Meet Cara Huato

 

We were lucky to catch up with Cara Huato recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Cara , so excited to have you with us today and we are really interested in hearing your thoughts about how folks can develop their empathy? In our experience, most folks want to be empathic towards others, but in a world where we are often only surrounded by people who are very similar to us, it can sometimes be a challenge to develop empathy for others who might not be as similar to us. Any thoughts or advice?

I gained consciousness right around the time everything was going wrong. From ages 7-14 my house burned down, my dad died, my mom and grandpa got cancer, and I developed chronic illness. As a kid there wasn’t much I could do in these situations except try to be empathetic to challenges that were way out of my control. I think that’s why I try so hard to see and support everyone else’s challenges without discouragement, being discouraged really doesn’t help.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I am focused on making things better for our planet and being happy. Growing up in an extremely rural area it was really difficult for me to figure out what I wanted to be because my options were to work at the grocery store, school, or farm. I approached college with the mindset that I would try everything I liked unapologetically and then at least I wouldn’t regret listening to my feelings. 6 years, 3 study abroad’s, 2 majors and 3 minors later I finally feel like I know what I want to do, be farmer.

Throughout school I found out that what I really love is learning, researching, innovating to improve things for our people and planet. I grew up on the side of a hill in a tiny town that was surrounded by wheat fields. Nature was my entire life. The people around me cared for the land and environment more than they cared for themselves. I guess it’s really a if you love it set it free type of situation. I didn’t know I loved it too, but now everything is starting to make sense.

I grew up watching and participating in this interaction that I can only explain as farming. In food studies I learned about how farming was invented, which shocked me because it seemed so inherent. Around 12,000 years ago when farming was invented it was ground breaking and changed the entire way we live. We went from reactive hunter gatherers to proactive cultivators of our necessities. We created intuitive relationships with our environment, and in turn were able to stay in one place, with a community. What happened to the land happened to us. We were one.

I didn’t learn the word “sustainability” until I took that food studies class. If you told the farmers in my home town that word they would laugh, because it’s so weird that were having to teach people take care of the earth, take care of your ecosystem, community, and land. Teaching it sounds so out of touch…until I went to university where I watched these theories and articulated feelings break the brains of so many people around me. And that is when I knew I wanted to be a farmer.

Farming to me is a way of life. It’s conscious and intuitive planning that allows us to meet our needs in harmony with nature. I see it as a concept that can be applied to the way we do anything. I ended up studying product design because it turns out our skills and passions rarely align themselves seamlessly, but due to some work I think I have figured out this crazy recipe.

This summer I launched Design Farm, we help companies farm product. Prioritizing meeting peoples needs harmoniously with our planets needs. In 20 years I think this type of work will become mandatory due to product legislation and we are already seeing some change at large companies/ in the EU. In the next 20 years I hope to own a physical farm where we make product as seamlessly as possible with nature. I hope to consult other businesses on navigating these issues, teach others how to farm, create an epic community, and get back to my roots, learning, researching, innovating to improve things for our people and planet.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Growing up I often felt trapped. With my family life being quite tragic and the very real physical and emotional isolation of rural America I had the opportunity to get 16 years of thinking in my head what I would do when I could actually do something. It gave me the “it can’t get worse effect”. It clearly could, but something about isolation makes you feel like it couldn’t. I think this mindset has been most impactful thing to happen to me as a human. Pop ur bubble.

Writing this made me realize that I live very hunter gatherer now. No planning, no stationary, just moving and constantly searching for new bubbles.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?

Biomimicry by Janine Benyus

“This time, we come not to learn about nature so that we might circumvent or control her, but to learn from nature, so that we might fit in, at last and for good, on the Earth from which we sprang.”

There’s a part in the intro of this book where she talks about how we’re so funny to try and make things without looking to nature as if nature doesn’t have the biggest portfolio for creation. Natures Behance would be off the charts. We are really so funny.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Chandra Arbogast

Suggest a Story: BoldJourney is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems,
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
Resilience
Portraits of Resilience

Sometimes just seeing resilience can change out mindset and unlock our own resilience. That’s our

Productivity
Perspectives on Staying Creative

We’re beyond fortunate to have built a community of some of the most creative artists,

Confidence
Kicking Imposter Syndrome to the Curb

This is the year to kick the pesky imposter syndrome to the curb and move