163. Regerating a Region
Jeff Pow on how a regenerative, cruelty-free food system thrives or folds
Jeff Pow is at the helm of an extraordinary story of regeneration. You might remember him and his wife Michelle McManus from episode 78, when I first visited them at Southampton near Balingup in WA back at the end of 2020. (They were also later highlighted among some globally esteemed names in the acknowledgements of Paul Hawken’s book Regeneration.) Since then, I’d been seeing the land there go from strength to strength. And I’d been hearing about how their pasture-raised poultry (as distinct from so-called free-range), and their micro-processing systems, were now enabling regional regeneration – of country, community and economy. Even in the face of COVID, more fires, and still finding themselves constantly on the brink of folding.
Jeff Pow and Michelle McManus at Southampton Homestead (pic: Anthony James).
“You’ve seen this place, Anthony. You’ve seen the density and diversity of life here in this valley as a result of our farming practices. If you want to support farms like ours, to support other farmers like ours, who support other farmers like ours, that’s a multiplication effect. If you want to support that, then make those choices with your dollars.”
Attempts and experiments with partners to create market systems that get us eaters this nutritious, cruelty-free and regenerative food, and these farmers a livelihood, maybe even the means to do more of their great work, aren’t working. This is still too often the missing piece, it seems. So what shift in lens, and systems, can bring us all together in these situations, to enable the regeneration I’m seeing at Southampton and elsewhere, to happen everywhere?
The centrepiece of this visit was actually to join a celebratory harvest dinner with a couple of dozen people from around the region, who are now linking in with Southampton in various ways. Jeff and I hadn’t intended to record anything, but that critical question became too compelling as we talked over dinner. So next morning (which happened to be Jeff’s birthday), we pulled up a pew under the oak tree, and pulled out the phone to record.
We start in space, believe it or not. Then come back to earth with how torturously chicken appears in supermarkets, but how brilliantly it happens here. And how it all hinges on the possibilities we explore next.
This conversation was recorded on location at Southampton Homestead near Balingup WA, on 30 April 2023.
See more photos including behind the scenes by becoming a subscriber via the Patreon page.
Find more:
Dirty Clean Food’s terrific profile page on Jeff and Michelle’s operation.
Dirty Clean Food’s online shop for pasture-raised poultry, including from Southampton (it looks like hovering over the pictures brings up the Southampton logo when it’s from there).
For more with Jeff Pow, and Michelle McManus (including other links, and photos on the episode web page), listen to episode 78.
And to listen to Jeff with Yeshe, tune into Yeshe Interviews, for Earth & Space & Chickens & how they’re all connected.
Music:
Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now.