Transformative Vision

This pathway encourages "thinking out of the box" (or "out of the barn") to imagine new institutional structures that prioritize the health of both people and the planet.  Each decision we make around food is a political choice. It’s an economic choice. It’s a cultural choice. It’s a spiritual choice. Embry’s dear friend and former professor, Wendell Berry, who he met as a student at the University of Kentucky back in 1968, says, “Eating is an agricultural act.” This means everyone is involved in the food movement. And, everyone has to change.

How we grow food, who controls land, whose knowledge is valued, and who benefits from agricultural systems reveal the moral foundations of our society. We have seen how industrial food systems, shaped by extraction and enclosure, mirror broader patterns of inequality.  We have also witnessed how regenerative food systems can become sites of healing, justice, and renewal when they are rooted in care, reciprocity, and shared stewardship.

The final pathway weaves all the others together calling for a “Great Re-membering.” This is an invitation to reawaken our sacred relationship with Earth and cosmos—a relationship obscured by centuries of extraction and disconnection.

Sustainability requires imagination as much as policy. Practices that cultivate mindfulness, awe, gratitude, and long-term responsibility are essential to building a regenerative future. The Great Remembering does not ask us to retreat into nostalgia. It calls us forward—into responsibility, humility, and care—toward collective flourishing within a living universe.