Be the Earth believes that in order to challenge current philanthropy and impact investment models we need first and foremost to challenge ourselves and our own practices. This is why we step away from traditional models, and focus on collaboration and reciprocity. Our mission is to offer and widen access to multiples forms of capital - Financial, Social, Cultural - to build partnerships that strengthen the ecosystem of those seeking regenerative economic models that prioritise life on earth. This is our journey, and we are happy to share with you how we are learning to walk the talk.

Below are few highlights of stories to inspire, opportunities to engage and reasons to keep the good work for a thriving future!

Soilful: The Story of Loop:Frome’s Mission

What happens to food waste after it gets scraped off our plates and chopping boards?

When a passionate group of Fromies (a nickname for the people of Frome) started investigating this question, they discovered the town was leaking valuable nutrients via its discarded eggshells, potato peelings, coffee grounds and all manner of healthy by-products and leftovers.

And so Loop:Frome was born, with a mission to redirect all this goodness from landfill and incineration back onto the town’s soil in the form of living, nutrient-rich compost.

Their new short film "Soilful" is an inspirational, informative, and artistic piece. Melding music, visuals and composty goodness!

Loop:Frome is part of Blooming Initiative: a programme in its early stages that combines unrestricted seed granting with capacity building and funding for comms as a format of reporting. Stay tuned to know more about Blooming!  

Be the Earth and the A Team Foundation backing the new phase of growth for Ooooby

We are excited to announce one of our new portfolio companies, Ooooby, who we have recently co-invested in with the A Team Foundation!

Ooooby's mission is to "put local small-scale sustainable farming back at the heart of the food system we all depend on." They are actively bringing the farmer's market to people's homes by making it easy for them to shop online for local and organic produce, in a way that supports small scale farmers. Even more amazingly, they are currently doing this in the UK across multiple counties as well as in Australia and New Zealand!

Ooooby's founder, Pete Russell, shared in a recent article:

"The A Team Foundation and Be the Earth are both deeply committed to helping to realise an ecologically sound food system and they understand that resilient and durable ecosystems rely on diversity, decentralisation and broad distribution of ownership and control."

We are looking forward to being on this journey with Ooooby and supporting them in realising the vision of putting small-scale and sustainable farming back at the centre of the food system.

Giving in to Love

Aura Fellowship Stories

Nomita Khatri is one of our wonderful Aurettes (fellow of our Aura Programme) as well as a storyteller, researcher, artist and trauma counsellor. Nomita is an Indian woman of mixed religion and she practices belonging to herself and the world by listening to plants.

We are grateful this month that Nomita has shared with us her story of heartbreak and grief that consequently led her into the descent of her body, and a sweet reconnection with her feminine essence and Nature.

Nomita shares: "In 2020, I came to the Aura Fellowship having explored ideas of our relationship of power with the more-than-human world. Since then, I have had the opportunity to stew in vast quantities of pandemic-brought-isolation, while sharpening my felt sense of the world and the ways in which I have lived in disconnection. I have done this, by learning to pay attention to my nervous system - the instinctual part of my organism that responds to outside stimuli at a pace slower than the clever, overthinking mind."

The Bertha Challenge 2023: Applications open!

Bertha's 4th annual challenge will begin in January 2023 with a focus on food, specifically supporting Bertha Fellows to answer the following question:

How is the relationship and corporate control of our food systems contributing to the environmental devastation and hunger, and how can food production centre people and nutrition rather than profit?

This is an opportunity for activists and investigative journalists to spend a year working on one pressing social justice challenge and to deliver a body of work at the end of the Fellowship year. Successful applicants will receive non-residential paid Fellowships and project budgets to work independently and together to:

- INVESTIGATE the causes of and solutions to the annual Bertha
Challenge question
- AMPLIFY their findings to a wider targeted audience
- CONNECT with diverse stakeholders for information, support and
sustainable impact

If you'd like to learn more and apply for the Bertha challenge, click the button below.

Applications are now open! Please help to spread the word!

Part 2 of "A Transformative Blog Post Series":

From Inner to Outer Sustainability

In March, we shared Part 1 of this blog series with Marlene Zehnter - “From Inner to Outer Sustainability - A Transformative Journey with Food”.

In the series so far, Marlene writes about her journey with food and what has supported her clients in moving through unconscious eating behaviours to feeling at ease and eating in harmony with themselves and the Earth. 

In Part 2, Marlene shares a compassionate and self-loving 3-step method to answer the questions:

"How can we do things that we know are good for us in a more sustainable way, without resenting them?"

"How can we stop doing things we know are bad for us?"

Marlene encourages the readers of this blog to use the journalling prompts she has provided to reflect on their relationship with food and themselves, and is even giving away two 1 hour coaching sessions to the first 2 people who email her with their reflections!

Visit Marlene's Instagram page if you need more insights on how to let go of stress, tension and trauma, and reconnect with your own nature. 

 ✨ Astrological Insights for June ✨

Time for effective Activism

With Bruna Maia

We have officially entered Gemini Season, a time for enhanced mental stimulation, curiosity, and the spread of new ideas. As the Sun and the Moon join forces on this New Moon, we’re all being asked to write a new chapter of our lives. What new life story does your higher self long to tell?

This month, our creative energy is being fueled by potent Jupiter and Mars in Aries, inspiring us toward expansive courageous action and effective activism. You might be feeling a stronger sense of conviction and drive to fight for the causes that awaken your soul, listen to the wisdom of your inner warrior.

Since Mercury, the ruler of this New Moon, is currently retrograde until June 3, even though there is a lot of momentum, this is still a time for deep reflection, contemplation, and reassessment of our values. Allow more space for your ideas to settle into your heart, so we can eventually turn them into action for a more beautiful world. 

For more info on this month's cycles, follow @bru_maia on IG!