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 dedicated to promoting soil regeneration in order to mitigate climate change, restore biodiversity, improve water cycles, and support a healthy food system.
We strive towards this goal by creating spaces for farmers, landowners, scientists, agronomists, businesses, community organizations, governments, and citizens to learn, connect and take action to regenerate soils.
Photo by Kyle Ellefson on Unsplash
Strategy
Raising Awareness
Network Building
Education
Activities
Membership
Local events
Workshops
Symposium
Communication
Public speaking
Activities Report
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.
For more information on becoming a member, please see here.
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.
The Living Soils Symposium gathers hundreds of participants from across Canada and the world. Participants are invited to live a creative and meaningful experience over several 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.
Learn more about our 2019-2020 activities in our Annual Activities Report.
Learn more about our 2020-2021 activities in our Annual Activities Report.
Our Story
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.
Antonious Petro
Interim Executive Director
antonious@regenerationcanada.orgAntonious Petro is Co-director at Regeneration Canada and a Master’s candidate in soil sciences at UQAT. He has an Undergraduate Degree in biology and a Graduate Diploma in community economic development. Antonious is interested in soil carbon sequestration in agricultural soils and in the ecological services of urban soils. He specializes in simplifying and making scientific concepts more accessible, and focuses on ecology, agri-food ecology, sustainability project management, and citizen mobilization around climate change.
Sara Maranda-Gauvin
Community Engagement Manager
sara.mg@regenerationcanada.orgSara has always been curious, creative and driven by the search for meaning. It is this awareness of transformative possibilities that led her to study international development and cultural studies at McGill. Sara completed internships in social economy and urban agriculture in Peru, and then worked in community housing and early childhood education. Sara’s interest in the food system and its environmental and social impacts blossomed after attending Concordia University’s City Farm School, which allowed her to combine her interest in pedagogy and vegetable gardening. This experience led her to co-found the organization On sème, which develops local seasonal markets and an urban ecological gardening program. From the first Living Soils Symposium, Sara was inspired by Regeneration Canada’s interdisciplinary and multistakeholder approach to regenerative agriculture as a means to climate change mitigation and sustainability. Outside of the professional sphere, Sara likes to garden with her partner while their dog protects the tomatoes from squirrels and groundhogs; and when not gardening, she likes to escape into the Boreal forest wonderland to connect with nature and contemplate its beauty.
Gabrielle Bastien
Founder and Co-director
(Currently on Leave)
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.
Jade Heilmann
Operations Manager
jade@regenerationcanada.orgJade is a mom, aspiring homesteader, self-title data-geek, and Master’s candidate in Environmental Impact Assessment at Concordia University who previously studied Neuroscience at McGill and Design at Concordia. Her passion for soil health sprouted while attaining a permaculture design certificate where she was inspired by role models such as Doniga Markegaard and Ed Tunheim who opened her eyes to land stewardship as a real, tangible, and timely solution to climate change.
Meagan Patch
Project Coordinator – Regenerative Dairy
meagan@regenerationcanada.orgMeagan is a regenerative grazier who produces and direct-markets grass-fed beef, pastured pork, chicken and eggs on land that her family has called home for generations, in Brome QC. She studied education and has been teaching since 2008 and has been growing the farm business since 2013.
In 2017, Meagan teamed up with 8 other ecological farmers in the Brome-Missisquoi area to found la Cooperative le Terroir Solidaire, an organization that aims to help small-scale farmers and food transformers reach a common market and coordinate their activities together under a banner of ecology and transparency. The coop currently sells its members’ products via an online platform and has now reached a membership of nearly 30 entrepreneurs.
Meagan believes in life-long learning and hones her skills and abilities through self-directed learning, courses and exchanges with peers and mentors. She now leads the first peer-directed grazing group in her area, where participating farmers host regular meetings throughout the growing season to discuss and exchange with each other.
Because nobody understands farming as farmers do, Meagan advocates for farmer-driven solutions to environmental sustainability issues in agriculture.
Geneviève Leblanc
Digital Communications Manager
communications@regenerationcanada.orgGeneviève Leblanc is the Digital Communications Manager at Regeneration Canada. She completed an undergraduate degree in Biology at McGill University with a focus in Neuroscience, then studied Sexology at UQÀM where she specialized in gender studies. In past years, she has worked as a research assistant, a project coordinator in textbook editing, and a communications manager in the video games industry.
In the face of the intensifying global climate emergency, Geneviève was drawn to Regeneration Canada’s mission as a way to be part of the solution and to live according to her personal values of mindful collaboration with one another and with nature. A strong believer in the power of communities to enact transformative change, she’s driven to help connect actors in the regenerative agriculture movement, with an eye toward diversity and inclusion.
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.
Celeste Smith
Administrator Founder of Cultural Seeds and Ga Gitigemi Gamik
Celeste Smith is the Founder of Cultural Seeds and Founder/Director of Ga Gitigemi Gamik – We Will Plant Lodge. She is from the Wolf Clan and is Oneida from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. As an intergenerational trauma survivor, she has made it her life’s mission to help Women/Gender Diverse People rebuild their connections to the land and their lifeways. Celeste is a seed steward, traditional agriculturalist and former professor of Traditional Ecological Knowledge at Niagara College. Her Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) comes from a strong connection to her family’s agricultural traditions and 30 years of personal/community gardening experience. She is a committed Indigenous Rights and food justice activist and is involved in multiple projects. Celeste’s academic experience was at Niagara College (Social Sciences), Brock University (Sociology/Indigenous Education) and Columbia University NYC (Indigenous Rights and Policy). Her current work centres around Indigenous food sovereignty, land access and Indigenous Human Rights. She is the owner/founder of Cultural Seeds (culturalseeds.com) which is a seed store/seed repatriation project and Ga Gitigemi Gamik (We Will Plant Lodge) which is envisioned as an ecological centre on a permanent Indigenous stewarded site, where women and 2SLGBTTQQIA+ persons can (RE)learn ancestral agricultural methods lost to colonization.
Tiffany Traverse
Vice-President Land and Seed Steward
Tiffany is a (non-status) Secwépemc farmer, land and seed steward, language learner, and food sovereignty advocate. Her passion for feeding people and firm belief in the right to healthy, culturally-appropriate foods for all, drive her work. Tiffany has served as a volunteer Advisory Council member with the Community Seed Network, and currently sits as a Member at Large on the Board of Directors for SeedChange, as well on the Equity and Inclusion Advisory Committee for Farmers for Climate Solutions and is a Council member (Mountain Forests Biome), for Indigenous Climate Action’s Indigenous-led decolonizing climate policy Advisory Council. Tiffany engages with stakeholders, partners, and rural residents through her work as a Wildfire Assistant with the BC Wildfire Service, to help present education around wildfire prevention and mitigation, as well as encourage autonomy for land stewardship within Indigenous communities. Her hope is to continue being a ‘Weaver’, advocating to create better access to resources and increase our collective seed and food security and sovereignty.
Brianne Miller
AdministratorFounder of Nada
Brianne is a marine biologist turned social entrepreneur with a passion for driving positive change through inspiring collective climate action. Having seen firsthand the impacts of our current food system on the oceans, Brianne is committed to revolutionizing the food system across the supply chain so that future generations can continue to enjoy and benefit from the world’s oceans. Brianne is the founder of Nada, a certified B-Corporation and carbon-negative package-free grocery store & delivery service on a mission to connect people to a more equitable, just, and regenerative food system. Brianne is a United Nations #notwasting food ambassador, a 2018 SheEO Venture, UBC Land & Food Systems mentor, and a former member of Vancouver Food Policy Council. Her food systems work has been featured widely in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Forbes and Nada was most recently recognized as 1% for the Planet’s Business Changemaker of the Year.
Av Singh
Administrator Agronomist
Leading proponent of regenerative organic agriculture, Av is engaged in food security and natural medicine projects across six continents. He serves as the Senior Agronomist at Gaia Green Organics; the Chief Agricultural Scientist with Green Gorilla; the Director of Cultivation atECO Canadian Organic; the Chief Soil Scientist at CaliCann (Colombia); Chief Operating Officer at Atlas Hemp (Malawi), and Quality Assurance Person for several cannabis facilities including his own Wildwood Flower. A long-time member of the Canadian Organic Growers and the National Farmers’ Union. More recently a member of Régénération Canada and the Canadian Psychedelic Association. Av is also a faculty member at Earth University (www.navdanya.org) in India where he delivers courses on agroecology and organic farming and a faculty member at the Nova Scotia Community College delivering a course on cannabis production. Av is proud and privileged to be a settler in Mi’kma’ki, the unceded territory of the Mi’kmaw, and constantly seeks to better understand his responsibilities in adhering to the Peace and Friendship Treaties signed by the sovereign Nations.
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.
Amanda Klarer
Administrator Food Systems Specialist
Amanda is a resilient food systems specialist with 10+ years of experience in urban & rural global agri-food value chains. She has worked from seed to palate in value chains and all across different sectors including government, not-for-profit, academia and the private sector experience with the many sides of our food ecosystems. Amanda has lived with and learned from communities around the world. She has supported the development of resilience in livelihood strategies through years of research and work with thousands of smallholder farming families in Cameroon, India, Malaysia, Morocco, Malawi, France and Canada. She is currently pursuing a PhD focusing on the decolonization of food systems. She believes that food has the power to change our common future and she is driven to be part of helping it create a healthier tomorrow.
Ross Macdonald
Treasurer Rancher, MSc., P.Ag.
Ross Macdonald is a student of improved stockmanship, horsemanship, grazing management, of selection for low maintenance cattle and long-term resilience whose practice is rooted in grassland ecology. He owns and operates 98 Ranch Inc in Saskatchewan, located on Treaty 4 Territory, with his wife, Christine Peters. The ranch is a cow/calf/yearling and grassfed operation built on a foundation of rangeland health and low-input cattle selection. The cattle generate profit through grazing and converting forages into beef while facilitating grassland ecological function including soil health, increasing effective precipitation, grassland resilience, wildlife habitat and biodiversity. Ross is an advocate for conservation-based land use, regenerative agricultural production system and always strives to be better!
Tannis Axten
Axten Farms Farmer
Tannis grew up on a farm in Southern Saskatchewan. She attended the University of Regina and received her Bachelor of Education majoring in Biology. After a short teaching career, Tannis married and moved to Minton to farm with her husband. As third-generation farmers on Axten Farms, Tannis and her husband, Derek, soon realized that their most valuable resource is their soil. With regenerative farming methods such as increased crop diversity, cover crops, controlled traffic farming, and composting, the family farm works to improve the health of their soil. These innovative practices have revived their optimism for farming and made farming a lot more fun. Her two children, Kate (17) and Brock (15), help with marketing and day-to-day operations.
Tannis enjoys using the microscope to study microbiology in the soil and has made it Axten Farms’focus to be “Loyal to the Soil”. Every action taken on the farm considers the impact it will have on the microorganism living in the soil. Every year has new obstacles, and Tannis enjoys sharing their farm’s journey.
Tannis and Derek were honoured to be named Saskatchewan and Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmers
in 2017, and to receive the L.B. Thompson Conservation Award in 2018.
