Hello and Welcome!
I’m so glad you are here!
My name is Dietrich, and this website is dedicated to exploring the ecology of our food systems, and finding insight through data analysis. I will tackle societal issues at the intersection of agro-ecology, the environment, politics, and daily life. I will also include tutorials on the data science techniques (and programming skills) underlying some of the analyses. Whatever your interests, welcome!
A somewhat (un)related special interest of mine is building the core practical knowledge for an obscure field of agriculture known as mycoforestry - or managing forest systems for mushroom production. I’m sure at least a few posts will be about this. If you want to directly support the development of resources related to mycoforestry, and access tools developed for mycoforestry design and management, I suggest checking out my Patreon page.
About me:
I always have dreamt of being an author. I didn’t expect that my first publications would be scientific papers. I also dreamt of using my writing to help restore ecosystems and improve society. I now have decades of experience working at the intersection of society and the environment. I have extensive experience in the agricultural landscape - working with food justice organizations, advising governmental agencies, being employed by governmental agencies, and an academic career studying how human activity affects biogeochemical processes in soils. Most of my career aspirations were tied up in being a scientist, for which the vast majority of options rely in part or whole on the federal government’s scientific infrastructure. This infrastructure is actively being degraded, and my hopes and dreams of being a scientist are slowly fading. The silver lining is that I have a short window in this chaos to pursue dreams I’ve had for as long as I can remember.
This substack will be dedicated to developing a body of work for a more general audience, and transforming data and the science around agriculture and society into a more digestible medium. Hopefully I’ll be contributing towards a more just and regenerative world.
Life has a way of weaving a tapestry in patterns that you never expect. Yet somehow in hindsight, these patterns often appear utterly predictable. I’ve been drawn to expressing myself in writing since just about the time I could read. Separately, I love solving puzzles, and learning about the natural world has been the oxygen I breath. I probably should not have been surprised to find during my graduate studies that writing software to help me (and other people) better understand the world would also scratch this problem solving - discovery itch.
Pursuing a regenerative society feeds me, both literally and figuratively.
So here I am, sharing and building what I can. I hope it inspires you to join in the project of creating a better economy and a better world.