Didi Pershouse is the founder of the Land and Leadership Initiative, and the author of two books: The Ecology of Care: Medicine, Agriculture, Money, and the Quiet Power of Human and Microbial Communities, and Understanding Soil Health and Watershed Function. She grew up in a family of high-tech medical pioneers working in radiation and brain surgery. Seeing the often destructive effects of their work first-hand led Pershouse to pioneering work of her own: she developed a practice and theoretical framework for systems-based ecological medicine—restoring health to people as well as the social and ecological systems around them.
At the Center for Sustainable Medicine, her sliding-scale practice included community acupuncture, nutrient-dense diets, and resiliency counseling. When the Ecology of Care was published in 2016, her practice became a model for others, as she connected the dots between soil health and public health, and the role of beneficial microorganisms in maintaining a healthy climate both inside and outside the body.
Her work turned increasingly towards engaging patients and the public in conversations about the relationships between soil health, shifting weather patterns, capitalism, and human health.
In 2017 she published a facilitator's manual that has been used in over 40 countries, and was one of five speakers at the United Nations-FAO World Soil Day.
After 22 years of clinical work with patients, Pershouse now travels widely, leading participatory workshops. Her teaching and facilitation engages farmers and ranchers, schools, policy makers, investors, and environmentalists in building multi-stakeholder working groups to reduce flooding and drought, improve local economies, and improve soil health, public health, and climate resiliency through changes in land management, especially focused on the soil sponge: the living matrix that makes life on land possible.
In 2018, she founded the Land and Leadership Initiative, and the "Can we Rehydrate California?" Initiative. She is a Planning Commissioner for her town, a member of the Vermont State-appointed Payment For Ecosystem Services and Soil Health Working Group and is on the board of directors of the Soil Carbon Coalition and the Vermont Healthy Soils Coalition. She led a successful effort to conserve the Zebedee Headwaters Wetlands while serving as a Vermont Conservation Commissioner.
She is currently working on projects with the UN-FAO Farmer Field School program; the Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming Initiative (APCNF) in India (involving over 800,000 farmers); and the No Regrets Initiative.
She also leads retreats that develop and support resilient and regenerative leadership.
She bases her work on three fundamental principles borrowed from the Benedictines: on one end is stability/commitment, in the center is deep listening, and on the other end is flexibility in thought and action.
You can learn more about her work at www.didipershouse.com.
At the Center for Sustainable Medicine, her sliding-scale practice included community acupuncture, nutrient-dense diets, and resiliency counseling. When the Ecology of Care was published in 2016, her practice became a model for others, as she connected the dots between soil health and public health, and the role of beneficial microorganisms in maintaining a healthy climate both inside and outside the body.
Her work turned increasingly towards engaging patients and the public in conversations about the relationships between soil health, shifting weather patterns, capitalism, and human health.
In 2017 she published a facilitator's manual that has been used in over 40 countries, and was one of five speakers at the United Nations-FAO World Soil Day.
After 22 years of clinical work with patients, Pershouse now travels widely, leading participatory workshops. Her teaching and facilitation engages farmers and ranchers, schools, policy makers, investors, and environmentalists in building multi-stakeholder working groups to reduce flooding and drought, improve local economies, and improve soil health, public health, and climate resiliency through changes in land management, especially focused on the soil sponge: the living matrix that makes life on land possible.
In 2018, she founded the Land and Leadership Initiative, and the "Can we Rehydrate California?" Initiative. She is a Planning Commissioner for her town, a member of the Vermont State-appointed Payment For Ecosystem Services and Soil Health Working Group and is on the board of directors of the Soil Carbon Coalition and the Vermont Healthy Soils Coalition. She led a successful effort to conserve the Zebedee Headwaters Wetlands while serving as a Vermont Conservation Commissioner.
She is currently working on projects with the UN-FAO Farmer Field School program; the Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming Initiative (APCNF) in India (involving over 800,000 farmers); and the No Regrets Initiative.
She also leads retreats that develop and support resilient and regenerative leadership.
She bases her work on three fundamental principles borrowed from the Benedictines: on one end is stability/commitment, in the center is deep listening, and on the other end is flexibility in thought and action.
You can learn more about her work at www.didipershouse.com.
The Land & Leadership Initiative (LALI) is a deeply participatory School that provides strategic support and educational opportunities for current and emerging leaders, helping them to see and act on the potential to address society's major challenges—food, water, climate, conflict, health—by collaborating with nature and each other.
LALI offers trusted "seed media" resources, as well as workshops, courses, and webinars by worldwide leaders in the soil health and regenerative agriculture movements. LALI also has several ongoing communities of practice providing a space in which leaders (anyone working to make things go well around them whether their efforts are recognized or not) learn mutual resourcing and framework thinking, and apply them to real world issues. LALI aims to increase its community's ability to "image" the essential work of other species, to communicate about complexity, and to have clearer discernment and more effective interventions so that humans can participate meaningfully in the work of living systems. |
With Walter Jehne, Didi Pershouse founded this multi-stakeholder initiative tapping into the ingenuity of human and natural communities.
The aim is to create conditions in which the soil sponge regenerates, a fully functional water cycle is restored, and more people are involved in asking (and answering) questions about water, land, human interventions, and the essential work of other species. |
In 2006, Didi Pershouse founded the Center for Sustainable Medicine to:
Didi Pershouse's book--The Ecology of Care: Medicine, Agriculture, Money, and the Quiet Power of Human and Microbial Communities--came out of her work in defining and practicing sustainable medicine. |
The Soil Carbon Coalition is a nonprofit organization wanting to advance the practice, and spread awareness of the opportunity, of turning atmospheric carbon into living landscapes and soil carbon (such as soil life, organic matter, humus, etc.). A different kind of science is needed, based on shared evidence, open participation, specific locations and situations, and on learning to manage wholes consisting of people, land, the work of all species, and money. |