We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Anna Clare Monlezun a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Anna Clare, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.
I believe that I bring an ethos of partnership and relationship to the conservation and agriculture industry. In fact, I believe that conservation and agriculture should be one and the same endeavor. If we produce food with the philosophy that we are in a reciprocal partnership with nature, then we are also working toward conservation of our natural resources… water, soil, plants, animals, microorganisms. We all need each other. Over the last century or so, agriculture has become so commoditized and competitive. It’s become a business, instead of the basis of community and livelihoods. The regenerative agriculture movement that is gaining momentum in the world today is working toward this ethos I speak of. I truly hope it doesn’t end up as the latest fad or greenwashing scheme. I think it has the potential to shift a critical paradigm for humans, their relationship with food, and their relationship with nature.
Anna Clare, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I consider myself a systems thinker and synthesizer of concepts, an entrepreneur and grower of food, a musician and scientist, a mother and world traveler. I am a life-long student of nature, and I really thrive in interdisciplinary work environments The current confluence of my interests involves working with land stewards and innovators of solutions to today’s agroecological challenges. My most recent projects and areas of study have involved regenerative agriculture, social-ecological systems, multi-species management, ecosystem science, natural resource and ecosystem services management, and collaborative public lands management. Along with my husband, I also own/operate a small ranch on the Colorado Front Range, where we produce grass-fed, pasture-raised lamb, beef, and pork. I appreciate not only talking the “talk,” but walking the “walk” and being a work-in-progress example for the things I love, believe in, and promote.
Through my business, Graze, LLC, I partner with local, regional, and nationwide initiatives to apply science where it counts. For me this means understanding our deep interconnections with the natural world and discovering ways to better steward our ecosystems for a livable and even “thrivable” future. I believe nature is our best teacher if we would only better learn her language and truly listen.
I primarily work with grassland and rangeland ecosystems where large herbivores provide a critical ecological role, one which our domestic herbivores, like cattle and sheep, may mimic, while also providing a high quality food source and countless bi-products for human use. My role is sometimes researcher, sometimes consultant, sometimes teacher, sometimes scientist, sometimes leader, sometimes follower. I like wearing many different hats… as long as I am working on a concept I’m passionate about, I’m happy, and I feel like I can add value to our collective ideas or dreams. I approach each client collaboration as a partnership where everyone’s knowledge and experience is valuable and worth having a voice. It’s when we put our heads, hands, and hearts together that the magic happens!
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
The book that changed my life and gave me the courage to be my authentic self in my field was “Braiding Sweetgrass,” by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Dr. Kimmerer helped me realize that as a scientist, I don’t have to lose my childlike curiosity and fascination with the subjects of my study in order to conform to the scientific method. In fact, when we are too un-baised or objective, as scientists, we lose the meaning in our work. I am free to feel passion, and love, and relationship with the animals and plants that I study. And if I don’t allow myself to “feel” then I am missing critical aspects of human discovery.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
My first trek through higher education was in the liberal arts and social sciences. I worked in the mental health field as an expressive arts therapist (an LPC) for a handful of years before I realized it wasn’t a lifelong fit for me. I was truly called to work with animals and the environment, which I had also been passionate about since I was a child. I knew that the only way I could do this was to go back to school. So, I was in my mid-thirties with a family and a small farm to care for, when I decided to return to the University. It took me 7 years to complete another Masters (Animal Science) and a PhD (Ecosystem Science and Sustainability). When I graduated last fall, I was 43 years old and had welcomed a baby boy into the world in the midst of my studies. I remember bringing him to campus as an infant so I could attend class and meetings. There wasn’t a breastfeeding room in my building, so they let me roll an office chair into the electrical closet for privacy. Yes, I breastfed my son in an electrical closet so that I could continue my academic program. I think these experiences definitely made me more resilient, yes, but it made my son adaptive and resilient as well. He came with me many times in his earliest years to my research sites out on the vast grasslands of Colorado. Today, he tells people that my job is a “Grasslands Helper.” It’s my favorite title, after “Mama.”
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @backonthefarm.annaclare
- Facebook: Back on the Farm: Sustainability and Multispecies Management
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-clare-monlezun-ph-d-7b75a51aa/
Image Credits
These are all my images, except for the one of me and other people in a big pasture with mountains in the background. Image credit for that one should go to James Rogers.