45. Ethical Vegan Homesteading and Beekeeping with Jeff and Ella Kennedy

Explicit content warning

08/07/18 • 136 min

Good Life Revival: Permaculture, Rewilding, Homesteading

Have you ever intentionally killed a living, breathing animal?

Was it to feed yourself, your family, friends, community? How did it make you feel?

For Jeff and Ella Kennedy of Ouiska Run Farm in Milltown, Indiana -- my guests on episode 45 of the Good Life Revival Podcast -- raising animals for meat led them to conclude that they would be better off pursuing a plant-based lifestyle.

What they were both surprised to discover was just how much their meat-free diet seemed to improve all aspects of their lives.

“I find myself having more clarity daily. Who knows where I would be right now had I not made that first choice when I was thirty to take a different life path? [...] The freak flag’s out and I’m letting it fly.”

The topic of whether or not to eat meat has become increasingly polarized in the social media era, so much so that it seems nearly impossible for a vegan and a meat-eater to have a reasoned, respectful, friendly? discussion.

Well, we've got proof right here that it is possible, my friends. By exploring our relationships with the food that we produce and consume, Jeff and Ella and I were able to find a great deal of common ground between us. After all, despite our differing choices on diet (I am an omnivore), we essentially share the same desires and dreams for our local landscape and our place within it.

Tune in to hear about Jeff and Ella's unlikely conversion to veganism, their efforts to rewild 8 acres in rural southern Indiana, thoughts on what to do with livestock animals after deciding not to eat them, their views on beekeeping as vegans, and much more.

Have you ever intentionally killed a living, breathing animal?

Was it to feed yourself, your family, friends, community? How did it make you feel?

What they were both surprised to discover was just how much their meat-free diet seemed to improve all aspects of their lives.

Previous Episode

44. Invasive Species, Restoration and Ecological Literacy with Tao Orion of Resilience Permaculture

What can so-called “invasive species” teach us about the health and vitality of our ecosystems?

Is it possible that these oft-maligned invaders are actually serving functional roles on the land? And if we determine that they need to be managed, how exactly should we go about it?

When you read Beyond the War on Invasive Species by Tao Orion, today’s guest on episode 44 of the Good Life Revival Podcast, you’ll discover that the conventional “restoration” narrative is pretty cut-and-dry: invasive species are a Problem that require complete and total eradication, primarily through the use of chemical herbicides such as glyphosate, 2,4-D and imazapyr.

How effective is this management plan? Not very. What sorts of consequences does it have for the health of the land, and all those who inhabit it? We do not know, but like many other myopic decisions that we humans are making in this era, it's safe to assume that the full effects may not even fully manifest for decades, or centuries, or millennia to come.

By contrast, Tao, along with a growing number of skeptical ecologists and naturalists (myself included), would argue that the proliferation of non-native species is merely one symptom of a problem that runs much deeper than plant populations in flux, down to the core of our civilization and how we organize our lives.

“We need to be willing to take responsibility for the ecological changes that our lifestyle brings.”

When we allow ourselves to ask “why?” all the way down to the root of the problem, we are forced to confront the uncomfortable truth that our very way of life in the modern era is the reason for undesirable species thriving where robust and resilient native communities once flourished.

“I honestly think people feel guilty about the ways that land is being managed. There’s a deep sense of unease about the way our society has come into being — about our colonialist history.”

Tune in to hear Tao and I discuss the complex nature of invasive species and the field of restoration ecology; what invasive species can tell us when we read the landscapes around us; and how we can promote ecological literacy in a culture that only seems capable of investing in short-term treatments to minor symptoms of systemic problems.

I have chosen Beyond the War on Invasive Species as my pick for the book club in the month of July. Order a copy directly from Tao and she will even sign it before sending it off. Support good people doing good work!

Today’s episode also features several new pieces of music by yours truly. Stick around to the end where I share a new song of mine — 8 years in the making! — called “No Inside, No Out.”

Want to hear all of the original music from the podcast, in full? That’s just one of the perks for pledging your support for the Good Life Revival at any level on Patreon, the crowdfunding platform that makes it possible for me to do this work.

You can also gain early access to interviews like this one with Tao, which was published on Patreon a full week ahead of its release on the main feed.

To learn more and pledge your support today, visit patreon.com/goodliferevival.

Next Episode

46. Coming Out of the Psychedelic Closet: Emotional Self-Improvement & Spiritual Healing

It's time to come clean: I have been self-medicating with psychedelic drugs for over a decade — essentially my entire adult life.

It started in college, first just "recreationally" and because I had a strong interest in altered states of consciousness. After a handful of deeply spiritual experiences that I was wholly unprepared for, I started to take psychedelics more seriously as "soul medicine."

Over the years, I developed an intentional ritual practice for myself that incorporated LSD, yoga, meditation, and nature immersion. A few times a year, I would spend a weekend out in the woods under the influence of psychedelics, carefully deconstructing and reconstructing my mind while cultivating loving energetic exchanges with the other-than-human spirits residing on the land.

This practice has been integral to my development as a fully formed adult human animal, enabling me to achieve emotional self-improvement and spiritual healing at a level that I never thought possible before I experienced it. Psychedelics have informed all aspects of my art (as a musician and writer), my spirituality, and my lifestyle.

I have never exactly tried to hide my appreciation for psychedelics, but in this episode I am speaking openly and candidly for the first time about my personal experiences with some of these powerful medicinal substances -- primarily LSD, psilocybin and cannabis, but also Salvia divinorum and DMT -- across 14 years and at least 50 sessions.

I try my best to describe the state of mind that psychedelics facilitate, and the therapeutic benefits that I stumbled upon through years of trial and error before "psychedelic therapy" was a topic that anybody was taking seriously.

I believe our culture is ready for a psychedelic renaissance, in which we finally learn to acknowledge and respect the gifts that psychedelic drugs offer us -- both in the healing of mental illness and in the overall improvement of emotional and spiritual wellbeing.

Now more than ever, I believe it is of the utmost importance for people like me, who've seen immense benefits through the (admittedly irresponsible) use of psychedelics to step up and share our accounts, so that we might normalize these drugs the same way that cannabis is currently being normalized.

Prohibition will come to an end, but it's going to take a serious upswing in popular opinion and public momentum before that day arrives. I offer my personal experiences here as yet another resounding voice of praise in the growing chorus of psychedelic advocates from all walks of life. I invite the rest of you to sing out with us!