Amy Williams of Citizens of Humanity talks about regenerative cotton as a shift from extractive relationships to cooperative ones with growers. The brand works directly with farmers to build stewardship in rural communities, treating regeneration as restoring relationships across entire supply chains.
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Hi friends, this is Jon. And welcome back to the Regenerative Agriculture podcast where we talk about all kinds of fun topics related to regeneration and particularly regeneration in the context of farming, farm landscapes, soil health, plant health, livestock health, and just overall ecosystem health. I've been looking forward to the conversation we're about to have today for some time because it speaks to fundamental aspect of regeneration that I have not touched on here on the podcast before. I've shared these thoughts a number of times in the last year or so in several different keynote presentations. But when we think about regeneration, regeneration is fundamentally about regenerating relationships at all levels. Regenerating relationships between soil microbes and plants, between livestock and the landscape, between farmers and their suppliers, between farmers and the people who buy their products from them. It's kind of a universal. And when you think about regenerating relationships, a degraded relationship is a relationship that is very extractive. It's a relationship that is transactional. It's a relationship that is competitive, or you could simply call it a win lose relationship. And the opposite of that are relationships that are cooperative, collaborative, and where there is a true alignment and are working together for the greater good of the whole. These really truly synergistic relationships. And one of the fundamental relationships that needs to be regenerated in order for regeneration to take place at a landscape level is to regenerate the capacity for stewardship, to get more people who have loving, caring relationships with the land and with ecosystems back into rural communities. And, and for that to happen, we need better economic flows back into rural communities. And this is a fundamental aspect of regeneration. So I am delighted to welcome to this episode Amy Williams from Citizens of Humanity. I have been very impressed with the leadership role that Amy and her team have taken in developing these types of regenerative relationships with the growers that they are buying from. So, Amy, thank you for being here. I've been looking forward forward to this conversation. I'd love for you to tell us a little bit about your pathway, your journey, what brought you to this work that you're working on now with citizens of humanity and the unique approach that you have taken.
First of all, thank you for having me. We have been in a learning journey for the last couple of years and when we started it, I'll first say that your name came up from a variety of sources and a of variety.
