RestorING Health Through Regenerative Agriculture with Plant-Based Chef and Farmer, Mollie Engelhart

Interview by Ty Johnson | Introduction by Ainsley Schoppel

Having grown up on a twenty-seven acre organic farm in upstate New York, it’s no wonder that plant-based chef Mollie Engelhart has returned to farming in a big way.

After graduating from the CalArts film program, Mollie initially began her career in entertainment with Sony Music. She founded Majestic Studios, became a spoken-word recording artist, appeared on the HBO series, Def Poetry Jam, and featured in Sp!t—a groundbreaking documentary. But even with these accomplishments, Mollie felt her past pushing her in a compelling new direction.

Inspired by her upbringing and values of healthand-wellness-through-food, Mollie opened vegan restaurants KindKreme and Sage—the latter of which now has four locations in Southern California. Mollie also produced May I Be Frank, a documentary highlighting the bevy of transformations that are possible with healthy eating and positive thinking.

In spite of her success in the competitive food industry, Mollie realized she had become apathetic to the true environmental issues facing our planet, and the solutions they so desperately need. “I can remember exactly where I was,” Mollie recalls. “I was standing in my driveway in my little suburban neighborhood thinking I was doing all the things I should be doing to help the planet—I had a hybrid car, used my own reusable bags at the grocery store, ran a vegan restaurant, and sipped on oat milk lattes—and it hit me: I had become apathetic.” So, Mollie and her husband, Chef Elias Sosa, bought Sow a Heart farm and moved their family to live with the land. Sow a Heart—a regenerative farm committed to drawing more carbon out of the atmosphere than it puts in—now grows a variety of fruits and vegetables including citrus fruits, avocados, squash, eggplant, tomatoes, cucumbers, jalapenos, kale, swiss chard, cabbage, and peppers. And to close the loop, all food waste from Mollie’s restaurants is returned to the farm, composted into soil, and used to nurture the next round of crops.

Now a part of Farmers Footprint—a coalition of farmers, educators, doctors, scientists, and business leaders aiming to expose the human and environmental impacts of chemical farming—Mollie is working with like-minded individuals to find a path forward through regenerative agricultural practices. She also sits on the board of Kiss the Ground—a nonprofit that is raising awareness of regenerative agriculture as a viable solution to combat the climate, water, and health crisis—and contributed to their eponymous documentary and upcoming sequel, Common Ground.

With unparalleled experience and passion, Face the Current was thrilled to speak with Mollie about the importance of regenerative agriculture, our need for more small-scale farms, and why we must look at soil-health as a critical tool to redirect societal health.

Sow a Heart Farm was “built on love”! Why is the farm a perfect place to raise your family?

I believe soil health is profoundly connected to human health in both our immune systems and mental health. When you look at microbiology in soil and in the human gut, there is almost a seventypercent overlap, so it’s obvious that we were meant to live with healthy soil. There’s lots of new evidence that shows that mental health is linked with soil health. These are the reasons why I think it’s important to raise a family on a farm and be immersed in nature.

Can you give us deeper insight into your journey and evolution as a land steward? Was there a specific point, or an “a-ha moment”, when you realized how land stewardship could change today’s world?

In 2013 I watched a Graeme Sait TedTalk and I realized that regenerative agriculture was a powerful tool, and that most of what I’ve been taught about being an environmentalist was greenwashing. The real work that needed to be done was humans working with nature and it was a misconception that humans were the problem. It’s not the most as nothing can thrive in a sterile environment. We must reremember that our connection to nature is fundamental to the survival of the species. Not in a climate-change-fearmongering way, but in actuality we are meant to eat the food of the earth. our job to be the apex species and be the solution. I then spent years trying to acquire land and in 2018 I finally did!

Can you give us a bit more perspective on regenerative agriculture’s potential role in shaping an abundant future for coming generations?

Regenerative agriculture is one of the most important pathways forward if not the most important pathway forward, as nothing can thrive in a sterile environment. We must re-remember that our connection to nature is fundamental to the survival of the species. Not in a climate-change-fear-mongering way, but in actuality we are meant to eat the food of the earth. Healthy water and healthy soil equals healthy food and healthy humans. Many environmentalists think we should move into cities and rewild much of the land. I think we need more custodians of Earth; taking on human health and soil health as fundamentally important for the future of the planet. I believe we need more farmers, not less, and more people giving their life to the earth. The beginning of the end was the industrial revolution where people left the family farm and moved to the city. We must go back to the earth. The thing about regenerative farming is that it takes more labor, so we need more small farms, more family farms, and more people seeing soil as common ground.

You mention being inspired by a desire to cultivate new ways of thinking about our food. When we see food as sacred, how does this change the way we interact with our environment?

When we take a moment to remember that we are all a part of the whole that is God and that we are not outside of it, then everything is sacred. And the lie is that humanity is the problem on the planet. The truth is our disconnection from knowing our place is the problem. In all that I do, I hope to inspire people to re-remember that they are a part of the whole that is God. From that context, humanity will choose to operate in alignment with Mother Nature, enhancing her power and not taking away from it.

With so much of the food industry controlled by large factory-based operations, it is becoming increasingly important to #knowyourfarmer.

What are some benefits of knowing your farmer and the ways in which your food is grown/produced?

My trust in the government and bureaucratic institutions related to the government is waning. I don’t think the answer is “certified organic” or “USDA approved”. I think that the answer is living in community, supporting your community with what your endeavors are, and trusting each other. The only way this works for a “re-imagined” future is that we learn to trust each other. Even having a farm is cost prohibitive for most people, but if we can learn to come together and trust each other, we could have a much more powerful relationship to our food and each other. I don’t know that we need bureaucratic and government agencies letting us know what we can and cannot trust. We have to learn to trust each other, find our tribe and be the ones we’ve been waiting for.

What does farm-to-table food mean to you?

Farm-to-table means that there’s no middleman or aggregator between the chef and the farmer. One hundred percent of the invoice that the restaurant pays goes to the farm. Why do you and your family choose to consume a plantbased diet, and what are the benefits?

I do not believe that there is one diet for everyone. I do not believe that I can answer that question authentically. For me, I eat a vegetarian diet and it feels good for me. But my husband eats mostly vegetables and meat and that’s what feels good to him. The diet is not the answer. The benefit is eating whole foods in the form that God gave them to us from healthy soil. If you listen to your body and eat the foods your body desires in their whole form, the benefits will be that you are supporting your body. With all these diets such as vegan, paleo, glutenfree, keto—I don’t believe there’s one prescription for everybody. The answer is to take the toxins out of your environment and stop eating processed foods. “What” you’re eating is less important than “how” you’re eating. You want to eat clean, whole, and of the earth—the way you imagine it growing when you see the word, not refined into something that no longer resembles what it was.

From both the micro and macro perspectives, how important is soil health?

In my opinion, there’s almost nothing more important on the planet. From the human-health perspective, the environmental-health perspective, and the animal-health perspective, there’s nothing more important than soil. If I could make every person I know be committed to soil health, I would. But since we can’t force other people, I can just choose to give my life to soil health and hope that it inspires others.

The relationship between humans and our natural world has been mentioned again and again throughout time. How can we appreciate and preserve life through our relationship with food and land, and why should everyone care?

I’m not sure that everybody needs to care. We can see that people don’t care. People value convenience over anything else, but it’s important for some people to lead the charge. Unfortunately, the current “environmentalists” are pushing an agenda that actually has nothing to do with cleaning up our environment and everything to do with the green industrial conflicts, selling of electric cars, solar panels, and other ways that governments can monetize the fear around the environment. I hope that enough of us learn to care about the actual environment and not fear mongering and climate change.

With all these diets such as vegan, paleo, gluten-free, keto—I don’t believe there’s one prescription for everybody. The answer is to take the toxins out of your environment and stop eating processed foods.

In light of the pressures of climate change and population growth, there has never been a more urgent time to develop a sustainable relationship with our land. As a leading voice for the regenerative agriculture movement, do you believe we can unite humanity behind this collective cause?

I must take issue with the question. I don’t think that we are experiencing population growth. I believe we are in a population decline coming very soon. Many scientists speculate that the average sperm count of a man by 2040 will be zero (Hagai, Levine et al. Temporal Trends in Sperm Count: A Systematic Review and Meta-Regression Analysis of Samples Collected Globally in the 20th and 21st Centuries. National Library of Medicine. March, 2023). If you look around in the developed world, it’s becoming progressively harder for people to procreate. The question should not be about climate change, uniting humanity, and overpopulation, it should be more about the chemicals in our environment and the mass extinction we are causing by our overuse of these chemicals that are plainly in everything around us. From our water to our food, cleaning products, hygiene products, pharmaceuticals, furniture, clothing—all are dipped in toxic chemicals that are leading to the inability of humans to procreate. Regenerative agriculture can sequester carbon in mass quantities, yet we still obsess over carbon as if there’s no solution and ignore the massive amounts of chemicals that are making us infertile, sick, and societally unwell. ymore info: www.sowaheart.com www.sageveganbistro.com www.ecofarmfinder.com/sow-a-heart-farm