'Love Is Blind' and So Is Sustainability

A primer on circularity, love, reality television, and farming you didn't ask for but might just need more than you realize.

Welcome back to The Link, a bi-weekly newsletter making the connection between “regenerative farming,” and you—city slickers, country mice, and everyone living in the in between—every other Sunday.

Whenever I think about the notion of love, it makes me think of the word reciprocity, the practice of exchanging things with others for mutual benefit. While love might not always transform its shape into infinity—a limitless, endless, immeasurable back and forth flow that goes at its own pace—when love does in fact ebb and flow, no matter its shape, reciprocity is a cycle of exchange that’s undeniably there. 

I guess it was all that time spent alone during quarantine that got me invested in saccharine television shows about human connection and artificial permanence. Living in solitude in a plague had me deeply invested in The Bachelorette’s 2020 contestant Clare Crawley, and the controversial decision she had to make between picking her heartthrob, Dale, and leaving the show altogether, because sometimes, there’s just too many carrots in the stew. Then there were all of those random couples that had earnestly walked into creepy soundproof pods somewhere in Ohio, willingly living off of Craft food services for weeks so that they could talk to complete strangers through a wall. Their hope in finding their forever love was too strong to break, because some of them actually met their betrothed within a week on Love Is Blind.

Girlfriend, it’s Sunday. I was planning on doing laundry, ordering something overpriced off of Postmates, and watching The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills latest season. Why are you talking about reality TV shows I won’t admit to watching? I get that it was a little ambitious to send this thing out during a mercury retrograde/lunar eclipse. And if you’re a friend who I added to this list without your consent, I see you, I know you, and I know you’ve spent too many hours discussing the passionate toxicity of Giannina and Damian’s love from Season One of Love Is Blind with me. And if you’re here because you thought this newsletter was about regenerative farming, don’t leave. I’m actually bringing us out of one rabbit hole and walking us into another. Besides, rabbit holes are made of multiple chambers that take great effort and care to build. These two are connected. 

For most of the contestants on these shows, their short-lived love exchanges stop with the engagement ring that eventually gets returned. In many ways, these scenarios remind me of the way we use the term “sustainability.” As someone who works in media, understands branding, and is a consumer in capitalism, I see this term misused and mislabeled across well-intentioned conversations and communities concerned about solving the climate crisis. And while I’m not implying that anyone here using this term like a Bachelor contestant using the phrase “I’m here for the right reasons,” only to prove fans otherwise, I do want to take us into a third chamber of the rabbit hole (this one is nicely furnished and there’s ample pillows to scream into) to get into circularity. At this point, if you’re feeling like the Big Lebowski scribbling on a notepad half paying attention, very much feeling like “That's just like, your opinion, man,” I feel you, but also, what exactly is sustainability connected to? 

The industrial revolution launched the greatest period of economic growth, agricultural and technological advancements, and population expansion in human history (unless there were aliens that deleted themselves from history as we know it, but I’ll save that for some Ancient Aliens subreddit forum to unpack). This revolution, also known as a linear model, transformed our global economies from small-scale agriculture and handicrafts into economies structured on large-scale industry, mechanized manufacturing, and a factory system focused on “efficiency.” After WWII, this system created the “buy now, pay later” opportunities for developed nations. I’m not trying to mansplain here, I promise.

The thing about a linear economy is that it depends on cheap materials, affordable energy, and cheap credit. I don’t have to tell you that all of these things are up for question in 2022. Food prices are fluctuating. We have huge debt across the world. Our current economy consumes 70% more resources per year than the Earth is capable of replenishing. So from a linguistics perspective, in many ways, sustainability largely implies that we’re sustaining on our current linear model: we take resources from the Earth → we make them into products → we discard them. We need a system that also factors in the environment. Resources are becoming increasingly hard to extract. The price of oil is volatile and the cost of extracting it is difficult to live with. 

But Helen, I thought you said this newsletter was optimistic. Also I am bored because you’re getting into depressing global issues and I’m already dealing with the Sunday Scaries. Plus I get the gist on climate issues. Thanks for bringing me back to the task at hand. 

OK so every once in a while on those dating shows, there’s a love that transcends into the platinum wedding band situation, the kind of commitment that actually seems like an infinite circle of trust and support (or at least they’re still together, exhausted from having a bunch of kids and battling Lyme Disease because New England. (I’m looking at you, Ryan and Trista). This commitment is a loop system like that wedding band (which btw, I’ve heard don’t ever wear platinum rings. Just ask Jimmy Fallon. 

This is an extremely crunchy segue into circularity. We’ve already covered our bases that our current circumstances have dramatically changed so ignore the Sunday Scaries for a second. Circularity is a lot like manifesting more infinity into your own future. It takes a lot of effort, imagination, and an open mind. It’s a systems solution framework that takes on global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. 

In a less bong rip articulation, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the Circular Economy (as opposed to a linear one) “is a systemic approach to economic development designed to benefit businesses, society, and the environment. In contrast to the ‘take-make-waste’ linear model, a circular economy is regenerative by design and aims to gradually decouple growth from the consumption of finite resources.” You can learn much more about it (and this incredible free course via the Ellen MacArthur Foundation here), but the cool thing about this economic model is that it transcends politics. It’s been endorsed by the European Union, Canada, California, the World Economic Forum, the UN, and other international organizations and leading NGOs. 

So why did I gas you up all this time with these Bachelor Nation moments coupled with industrialized approaches to life and a newer emerging model that is quietly becoming adapted across countries all over the world as we speak? Because regenerative farming is an important element of circular strategies. And much like a deck of cards as we get through this newsletter together, I’m going to be infusing components of circularity throughout each interview, depending on how I cut the stack every other Sunday. So tune out, or tune in to the frequency you wanna pick up on as we go deeper into the farming space. 

Mass extinction isn’t sexy. If we want to keep watching other people make questionable love matches on television years from now, changing our mindsets is the only way towards a less grim future. What is actually attractive: regenerative farming is one of the fastest ways to drawdown. More on that later. See you two Sundays from now to get straight into the dirt with a special guest expert.

I see you still reading this sentence. If you have future topics, smart humans, or concepts you’d like to see featured, respond to this newsletter or drop me a line and say hey: Helen@HelenHollyman.com.

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