Cathy Holt — Regenerative Agriculture Activist

Cathy Holt, MPH, is passionate about earth regeneration using water retention, permaculture, agroforestry, and getting pollution out of rivers. Following a dream in which she felt a calling to work for indigenous water rights, she visited Ecuador, Peru, and finally Colombia, where she has now been living for over two years. Biogas digesters, used globally to capture useful methane for cooking, also transform wastewater into excellent liquid fertilizer. Cathy has been helping bring this technology to farmers as well as to the pueblo of Barichara, Colombia. Her previous career in holistic health included biofeedback, guided imagery, HeartMath, and nonviolent communication.

You can view Cathy’s full archive on Medium.com





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June 20, 2024 Newsletter
Summer Solstice, Strawberry Full Moon, Celebrating Water

Excerpt: This Summer Solstice, on June 20 at 4:50 pm, is said to be a time of relationship harmony, committed partnerships, nurturing connections, and inspired creativity. On June 21, there is a “Strawberry Full Moon,” whose symbol is “a table set for an evening meal.” This could connote spiritual and material nourishment. The full moon in Capricorn signifies responsibility, ambition, and manifestation of career success.

What connections or partnerships are nurturing you this Solstice? What success are you celebrating? What is giving you nourishment?

Re-using greywater

In Barichara, Colombia, an itinerant pair of greywater educators from Mexico recently came to teach a practical, 2-day hands-on workshop on purifying soapy water from kitchen, sinks, and laundry. It’s always best to use biodegradable soap, and to avoid chlorine, they emphasized. About 20 enthusiastic students attended.
READ MORE ABOUT WASTEWATER ECOLOGY

Cathy Holt
 
Go slowly, breathe and smile – Thich Nhat Hanh

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May 20, 2024
Food Revolution Summit highlights — Ocean and John Robbins

Excerpt:  Perhaps you have read Diet for a New America, the book by John Robbins that revealed the damage caused to health and the planet by a meat centered diet, and documented the deplorable cruelty to animals raised as food. John walked away from the family business, Baskin & Robbins ice cream, and all the money his father had planned on giving him, to chart his own path. This book, published in 1987, influenced me greatly; as a health teacher in community colleges, I assigned parts of it to my students and also saw my own mother stop eating meat after reading it. John and his son Ocean are passionate advocates of a vegan, minimally processed diet; they interviewed many health experts as part of the “Food Revolution Summit” in early May.  READ MORE


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March 21, 2024
EARTH & US: World Water Day 2024…The Power of Poop!

Excerpt:  March 22 is World Water Day, and here in Barichara we’re celebrating the first heavy rain after several months of dry season and heat and dust. Canto al Agua, a simple chant to honor and thank water, was started a few years ago by a young woman from Bogota, and last year with the help of friends as well as this year, we’ll be singing to the Quebrada Barichara, thanking the stream for its water, and asking forgiveness for the damage people have caused to it.

Imagine a world where instead of causing contamination of precious and scarce freshwater, disease and global warming…through the miracle of biogas technology, busy microbes converted the human waste, animal waste, and inedible food waste into a completely renewable energy source that can cook our food, run our vehicles, provide lighting and electricity…all while using less energy than our current waste treatment methods, and producing an excellent fertilizer as a side product?

Too good to be true? Nope. READ MORE



River in the Forest — Cathy Holt — May 2024 — Barichara, Colombia


more to follow…