Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Beth Love. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Beth, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

When I was ten years old, I felt called to change the world, and I knew how to do it. I was certain that fully meeting the needs of children would support them to grow into caring, resourceful, wise, and capable adults—adults who would have the intention and capacity to create a more harmonious and just world. That conviction gave direction to my life’s work, work that has taken many twists and turns, but has always been centered on the idea that our treatment of children holds the key to human transformation. I taught in and ran Montessori schools, ran nonprofit organizations focused on child abuse, founded the families ministry of a New Thought church, and supported adults, including inmates in a state prison, to heal childhood wounds.

In 2015, after almost two decades in leadership in the New Thought church I had helped found, the Universe began nudging me to make a change. I ultimately received absolute clarity that I needed to leave my job and my faith community. I sensed there was something else for me to do, but did not know what that was.

Within one week of leaving my job, my husband and I watched Cowspiracy, a documentary that exposes the environmental harm of animal agriculture. As we enjoyed lunch together after watching the film, my husband was showering me with appreciation for my work with and/on behalf of children, and praising my understanding of the transformative power of treating children well. Ordinarily, I love basking in his acknowledgements. But this time, I felt a growing sense of impatience within me, and, unable to contain myself any longer, I suddenly blurted out, “But what does it matter? What does it matter if 3 year olds know how to meditate, and their parents know how to parent them well, and men in the state prison system get to heal their childhood wounds, if we have no habitable planet on which our children can live?”

With that epiphany, I instantly understood why the Universe had booted me from my previous job. As a long-term vegan, most of the information in the movie was not new to me. But the timing of seeing the film was hugely relevant in terms of providing direction for the next iteration of my calling. I am still committed to the proposition that the key to the transformation of our human species lies in the treatment of children, and my work is still dedicated to the children of the world, but my focus now is on being the most persuasive advocate I can for plant-based diets as a necessary strategy for insuring the ongoing habitability of our Earth.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My work has always centered on human transformation. Most recently, because of my commitment to make a meaningful commitment to the ongoing habitability of our Earth, I founded the nonprofit organization Eat for the Earth and currently serve as the organization’s Executive Director.

Eat for the Earth makes it easier for people to eat more plants and less animal products to sustain all life on Earth. Although my motivation for starting the organization was geared toward an environmental aim, Eat for the Earth teaches people about a wide range of benefits of eating plants, with a special focus on nutrition, health, and environment. We provide practical tools and support to assist people to adopt and maintain plant-based diets. Example activities include nutrition and food preparation classes, dietary immersions, and community outreach and education. We also advocate for systems change, supporting institutions to enhance human health and reduce environmental harm by implementing practices and policies that support plant-based eating.

Eat for the Earth is conscious of the inequities built into the current food system. We work to counter the health, economic, and environmental impacts of a food system based on profit that disproportionately hurts BIPOC, immigrant, and low-income communities, and work in partnership with others to reimagine a food system rooted in values of justice, integrity, sustainability, compassion, and health. As an example, our largest program in terms of staff time, funding, and consistent impact, is a short plant-based diet immersion program that primarily targets Latinos, the population in our county that faces disproportionate barriers to health and increased rates of diet-related chronic conditions as a result.

We have been incredibly successful with this population by designing the program in such a way as to be culturally relevant, accessible, and effective with our local Latino communities. Ninety-five percent of program participants, regardless of compliance with dietary parameters, experience at least one improvement on a biomarker for health, as evidenced by pre- and post-program tests that we administer. And many of our participants experience life-changing results, such as starting with diabetes and ending with normal glucose levels and/or starting with extremely high LDL cholesterol and ending two weeks later in the low end of the normal range.

Eat for the Earth also engages in systems change projects, because of our conviction that societal transformation requires both individual and systems change. As one example, we are planning our first Food as Medicine conference aimed at healthcare providers. Studies show that the professional most people turn to with questions about their health is their doctor. Yet most doctors receive little to no nutrition education in medical school, and poor diet is the leading risk factor for chronic disease and death. By providing doctors and other healthcare providers education in the power of plant-based diets to heal, our intention is to support a shift in how medicine is practiced, along with a corresponding improvement in health outcomes in our community.

Another project we are working on with the intention to create a significant impact is a documentary movie, filmed in Spanish, and focusing on Latino cultures and foods. Similarly to how Cowspiracy was a catalyst for my career change, thousands of people have experienced an impetus to change their diets by watching films such as Forks Over Knives, What the Health, The Game Changers, and PlantPure Nation. A huge percentage of the population of the Western hemisphere cannot watch these movies in their native tongue, or if they do have access, it’s through subtitles. And even if they are fluent in English, when they watch these movies they do not see their cultural foods, traditions, or families in the films. Our film is intended to fill this gap.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I was one of seven siblings raised by my mother and stepfather, two people who had numerous strengths but were ill-equipped to raise even one child, let alone a big family. Although there was a lot of love in our family, life in our home was chaotic, unpredictable, and impacted by alcoholism, violence and abuse. At a very young age I decided I was going to make different choices when I was a parent, and for the most part, I have made different choices, starting with my decision to study child development and Montessori education when I was in my teens—a decision which significantly aided my parenting of my own children.

I consider my journey to heal from traumatic origins one of the greatest triumphs of my life. I entered recovery in 1988 when I was 31 years old. Before that, I used a combination of dissociation, minimization, fantasy thinking, workaholism, and stubbornness to anesthetize my pain. I passed for a highly functional, well adjusted person who demonstrated leadership, precociousness in my career, and excellence in my work. It wasn’t until I got into recovery and started gaining deeper insights into my life that I was able to realize the extent of the scarring and begin to heal.

Over more than three decades of deep healing work, I have found that I continue to grow in my emotional, spiritual, and psychological health. I am grateful for all of the experiences of my life, because every one of them has contributed to my unique ministry. With tremendous support from various healing circles, loved ones, professionals, and a loving spiritual source that I call God, I have been able to transmute the pain and trauma of my childhood into tremendous good in the world. In the course of my varied career, I have often worked with trauma survivors. My childhood experiences lend me tremendous compassion for their suffering, and my transformed life provides hope by demonstrating that healing is possible.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Depending on how one counts, this is my third or fourth career. Although the organization is not that advanced in years, there is a through-line that runs throughout my life that has prepared me for this work and has supported the organization to make a name for itself in a relatively short time.

I founded Eat for the Earth in 2019. Our launch event on January 19 was standing room only, and resulted in dozens of people signing up to get involved and a leadership team of eight people. In September of that year, Eat for the Earth was one of a fairly large group of organizations that collaborated on a full week of climate actions in Santa Cruz, CA. Eat for the Earth participated at a high level in several of the events that week, including holding our own Climate Dinner to raise awareness of the contributions of our dietary choices to the climate crisis. At one of the events, a long-time environmental activist in our community asked me how many years Eat for the Earth had been around, and I told him about nine months. He was shocked. He said Eat for the Earth had greater visibility and respect in the community than some organizations that had been around for many years.

I don’t always feel resonant with that assessment. The challenge of insuring a habitable Earth for our children and their children after them is great, and anything we do seems insignificant in the face of that challenge. Nevertheless, we have certainly built a reputation for excellence. People see us as an organization that is collaborative, responsible, creative, and effective. We have been able to make a difference in our local community, lend expertise and support to organizations in other areas, and make meaningful contributions to national and even international coalitions and campaigns.

Here are a few of the strategies we have used that I believe have been helpful to the cause of nurturing our reputation:
1. Intention: We are aware that the energy we bring to our work has an imprint, so we are intentional about cultivating positive energy. We take time to center and set intentions at the beginning of many meetings. When we start a new program or initiative, we get clear about our intentions. We nurture possibility consciousness and keep our focus on what we are moving toward, rather than what we don’t want.
2. Relationships: Solid, respectful, mutually beneficial relationships are essential for success. We cultivate strong relationships with other leaders and organizations in our movement, donors, volunteers, partners, and others. We are liberal in our use of acknowledgements and appreciation. We practice consistent follow-through. We lead with generosity and support.
3. Persistence: We are not afraid to be a squeaky wheel, but we squeak politely and appreciatively. If one door doesn’t open, we try another door. We are committed to our success and pursue it with persistence.
4. Integrity: We stay true to our organization’s mission and values. While we work to create an environment in which people with a wide range of values can feel welcome, we do not compromise on those things that are essential to our identity and commitments.
5. Excellence: We set a high bar for ourselves and consistently deliver. We are known for creating excellent programming, paying attention to details, having high quality materials, and modeling excellence in both nutrition and good taste in any food we serve.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://eatfortheearth.org
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eatfortheearth
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethlove/; https://www.linkedin.com/company/eat-for-the-earth/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2xQPx768dn6wk4vQD2Fpcw