Megan Parks of Grassroots Carbon: Moving Beyond a Reductionist Focus on Carbon to a Broader Understanding of Regeneration, Ecological Health, Living Systems and What it Means for People

In this episode Kaitlyn Allen chats with Megan Parks, an entrepreneur focused on soil health, regenerative agriculture, and climate change. She is co-founder and Executive Vice President of Grassroots Carbon, a public benefit company that helps leading organizations remove and store massive amounts of carbon in healthy soils across America's millions of acres of grazing lands. Megan previously worked for nearly two decades as an environmental leader in the energy industry.  In addition to her work at Grassroots Carbon, she owns AMB Parks Consulting, an independent environmental consulting firm providing environmental services to a variety of corporate clients across various industries such as chemicals, manufacturing, and energy services.  Megan is a thought leader on the topic of ecological design and its intersection with sustainability. If you have not heard of the term ‘regenerative grazing’, you are not alone.  Kaitlyn and Megan provide a comparative overview of conventional agriculture and regenerative grazing, and their differential impacts on our climate.  While they discuss growing food and raising meat in ways that are symbiotic with nature and beneficial to people and the planet, Megan reminds us that the term "regenerative" is not rooted in practices; it is a mindset that prioritizes our partnership with nature. This episode will really get you thinking….and not just about regenerative grazing, but about how and why carbon markets - and buyers of soil carbon storage like Shoptify and Marathon Oil - enable a scalable solution to remove excessive carbon from the atmosphere. Soil carbon storage can help businesses and countries to meet their climate commitments, while also restoring ecological health to America's grazing lands and injecting capital into rural economies.   As a resource boost for this episode, check out the Netflix documentary, Kiss the Ground, Peter Byck's Carbon Cowboys, and the resources page at www.buildgrassroots.com Subscribe to ESG Decoded where you consume your podcasts and connect via social media to share your feedback and topic suggestions. Enjoy this episode!