Jimmy Videle is a farmer, naturalist & researcher. He is author of The Veganic Grower’s Handbook and co-founder of NAVCS-Certified Veganic. His writing has appeared in many publications including CounterPunch, Countercurrents & LA Progressive.
In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “who matters?”
Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is ...
Jimmy Videle is a farmer, naturalist & researcher. He is author of The Veganic Grower’s Handbook and co-founder of NAVCS-Certified Veganic. His writing has appeared in many publications including CounterPunch, Countercurrents & LA Progressive.
In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “who matters?”
Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is here on YouTube.
00:00 Clips!
01:01 Welcome
03:08 Jimmy's Intro
- 20 years in farming
- A naturalist... observes and scientifically tries to understand nature "my passion". Over 10,000 hours of field research "a lot of time outside"
- Author of The Veganic Grower's Handbook "how to grow... without the products of animals or having any animals on the farm"
04:50 What's Real?
- German Roman Catholic mother, Italian Catholic father
- Church every Sunday, communion at 5-6 yrs old
- 12 yrs old heading toward confirmation
- Only child, parents divorcing, a tough patch at high school "It's probably a little easier if you have siblings... I went into my own little bubble... I always felt very comfortable alone"
- Attending weekly catechism, dad asks if Jimmy still wants to go... "Dad... I really wanna just play baseball... this was our religion!"
- "When you're really worried about what people are thinking about you you spend less time delving into the bigger questions... at that time it was the purpose of... 'I want people to like me'"
- Music scholarship to college in California... meeting lifelong friends... hippy influence... "this idea that love could rule all... the biggest moment - flash of my life... wow love"
- "The idea of god... I was never totally comfortable"
- Having to confess sins "I didn't have any... I'd have to make something up..."
- "I always believed that there was god... but I always had a tough time with this god... always judging us... always making us feel bad... like victims... and we're only going to be saved when we die... when we have a chance... to go to heaven"
- In my 19-20''s "I realised that wasn't going to be my path"
- The #iching & "Animal Spirit Guides" by Steven Farmer "Maybe nature is also telling me something... nature has a message and all I have to do is listen and learn"
- "I have my hands actually in the earth... I'm feeling something that most people don't"
- Living on top of some of the earth's oldest rocks "I also want to believe that that rock has knowledge from 4 billion years ago"
- "For me... a bacterium is as sentient as I am"
- "Maybe it is all natural... maybe there's nothing mystical about it at all... start thinking about what it is to be a wolf or a deer or a hemlock tree... how can we see the world then?"
- "To even believe that we are the only sentient being on the planet... it's as arrogant as we can get"
- "What I believe now... #animism... the original religion... maybe it's the way nature looks at the world... every living being has a breath or a soul... anima..."
32:03 What and Who Matters?
01:09:03 A Better World?
01:41:32 Follow Jimmy
- Facebook
- The Veganic Growers Handbook
- observatory.wiki/Jimmy_Videle
- humaneherald.org/publications/
- Certified Veganic
- Boileau Biodiversity Crowdfunder
...and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info.
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