The 3rd edition of the wonderful World Living Soils Forum just took place in Arles, founded by Moët-Hennessy, co-organized with ChangeNow and with partners such as Nestlé, Nespresso and Pernod-Ricard to gather all of dedicated, soulful and engaged changemakers, houses of wines and spirituals and farmers to accelerate and facilite the regenerative agriculture transition. An immense and warm bravo to Sandrine Sommer, Chief Sustainability Officer chez Moët Hennessy for the overall orchestration, as well as Santiago Lefebvre (founder of ChangeNow) and Hélène Valade, LVMH Group Environment Development Director.

This is the opening poetic speech made by Vincent Avanzi. Thank you for your time and inspiration Laure Lemarquis (Directrice du Pôle Transformation des entreprises, WWF), Gauthier Quéru (Global Head of Nature Capital, Mirova) and Marc-André Sélosse (Professeur du Musée national d’Histoire naturelle) for the preparation of the speech, as well as Nora Gherbi (Founder WHo CAREs!? Chronicles & Environmental Intelligence @ ChangeNow) for the indigenous spirit and for the brillant moderation of our roundtable on the role of arts for transformation with amazing fellow artists Anaïs Tondeur, Sophie Hunter (Salt of the Earth) and Gail Gallie (The NAT). All participants were invited to write a love letter to the Earth, a « Soul letter to the Soil » (pictures below) !

And thank you Gildas Bonnel (Président Fondation pour la Nature et l’Homme) for the video. The entire summit was MCed by the great Louise Ekland and we had the privilege of having the french Minister of Ecological Transition Monique Barbut as well as Antoine Arnault delivering speeches and visions. Thanks all for the encounters and great energies for everyone there ! Such a great vybe of optimism and solutions ! Bravo also to Chisomo Sara Mhango of Small Farm Cities Africa for the prix coup de coeur !

Poetic Speech WLSF 26
The Universal Poetree of Life

Dear leaders, dreamers, seekers and healers
Or should I say, in the name of love and for the sake of the world,
All of the above “Guardians of the ground”

Welcome to another round of the World Living Soils Forum.
Welcome back to the… source of life.

Before markets, before margins, before vines and wines,
There was soil. Living. Breathing. Giving.
Not dirt beneath our feet, but the pulse of our future.

What is growth if the ground below us is declining?
What is performance if it disconnects us from our essence?
Without living soils, there are no living systems.
And without living systems, there is no living future.

Today, we gather not just to talk about soil,
But to reconnect with our soul.
Because there is only one letter between soil and soul.
As I+U = WE, and maybe that’s the win win :

Heal the soil and we heal the soul.
Regenerate the ground and we regenerate our common ground.

Let’s replace this climate soiling of the world
By more climate loving of the soil
For it to blossom and unfold !

Soil is not a resource. It is a relationship.
A silent symphony of microorganisms,
An invisible intelligence beneath our civilizations
A fragile balance holding the weight of our ambitions.

And in every handful of earth,
There is more life than there are humans on Earth.

This is not just about agriculture, it is about our culture.
Not just about vineyards, but about visions onwards.
Not only gastronomy but world harmony and tomorrow’s territory.

We know climate change is not a distant threat, it’s a present shift
And biodiversity loss is a signal of what is vital for our survival
Because if it’s not good for life… then it’s good at all !

So it’s a call… to move
From extraction to regeneration, exploitation to collaboration,
From soil degradation to preservation
From short-term profits to long-term benefits
From Earth as a commodity to a real entity.

And that’s the civilizational shift !
Perhaps our century became too virtual and cynical
Instead of virtuous to give birth to a miracle.
Now it is time to land back on land !
To realize our most beautiful destiny inside our reality,
Which are the planetary boundaries.
And that’s our grand ambition versus this past illusion.

And the good news is: Solutions already exist.
So our role is not to invent everything but to connect every things :
Science and soil, Innovation intuition and imagination
KPIs as both Key Performance Indicators and our Key Poetic Impact !

And perhaps the next frontier of business will not just be profitable business
but a more “soulful business” with our shared consciousness
Where human progress becomes the true measure of success.

Likewise, food sovereignty is not just about feeding populations.
It is about protecting our roots, lands and future.
That same soil that fed humans for over 10 000 years
Is the land of our humanity : If it dies, so do we.

Do you know when Humanity rhymes with Prosperity ?
When wealth equals health
When interdependence leads to collective abundance and yin-yang balance
When reconciliation with nature is synonym to regeneration for our future.

We are not above nature, we are of nature.
And the soil is not beneath us, it is within us.

As the indigenous saying goes,
« We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children. »
And what we do with the soil today will shape the soul of tomorrow.

You know, MLK, Martin Luther King, aka the dream… GOAT haha, once said:
“We may have come on different ships, but we are now on the same boat.”
Well… perhaps today we need three ships:

1 Water stewardship
2 Human relationship
3 And poetic leadership

So that we can all sail together towards one common future partnership.

So let us cultivate more than vineyards.
Let us cultivate Resilience, Love, Diversity, Hope, Vitality.
Because when we reconnect to the soil, we reconnect to the source of life.
And when we reconnect to the source, we remember who we are at heart:
A collective work of art.

So dear Poets of life and partners of our planet,
Let us regenerate the soil to elevate the soul
Of our home sweet home for us all.

To close this, I’ll leave you with one last image:
Let us grow deeper… to rise higher.
Because just like trees,
Humanity must grow in two directions at the same time:
Roots below… Light above.
Inner transformation… Outer regeneration.
From individual soulfulness to collective oneness.
From soil… to soul.
From the roots to the fruits
From the source of life to the route of light.

So may we all grow, together, each on our own interconnected vine
Inside the universal « poetree » of life
To continue to write the most wonderful story of mankind. 🌱✨

The universe in a unique verse…

Thank you so much, Sandrine, Change Now and Moet Hennessy and everyone here
For facilitating this journey of these caring alliances of dream teams
So that a future in harmony with the living
Can become, not just a fantasy, but our common future reality
If we just put a little more… poetry in it.

Author : Vincent Avanzi
Chief Poetic Officer – Poet Speaker – Performer

© All rights reserved

About the author : Vincent Avanzi is Chief Poetic Officer, poet speaker, executive speech writer, leadership coach, and founder of The Ink of the Future. A former manager at Microsoft, globetrotter, and journalist for Les Echos, he is the author of 10 books, including « Poetic Leaders » (Human Odyssey) and « CAP : Coécrivons l’Avenir en Poésie » (Les Bonnes Feuilles). Pioneer in the bridge between poetry and corporations, he has been delivering poetic conferences and performances around the world for over 10 years on leadership, storytelling and sustainability. Based in France and with over 800 references in the Fortune 500 companies across the world, he is a regular Sustainable Brands speaker and was dubbed an « enlightened leader » by Décideurs Magazine. His conviction: poetry is a fantastic tool for unleashing talent, engaging teams, and enhancing the future. His mission: to re-enchant organizations to bring soulfulness and create desire, purpose and dreams, for a sustainable prosperity. He lately cofounded the « The Poetizers » (Les Poétiseurs), a pool of corporate poets and he dedicates his time to the prosperity and sustainability duet by designing new visions for the future, rediscovering the notion of beauty and elevating to a form of poetic and pragmatic leadership inside organizations.