Development Corner

Healthy Land. Healthy Food. Healthy Lives. a publication of Holistic Management International 5941 Jefferson St. NE, Suite B Albuquerque, NM 87109 USA

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DEVELOPMENT CORNER Once A Teacher, Always a Teacher

Cathy Semrod is a self-avowed educator. She began her career as a high school English teacher in Sarasota, Florida. “I hate to admit, I had no idea about our food system or soil health or gut health. And though I always had an affinity with nature and walked, ran and biked, I didn’t have a particularly healthy lifestyle. I was eating at McDonald’s every other day and was completely naive about where and how our food was made.” Cathy said.

“I was teaching an AP English class and I selected Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. I didn’t know to the full extent what was in it and certainly didn’t know how it was going to change the trajectory of my life. I was just hoping to stir ideas up with my students. That book changed my life and gave me an understanding of our food system and the destruction caused by the industrial food system. It was so eye opening and heart breaking to read. I had no idea what was happening to workers in farms and factories or to animals and our soils. And once you

Cathy out front of the new have that kind of knowledge you can’t Wallflower store. be in denial. I’ve never had fast food again. I realized what I was supporting when I bought that food, how I was contributing to a system that was poisoning the planet and hurting animals and the soil and our health.

“That started me on my journey of learning how we could grow food in a way that was good for the planet. In that exploration I discovered Permaculture and got excited about how we could grow food and use water and other resources sustainably. I learned how we can turn around the industrial food system and make a difference. In the process I learned about Holistic Management. I also became really interested in soils and trained at Earthfort in Corvallis, Oregon and in various workshops including ones with Elaine Ingham.

“After I took my first Permaculture class in 2008, I moved around the Wallflower products.

country with a trailer and took Permaculture courses at Oregon State University. I was intent on having a farm and getting a keyline plow. I did this for eight years.”

In 2013 Cathy took her first introductory Holistic Management course. “At that time I still thought I was going to farm. The decision-making process has really stuck with me, and I’m always looking for that logjam that is holding me back, or keeping me from moving forward.” Cathy noted it also helped her make better decisions and determine her next career step.

Cathy also noted that she has used the process to help her with an outdoor living and garden boutique, “Wallflower” she started in 2017 in Santa Fe. “My vision for Wallflower has always been to use it as a way to educate others about nature and how we can make a difference by learning about it and engaging with it.” The Holistic Management course Cathy took also focused on ecosystem function and health. “The class reinforced how we need to observe nature to understand it, to interact with it. It’s a huge part of what I’m doing now.”

In the last year Cathy realized that location was a major logjam for her business. She couldn’t grow the business if people couldn’t find her. “My location was keeping me from getting bigger,” she says. Cathy needed a larger space to fulfill her vision for Wallflower. “With my new location I’ll be able to have the space to show people bird and bee houses and add more products to help get people outside and engaging with our ecosystems that support us. It is a small ripple in the big ocean of transitioning humans to being more supportive of systems that sustain us, but, through my store, I feel sometimes that I am connecting with the folks who are outside the Holistic Management, Permaculture, or

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