Thinking with Plants and Fungi - with Rachael petersen
Thursday, May 29, 2025
12:00 - 1:00 pm Central US Time
Join this free online conversation with Rachael Petersen, Program Lead of Harvard University’s Thinking with Plants and Fungi Initiative.
What is the nature of mind? What does it mean to be human? More-than-human? How do these questions relate to plants and fungi? Might the answers to these questions change the way we live?
Explore these and other questions with Rachael Petersen, Program Lead of Harvard University’s Thinking with Plants and Fungi Initiative, an interdisciplinary exploration into how cutting-edge science on plants is challenging our notions of mind and matter. The Initiative is housed at the Center for the Study of World Religions within Harvard Divinity School.
The event will be co-moderated by Plant Initiative board members Paul Moss and Giovanni Aloi.
We'll be talking about the Thinking with Plants and Fungi Initiative - why it was created, what it accomplished, what are its next steps, and what can people learn from the Initiative.
The conversation will also include takeaways from the Thinking with Plants and Fungi Initiative's major Thinking with Plants and Fungi Conference: An Interdisciplinary Exploration into the Mind of Nature that will be held on May 15-17, 2025 at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA. Learn more about the conference here (free registration for online or in-person participation, but spaces are limited).
Other topics for discussion will be future directions of the plant studies field, differences between plants and fungi, and the ethical implications of thinking of plants and fungi in different ways.
Join us for this free interactive program exploring these and other questions!
There will be time for questions from the audience following the discussion. This free program will be livestreamed with a link to be sent to participants before the event and will also be recorded and available for viewing online afterwards.
About Rachel Petersen
Rachael Petersen is program lead for the Thinking with Plants and Fungi Initiative, an interdisciplinary exploration into how cutting-edge science on plants is challenging our notions of mind and matter which is housed at the Center for the Study of World Religions within Harvard Divinity School. Her research explores pantheism, the intersection of science and religion, and how we relate to the minds of more-than-human beings, especially plants. Her master’s thesis translated the 1848 book by Gustav Fechner, Nanna or on the Soul-Life of Plants from German into English and provided a critical introduction to his thought. A creative writer and translator, her work has been published in Aeon, The Sun, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, Tricycle Magazine, and elsewhere.
Prior to graduate school, Rachael worked for a decade in environmental policy, with expertise in climate mitigation, forest protection, and indigenous rights. She served as Senior Advisor to National Geographic Society and founding Deputy Director of Global Forest Watch at WRI. She holds a BA in Anthropology and Environmental Policy from Rice University and an MDiv from Harvard Divinity School.
Rachael's personal web site is https://www.rachaelnpetersen.com/
Voices of Plants for a Better World
Friday, June 20, 2025
10:00 am - 4:00 pm Central US Time
This unique free and interactive online event features over a dozen individuals who communicate with plants. Plant communication is an alternative and natural way of knowing that everyone is capable of.
In the packed agenda, experienced plant communicators will share with you messages and insights that they are receiving from plants which can help us to meet the joint challenges that both humans and plants are now facing in the world.
Our plant relatives have always been helping humans and partnering with us. Our entire existence is supported by all of the gifts that plants offer in many ways. At this dangerous time on our planet, with crises arising at many levels, plants continue to reach out to try to help us to create a better future for all life on Earth.
The following plant communicators will be participating in presentation sessions or panels at the event: Basia Alexander, Sara Artemisia, Danielea Castell, Jim Conroy, Rachel Corby, Kara Daniels, Evgenia Emets, Jen Frey, Tigrilla Gardenia, Mary Getten, Madii Kasem, Sydney Kale, Pam Montgomery, and Amanda Nicole. Introductory remarks will be offered by Alice McSherry. There will also be two interactive sessions for attendees.
Presentations will be recorded and posted online for free access after the event and a link will be sent to everyone who registers. You are welcome to attend as many parts of the live event as you wish.
about the program
After a brief introduction to plant communication by New Zealand-based interdisciplinary scholar Alice McSherry, eight individuals who are communicating with plants will share insights from plants in presentation sessions throughout the event.
An additional six plant communicators will be participating on two interactive panels - "Integrating plant communication into our lives" and "Where do we go from here?" which will allow for questions and answers from attendees.
There will also be two opportunities for attendees to be divided randomly into Zoom breakout rooms to share their thoughts or experiences from the day's event and to discuss and reflect on the presentations by the plant communicators.
See the agenda on the Eventbrite registration page for more details!
April 2025 Monthly e-mail newsletter
Each month, The Plant Initiative sends out an e-mail newsletter to provide timely information and resources about improving the plant-human connection as well as to keep you up to date on our work.
Here's the link to the April 2025 e-newsletter which was sent on April 15, 2025.
To subscribe to the e-newsletter, just visit our home page and enter your e-mail address on the form on that page. If you have a suggestion for a resource, event, or other item that may be of interest to subscribers, please consider sharing it with us at info@plantinitiative.org.
Thank you for your interest!
The Plant Initiative Podcast - New Episode
The Plant Initiative is posting podcast episodes on our YouTube channel.
Our fourth episode, recorded on December 13, 2024, features a wonderful conversation with Gay Bradshaw, Executive Director of the Kerulos Center for Nonviolence and Plant Initiative board member Sue Fager. Topics include Nature Consciousness, advocating for animals and plants, and thinking about how to make change.
13 grants awarded by the Plant Initiative in 2024!
We are pleased to let you know that 13 grants were recently awarded by The Plant Initiative!
These grants totaling $6,500 were provided in October 2024 to organizations working to increase respect for plants, encourage ethical behavior toward plants, and/or to support development of an effective movement toward these goals.
Grants of $500 each were provided to:
Center for Biological Diversity (Tucson, AZ) to support the Center's legal and other efforts to protect the Alaskan glacier buttercup, found only in the Kigluaik Mountains on the Seward Peninsula in Western Alaska, which is imperiled by climate change and rapidly warming Arctic climate as well as by potential mining activities and other threats.
Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights (Spokane, WA) to support the Center’s staff time and travel to advance and enforce the rights of manoomin (wild rice), which has been recognized in tribal law by the White Earth Band of Chippewa in Minnesota.
The Cultural Conservancy (San Francisco, CA) to support the Conservancy's Native Foodways Program, in partnership with Intertribal community, including purchasing California ethnobotanical seeds and plant starts for ecological restoration in their land base, as well as to purchase additional heirloom seeds, fruit tree starts, and seeds for winter crop planting.
Dogwood Alliance (Asheville, NC) to support the Alliance's forest advocacy activities, which seek to protect the forests of the US South and to work in partnership with frontline communities to develop economic alternatives that work with and for the Southern forests.
Earth Law Center (Durango, CO) to support the Center in developing a policy report and blog on the concept of plants as kin and family members, as well as other innovative and ecocentric protections, and exploring legal and cultural frameworks worldwide, with the grant supporting staff time and design costs for this work.
Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (San Francisco, CA) to support GARN's work to advance the "Declaration of the Rights of the Amazon", including developing and distributing educational materials to be shared with GARN's members and allies that highlight the importance of recognizing the Amazon as a subject of rights.
Institute of Relational Being (Los Angeles, CA) to support initiatives that are focused on enhancing appreciation for plant life through community engagement events and materials for educational workshops in the Los Angeles, CA area, to help cultivate a deeper respect for plants within that community.
The Land Institute (Salina, KS) to support the Institute's sustainable agriculture work, including expanding and accelerating perennial grain research, building network,s and helping to develop perennial grain supply chains and markets.
Native Seeds/SEARCH (Tucson, AZ) to support their mission of conserving and sharing the seeds of the people of the desert Southwest and Mexico by establishing a new dedicated rainwater harvesting basin for dry-farm crop seed production on their Conservation Farm that will also serve as a crucial habitat for beneficial insects and pollinators.
Old-Growth Forest Network (Easton, MD) to help support the purchase of an ArcGIS Online subscription to help the organization to increase its mapping capabilities in order to fill a gap in the nationwide accounting of remaining old-growth forests and lands that are set aside for protection as well as to help create educational materials for visitors to their website.
Re:wild (Austin, TX) to advance the recovery of Ekman's Magnolia, a Critically Endangered tree endemic to the biodiversity-rich Tiburon Peninsula of Southwest Haiti, through working to conserve its habitat and propagating these rare trees in field nurseries for reforestation, in collaboration with the Haiti National Trust.
Seacology (Berkeley, CA) in support of Seacology's seagrass project in Las Calderas, Dominican Republic, where seagrass faces threats such as sedimentation, runoff, and coastal development, with the project supporting community patrols, educational workshops, signage, stakeholder engagement, and strengthening ecotourism in collaboration with local partners.
WildEarth Guardians (Santa Fe, NM) to support implementation of a communications and outreach plan to highlight the need to protect the Joshua Tree which is facing threats from climate change, including a digital communications campaign which will help to build extensive support in Southern California around this issue.
With your support, The Plant Initiative plans to continue to provide grants in 2025 to organizations working on behalf of plants!
the Plant Initiative's 2023 annual report
Check out The Plant Initiative's 2023 annual report to learn more about our work in the past year!
2023 was the third full year of The Plant Initiative and we experienced a lot of growth in our programing this year as is described in this report. This included online events, grants, our monthly e-mail newsletter, podcasts, a report, social media, and collaboration with Networking with Plants in the Anthropocene.
A big thanks to Plant Initiative board member Mya Hummel for donating the design for the report and to Betsey Crawford of The Soul of the Earth for allowing us to include her beautiful photos of flowers. Also, thanks to Vegan Printer for their generous discount on the printed version of the report.
As an all-volunteer organization with no paid staff, we have done a lot with a modest budget. Thank you for all of the support and interest you have shown over the past year!
Learn more about our work by reading or downloading the report here or by clicking on the report cover or the button below.
The plant initiative is a friend of the journal
The Plant initiative is pleased to be included as a Friend of the Journal by The Ecological Citizen, a peer-reviewed free-access online journal that is working for an ecological civilization. Issues are published twice a year and are full of articles promoting respectful relationship with all of Earth's diverse beings.