profits.

Nature's Blueprint is a unique framework which empowers and energises people to reconnect with nature and find innovative and impactful solutions to the challenges of our time.

This has led to the creation of a supportive, proactive network of change makers who are resourced to pass the experience on and enable change in individuals, communities and organisations.

To burrow more direct words, a collection of those who give a sh*t about what we are doing to the sustainability of life on this rock called home and the system in which it is located.

In this series, I'll be sharing poems inspired by the speakers, the tour of the FarmEd facilities and the attendants. I hope that it inspires you to join in and become a change agent one person at a time for the sake of ourselves and the generations to come.

The image below is the wonderful artistic portrait by Claire Holgate of the launch event, we will be taking a poetic tour.

Nature carries enough clues about how it is best treated for all of us to thrive.

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Nature Points

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

The Blue Print

That nature brings

Pointing the way

To the wisdom

That lets it be

Pointing the way

To you and me

If we care

To listen in

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Step into nature today, and pay attention, what can you learn from how they co-exist?

We are all connected, what one does affects the other and if enough people follow a precedence it changes the tide of consciousness towards it.

Denial in the face of overwhelming evidence is a device of the minds to protect those engaged in it from facing the truth of the impact we are all having on the planet.

There is an invitation to look in the direction of our connection to everything and experience what is happening as affecting us all.

It will take all our efforts to support Regeneration. An ambition beyond sustainability because we are starting from behind the baseline. There is damage to be undone. Sustaining won't go far enough.

Connected Health

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

I the master, 'It' the servant

Separate and above

I use and abuse

Whatever pleases me

Why else is it here?

Then came global warming

A myth to some

Nothing to see here

Moving right along

Such a mystery to me

How a myth changes everything?

Wonder what an impact

To expect?

If it turned out to be real!

Can I afford to be wrong?

Primetime

Flip the script

Or the generations to come

Pay the price

Being all connected

Changes everything

What is now seen

Can no longer

Be unseen

Then the health of

All things

Becomes Healthy

For all things

We all work together

To regenerate

What we are in process

To obliterate

Going beyond survival

To Thrive and celebrate life

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Stand in nature with bare feet, quiet the mind and experience your feet on the ground. What sensation do you feel?

Planting the same thing in an area year after year strips it of vital nutrients and leaves no room for recovery. This impacts its ability to produce nutrient-dense food to nourish our bodies.

FarmEd are leading the way in regeneration. Building the soil so that missing nutrients are being replaced.

There is a hope that as they provide education about their methods and evidence of their economic viability more food produces will follow their lead

I will be honest and say, that this is a work in progress for me, after years of conditioning, the cheapest options call out to me.

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Barren soil

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

Soil, the womb of our food

Oppressed

And downtrodden underfoot

Drained and abused on a scale

So profuse

Denied nutrition, we demand it birth

More food

Seeking miracles as rare as

Virgin birth

Expecting that food to be

Nutritionally dense

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What can we do to source more food that is responsibly grown?

Did you know that the gut is part of our neuro network which includes the brain?

Neither did I until gut health expert Cara Wheatley-McGrain (ACC) broke it down. It is effectively a 2nd brain!

There is a two-way link between the brain and the gut with more channels to the brain than from it. That's a clue to which drives the agenda.

The gut is essential to our survival as it is directly linked to our fight-or-flight system. It informs the brain about our environment.

Eating the right kind of food dense in essential nutrients keeps our gut healthy and wise. Our life may depend on it.

Check out Cara's book here.

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Gut wisdom

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

Gut feel

Gut sense

Gut has the history

Gut tells the story

Gut has the answer

No fooling the gut

It knows before you do

When the gut speaks

The brain listens

It points the way

Look after your gut

So It can look after you

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Do some research, what changes can you make to your diet to look after your gut?

If all you did was reduce your intake of ultra-processed you would add years to your life expectancy and improve the quality of your life significantly.

Most of us know this but the odds are rigged against us. There is an agenda to push processed foods even when those producing them know the harm they can cause. Follow the advertising money and you will have your answer.

Processed food can be patented and monetised. Most supermarkets lose money on fruit and veg and most money is made on the ultra-processed stuff.

They are convenient, addictive and mostly nutritionally bankrupt.

It can take a lot of time to prepare food from scratch and seems more expensive to buy healthy alternatives.

What we save today, we may pay for in our health in the long term.

We may not be able to fully eliminate them but we can attempt to steadily replace them with healthier alternatives.

There is a fantastic interview on the topic with Chris Van Tulleken on Steven Bartlett's DOAC podcast, well worth a listen(Click here)

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Processed

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

Looks similar

But not the same

Label looks good

Traffic light's green

Must be healthy food

If only that food

Could speak

Tell you about its ordeal

Laced with chemicals

Stripped of nutrients

Spiked for addiction

Dressed to kill

Ever so slowly

Processed beyond

An inch of life

To line the pockets

Of corporate pimps

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What one item of ultra-processed food can you substitute out of your diet today?

Nature is a pattern of co-existence. Different plants, creatures, and bodies of water share the same space. Each brings something and gets what it needs.

In our simplistic way of looking at things and obsession with vain presentation, we often disturb this balance by getting rid of the natural diversity in favour of consistent presentation.

More humility to take nature's lead and appreciation for the beauty of diversity would help alleviate this.

Maybe we humans can learn to work together and embrace our diversity to make the most of what each person brings to create outcomes greater than the sum of our parts.

That day at FarmED helped me start to start that journey.

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Diverse Beauty

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

Take a look around you

Do you see it?

Beautiful diversity

Variety of opportunity

Experiencing all that

Nature brings

Breath of scale

Catering to so

Many tastes

Room for it all

Arms open wide

Whispering welcome

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Step into nature and observe the diversity, can you see any examples of how they combine to support the whole ecosystem?

There are trillions of secret agents at work in the soil and in our bodies working away to restore and regenerate our vitality, building our immune systems to enhance our resilience against disease.

They are hidden from the naked but essential to life.

They are the collection of all microbes, such as bacteria, fungi, viruses, and their genes referred to as microbiomes. One teaspoon full of soil contains more of them than people on earth. How is that for perspective?

They were here, way before humans arrived and we each have our unique combination working away inside.

We ingest a lot of them through our food and it takes responsible farming to ensure food that is rich with the microbiomes we need. Follow Lucy Williamson to find out more.

Yet another reason to support companies that are sourcing food from regenerative farming. Check out the FarmED website for more information about this.

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Universe in a spoon

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

Just one spoon

Of healthy soil

hosts a universe

Each one of us

Hosts our own

Unique universe

The Universe

Blind to the

Naked eye

Microbiomes

Working away

To feed their host

The secret sauce

To live and thrive

They deserve

Some respect

From the new kids

On the block

For our survival

On this rock

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Do some research on microbiomes, what interesting facts have you learnt about them to enhance your health?

I marvel at how indiscriminating water is. It refuses nothing or anyone who comes.

If morphs in form, rising into the sky as clouds to water the earth and then returns to rest.

Water is essential to life on Earth. Up to 60% of our body is made up of water, without it we cannot survive long-term.

We need it to build new cells, regulate our body temperature, transport nutrients around the body and flush out waste amongst other things. See the link in the comments to find out more.

It feeds the soil, plants, creatures and humans alike.

If we pollute our waters, it's not just the water that is affected.

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Benevolent water

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

Water here, there

Everywhere

Water in everything

Adorned in all manner

Of disguises

It stands, it flows and

It rises

Satisfying all that thirst

Laden with gifts

Of whatever

It has been infused with

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Would this make you think twice about throwing rubbish into any body of water?

It turns out there are many benefits to having cows and chickens free to roam that are allowed to have their young around for much longer than their mass-produced cousins.

So many hidden benefits are derived from these being, more than seem obvious at first glance.

It was fascinating to find out that everything we turn our noses at works out for the good of nature's ecosystem.

The wisdom of nature knows no bounds, to me it is so profound.

There is so much to learn from the tour of FarmED, so why not pay them a visit for your next away day? (Click here to find out more)

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Free to Roam

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

Hey there's a cow

There goes more

Methane

Part of the problem?

Part of the solution?

Cows free to roam

Graze and eat

Massage the roots

Poop the earth

Attract the flies

Press the poop

Underfoot

To start the cycle

Of life

All over again

Thank you cow

For being you

Hey here are the chickens

What a stench, so much noise

Are they a blessing?

Are they a curse?

Chickens free to roam

Mow the lawn

Present their eggs

Sunrise tuned alarm

Cloak the earth

With their poop

Attract the flies

Press the poop

Underfoot

To start the cycle

Of life

All over again

Thank you chicken

For being you

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What new thing have you learned about the benefits of these animals being allowed to roam?

Perfect shape, immaculate body, unerring symmetry, smooth as a baby's bottom, no blemishes in sight.

That is not the criteria for modelling agency consideration or a marriage proposal.

That is the standard for food to meet to be worthy of our shopping basket.

What is the farmer to do with the ones that don't make the grade?

I rest my case and let the poem say the rest.

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Eating good

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

Must look perfect

Nothing less would do

Natures' look
Not good enough
Perfectly good food

On the naughty heap

Are we feeding our eyes

Or our body now insisting

On catwalk ready food?

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Would you buy the "imperfects" if the supermarkets stocked them?

Nature leaves room for every stage of life to play out without judgment.

There is a cycle of life where death feeds new life for the cycle to repeat. There is no waste, they co-exist and it all gets used.

We humans are a different story, our binary lens on life predisposes us to stigmatise death, and endlessly compare and judge things prematurely as good or bad.

We have a lot to learn from nature. Live and let die for new life to appear. Honour the young and the old to co-exist in a supportive environment.

In nature, there is room for it all.

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Waste not nature

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

Nature knows no waste

Everything gets used

Let it fall, It will rot

For the earth to absorb

To feed the source

From which it was

Birth

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If you accepted death as the portal to new life, how might you grieve differently?

I noticed in my attempt to sterilise my indoor environment, things that occur outdoors naturally are considered unclean.

The tour of the FarmEd site for Nature's Blueprint launch gave me a fresh perspective on how important the things I frown upon are to the support of life.

There is room for recalibration and appreciating the gift in outdoor staples such as soil (aka dirt).

Imagine if nature were observing us and could speak a language we understood. I wonder what it would say?

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Alien Indoors

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

Indoors

The one-eyed monster spins

Wrestling from vesture

The unclean

Outdoors

The ground cracks a smile

Wondering how it got

The nickname dirt

Indoors

The many-armed creature bleeps

Signalling which ones

Are unfit

Outdoors

Vegetation nods in the wind

How vain these

Humans must be

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What is at home in nature that you consider alien to your home surroundings?

Nature comes laden with gifts of which we partake in ways much more than for food.

Filtering the air we breathe, filling our senses with beauty, raw materials for making products we enjoy and Inspiration for many inventions that make our lives easier.

This is by no means an exhaustive list.

If we choose to treat it as an ally worthy of care and respect, how long will the relationship flourish and last?

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Bearing gifts

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

We find nature

Bearing gifts

The ones we gladly

Receive

Food, shade

Beauty on display

Delight for the eyes

In honour of these

Marvellous gifts

We would be wise to

Partake and replenish

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What else would you add to the list of nature's gifts?

Bruce Lee one of the greatest martial artists of his time said “Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”

Nature has built-in resilience but there is only so far that will last if we keep getting in its way.

Let's learn from it and work with it; not against it.

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Natural way

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

Sit and watch

Pay close attention

See how nature

Seems to always

Find a way

Weaving, stretching

Adapting, shape-shifting

Cohabiting, blending

While hosting abundance

Despite all our efforts

To get in its way

In search of more

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What evidence of nature's resilience can you learn from?

The soil, the environment, the food and the soul of humanity are all part of this ecosystem. Each of these is also comprised of further systems.

The consequence of being part of a system is that what happens to one affects the other.

This adds tremendous complexity in navigating the cause and effect at play when tackling the current climate crisis facing the planet.

I know that I am part of the system and how I live affects everything. Therefore, It is in my long-term self-interest to care about nature and its sustainability.

The good news is that any small step I take now to reduce my impact will make a difference and we all benefit.

If we all take one small step now, the combined effect is exponential.

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Soil to Soul

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

Soil to Soul

It all unfolds

Can't cheat

The code

Put in, get out

Nourish it

Your soul

Is fed

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What small steps are you already taking to reduce the negative impact on the system?

Thanks for coming on this poetic reflective journey with me of the Nature's Blueprint launch.

I hope you have learnt some new things and gained an appreciation of the vital role of nature and our part in being good custodians.

This is an ever-evolving process that calls us all to work together to create an environment where we can all thrive.

Nature's Blueprint exists as a tribe of people who care deeply about empowering and energising people to reconnect with nature and find innovative and impactful solutions to the challenges of our time.

This work is guided by the following framework

RECONNECT - Form a deeper relationship with the natural world, shine a light on the interconnectedness of soil health, gut health, human mental & physical health, societal & overall planetary health. This includes being outdoors, getting your hands dirty in the soil, learning about natural processes such as symbiosis, mycorrhizal networks, the microbiome and so on. This will lead to a state of being where you can start to:

REIMAGINE a different way of being, a different future for you, your communities, your organisations. Drawing on nature's lessons you will explore different solutions whilst acknowledging the problems we face. Then you get to the vital part... you then get to:

RESPOND ​- Taking your learnings from the day you will have time to reflect on your own & with inspirational peers to create your own action plan. There will be the opportunity to foster accountability within the community.

If this series speaks to you, join the network of likeminded people who give a sh*t (Click here to find out more)

Nature is waiting to show us the way.

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Nature's Blueprint

By Frank Bolaji Irawo

With an attitude so Indiscriminate

There is a danger that we Obliterate

The balance of all things intricate

The beavers, the vixen

The woods, the dregs

The dead to feed the living

The return to the earth

The bees in promiscuity

The growth of diversity

That and much more

We mess with

When we ignore

Nature's blueprint

Attempting to bend nature

To our will

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What will your next step be?