There are not many Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs who become ranchers. And there are not many ranchers who use their land as a lever to experiment and move agricultural paradigms, not to mention as a gateway into social and inner transformations. 

In Sallie Calhoun, you find both. In an Awakin Call, Sallie Calhoun shared with us her ever-evolving journey into land, soil, food, animals, society, meaning, and their interconnections.

Early seeds

It all started in 2000, when Sallie and her husband sold their software company, which they grew together for over two decades. Or, it started earlier, during Sallie’s childhood in Tennessee, where she “grew up gardening, working outside every weekend, visiting family farms.”

After the sale of her company, Sallie and her husband bought a 7,600 acre ranch south of San Jose, CA. Sallie said, “There was no rational reason for us to do this. I stumbled upon the thing I am passionate about. I have always been attracted to nature and land. I remember when I planted my first 3 little tomato plants. I didn’t realize it was such a passion until we owned the ranch.”

Today, on Paicines Ranch, Sallie and her team mostly raise cattle, on about 7,000 acres. They lease some land to organic vegetable grower. “We board horses, rent houses, do weddings, restored 25 historic buildings, and fit together different pieces.”

The ranch is also an educational center. Sallie says, “Unlike many other ranchers, we can be the connection to the urban folks and environmentalists. A lot of people come visit now, and the price of admission is that you have to go on a walk with me. We talk about grazing, ecosystems, the importance of cow to the landscape. Everyone is fascinated, and thinks it is so cool. We’ve had about 800 people visit over the last few years.”

All of this seem like quite a leap from running a software company. We were curious to learn what was the turning point for Sallie.

Catalyst

About a decade ago, at a “cow branding” event at a nearby ranch, Sallie met the former owner of  Paicines Ranch, who suggested a book, and said, “If I had read this book, I would still own the ranch, not you.” This, of course, got the interest of Sallie, who is an avid reader.

And indeed, the book, Holistic Management, by Allan Savory, prove a pivotal moment. The ideas in the book touched Sallie so much that she thought, “Wow, I can’t just lease my land out to somebody. There’s an opportunity to really restore the world’s grassland by changing the way we raise cattle. If there’s a remote chance that I can bring back some native grasses to California, I’ve got to try this myself.”

In Sallie’s words, Holistic Management is a way of making decisions, taking into account the ecological, social and financial aspects. “You develop a holistic context. You sit down and think deeply about what you really want, in 100 years. Then, you test every decision on a daily basis, and work toward what you want. We humans spend a lot of energy fighting what we don’t want, but not enough on what we do want.”

Echoing this holistic view, Birju quoted Thich Nhat Hanh, “If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.”

Soil

Early on along her rancher’s journey, Sallie soon became fascinated by soil. “In one teaspoon of healthy soil, there are more microorganisms than there are people on the planet. 95% of the species that live terrestrially, live in the soil. We’ve identified very few of them. There are galaxies in the soil. That’s THE thing that goes on on Earth.”

With a sense of awe, wonder, and responsibility, Sallie was moved to be in service to the soil, or “at least stop abusing the soil” -- which is what the industrial societies have been doing for the past century. Birju quoted Allan Savory as saying that, the No.1 US export by weight, is soil.

For healthy soil, we need healthy way of raising herds. Sallie said, “As an urban environmentalist, everybody knew that cattle were bad for the environment.” But gradually, she learned that having animals on the landscape is key for it to be healthy.

Money

When she first sold her company, Sallie handed all the proceed to financial advisors to manage. Before long, it struck her that, while she is doing all her work in the world, her money is probably out there doing exactly the opposite.

So, Sallie started to put her money to work on the same issues that she herself is devoted to. She thought it would be easy. But it turned out to be quite difficult to find money managers who are doing what Sallie wanted to see happen. So, Sallie decided instead to invest in the people who are on the ground, doing the actual work of holistic management.

These investments have brought meaningful connections with pioneering people and work. But she acknowledges at it is “slow going,” while the “impact investments” scene often seems to be old wine in new bottle.

Food

Over the years, Sallie has spent a lot of time thinking about food systems. “What’s missing from the conversation is the question of how to grow food in 100 years, not just how to grow as much as possible next year.”

“We have the most ingenious food system ever developed on the planet -- if you look 72 hours out. But if you look 30 years down the road, we have the worst possible. If you buy food in the US today, you are pretty much guaranteed that you won’t get sick within the next 3 days. But if you keep eating it for 30 years, a whole slew of chronic health issues will develop.”

The short-term, single-focused mindset of growth and profit has made it difficult for farmers and ranchers to make a living. Sallie observed, “Most ranchers these days are not making it economically. Ranchers are very sad, and fearing that their way of life is going away. But, there is an awakening in young people, who are showing interests in agriculture.”

On the solutions side, Sallie cautioned that large scale organic food production might not be what we want. “Instead, get to know the farmers and ranchers and really learn about where the food comes from.”

And certainly not GMO, for many reasons. “It is very arrogant of us to assume we can change the ecosystem, and expect everything to work out. We are assuming, if people don’t get sick in the first year, the food is safe.”

Sallie believes that the only way to change the food system, is the “touch factor” -- letting the 98% of US populations (who are not in agriculture) form connection with food and soil, and stand up for it.

“We have to redo the whole food system, which might not be possible in the current capitalism and accompanying form of government.”

The chain does not stop here. “You started out thinking it’s about what’s happening on the land. Then you realize it is about what happens within a community of people -- how they interact with the land. The next step, you realize that money needs to work very differently in this system -- how can money be in service to everything I care about. Over the last few years, I started to shift from external to internal work.”

Venturing inside

Quietly and naturally, her curious and diligent inquiries have led Sallie to look inward in recent years. “A lot of the things I thought I didn’t need to think about were actually important. My view has broadened, and broadened.”

Initially, it was the ranching community that brought “mindfulness” into Sallie’s life, such as a moment of silence before ranchers’ meeting. Like-minded communities such as Business Alliance for Local Living Economies​ (BALLE), and RSF, further kindled Sallie’s interests. And no one said it will be easy.

“Once you start on this journey, you are swimming upstream. You have to figure out how you can have the inner resources to enable you to do all that, day after day.”

Sallie is a believer in “working for what we want, not just against what we don’t want.” For those who want to try, there are “lots of opportunities to grow food in your neighborhood. Things just grow here in CA, in people’s yard. Relationship between people will grow as the food web grows in the neighborhood.”

When asked who she is most inspired by, not just by their work with land, but also as a human being, Sallie mentioned her neighbor rancher, Joe Morris, who convincingly relates these land topics to spirituality and peace in the world.

For the precious hour together, Sallie spoke in a no-frills, matter-of-fact tone of an engineer, from a pragmatic and analytical perspective of an executive, and with the humility, passion, and humanity of a rancher and seeker. May our collective journeys continue to extend, and our hearts’ soil be nourished as the lands’ soil heals.