VISION
A global ecosystem of healthy, thriving communities in which regenerative land management cools the planet, feeds the world, and promotes public health, prosperity, and peace.
Photo by Gaetano Cessati on Unsplash
Mission
Regeneration Canada is a nonprofit organization that promotes land management practices that regenerate soil health, in order to mitigate climate change, restore biodiversity, improve water cycles, and support a more productive and just food system.
We strive towards this goal by empowering farmers, landowners, scientists, agronomists, businesses, community organizations, governments, and consumers to play a role in soil regeneration.
Photo by Kyle Ellefson on Unsplash
Strategy
Advocacy
Network building
Education
Activities
Membership
Local events
Workshops
Symposium
Communication
Public speaking
We are building an interdisciplinary network of soil and climate passionates.
Through our membership platform we create the place to share knowledge and resources, have conversations and make connections with others in the regenerative movement.
We organize local events such as film screenings, festivals and workshops to raise awareness about regenerative land management and to connect local communities.
If you would like to partner with Regeneration Canada to organize an event in your region, get in touch with us!
We offer workshops for elementary school, high school, and university students, as well as for farmers and business representatives, on soil science and regenerative land management principles.
If you would like us to give a workshop in your organization, academic institution or farm, please contact Antonious Petro.
This annual event gathers hundreds of participants from Canada, USA, France and other countries. Participants are invited to live a creative and meaningful experience over 2-4 days.
We host leaders and pioneers of the regenerative movement to discuss the promising solutions that soil provides for climate change and food sovereignty.
We discuss the science, the methodology, the policy, the business and the art of regeneration.
This event is the cauldron in which the shared knowledge of the movement pioneers shapes the emerging landscape of the Canadian regenerative movement.
Throughout our website and website blog, social media, newsletter, web series, member platform and in collaboration with our partners, we raise awareness about regenerative land management and connect with the various stakeholders of the movement.
We welcome collaborations with other regenerative initiatives to spread the word together.
Please contact us if you have an idea or a service to communicate.
We give presentations on soil regeneration, regenerative land management and building a movement for soil regeneration at various types of events.
Please contact us if you would like one of our team members to speak at your event.
History
Regeneration Canada started as a grassroots initiative. A handful of Montrealers with a mutual passion for living soils met up in the fall of 2016 and were inspired to organize an event on this topic in their hometown. While the regenerative movement was already thriving in the United States, it seemed crucial to start spreading the word in Canada. Montreal seemed like the perfect place for such an initiative, at the junction between the U.S., Canada and francophone countries. The Living Soils Symposium Montreal was born.
In light of the incredible level of interest and engagement around the Symposium, Gabrielle Bastien founded Regeneration Canada in May 2017 to pioneer the regenerative movement in Canada beyond the event.
Photo by Nadia Hunt
Team
Meet the core team of people who contribute to the strategy and management behind Regeneration Canada.
Gabrielle Bastien
Founder and Executive Director
Gabrielle’s life mission is to promote regenerative land management as a way to mitigate climate change and foster healthy food systems. This passion arose while obtaining her Master’s degree in Sustainability and Environmental Management at Harvard University, completed in 2016, where she realized that soil regeneration presents the greatest opportunity to simultaneously alleviate the food, climate, water and biodiversity crises.
Interested in diving in deeper in the practical aspects of permaculture, Gabrielle did an apprenticeship on Ben Falk’s Whole Systems Design farm in Vermont in 2015 and focused her Master’s thesis on the economic viability of permaculture-inspired farms in Quebec.
Prior to her graduate studies, she obtained a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing at HEC Montréal and gathered years of work experience in communications, project management and event planning.
Gabrielle led the team that launched the Living Soils Symposium Montreal in 2017 and founded Regeneration Canada.
Sarah Barsalou
Assistant Director
Sarah is a trained lawyer and holds Bachelor degrees in both International Studies and in Law. For several years, she practiced as a lawyer representing victims of workplace harassment, and was often asked to speak publicly on the issue during live TV or radio shows and newspaper interviews, as well as during workshops and training sessions for employers or the general public.
When she realized the urgency of the state of our planet, she knew she had to work towards finding solutions to combat climate change. She has always been passionate about cooking and sustainable food systems and first started to get involved by volunteering with organisations whose missions relate to food security and sustainable agriculture, like Santropol Roulant, CAPÉ, the 2017 Canadian Food Law Conference, and Regeneration Canada’s first Living Soils Symposium in 2017.
After traveling the world and working on a farm in Italy that integrated many regenerative practices, Sarah joined Regeneration Canada in October 2018. Sarah helped launch the organization’s membership program and is in charge of managing the community of members, creating partnerships as well as expanding its network of leaders in soil regeneration across sectors. She also coordinates a variety of different projects.
Antonious Petro
Scientific Director
Antonious Petro is a biologist and a certified permaculture designer whose vision of an ideal society would be a symbiotic collaboration of permaculture principles, circular economy and social justice. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Biology From Minia University, Egypt and a graduate degree in Community Economic Development from Concordia University. He is passionate about soil regeneration, social innovation and bike mechanics. Since his arrival in Montreal in 2013, he has gathered a vast experience in project coordination in sustainability, food security, business development and ecological land management. At Regeneration Canada, Antonious coordinates the soil education program and is the administrative assistant.
Board of directors
Our board of directors is comprised of passionate soil enthusiasts from various sectors who bring a diversity of perspectives to the organization.
Ananda Fitzsimmons
President Co-Founder, Inocucor
Ananda Lynn Fitzsimmons is an out-of-the-box thinker, visionary and environmentalist, with a passion for soil and growing food. She has had lifelong interest in sustainable food production and land management as well as social change and personal empowerment. She spent many years experimenting with microbial potions based on naturally occurring microbes extracted from plants, composts and soil. In 2008, she teamed up with Dr. Margaret Bywater Ekegard and they founded Inocucor Technologies. The company, now called Concentric, commercializes products for agriculture based on consortia of naturally occurring beneficial microorganisms. She now works as a consultant promoting soil health and regenerative land management practices.
Cameron Stiff
Treasurer Director of Finance and Development, Compost Montreal
Cameron Stiff has worked on sustainability issues from a variety of angles and scales over the past 15 years, from the United Nations to his local community centre. He is currently Director of Finance and Development for Compost Montreal and is president of the Hudson Food Collective and secretary for Urban Agriculture Laboratory. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Concordia University, where he is currently undertaking a Masters of Science in Geography, Planning and Environment, studying the political economy of organic waste in Quebec and the potential for redesigning organic waste management systems to support urban agriculture projects. In 2011, he was recognized as a Sustainability Champion by Concordia University.
Geneviève Boyer
Administrator Producer, TAXI
Michael Warren
Administrator CEO, Earth Alive Clean Technologies
Michael Warren (B.A. Marketing, Bishop’s U) has founded and grown a number of environmentally focused businesses over the past 20 years. With his natural propensity for adventure and discovery, he has made it a priority to identify innovative earth- and human-friendly business concepts and bring them to world markets. Michael’s interest in organic food has led him to build and manage LFP Solutions, an organic soil inputs distribution company with a focus on living soils. In 2014, LFP joined Earth Alive before going public, and Michael developed the Agriculture division. In May 2017 Michael was appointed CEO of Earth Alive. He regularly speaks on topics of sustainable business development, particularly agriculture, and still finds time to grow organic food on his family farm.
Marie-Élise Samson
Administrator Agronomist and Ph. D. Candidate in soil conservation, Université Laval
Marie-Elise Samson is trying to determine the best agricultural practices to put in place to store carbon in agricultural soils, and fight against climate change. An agronomist by training, she is passionate about fertility and soil health, which in turn can reduce our dependence on synthetic fertilizers.
James Craig
Administrator Farmer, Banker and Collaborator
James and his family practice regenerative agriculture through their farm working with 50 beef cow calf pairs, 80 acres of pasture, and 300 acres of cropland in Ontario. James is fascinated in the regenerative powers of cattle, humans and pasture. Outside of farming, James works as an Account Manager for TD Bank’s Agriculture Services looking after the financing for 100 industry diverse farmers. James is also the Co-initiator for the Perspectives Potluck which is a symposium style event that brings together decision makers with vastly different perspectives to find commonality and build a more resilient food system.
Elham Hajam
Administrator Management and social innovation consultant
Ecological transition and food sovereignty and security are issues that have always touched Elham deeply. After graduating from a Master of Sciences in Management at HEC Montreal, she completed her studies with a research mandate in permaculture and its potential to feed humanity. At the same time, she was involved with Hectare urbain, a project that encompasses the concepts of permaculture, seed conservation and feeding forest. Permaculture inspired so much that she later completed a PDC. As a management and social innovation consultant, she’s carried out mandates for la Maison de l’innovation sociale, ÉAU (Écosystèmes alimentaires urbains) et le Pôle IDEOS (HEC Montréal). In her free time, she loves walking in nature, collecting small treasures found during her walks, and learning about herbalism and indigenous wisdom. She is deeply convinced that they will be our greatest allies for the years to come.
Advisors
We are blessed to benefit from the insights of a number of advisors with various expertises, including scientists, farmers, agronomists, business people and more.