STORIES

Socio-Ecologist & Programmes Manager at SA Urban Food & Farming Trust Rirhandzu Marivate joined us for Be Hive Seasonal Talk III, alongside Rico Wessels — Nourish Programme Coordinator at the Sustainability Institute — to explore one of the Care Economy’s most fundamental questions: If food is care, what would it mean to build food systems that care for the people who feed us? This is Rirhandzu’s essay — an invitation to see food differently, and to see differently the people

Gathering is the oldest technology we have — and the one a fractured world has most forgotten. Last week, on the blessed land known as 42 Acres, we gathered 100 community members for our UK Festival. After five years, we’ve stopped treating it as an event: it is a rehearsal. For four days, the community lives as if the regenerative economy were already here. Sharing freely, relating and listening deeply, dreaming and unlearning, morally imagining, earth dancing, garden grazi

Regenerative work requires regenerative people. In 2025, Be The Earth created a £50k Subsidy Pot and opened the land at 42 Acres to ten groups from our community — farmers, activists, healers, and organisers — not as a reward, but as replenishment. Here's one story from that year — of a community of changemakers who came together in ancient woodland to rest, dream, and remember what they were building toward. What happens when we collectively dream? By Benedicta Asamoah-Russe

An old oak tree is a core member of our emerging community at the Be Hive in the Cape Winelands, South Africa. Rooted in the foothills of an ancient towering mountain, the oak is home to a bee hive and as of last week, a pair of Cape Eagle owls. As the humans who share this space, there might be no more than their vastly intelligent guidance that we need as we learn to navigate pathways of being, belonging and service to a more-than-human world. Their secrets are hidden in pl

The Invitation At Be The Earth Foundation, we hold a concept we call Wholesome Capital – a reorientation that invites us to recognise the social, natural, and spiritual value already flowing between us, often not noticed. What if value were not measured solely in financial returns, but in the restoration of trust, the deepening of relationships, the healing of a landscape? What if capital moved as energy does in nature – circulating, regenerating, and returning? The Ubuntu St

Listening to the Land , held on 7th January 2026 in Oxford, UK, is a one-day gathering exploring what it means to have a reciprocal relationship with the natural world, and how this relationship can support a transformation of our food and farming system. An organic off-shoot of the Oxford Real Farming Conference , Be The Earth is proud to be a founding supporter. Highlights and Reflections We opened the day together in ceremony and song, the music carrying us into a shared

We’re delighted to announce an exciting opportunity in collaboration with our friends at 42 Acres — a regenerative estate, nature reserve, and wellbeing retreat centre, nestled deep in Somerset land. Be The Earth Foundation is offering 15 grants of between £6,000 - £8,000 to support aligned individuals and organisations in hosting their own retreats at this beautiful, soul-nourishing place. The 42 Acres Retreat Subsidy Pot Now in its second year, the Retreat Subsidy Pot wa

“Wealth is not something that anybody owns. Wealth is something that people steward.” — Seth Tabatznik, Founder, Be The Earth Foundation...

May 2025 at the Bertha Retreat, Boschendal, Stellenbosch, South Africa. The 22 women who arrive are wonderfully diverse. Each except one...

In April 2025, Be The Earth gathered 80 extraordinary individuals on the ancestral lands of the Khoikhoi and San peoples. From grassroots...

As policies stall and environmental protections are rolled back, grassroots changemakers are restoring ecosystems, rebuilding resilience,...

This October, Be The Earth Foundation was pleased to support a collaborative event between The Real Farming Trust and The Good Ancestors...

At the heart of our mission is the belief in nurturing not only the work people do — but the people themselves. Our Annual Gatherings and...

We’re thrilled to announce an exciting opportunity in collaboration with our friends at 42 Acres — regenerative estate, nature reserve,...

August 2024 — Reflections on Aura’s second retreat-based course, Midwifing the Feminine. 22 South African female activists gather at...

“We have disconnected ourselves from nature, thinking that we are the intelligent ones. But we are just part of an intelligent system." —...

Liv Torc is a spoken word artist and Co-Director of Hot Poets , an initiative that brings poetry and science together to imagine better...

Reflections from our Head of Community & Partnerships, Renata Minerbo, following our first ever festival earlier this month. Deep sigh....

This is a short tale about a world where humanity flourishes in symbiotic unity with nature, bound by empathy, interconnectedness, and a...

Be The Earth was proud to support a New Constellations retreat in September 2023 at the beautiful 42 Acres in Somerset. This programme,...