The systems that feed us are in major crisis — and there’s something that each of us can do to help.
In this episode of the Collapse Life podcast, host Zahra Sethna welcomes regenerative farmer, author, and former restaurateur Mollie Engelhart for a grounded, unsentimental conversation about food, farming, and the quiet collapse unfolding across rural America.
After building multiple successful restaurants inside modern convenience culture, Mollie returned to the land — and discovered that many of the ideas we’re taught about sustainability, morality, and progress simply do not exist in nature.
From the ongoing loss of farms and mounting farmer debt, to the myth of “ethical” consumerism and the difference between self-sufficiency and community resilience, this conversation cuts through comforting narratives and asks what it will actually take to build a future worth inheriting.
Key themes include:
The accelerating collapse of American agriculture
Why regenerative farming isn’t small-scale or fringe
How debt, subsidies, and policy have hollowed out farming
The illusion of ethical convenience
Why community, not individual prepping, determines survival
What consumers can do — and what they keep avoiding
This episode is a wake-up call for anyone who eats food and assumes it will always be there.
LINKS
- Mollie Engelhart on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/talktomollie/
- Sovereignty Ranch website https://www.sovereigntyranch.com/
- Mollie Engelhart’s book ‘Debunked by Nature’ https://debunkedbynature.com/
