Harnessing the Power of Permaculture for a Healthier You and Planet with Matthew Britt

What if you could revolutionize your personal health and save the planet at the same time?

In this electrifying episode, we welcome Matthew Britt, an inspiring entrepreneur who has made a remarkable journey from the fitness world to becoming a sustainable living advocate. 🌱✨

Matthew shares his transformation from promoting health through movement, mindset, and nutrition to founding Food Forest Abundance, a groundbreaking company that empowers people to grow their own food.

We dive deep into the game-changing potential of permaculture. Unlike traditional farming, which often fights against nature, permaculture works harmoniously with it, utilizing diverse perennial plants to create sustainable and low-maintenance ecosystems. 🌿🌏

Our discussion unveils the incredible benefits of permaculture, like reducing food waste and enhancing local food security, while tackling the challenges and misconceptions surrounding this innovative approach. From suburban homes to urban regeneration projects, we explore how permaculture can revolutionize our food systems for the better.

With an ambitious goal to establish 10,000 academies worldwide in the next decade, these sites are set to become epicenters for learning and implementing self-sufficiency. Tune in to discover how these initiatives can empower communities and help you take small, impactful steps toward a more sustainable and self-reliant lifestyle.

Connect with Matthew:

• Website: foodforestabundance.com
• LinkedIn: Matthew Britt
• Instagram: @matthewbrittspics
• Facebook: Matthew Britt
• Twitter: @billionairemind
• YouTube: The Jim Gale Show

Chapters

• 0:11 Transforming Personal Health and Environment
• 9:32 Revolutionizing Agriculture Through Permaculture
• 23:08 Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems
• 34:36 Designing Sustainable Food Production Vision
• 39:13 Empowering Communities Through Food Systems
• 51:45 Building Freedom Farm Academies

Transcript

Dai Manuel: 0:11

Welcome back to another episode of the 2% Solution Podcast. I'm your host, Diamond Well, and today we have a special guest on a mission to transform our approach to food and sustainability. Imagine a world where your backyard can provide abundant, fresh, nutritious food, reducing your reliance on grocery stores and ultimately contributing to a healthier planet. Sounds intriguing, right? Today's guest is the incredible Matthew Britt, an entrepreneur and advocate for sustainable living. Matthew has taken a fascinating journey from the fitness industry to becoming a leading voice in the permaculture and sustainable food systems. He is the driving force behind Food Forest Abundance, a company empowering individuals to grow their own food using innovative, nature-friendly methods. So stay tuned as we dive into Matthew's story, his insights on creating a localized, decentralized, poison-free food supply and how to take small steps towards a more self-sufficient lifestyle. Trust me, you don't want to miss this. If you find today's episode valuable, subscribe, share and leave us a review. Let's get started.

Dai Manuel: 1:30

Welcome back to the 2% Solution Podcast. I'm still Diamond Will. I haven't changed that yet, but anyways, you're welcome back. As I said in the intro, we got a great guest today, Somebody I've known for over 10 years. We both are extremely passionate about health and fitness. In fact, both of our origins were in health and fitness industries. He has now gone into a completely different industry, but not really. It's still about health and in fact, today we're going to be talking about transforming personal health, but also environmental impact through homegrown food and really how to be more self-reliant when it comes to living off the life, and I mean, we got nobody better to speak to about this other than Matthew Britt. Matt, welcome to the show, dude.

Matthew Britt: 2:11

Hey brother, great to see you, great to be here, very excited about this interview, and I'm so fucking it's great to see what you've been able to do with this show. You've had it running for a very short period of time really, and you've got tremendous traction, making a lot of impact. People are loving it, so I'm grateful to be here with you.

Dai Manuel: 2:34

Thanks, man. Listen man, it's. Uh, I appreciate that it's. It's honestly, it's the listeners and I got to thank them because they keep helping me show up.

Matthew Britt: 2:44

I gotta be honest.

Dai Manuel: 2:45

I'm showing up for them. You know, if they keep telling me they like it, they're finding value and they keep giving me great ideas, I'll keep showing up, so that's my commitment to everybody that's listening to this and uh, but also great guests like you.

Dai Manuel: 2:56

I mean, selfishly speaking, I'm learning a ton in areas I know nothing about, because I get to interview people like yourself and and in fact I'm really curious, like, how do you go from health industry like the fitness industry, especially cause you had a heavy fitness background like myself? Yeah, You're doing what you're doing now, which is you've completely embraced being an entrepreneur, but I, you've been an entrepreneur a long time in different spaces, but this is a very different direction, you know, not one I would have ever guessed for you based on our early days where we started.

Dai Manuel: 3:27

So I'd love to hear how the hell do you get to where you are today, especially from a fitness background like we both shared, you know.

Matthew Britt: 3:34

Well, it's actually rather interesting because and simple because I set a high overarching mission for my life, a high overarching mission for my life, and when I determined what that was, I was able to choose different things to do, as long as it fit inside that overall mission for my life. And, truthfully, I chose to impact life, health and wealth. I wrote that on a card back in 2004. So over 20 years ago, when I first got exposed to the industry of network marketing, I was actually working at the college gym in Ottawa and created that overarching mission for myself. And as I journeyed through the health and fitness world, I was always an entrepreneur at the same time in the network marketing industry, promoting different health products. And then, when I met you through the company we were a part of, they interestingly enough, had a mission of life, health and prosperity. So it fit with my life, health and wealth thing.

Matthew Britt: 4:46

And as I went through that health and fitness journey with that company, as that kind of came to a close, I moved into the solar industry. Actually, at first I had a t-shirt business that was all about spreading hugs, positive vibes and happiness, but then I moved into the solar space and from the solar space is what led me to where I'm at today. So, starting in the fitness world, I saw myself improving people's health through movement, mindset, breath, work, nutrition, getting them off of chemicals, pharmaceutical drugs. And as I made that journey over 15 years and had a lot of success, another opportunity came to me around the solar space, and that was a space where I could also go to work against some of the things that had been harming people inside of the chemical, oil and gas world. Right, and I believe that we've been harming our environment. I don't necessarily believe a climate change narrative, but I believe we need to take care of our environment, no question about it. So I didn't get into solar to save the world and do this lead this green transition, although I did it to. Hey, if we can collect energy from the sun, why are we wasting all of this space on homes that currently just get beat up by the sun? Right, let's collect the energy and utilize it to power our lives. And I also realized that there's still a massive amount of people throughout the world that have no access to electricity today, but they have, interestingly enough, the most sunlight. Most of these people that don't have electricity live around the equator, where there's a lot of sun, so let's capture that. So that's what made me transition into solar.

Matthew Britt: 6:35

And as I was in the solar industry, I came across where I'm at now Food Forest Abundance, and I knew nothing about permaculture, which is the science we operate on.

Matthew Britt: 6:46

All that I got was, hey, this company and this solar business could potentially collaborate, because everybody who's putting a solar array on their home, whether they realize it or not, they're looking for other ways to be more self-sufficient. So as I got with the owner of Food Forest Abundance and I saw the opportunities to collaborate, I connected him with the CEO of the solar business. At that time it wasn't the right move for the solar company, but as I got more understanding of what these guys were doing with Food Forest Abundance, I decided there's a much greater opportunity for overall positive impact here and I made a complete pivot. Literally zero experience in that space, mind you, I had zero experience in solar either when I jumped over there, nor did I have any experience in the t-shirt world when I went to that side. So, hey, let's have some fun right and made that move three years ago. We've now done business in 54 countries, over 800 designs in those countries and making a tremendous impact, but we're just getting warmed up dude, that is freaking.

Dai Manuel: 7:54

Epic and one sec. Can you hear me still? I can yeah sorry I might have to edit this little section out here. Sorry, I uh, why am I not hearing you? Can you say something? Something real quick, matt, check, check, check. Oh, okay, I got you back. I got you back. My iPod's kicked out there, but I heard I could hear you through my speakers here. But anyways, I'll have to do a little bit of editing there. It's all good.

Dai Manuel: 8:15

Yep, I'm a master editor now, but uh okay, okay, okay, little sound spike there, there we go, okay, ah, so for food, forest food abundance food food forest abundance forest abundance. Oh my god, I'm already butchering that. Listen to me everybody. I I'm like my mom, who was mutant ninja teenage turtles my entire life growing up as a teenager. My mom could never say it, right. I just turned into my mom.

Matthew Britt: 8:49

All right.

Dai Manuel: 8:51

So can you explain food, forest abundance, you know, and how it differs from conventional farming methods, because I believe that there's probably a good handful of people listening to this. I believe that there's probably a good handful of people listening to this and I'm one of those included that probably aren't familiar with the little differences back and forth, because this is all under the guise of sustainable living, which I know you're extremely passionate and a huge advocate for, matthew. So if you could just sort of walk us through how this differs so we better understand it, that'd be awesome.

Matthew Britt: 9:19

Yeah, and to start, I'm not a farmer, neither is anybody in our company, and neither is that what we're doing to encourage you to do. That's not it Awesome. What people typically think about when they think about growing food is usually one of two things an annual garden or a monoculture farm, and this is important. Both of those things fight nature every step of the way. They literally are competing with the natural world to produce what they want to grow and kill everything else, which is why it's very time energy and money intensive. Energy and money intensive. It's a lot of work to fight nature. Nature is relentless. It's never going to lose.

Matthew Britt: 10:12

So what we do is permaculture, permanent agriculture. It's utilizing the hundreds of thousands of edible perennial and edible and medicinal perennial plants in a very thoughtfully designed way, converting current ornamental and liability focused landscape into an edible landscape that is actually an asset for you and will produce food for decades. You put it in the ground once. It is less maintenance than a lawn and it will produce food for you. It doesn't matter how much space you have. We can do it on small pieces of property and we can do it on broad-acre farms. It does not matter Suburban homes, homesteads, schools, churches, resorts, hotels, restaurants, corporate campuses, wherever wherever we currently have lawn space, we can produce an abundance of food there, and we work with nature instead of fight nature. We design this with diversity in mind. It's not about growing one thing. It's about growing as many things as we possibly can that can provide for you and your family and community, if you want it to.

Dai Manuel: 11:44

Dude, I love this, I absolutely love it. Only because you know, here in Vancouver it's kind of neat because we don't get a lot of snow here.

Matthew Britt: 11:52

I mean we might get a couple of days a year, yep.

Dai Manuel: 11:55

And also there's golfers that golf all year round. Here you know, like snowboard one day and they'll golf the next right. And if they're brave they might windsurf the next day after that One day and they'll golf the next right and if they're brave they might windsurf the next day after that.

Dai Manuel: 12:07

But I don't get in the water in the winter, I'll tell you that, but regardless we have a lot of green spaces and they've been claiming a lot of these urban spaces, specifically old gas stations that get torn down, and there's a certain process that they have to do to remove a lot of the ground beneath a gas station Because inevitably there's been lots of leaking and leaching gas and full things.

Dai Manuel: 12:27

So what do they do? Rather than frigging you know terraform and dig up the land that's all poisoned, they put all these planters on top and they make it a community. Yeah, so we have all these community gardens popping up and I see a lot of different types of plants being planted and every once in a while I'll see these intentional like it looks like a vegetable garden, but I know that they aren't necessarily the vegetables that I might be thinking about. They might be micro greens and sure and other things, and so that's obviously great for people who live in condos to have access to a public space. But what are you finding is the big issues that you're constantly coming up against, because I imagine there's a lot of misconceptions that relate to actually implementing this and embracing this as part of our own lifestyle.

Matthew Britt: 13:08

Like I can think of a hundred different ones.

Dai Manuel: 13:09

You know, like I live in a condo on the 15th floor, I got no garden space. We don't have a community garden accessible. Like what do I do? You know, and so I. I would love to hear your thoughts on what are some of the big objections or issues you're seeing with people not being able to implement this.

Matthew Britt: 13:24

Well, and even let's just touch on these community gardens, the one thing that's happening there is they're still going and fighting nature every step of the way, right? So they're still planting annual gardens every spring and harvesting different times throughout the year and making sure that they're out there weeding. They're out there watering, because they keep their soil exposed. The soil dries out very quickly. They don't actually have a very healthy microbiome inside that soil. It's more often dead soil with, which is why they need fertilizers, right, chemical fertilizers oftentimes. So interesting things can happen when you begin to work with the ground, even if you're talking about an old gas station. There's biological things that will actually break down those chemicals and turn them into essential fatty acids that then could be utilized by the microbes in the ground in work with the plants to again build a thriving ecosystem. Why are they doing that? They are, they are, they are, they've got some people who are doing ecosystem.

Matthew Britt: 14:24

Why are they doing that? They are, they are, they are. They've got some people who are doing it. Others are right. So we have entrenched systems that are driven by money. At this point, right, and here's the reality. With abundance, nature is abundant. Naturally, there's no money. In abundance, food will grow everywhere, right, every boulevard, every neighborhood, every brand new neighborhood that a home builder is putting together. Why are they planting only ornamental trees, bushes, right? Why isn't your new home you're buying there surrounded by small shrubs that are blueberries and raspberries and blackberries and Saskatoon berries and all the other things that could be grown there, and instead it's an ornamental right? Why are we planting a tree on that property that doesn't produce anything, when it could be an apple tree that will produce for your family for 50 years? Right, 150 pounds plus of apples every two years?

Dai Manuel: 15:33

That's incredible, yeah, why not why?

Matthew Britt: 15:37

Well, I totally couldn't tell you why not. I think part of the reason why not is because if, excuse me, if we utilize the food that we have patents on for the seed, then there's money, right Right, excuse me, as mentioned, there's no money in abundance, right right? And we've got today a lot of the seeds are genetically modified and they're done because you can patent them. But two is they're resistant to the chemicals that we're going to use in that growing process. Because, remember, we're fighting nature. We only want to grow said thing, everything else we don't want it there because it's competing, in their view, against what we're trying to grow. I can't have any of my water resources go to growing these things. They need to all go to growing these things. But here's something else that's very interesting. When you work with nature and you keep the ground covered which is how nature does it in the forest the ground is covered. It holds on to water. Healthy soil truly holds on to water. For every inch of soil per acre, it's thousands of gallons of additional water retention in that spot. But when you grow in the monoculture system, where every year you till your soil, every year your water holds on to less and less of the nutrients, that microbe system that's in there, but it also holds on to less and less of the nutrients that microbe system that's in there, but it also holds on to less and less of the water. And if you've ever dug a hole and let that hole sit, you realize very quickly that what used to be wet, moist earth, it becomes more like a scab. Right, it hardens. Why does it do that? The earth is trying to protect itself? Right, it hardens. Why does it do that? The earth is trying to protect itself? Right, so it forms this scab like hard, compact crust. Water doesn't permeate, right, so it rains. Where does that water all go? Instead of into the local aquifer, it runs away to a little drainage ditch or a sewer or wherever, and makes its way somewhere else. So we've been doing this for decades. We've all heard of the Dust Bowl, right? This modern industrial farming system has fought nature for so long that we're now in a spot where we've got some very serious damage. That's happening, and our food supply is way less nutrient dense because our soil is not healthy. We've got sick soil, which leads to sick plants, which leads to poor nutrient density in the food, to poor nutrient density in the food. We've got chemicals utilized in the soil on the plants, which now leads to unhealthy human, and we've got this massive cyclical effect. Where to care for this now unhealthy human, we put more chemicals in their body. Right, who's winning here? Chemical companies, chemical companies. And it's not, and they're not bad person, that's just the system that we've built and they talk about yeah, you get more yield by using our chemicals, great. And I, as a farmer, don't have a choice, because I've got quotas to meet, I've got numbers I've got to hit and if I can't produce my numbers, I don't make my money and I can't pay my debt and I lose my farm. That's been with my family for five generations or whatever. It is right.

Matthew Britt: 19:31

Meanwhile, the truth is actually we can rebuild soil, we can grow an abundant amount of food. Everybody who's got some space could be growing some. And then we go oh well, what about the guy that lives in the condo? Well, if more food is being produced at all of the homes around the city, if you've got a localized and decentralized food supply, how much more of that now becomes available for the guy that lives in the condo? Right, the grocery store that has high prices now is forced to cut those prices down because now they have a demand issue. Right, everybody's producing some food at home. More great food would appear in the grocery store at a cheaper price. Also, the guy in the condo.

Matthew Britt: 20:17

The great news is there's incredible technologies that exist to help people grow inside, so you could have a vertical growing wall. You could literally convert a wall to be green and have it producing again a significant amount of food for you. So there's lots of solutions. Permaculture has a foundation of the problem. Is the solution like? So we look for what are these things that are the challenge and inside there, what's the solution? Around it and our whole ethics is earth care, first people care and then reinvesting the surplus into earth care and people care dude.

Dai Manuel: 21:00

All right, I know people are listening to everything that you've just said last few minutes, so they're probably all nodding their head like I am like yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. I I don't think anybody's going to disagree that there's a problem environmentally in our planet. Yeah, I don't think anyone's going to disagree that we got a problem with our food quality yeah no like, come on, I get, we do.

Dai Manuel: 21:24

There's a reason why we have so many preservatives trying to keep our food fresh when it's funny, because it's also less nutrient dense now. So it's like we're helping let nutritious foods survive longer. Why, I don't know, but regardless, we got this challenge and and so the solution that you're providing is really empowering as far as I'm or why I don't know, but regardless, we got this challenge, and so the solution that you're providing is really empowering as far as I'm concerned.

Matthew Britt: 21:44

It is.

Dai Manuel: 21:45

Because it also it's giving the power back to those that may not even be aware that this is something that they can have power around, right, like this idea of being self-reliant and making your own food, and I know that you've said that you could replace a wall in a condo and get a lot of food from it.

Dai Manuel: 22:01

Now, I know there's probably people thinking it's like Keish I I've seen some of those little things this way it's going to produce enough food for me, let alone my family. You know, like, because maybe what we believe of what we're growing and what we're talking about right now because I imagine the time piece is the big one that you run up against you know it's like oh, it's too time consuming and too energy or resource heavy to grow my own food at home and I don't know what to do or how to do it. I got to just, I can just imagine all the excuses you must hear. But this part around the time piece, you know like what, what would you say to that? You know, like anybody that believes that growing their food is too time consuming or potentially too complicated, like, how do you address these misconceptions and what are some of the biggest challenge you face in changing that narrative right now.

Matthew Britt: 22:48

Yeah, and they are right. If they're going to grow food the way that they see and they're used to, they're going to have an annual garden. It is going to be a lot of work for a very small yield, and we're not saying that you have to grow a hundred percent of your own food. What we're saying is do something, grow something. And we also were the experts in the design piece. It's the foundation of all of this. And to keep that part simple, think about I'm going to build a home. What are you putting in your home? I have no idea. Well, how do you figure that out? You get a design done right and then that design gives you the blueprint to go tell you what's going to go in this. And we're the same. We essentially are a design business. We design permanent agriculture, food systems. Once you have that design in hand, you have choices. You can take that design and diy that install yourself.

Matthew Britt: 23:48

The reason we use local native perennial plants is because those things are designed to grow in that growing condition, that climate zone, and, being perennial, it means they come back year over year, whereas an annual garden it's exactly like it sounds like Annually. I got to go out there and work it and plant it in the ground and then fight nature right. I got to do my weeding and my watering and all my stuff, because my soil is exposed we again flip that on its head. Because my soil is exposed we again flip that on its head. We get you the design made with edible perennial plants.

Matthew Britt: 24:24

We build it in seven layers of production, one of those being ground cover. Okay, so we keep the ground covered, and then we have our small shrubs and our larger bushes and our understory trees and our canopy trees, and then, oh yeah, there's vines in there too. And then you've also got your mycelial network right, your mushrooms, your funguses and then your roots and tubers. So if you build this in a stacked function, what you grow over here in one layer right, a monoculture farm or an annual garden we produce over here seven layers, so you're growing much more. In that same space it's about a five acre monoculture farm can be outproduced by a one acre food forest.

Dai Manuel: 25:16

Wow.

Matthew Britt: 25:17

Now, the monoculture farm would have way more of that one thing, whereas my one acre food forest might have 250 different edible perennial plants in it, right. So I've got massive diversity and variety. I don't have to work the same, because my whole focus is building my soil, and the healthier my soil is, the healthier everything else in that system is, and it's designed to be, a self-regulating system. We're letting nature do its job and getting out of the way, whereas, as I've mentioned, the monoculture or the annual garden, they try to fight nature and again, nature is relentless. It's never going to lose. How do I know? Don't cut your grass. For two months you will no longer just have grass, you're going to start to have a meadow. There's going to be all kinds of things that pop up and it's like how, where were those? They were there the whole time. Those seeds have been in the ground the whole time, just waiting for you to not fight Right Totally.

Dai Manuel: 26:34

Oh my gosh, I love everything you're saying. You know, and I'm a big proponent for sustainable life and living and just best practices around creating a better planet. Like more so because I'm concerned about my kids, kids generation.

Matthew Britt: 26:47

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dai Manuel: 26:47

Yeah, generation, I'm like. Yeah, I'm like, do you generate? I mean, I look at what's happened since my grandparents. Yeah, like that's not very long. No Right, not very long, no right.

Matthew Britt: 27:01

We're talking like under 100 years here and I'm like, yeah, they've really screwed things up.

Dai Manuel: 27:03

You know, I'm like if we don't do something the next 100 years, it's going to get screwed up even faster well, we're all going to be eating lab. Grown off, everything right yeah, petri dish meat, thank you very much.

Matthew Britt: 27:13

Uh, no, you know it's crazy, it's great and unfortunately, that's what we have been bought like sold, and we've all bought it right. Yes, because of convenience. It's all about convenience. I want to be able to go to my grocery store and get avocados all year round. And again, we're not saying that you can't still have access to those things. We're just saying why are we being so irresponsible with our resources when we have an abundant supply right here? Why on earth is anybody without food? There's no reason why anybody anywhere doesn't have enough food to eat, except if it's being controlled by centralized systems. Then it makes sense, because it's all about making money, right the amount of food waste is just astonishing as well.

Matthew Britt: 28:12

Astonishing.

Dai Manuel: 28:14

Like absolutely you. Just it's sickening. It is absolutely sickening the amount of food waste. I've heard that it's sickening, it is absolutely sickening the amount of food waste.

Matthew Britt: 28:21

I've heard that it's words of 40.

Dai Manuel: 28:25

Oh man, can you believe that? 40 like that is disgusting, disgusting, yep, like that takes care of all the problems, all of them, all of them, all of them, right, oh, anyways, okay, sorry, I didn't want to make this an episode about all the problems, because it's more important. We're about the solution.

Matthew Britt: 28:43

Yeah, we're all about the solutions.

Matthew Britt: 28:45

And you know, let's even remember that if we have people that are currently without food, living in food deserts, they're looking for solutions right. Right now, it's about giving them donations. What if we taught them how to fish right? What if we showed them that, hey, we can reconnect your children with nature, get them back outside and away from a screen, help reduce their stress and anxiety and mental issues by connecting them to the earth, teaching them how to care for something right Care for your food forest, care for that plant that's alive, teach you a lifelong skill, right, and what does that do for the future generations?

Matthew Britt: 29:31

Another big thing that we know is that recidivism is a massive problem. Right that's, someone goes to prison, they re-offend, they go back to prison. Recidivism is a massive problem. Right that's, someone goes to prison, they re-offend, they go back to prison. Recidivism on average in the US and this is according to some very large studies I can actually send this to you so you can read it later is about 60%, right? So, out of 10 people, six of them go back to prison.

Matthew Britt: 29:57

Here's what happens, though if you introduce food growing solutions into the prison system it plummets to under 10%. Why? Why does that happen? Well, it's the same things I said around the kids. It gives them a chance to get back into nature, reduces stress Mentally. It helps them. It also gives them something to love and care for and purpose and when people have purpose they're not the same as far as their behavior Correct Right. There's an organization in Oakland, california, that had one of the highest recidivism rates and they've created a program there. It's called Planting Justice in Oakland, california, that had one of the highest recidivism rates and they've created a program there. It's called Planting Justice, and this place is a large community nursery and growing facility. It's all outside and they take in ex-cons and they've never had someone reoffend and go back to prison.

Dai Manuel: 31:02

That's incredible.

Matthew Britt: 31:03

And it has everything to do with connecting them with something to care for again. Purpose passion, love, right? Yes, Wow.

Dai Manuel: 31:14

Oh my goodness. Plus also the nutrition from eating food that you yourself can nurture. I mean, there's something to that, just dude.

Matthew Britt: 31:22

There's some fascinating things with that. If you put a seed in your mouth before you plant it, it will become right. It starts to become alive as soon as the water hits it right. But now it's encoded with what do you need and it will. If you're the one that cares for that plant, it will produce for you. Wow, really, the brilliance of nature.

Dai Manuel: 31:51

I like it. Yeah, it's pretty, pretty smart. I mean, it's done a pretty good job, a lot better than we've done as human beings on this planet. I'll tell you that.

Matthew Britt: 32:01

So I just want to tell you get in the way we absolutely do, and that's one of our major problems is we act like we're separate from nature.

Dai Manuel: 32:14

Yes.

Matthew Britt: 32:14

Meanwhile, we actually are nature, we are one with nature, and if we start behaving that, we are that and we care for this brilliant thing, right? We've all heard of the Garden of Eden, right? Whether you're religious or not, you've heard that term, and that is really what is here for all of us. We just have to stop fighting it and start working with it.

Dai Manuel: 32:48

Oh, okay, All right, Let me ask you this, Matt, because I know I've got to ask you this. I got to ask you this because you know this show is all about change.

Matthew Britt: 32:56

Yeah.

Dai Manuel: 32:57

It's all about change. I mean, at the end of the day, for anybody to, for anything to happen, especially around a life improvement, it involves change, right, yes, and so change is usually resistant.

Dai Manuel: 33:10

Let's be honest Most of us, like we wake up in the morning we're like I want more change today. Thank you very much, like come on. It doesn't usually work that way, so we're often very resistant to the change, especially when it involves lifestyle adjustments, and you and I know this better than most based on our fitness and health backgrounds. Right, uh, and, and I guess you know. If it involves lifestyle adjustments and that's where the change needs to happen, you know, what advice do you have for people who are hesitant to make some of the changes that we're talking about today? You know cause? It involves changing how you buy, changing how you eat, but, most importantly, changing how you think. And that isn't easy and I can imagine it's that adoption. That's the most challenging piece right now for you is just getting the traction to get more people adopting what we're talking about.

Dai Manuel: 33:58

And so I'd love to hear your thoughts on this Cause I know you're dealing with people and helping them embrace this lifestyle, but I imagine it can't be easy for everybody and there's probably just a certain amount of people that are like, hell yeah, I'm first in because it was easy for them to say yes to this, where the rest of us were like, oh, I don't know, man, I don't know how I can do this, and I know we can all do it. I know I can do it. I'm actually excited about what you said about a green wall. I'm like we're gonna talk to you know, christy, my wife and I'm probably I'll plant the seed part of the pun with her.

Matthew Britt: 34:26

She'll figure it out so, yeah, but that will, and I've got some good resources for you in that way. Yeah, I've got a company called the harvest wall. They produce cold walls. You can grow incredible amounts of food. It's nice and simple. Self-watering, run from an app, grows in a soil. It's powerful.

Dai Manuel: 34:45

It's all about the rest of the people out there right now. You just handled my objection. Now we've got to handle everybody else listening and watching.

Matthew Britt: 34:52

You're bang on. People think it's complicated and they have reasons why. We've already reviewed that stuff. It is simple, okay, simple. It's not easy, but it's simple and it's about getting a design. Whether you do that with us, you do with somebody else. Learn about what permaculture is and again, you can lean on an expert. You don't have to have the design experience to build your home. You can lean on the experience to build your home. You can lean on the architect to design your home and then you can pay somebody to bring that to life for you. This is the same.

Matthew Britt: 35:28

The financial resources are directed in two places. One is the installation. Is the design? Sorry. Get the design, the foundation for what you're going to put in your property. Two, you have choices.

Matthew Britt: 35:41

Once you have that design, you can DIY that install. You can bring that to a local landscaping company or a nursery and work with them to bring it to life. You can work with us and if you want to work with us, you can also be involved in it if you choose to. If you say, hey, food Force to Runners, we'd like you to install this, you could tell us. Yeah, we'd also like to help on the install days and it's going to be my wife and I and one of our children, and we're willing to contribute 15 hours total. So now you save some money on your labor costs and you learn by getting some of that experience from a professional. But again, truthfully, most of this stuff can be done diy, because it is digging a hole and putting some stuff in the ground right. It's less complicated than people think and the reason why they think it's complicated is because they think only a farmer can grow food right right conditioning and we're not saying you grow food.

Matthew Britt: 36:48

Farmers don't grow food either other than in our current system. They have to be heavily involved because they need so many chemicals and resources and things right. But who grows the food? Nature grows food. Nature does all the work if you design it the right way.

Dai Manuel: 37:15

I just feel so excited about this, only because it's just that optimism that it fills me with. I just feel so excited about this and I want because it's just that, that optimism that it fills me with that. You know enough people get on board with what you're talking about. And this vision is the world can change and it doesn't take long for nature to correct itself. One thing that I think we've we've all learned is because our bodies are the same you keep giving a crap. It's going to let you know you're giving it crap. It's going to let you know you're giving it crap. And it actually gets to a place where you stop feeding it crap and start doing something different.

Dai Manuel: 37:44

It's amazing how quickly our bodies will recover or recoup right and we're just again a reflection of nature, so let me talk a bit. Ask you just about this, because I think this is really part of your vision as well let's just say you know, you know what, forget it.

Dai Manuel: 38:04

I just want to ask you, Matt, to paint a picture, like your picture, matt's picture, you know, of the vision for sustainable living and food production that you see for not only Canada but really the world, because I know that you're tackling a lot of big problems and there's a lot of obstacles but, more importantly, a lot of red tape that you got to get through.

Dai Manuel: 38:21

I know there's a lot of bureaucracy, a lot of lobbying, because there is a lot of status quo and those are big machines that are operating, as you said, the mighty dollar does often, you know, it influences votes, but it also influences laws and legislations and regulations, the way we even are allowed to grow. Yeah, it's wild, like I've seen people want to put these little, you know, certain places in their homes, or they want to do a little bit of renovating around the house. I mean, it's permit nightmare, right. So I know that there's a lot of things that you're trying to overcome, but once we get through those things, like, what does the world look like? What is the vision that you are yourself, are wanting to create, not only for your own kids, but your kids, kids and kids, kids, kids, generations?

Matthew Britt: 39:09

Outstanding Kind of two core things. One I believe we can build a localized, decentralized, poison-free food supply All across the earth right. Locally, decentralized, growing in everybody's yard. Whatever they can do for themselves, we've got a localized, poison-free food supply. The second piece is food forests at schools. So we want to take portion right.

Matthew Britt: 39:39

So it's EarthCare, peoplecare, reinvesting back into EarthCare, peoplecare. So we want to be taking money from every food forest design that we do and installation and redirecting some of that to putting food forests at schools. Because at schools we now have a teaching tool for the kids. We now are providing the, the school, with a demonstration location so all those kids get educated. But their parents see the local community sees right, so it helps speed up adoption in that regard. But there's also the benefits of this healthier food, better performance in school, all of that stuff. And now we're impacting generations because we're teaching the children about what's possible here. So those would be our two kind of core things is localized, decentralized food supply, empowering the population to take that back, and then kids, focusing on the children.

Dai Manuel: 40:38

So simple.

Matthew Britt: 40:40

Yeah.

Dai Manuel: 40:41

You know, so simple, and especially the education piece, Cause I mean, it all starts with education, but I still remember my kids coming home even from like preschool and kindergarten, right, and even grade one and then beyond, coming back and just sharing interesting things that they were learning in school, things that I knew nothing about, you know. So there is, I can see how this would work really well, but also, I mean, it's the kids that we need to really empower, you know, because I want to give them the keys, because, honestly, I think they'll do a much better job at driving this thing than we've done. Um, but, all that being said, I'm I'm very optimistic because there's people like you in this world that are making big changes but also putting the right resources in front of people and also letting us know that we can do this, we can do this, I myself can do this. Listen, matt, I'd love to just know for you, specifically when it comes to doing this kind of work, what is your number one wish for the people that are listening to this today? You know, because I know we've covered a lot of topics. We've talked a lot about this idea of sustainable agriculture, but also empowering people to really start reclaiming some of that ability to make this poison free foods for themselves.

Dai Manuel: 42:05

And like, what would be your, your thought for showing up on a podcast like this?

Dai Manuel: 42:10

Like what is there a message or something that you'd really like to share with people? Because why I'm doing this and I don't normally do this with guests but I like what's the direct invitation that you would like to ask people to enact on based on what we're saying today, cause I like what's the direct invitation that you would like to ask people to enact on based on what we're saying today, because I know it's the resources and the education piece that if we can get more of that in front of people, I know things are going to start to change, because you can change how people think you're going to change the world. Right, so tell us what, what, what would you recommend for all of us to get started moving towards this vision that you've just shared with us? Because I I think it's a vision and it's one we're chasing for. I want to know how can I do this, how can I get started, how can I do this for my kids' generations? How can I start to be accountable for this vision?

Matthew Britt: 42:53

Yeah, one is although the problems of the world seem increasingly complex, the solutions remain embarrassingly simple. Hold on, okay, yeah, and from there I would say let's find out what is true for you.

Matthew Britt: 43:11

Meaning we offer what we call a strategy session, where you can meet with a designer, doesn't cost you any money. We can look at your property where you live, figure out here's what's potentially possible at your place. From there we can help you with other resources to learn further. Most people have the same blocks. They're the blocks I've mentioned numerous times now. They're not a farmer, they don't have a green thumb. They don't think they can do it right? Yeah, because they fight nature. So let's help you see around those blocks by having a conversation with someone who's an expert in permaculture takes 30 minutes of your time. You can discover what's possible, right, what's true for your particular piece of property, and from there you can then move on to the next decision, which is am I going to do this and get a design? Am I going to go learn about this myself and do it myself? Am I going to go find another company and get a design? We don't care, as long as you want to move forward in some capacity. That's our number one objective Is we want to help people realize what's possible and then adopt whatever capacity of what's possible into their own life.

Matthew Britt: 44:38

And let's stop fighting nature and poorly using our resources and let's flip it all on its head. Let's work with the brilliance of Mother Earth to care for what Mother Earth can provide and let's be the beneficiaries of all of that good stewards of the land. Right, we don't own any of this. When we're gone, it's going to be passed on to somebody else. Right, we don't own any of this. When we're gone, it's going to be passed on to somebody else. Right?

Matthew Britt: 45:05

The earth doesn't care that we build a massive city. Kick the city out and within a couple of years, that city will be completely green, completely overrun with nature and wildlife. Right, because nature is relentless. So let's get to work with nature. Let's go produce abundance. Let's inspire the future generations. Let's give them a chance to reconnect and get out of the concrete jungle for a second and reconnect with the energy and brilliance of mother nature to go and produce us an abundance of food that could dramatically transform our brains, our energy, our vitality and our life, so that we can create a better world for everybody hell to the.

Dai Manuel: 45:50

Yes, oh my gosh, I freaking love it. I'm like getting goosebumps just thinking about what's possible. But also you know it's funny I sort of shared with you, matt, that christy and I have this. I don't know if I've really been open about it publicly.

Dai Manuel: 46:06

This might be the first time that the listeners are actually hearing this, but Christy and I, we have this, this desire, you know, once our kids are done school, we got one more almost done and we want to just get a little parcel of land put up, a couple of little A-frames or some tiny homes, you know, make it like a sort of mini, uh, like a retreat center, but really it's not really for retreats, it's more for our own personal retreats. But, but, but we want to live off the land, you know. And and when I first talked to you and I told it to Chris, this is awesome, you know. So it's like you've just helped us see our vision in Technicolor, you know, it's like it's really cool to see what's possible. And and I just have to say thank you, because I know that with the content that you're putting out, the podcast that you continue to go on, and this narrative that you're now inviting all of us to be an active part of it's making a difference, man.

Matthew Britt: 46:57

Yeah, thank you.

Dai Manuel: 46:58

It is, and I think it's huge because I mean, we all got to eat, we all got to drink water, so we might as well figure out those two things primarily. You know like, and I'm like, we've got enough technology, we got enough science, we, we can do this, people, we can figure this out.

Matthew Britt: 47:12

You know like, yeah, come on, Well and think about this. The mainstream narrative is humans are going to die because of climate change, right?

Matthew Britt: 47:22

We're destroying our world, so let's stop and think about that for one second. If that's truly what they believed, why are we still shipping my avocado 3,000 miles this way and another 1,000 miles that way, right? Or whatever it is that I'm buying that doesn't come from my local area? We are shipping food in mass around the world and multiple sometimes multiple directions, because we ship it one place to be processed and ship it back to another place to be packaged at another place before it hits you, Right? So if we believe this narrative, why aren't any of the people screaming at the rooftops going we're destroying our planet? Why aren't they saying you should be growing food at home?

Dai Manuel: 48:09

so true, oh, my gosh. Yes, you're right. You're right, and uh, I know there's lots of big issues in the planet. I know, at times we all feel like gosh, what can I possibly do? But that is the ongoing thought that holds us all back as a society. You know, uh, we just got to stand up and start doing something, and it doesn't take a lot. No, take a lot.

Matthew Britt: 48:32

No, if we all took, if we all took self responsibility for things that we can control, how different would things be? Right control. How different would things be right If I stopped relying on somebody else for my food, if I stopped relying on 100% right or 50% or whatever that number is for you. Now you've got some empowerment. What does your confidence change to right? I bet if you went and asked every homesteader who is producing their own energy, capturing their own water, producing some of their own food, their confidence in an emergency is much higher than joe living in the condo who has nothing in his cupboard extra right. He's got no extra food, he's got no energy. He's got no extra water, nothing. He's completely dependent on other people for his basic necessities and if the power happens to go out for 10 days, joe's grocery store is out of food.

Matthew Britt: 49:32

In three days joe's fucked pardon my life right best way to say it, yep, and then joe becomes desperate and desperate people do desperate things, and I'm not trying to scare people, but let's think about these things rationally. These things are all possible. I live in Ottawa. Ottawa had an ice storm that knocked the power out in many places for seven days. Right, that's a significant amount of time, uh-oh. Right, that's a significant amount of time, uh-oh.

Dai Manuel: 50:05

It's wild to see how volatile we truly are in the face of a disaster Right. I remember we had the big floods here in BC, a couple of years ago. Yeah, and it totally blocked off a huge portion of the population, also without power, but also without access to anything to get food in or emergency supply, and it was crazy also without power, but also without access to anything to get food in or emergency supply and it was crazy, you know, it was like literally it was, it was just it felt like a third world incident that happened here in Vancouver, which is obscene, you know like.

Dai Manuel: 50:33

But you realize, as much as we think first world, we don't have any problems. Oh man, do we have some, uh, some blind spots, you? Know, and I think COVID and some of these natural disasters. They definitely helped show that. But here's the one that we're missing and it's right in front of our faces the climate issue. You can't deny it. There's a problem here, people.

Matthew Britt: 50:53

We've been hurting our environment for a long time.

Dai Manuel: 50:56

Long time, long time. I thank you for not only the kindness through which you talk today, because I think it's it's really easy to feel a lot of guilt as well as some shame around some of the subjects that we're talking about today. I know that I've carried some guilt myself, just thinking back to, like what have I really done that's been good for the environment? Yeah, I think it's easy to try to be a pacifist and just ignore it and just somebody else will figure it out.

Matthew Britt: 51:23

Yeah, exactly.

Dai Manuel: 51:25

Yeah, but I'm here and I'm also just as interested in this subject and I'm doing what I can where I can, and you know you coming on the show today and sharing about this was just wonderful and I want to say thank you for taking the time. I know I'm going to want it back because I know there's gonna be a bunch of questions that we're going to end up fielding on this subject, which is great, because conversation is what we need for change.

Matthew Britt: 51:45

Yes, we do.

Dai Manuel: 51:45

Yeah, and, and I just wanted to ask you, matt, before we go today, you know what? What are you most excited about right now with this project that you're on? Because I think it's super exciting, but what's what's the? Most exciting part, or what are you guys working towards right now in the next few months?

Matthew Britt: 52:00

My most exciting piece is we're working on building what we call Freedom Farm Academies and, to keep these things really simple, you can think about them like physical demonstration locations. Think about it like an Apple store of self-sufficiency. It's a place you can go see all of these different things in action from the food production systems, from the permaculture to the vertical growing, to the walls, to the aquaculture, etc. To the solar energy and the wind and the geothermal and the water energy and capturing rainwater and atmospheric water generation and that kind of stuff. And then also we brought in the healing technologies and products, because we believe that we can help people be self-sufficient on all of those levels. We can help them with food, energy, water and healing.

Matthew Britt: 52:54

And the part that we had to close is that knowledge gap. Right, because people don't have a reference point. Right, when they think about growing food, they see that monoculture farm. So it's like how do we get them to see something different? We got to send them to walk through a food forest. So we're building these Freedom Farm Academies to be these physical demonstration locations. We've now actually sold 20 of them. Wow, we have four continents. Well, I guess four countries were in Thailand. We have Thailand, one in Ghana, in Africa, two in Canada and the remainder are spread across the United States.

Dai Manuel: 53:35

Holy.

Matthew Britt: 53:36

This is now where a person who's got zero concept, who thinks maybe, when I say off grid, they go, ah, a little cabin in the woods with nothing, yeah, right, that's their reference point. Or I say growing food, they go, ah, little annual garden my mom used to have one of those. She slaved away all summer and never produced very much, maybe some tomatoes right, yes, if they get to go and see this, they get to walk through it and they get to see that the home is all powered by the sun and they get to see that they've got rain captured all over the place and a pond full of 15,000 fish and they've got a food forest that's producing thousands of pounds of food a year. And they try that food and they go oh my gosh, I just picked this and the life force, energy that I just got. When I ate that thing fresh off a living plant it was still alive I feel different, it tastes different.

Matthew Britt: 54:38

I'm going to implement this in my own life in some capacity. I'm going to put a food forest in. I'm going to get a small solar array and I'm going to implement this in my own life in some capacity. I'm going to put a food forest in. I'm going to get a small solar array and I'm going to whatever Right.

Dai Manuel: 54:47

Put in my cold plunge and my sauna and I'll be living up the land Exactly.

Matthew Britt: 54:52

And that's what I'm most excited about, because we're now getting more people walking through and experiencing these things. I have a goal of 10,000 Freedom Farm Academies built in the next decade. Hell yeah, that could be one in every city across the world. And what would happen.

Dai Manuel: 55:10

Every city needs one Every city needs one.

Matthew Britt: 55:13

And what would happen if we did that right? We'd be able to build these abundance-focused communities instead of scarcity-focused. Right? I don't have enough so I can't share with you. But if you flip that all in its head, I produce some here and I can show you how to produce some there. Now we both have. And then we can go start teaching other people right, and I can take the plants that are growing on my property and if I know know how to do this right, I can cut them, and every time I cut them that's a new plant, Right.

Dai Manuel: 55:47

Yes, powerful. I mean, I had a dream. I freaking love it. I just think it's such a wonderful, it's more than a goal, because I don't think of this as a goal. It sounds like to me a life's mission. You know for you, matthew, and thank you for what you're doing, but also how can we help? You know what can people do to help?

Matthew Britt: 56:17

Man, I would say the number one thing is for people to do a strategy session, to actually go and experience it, to learn about what's possible for themselves. Whether they take action on that right away or not is totally up to them, but at least they've had a chance to deepen their understanding of all this and think about it in a different way, which can then now impact those around them. They can start saying, hey, I just learned about this incredible concept. I don't know if you've ever heard of this before, but I highly recommend you go and do a strategy session for yourself, right? If we give people that chance to open their mind, hear about some different ideas, that's the spark, right?

Dai Manuel: 57:04

That's huge. That's I mean, that's how change happens. Right, it's one little idea gets planted.

Matthew Britt: 57:09

Yeah.

Dai Manuel: 57:10

It's amazing how that idea can germinate into an entire movement. Oh it's, it's pretty cool, man, it's pretty cool.

Matthew Britt: 57:18

Deeds of abundance.

Dai Manuel: 57:19

That's right. Deeds of abundance. That's also a cool thing about nature, man, you get the best metaphors, and so, oh, an analogy. And so, uh, uh, listen, thank you for being here today. Honestly, it's been great. In the show notes, everyone, just to reiterate, the links to everything that we've been talking about today is there to get your strategy session booked Really simple Click on the link there. It's going to take you right to the page you can get scheduled in. They got lots of options to figure out a day and time that works for you, but take Matthew up on this. I mean, that's that's. Thank you for that offer. You know I'm very willing to have this conversation. I also know your website, holy smokes. There's a ton of resources there as well, so that's also linked to everyone. And then also get to the socials, where they have regular content going out that speaks to this, and I didn't see I might've missed it, but is there a newsletter sign up as well?

Matthew Britt: 58:09

There is, yeah, there is a newsletter. Sign up on our webpage yeah, and we put out a newsletter every week with lots of great education and resources, yep.

Dai Manuel: 58:17

Again, another way to start helping is just to start educating yourself. So, so, grab the newsletter as well. And you know, matthew, I always allow last words for my guests, and so I've got a final question for you before we go today, and I guess you know, can you let our listeners know? Actually, you know what? Let me refer to it. I'm going to change my question Because I still think there's probably people that are listening to this or watching this.

Dai Manuel: 58:45

We're getting to the end here and they're still like you know, that's really cool, guys, not me, right, not me. And you know, what advice would you give that person who's just starting to think about making a positive change, not only in their lifestyle, but maybe with the gardening, maybe with their food? But we're talking about a lifestyle change here, because that's really what this is. This is not just a little habit that you're trying to change. This is changing the way you live life, and so for a person that's just sort of on the fence, you know, maybe they like some of the things they heard today, maybe they're like uh, yeah, maybe for you guys, not me.

Matthew Britt: 59:17

What would you like?

Dai Manuel: 59:18

to offer them.

Matthew Britt: 59:19

I'd like to say thank you for keeping an open mind, thank you for listening this far and hearing what we had to say, and the seed has been planted in your brain. So, although today may not be the day for you, you're like that front lawn that we stopped cutting and in two years that seed may germinate and sprout to life and that may be your time to move forward. So thank you for being here and keeping an open mind and listening this far, and we're ready when you are.

Dai Manuel: 59:53

Oh, well said, oh, I like that invitation. That's great. Oh man, this has been so much fun. It's often just great reconnecting with you, selfishly speaking, yeah brother and I'm looking forward to more collaborations and opportunities to reconnect on a regular and you know, before we go today, any last things you want me to say, anything that I might have forgot to ask you today. Matt, I'd like to give you the stage before we say goodbye well, man, thank you for having me here.

Matthew Britt: 1:00:19

Really, that's the most important piece. I'm very grateful for the invitation to join you on the show and for helping us get this message out. It is designed to be inspirational, but it's inspirational because we know we need to do something. Everybody can tell. We know there's some serious issues. Today we see it with our division amongst the population.

Matthew Britt: 1:00:44

Meanwhile, we're all the same. We all have the basic, core, fundamental things that we want. We want to care for our kids, love one another, we want to make sure we have our basic necessities met and, ultimately, we want community. We want to feel good, experiencing our life, and we have been fooled in how we're living our life right now. We've been led to believe some things that aren't necessarily true, and we have an opportunity to take that power back and start making small, incremental changes that will have a profound difference for decades, for your kids, kids, kids, and we can start now.

Matthew Britt: 1:01:31

Switch our mentality from fight nature to work with nature. Switch our mentality from we're separate from nature to we actually are nature. We're one with nature, and what our religious beliefs or our skin color, or how we choose to dress, or what music, whatever it is. Those are things that are kind of irrelevant. We're all the same. We're all the same. We all bleed when we get cut and our bodies will heal if we let them.

Matthew Britt: 1:02:08

Nature is the same too. It will forgive us very quickly for the damage we've done. It'll forget about it and it will move on, especially when we empower it, when we work with it, give it the love it needs, let the soil rebuild, help the microbiome grow. It will very quickly begin to produce us healthier and healthier plants and medicines and foods, fuels. That can all come from this and we can drastically change our future together. Our intention is to inspire a mass shift in consciousness, but it starts with one person. It starts with that seed that you were here today to hear and have planted in your brain and in time, when the right conditions hit, just like nature, it'll sprout and take off and you can think back to that time it hit you and be grateful. And you can think back to that time it hit you and be grateful, and then go about sharing with others and inspiring others to be open. Plant the seed, get going.

Dai Manuel: 1:03:11

Oh man, Well said, Well said. Oh, I got a great soundbite there too. It's awesome, man. And uh, you know, I I just kept thinking you were inviting them about this idea of change and I think matt just forgot to put the two percent small changes daily. That's what he forgot that's it, but just remember it's. That's that if you need to quantify, change two percent every day is really good, yeah, yeah yeah right, uh, that's just me throwing in a selfless plug there.

Dai Manuel: 1:03:38

But uh, with that matt, you know, man, it's. It's been wonderful just to see you live in your best life, but also inviting others to do the same. Keep doing that. It is really not only inspiring but motivating. But also I just feel empowered when I see the kind of content you guys are putting out, because, for somebody that felt very in the dark when it comes to growing things, especially plants, I've had a lot of limiting beliefs.

Matthew Britt: 1:04:03

Yes.

Dai Manuel: 1:04:03

And just in our few conversations, interactions with one another. I'm feeling excited to prove myself wrong on those beliefs.

Matthew Britt: 1:04:10

Yeah, yeah, and I would have had the same ones. Literally zero experience. I had no concept of this three years ago.

Dai Manuel: 1:04:17

Man, I just felt bad.

Matthew Britt: 1:04:19

Look where you are now. Yeah, wow, man, look where you are now.

Dai Manuel: 1:04:20

Yeah, wow, man, thank you for being here today. Honestly and I can't wait to have you back, because we're going to need you to come back for some updates.

Matthew Britt: 1:04:30

Also.

Dai Manuel: 1:04:30

I can't wait to see you on that red dot, on that big TED stage.

Matthew Britt: 1:04:33

Yeah.

Dai Manuel: 1:04:34

This is a TED talk, man. If I haven't ever heard one, this is one, and I can't wait to see you on that stage.

Matthew Britt: 1:04:40

I look forward to being up there too.

Dai Manuel: 1:04:42

Yeah, have a good one, everybody. I'll see you in the outro and Matt thanks again for being here today. Thank you, Dad. Have an amazing day, my man Woo.

Dai Manuel: 1:05:00

That was an enlightening conversation with Matthew Bury. We've explored the transformative power of permaculture, the importance of sustainable living and how we can contribute to a healthier planet by simply rethinking how we use our spaces. Key takeaways from today's episode include understanding the difference between conventional farming and permaculture, the incredible potential of edible landscapes and the steps we can take to start our journey towards self-sufficiency. Remember, it's not about doing everything perfectly. Making small, consistent changes that add up over time is the goal. I encourage you to connect with Matthew and learn more about Food Forest Abundance. Check out their website at foodforestabundancecom.

Dai Manuel: 1:05:43

I've linked that in the show notes and be sure to follow Matthew on all his amazing social channels. He's sharing some great content not only entertaining but very educational on much of what we've spoken about today and numerous other themes around healthy living. You'll find all those links in the show notes and, as always, your feedback and interaction are incredibly important to us, so don't hesitate to reach out, share your thoughts, let us know how you're making a difference in your own way and if you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review and share it with your friends and family. Together, we can create a ripple effect of positive change. Now, until next time, keep striving for that 2% improvement every day. I'm Diamond Wall and this has been the 2% Solution Podcast. Thanks, as always, for listening and I'll catch you in the next episode.