Endings Are Just New Beginnings

It's been a year or so, since I've published a piece here.

And honestly, I wasn't sure if this Regenerative Roadtrip had ended for me.

I'd spent years moving, working on farms (including a movie set), visiting regenerative grower in the desert, thinking deeply about my own family's land, meeting Indigenous land stewards, and learning about the financial levers that actually create systems change.

Over the years I’ve met hundreds of leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, and farmers and ranchers — including many of you reading this — all with regeneration leading their work.

It’s been an adventure, one that I’m slowly beginning to digest the significance of.

Last year my wife and I committed to making Montana home.

After years of transient stays and always being on the road, we got married, started building community, and planting roots here in Livingston, Montana.

In many ways, it felt like the Regenerative Roadtrip we had been on for years just ended.

In the last 10 years, I’ve visited 20 countries. Unintentionally, and often serendipitously, I always found myself on farms and embracing the food culture wherever I was.

My curiosity had always led me to the next insight, thread, and story — all of which kept bringing me back to the land, how food is grown, who is growing it, and how we enjoy it.

Those experiences transformed me.

But last year was very different.

There was less movement, deeper reflection, and more personal growth.

I took the last 12 months to commit to place, and be 100% intentional about it.

As I did that, a new set of questions began to emerge.

On Committing to Place

Livingston, Montana sits at the edge of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, one of the last intact ecosystems on the planet.

The Yellowstone River borders the town, with the mountain peaks of the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness towering above.

In the last year alone, there have been sightings of a moose, a grizzly bear, and a pair of young mountain lions making their way through town.

There is a sense of wildness here I have yet to find elsewhere, and its all nested in the seasonality of this town bordering the Great Plains to the east, and the Rocky Mountains to the west.

Every season is distinct.

Spring is arriving now, with wildflowers, lush grasses and the emergence of hibernating wildlife. This time of year feels like a full-body stretch after a long winter's sleep.

Summer fills the days with long light and the steady stream of people heading toward Yellowstone, eager to find the wildlife and grandeur waiting around every corner.

Fall brings the elk migration in October, the cottonwoods and aspen turning gold along the river, the first cold nights and the wood stove roaring in the corner.

Winter is long. The days end abruptly, and the nights are the darkest, but the stars are at their peak brightness, and the Northern Lights dance among them. The landscape goes quiet and all life slows to match it.

This rhythmic seasonal living is something I now crave.

The constant movement of my 20s was full of inspiration, but the commitment to a geographical place has shifted something fundamental in me.

I didn't expect it, but it truly has.

Transporting perennials to a job site to plant.

Regeneration via Landscaping

In 2025, I worked with Paradise Landscape and Stone, planting close to 500 trees, thousands of perennials, around a hundred acres of native grasses and wildflowers across the surrounding area, and installing natural stone patios, walkways, and walls.

We also rebuilt the Livingston community garden from the ground up, removed the old beds, regraded the soil, installed drip irrigation, and built twelve ADA-accessible raised beds on crushed granite so that anyone, including those in wheelchairs, can grow food and flowers and participate in the community.

That community garden neighbors the Farm to School of Park County garden, teeming with food, herbs, and the next generation of kids reconnecting with food.

And this year, we even got ourselves a plot at the community garden to grow some herbs, flowers, and vegetables – and of course meet more of the community.

Filling the Freezer with Food

One of the highlights of the year: a freezer full of regenerative, bird-friendly beef from Meagan and Pete at Barney Creek Livestock, raised 15 minutes from our home.

And through my work at Paradise Landscape & Stone, we actually planted 10 trees on one of the properties that they rotational graze close to Livingston.

Meagan was a key piece why we ended up in Livingston, and years ago when I first met her, I couldn’t have guessed we’d ever live this close together.

This is what buying direct looks like in practice. You know the ranchers. You know the land. The food and the meals mean something different when you do.

Land is Kin

This past summer I attended the Old Salt Festival in Helmville, Montana on Cole Mannix’s family’s ranch.

And we are attending again in a few weeks — I invite you to come this year or next.

If you are attending, let me know!

There is no cell service. No digital distractions. No nonsense.

Just people, land, conversations, good food, music, and the kind of vastness that only Montana offers that quietly recalibrates everything.

Last year, we reconnected with old friends from Apricot Lane Farms, met some of the most thoughtful leaders in food and farming, and spent a few days completely present — in person, on the land, with people who are asking the same questions.

There's a phrase that kept coming back to me throughout that weekend.

Land is Kin — It’s Old Salt’s core philosophy.

Not land as property, or resource, or something to control.

Land as kin, as a living relative — something you belong to as much as it belongs to you.

Something with memory, and with a relationship that runs in both directions.

Something that nurtures us, and asks us to care for it.

That’s what commitment to place looks like.

And I find myself reflecting on this question often.

What does it truly mean to commit to place, so much so the land becomes kin?

My Invitation to You

If you've been following along for a while, thank you for still being here.

If you're new — I'm glad you found this.

This is what the Regenerative Roadtrip has always been working toward.

Not the farms or the statistics or the food system diagnosis.

But on building, or rediscovering, a new food philosophy and way of seeing the world.

I invite to connect with me on LinkedIn and follow on Instagram.

The table is where the Regenerative Roadtrip ends up.

See you next week.

— Mitch Hinrichs

→ Share this with one person — if something about this post resonated with you, forward it to one specific person in your life who cares deeply about food.

Read Time: 3 minutes

Almost half of the world’s surface is grassland. These vast ecosystems comprise 80 percent of the agricultural land and support more than 1 billion people globally.

Yet, they are threatened by mismanagement, desertification, and conversion to cropland. They are among the most endangered ecosystems on Earth.

Why Regenerate The World’s Grassland?

Grasslands are found on every continent except Antarctica. They comprise 30-40 percent of the world’s land and account for 30 percent of global terrestrial carbon storage, much of which occurs below ground, making them more secure than forests.

Credit: Maps for UPSC

Not All Grasslands Are Equal

Despite being called grasslands, these ecosystems contain immense diversity. They are typically categorized as temperate or tropical grasslands. The most significant difference between them is the amount of rainfall and seasonality.

Tropical grasslands have dry and wet seasons that remain warm all the time. Temperate grasslands have cold winters and warm summers with some rain. These variables affect how quickly plants can recover from grazing and fires. Evolutionarily, these pressures shaped the flora and fauna that call these diverse biomes home.

Temperate grasslands have created some of the most fertile soils in the world. They have slowly become the “breadbaskets” of the world from which we depend.

Credit: Regeneration

Conversion to Crops Across North America

Across the Great Plains of the United States, 40 percent of shortgrass and 99 percent of tallgrass prairie have been converted to cropland.

Luckily, the largest intact grasslands in the world still remain, mainly because the sandy soils have not allowed for easy crop conversion. 

Four main crops accounted for that conversion: wheat (37%), corn (11%), canola (11%), and soy (9%). These crops have decimated soil structure due to tilling, disrupted nutrient cycles by exposing soils and removing the armor of grasses, and decreased the ability to absorb water and let it infiltrate deep into the soil profile.

They have provided humanity with many calories, but at what cost?

Credit: Agricultural History Society

What’s At Stake? What Do We Do?

Grasslands are being lost and degraded every single year.

Across the United States and Canadian Great Plains, around 2 million acres are converted to cropland annually, and the trend shows no signs of slowing down.

Droughts amplified by climate change are heavily impacting grasslands worldwide. These losses have cascading negative impacts, such as increased carbon emissions, loss of biodiversity, dehydration of landscapes, and loss of fertile soils through erosion.

But our fate is not sealed, thanks to the dedication to the team at Savory Institute and the vision of Allan Savory, against immense opposition, has found a solution.

Large-Scale Grassland Regeneration

Savory Foundation’s Catalytic Mission

The Savory Institute has created an ecosystem of initiatives to restore and regenerate the world’s grasslands. One of their initiatives “attracts and deploys mission-aligned capital into large-scale projects to catalyze global transformation at the intersection of finance, climate resilience, and regenerative agriculture.“

These projects are typically multi-year, multi-million dollar investments and landscape-level deployments of between 500k and 1m hectares. The main objective is to bring producers in the area together to be trained in Holistic Management, implement support for Holistic Planned Grazing, and establish Ecological Outcome Verification (EOV) baselines for ongoing ecological monitoring.

The large-scale nature of these projects allows entire communities and regions to be equipped and empowered with the knowledge to regenerate the land they steward.

Introducing Holistic Management

When dealing with nature, we never have the full picture. Humans have immediate needs and desires, which can derail our long-term endeavors, especially regarding ecological management and regeneration.

Thus, Allan Savory, with the inspiration of others, developed Holistic Management.

Credit: Savory Institute - Coahuila, Mexico

A Decision-Making Framework for Regeneration

The power to regenerate lands and the livelihoods of those who depend on them lies not in simply adjusting practices. We must reimagine how we manage the ecological, financial, and social dynamics that make up our everyday lives.

Holistic Management is more than a grazing system. It is a decision-making framework amidst the ever-changing conditions of the living world, including the financial and social realities we all face.

It helps align decision-makers toward a “North Star”, ensuring that all actions and choices move stewards in the right direction, ecologically, socially, and financially.

Credit: Savory Institue - East Cape, South Africa

Planning Procedures of Holistic Management

These four planning procedures help farmers, ranchers, and pastoralists make critical decisions confidently, balancing the ecological and financial realities they face.

1) Planned Grazing

Every piece of land is unique, and planning your grazing ahead of time can ensure that your animals are in the right place at the right time, making the right impacts on the land. This ensures that livestock's impact creates a regenerative effect while mitigating the downsides of overgrazing or undergrazing.

This doesn’t have to be a rigid strategy, as nature is dynamic, but it gives land stewards the framework to be proactive instead of reactive and passive in their decision-making.

2) Financial Planning

Financial realities are often tight for farmers, ranchers, and pastoralists worldwide. A simple, cash-based planning procedure that allows them to be profitable while maintaining the quality of life they desire and that the land allows.

3) Land Planning

Infrastructure like watering points and fencing ensures that short-term actions align with a long-term vision of regeneration. As stewards of the land, necessary infrastructure needs to be developed to ensure the safety of the livestock and caretakers.

4) Ecological Monitoring

Monitoring ecological changes from year to year is crucial to ensuring that planned grazing and land planning result in land regeneration. An existing and proven methodology ensures that baseline ecological health is established and changes can be compared over time. Short—and long-term indicators are considered, creating feedback loops for the other decision-making procedures.

The Delicate Balance of Grassland Health

Allan Savory discovered four key patterns that keep grasslands in dynamic equilibrium. These key insights are critical to understanding how and why Holistic Management works and what it truly takes to regenerate grasslands.

Brittleness Scale

A scale from 1 to 10 describes moisture availability across the calendar year and, thus, how plants can decay (or not) during a landscape's growing and dormant seasons. This helps stewards read the landscape more clearly and understand how their management impacts will ripple throughout the season.

Nature Functions in Wholes

Nature doesn’t function at the plant or animal population level, but synergistically at the level of whole biological communities, which management should never lose sight of. Grasslands are complex and full of dynamic relationships that rely on each other.

Predator-Prey Connection

The co-evolved relationship between herding animals and pack-hunting predators shows how livestock behavior changes when grouped in herds. This allows for proper grass trampling, forage utilization, breaking up of capped soils, and movement to fresh pasture. This differs vastly from conventional livestock management, which lets the animals roam freely and graze unevenly across the landscape.

Plant and Soil Recovery Time

Overgrazing and trampling are commonly believed to be caused by too many animals, but they are a function of time—not numbers. Plants and soils aren't damaged when exposed to animals for short periods followed by longer periods that allow full recovery. The balance between animal impact and resting the land is crucial to grassland health.

Support Regeneration By Voting With Your Dollar

The Savory Institute has developed Ecological Outcomes Verification (EOV), which producers use to verify their regeneration claims. It helps their partner program, Land to Market, connect brands and consumers to farming that regenerates the environment. Look for the Land to Market badge on products next time you are grocery shopping. They have more than 1,000 products and 100 brands that are regenerating more than 6 million acres globally.

Credit: Land to Market - Find their badge on products in a store near you

Read Past Stories

Can cows make it rain? ☔️🌾🐄

(re)greening the largest desert in North America

www.regenerativeroadtrip.com/p/can-cows-make-it-rain

Flourishing Farmer Report 📁📈

Exploring successful regenerative business models.

www.regenerativeroadtrip.com/p/flourishing-farmer-report

Investing for Regenerative Outcomes 💰

Reflections from the Regenerative Food System Investment

www.regenerativeroadtrip.com/p/investing-for-regenerative-outcomes

Wanted: Farmers with big goals. 🌎

One week that will redefine your farm's future.

www.regenerativeroadtrip.com/p/farmpreneurs-strategic-sprint

Read Time: 3 minutes

The “Flourishing Farmer” report is the product of three MBA students from the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business. They interviewed 30 diverse stakeholders to learn about the current state of regenerative agriculture, aiming to add to the existing wealth of resources. It was announced at this year’s Climate Underground Conference hosted by Al Gore and Alice Waters.

Sponsors: Center for Responsible Business at Berkeley Haas and the Ideagarden Institute

Imagine a Better Food System

There is something wrong with the world’s food system when it is responsible for 26% of greenhouse gas emissions, more than 2 billion people are obese worldwide, and $1.1 trillion is spent annually on health care for chronic disease.

And while most U.S. farmers cannot make ends meet, relying on off-farm income.

There has to be a better way, and the “Flourishing Farmer” report explores five such business models for regenerative agriculture to scale and thrive.

Regenerative Business Models

This report explores five diverse business models — from small, farmer-driven operations to nationwide cooperatives and farmland investors — all united by regenerative agriculture and building a better food system.

There is no silver bullet to transform farming, and this is not presented as a complete strategy for designing a better food system. These case studies are meant to inspire you to see what is possible and how to apply these principles to your work.

Moon Valley Farms

Emma Jagoz has been running Moon Valley Farms for thirteen years. Since then they have grown from 0.5 leased acres to 70 owned and leased acres, growing over forty different types of crops, and continue diversifying their crop offerings.

Emma attended FARMpreneurs in 2020. Since then, she has purchased her own farm and profitably scaled her business fivefold—all with grant funding. She also holds the first organic seat for the Governor's Agricultural Commission in Maryland.

As a profitable farm relying on minimal outside grant funding and no outside investment, Moon Valley Farm feels like an inspirational “David” in a world of “Goliath” large-scale industrialized farming operations.

FEED Cooperative

The USDA defines a food hub as “a business or organization that actively manages the aggregation, distribution, and marketing of source-identified food products primarily from local and regional producers to strengthen their ability to satisfy wholesale, retail, and institutional demand.”

FEED Cooperative works with over 80 small farms (typically 5-10 acre farms) throughout the year, 30 of which are involved with the cooperative’s business strategy. Their main activity is finding outlets for farmers to sell goods. Co-op members benefit from voting on the direction and partaking in profit sharing during profitable years.

Lundberg Family Farms

Lundberg Family Farms is a fourth-generation, 15,000-acre California organic rice farm that has been a longtime organic and regenerative pioneer. In the early 1940s the they started incorporating rice straw into the fields instead of burning it and in the late 1960s they were trailblazers in organic brown rice farming and helped shape standards for the industry.

Now, they are on the journey of defining and scaling “regenerative” California rice.

They eagerly engaged with the Regenerative Organic Alliance to work together on defining the expectations and definition for Regenerative Organic rice and are now committed to certifying all of its crops as Regenerative Organic Certified by 2027.

Organic Valley

Since its inception in 1988, Organic Valley has sought to revolutionize people's thinking about food and support American family farmers.

By nearly any metric, Organic Valley has achieved remarkable success.

• 36 years in operation

• >$1 billion in annual revenue

• 450,000 acres of organic land

• 1,600 farmer / owners

• 100+ organic products — milk, butter, eggs, and cheese

Organic Valley functions as a producer and marketing cooperative. The cooperative’s governance structure includes a board of farmer-owners elected by their peers. At the beginning of each year, their farmer members collaboratively set the milk prices based on current production costs and a fair return.

They have reduced their greenhouse gas emissions by 25% compared to conventional US dairy averages— which has kept 540,000 lbs of chemicals off the land since 1988.

Dirt Capital Partners

More than 40% of farmland is expected to change hands over the next 20 years, and investor money is flowing in. Dirt Capital Partners is an impact-first farmland investment company with a 10-year track record of developing creative investment tools for best-in-class farmers and ranchers. They work with regenerative farmers with successful operations, established markets, and the opportunity to expand their businesses through long-term land access.

Every project is guided by a shared goal to eventually fully transition the land to farmer ownership, which creates an additional incentive for the farmer to steward and improve the land over the long term.

So far, the strategy has proven efficient, with 9 out of 10 exited investments being farmer-purchased lots of land. And since their inception in 2014, they have invested $37m across 40 projects and 9,500 acres.

Dirt Capital Partners is now in their 4th fund, which targets $50M and 20 projects.

Read the Entire “Flourishing Farmer” Report

Download an exploration of five proven business models for regenerative agriculture that help imagine a better food system for people and the planet.

Read Past Stories

Wanted: Farmers with big goals. 🌎

One week that will redefine your farm's future.

www.regenerativeroadtrip.com/p/farmpreneurs-strategic-sprint

The healthiest red meat on the planet 🌎🥩

How an invasive species is helping regenerate the Hawaiian island of Maui.

www.regenerativeroadtrip.com/p/healthiest-red-meat-on-the-planet

A better blueberry has arrived 🫐

Regenerative organic to the rescue.

www.regenerativeroadtrip.com/p/regenerative-organic-blueberries

Fungi's regenerative role in forestry 🍄🌳

Using DNA sequencing to grow healthier, bigger trees.

www.regenerativeroadtrip.com/p/fungis-role-in-regenerative-forestry

Perennials promise a new paradigm. 🌾

The Land Institute's mission to transform grains.

www.regenerativeroadtrip.com/p/perennials-promise-a-new-paradigm

Read Time: 4 minutes

Last week, I attended the Regenerative Food System Investment Forum in Denver. I'm grateful to any of you I met who are reading this. For those who didn’t attend this year, you should try next year—or virtually in December, focusing on Canada or Europe in February 2025.

Understanding the capital landscape is crucial if you care about regenerative agriculture and transforming our food systems. A flood of money wants to be allocated to regeneration, and there are many financial levers to affect change.

What’s the Current Regenerative Food System Investment Landscape?

Regenerative agriculture has moved from “Proof of Concept” → “Proof of Scaling.”

The market is mainly innovator-led, but the movement has crossed the chasm into early adopters eager to scale regenerative across the entire food system.

The chasm regarding capital doesn’t seem to have entirely been crossed, and finding ways to access institutional investors will be crucial to transitioning our food system.

Capital is critical to scaling those solutions. Estimates say we need $200-$450 billion to scale regenerative agriculture. Currently, it is around $20-45 billion and growing.

Reflections from the Event

Emma Fuller at Fractal Ag opening the event

How Can Regenerative Scale Its Impact?

Emma Fuller from Fractal Ag opened the discussion with a question.

“How do we scale solutions for resilient farming and soil health?”

There are 255 million row crop acres in the US, 176 million of which are corn and soy. If we are serious about regenerative agriculture, then how do we engage those acres?

One way is by freeing up farmers' equity to purchase more acres when they become available so they can grow their land base.

This is how Fractal works.

Fractal takes a minority stake in land farmers own

• Fractal benefits from land appreciation or depreciation

• Charges flexible annual premiums

• Allows institutional money to gain exposure to farmland

• Invests over a 10-year term, giving the farmer time to pay back

Farmers remain in control of their land

• Farmers stay on the title & maintain ownership

• Farmers decide how best to farm that land

• Farmers buy out Fractal at any point after two years or roll over after ten years

Regenerating the “Corn Belt” comes with many challenges, capital being only one. But everyone agrees that something needs to change across these 176 million acres that oscillate between corn and soy year after year.

Capital Must Be Collaborative & Contextual

The first principle of soil health is understanding your context.

The same applies to capital and financial products. There is bad capital and good capital. Sometimes, one solution works, but most often, many are needed.

Funding the regenerative transition of our food and farming systems will require multiple types of capital and combining and stacking those products and services—especially when funding the missing middle of our food and farming systems.

Jim Barngrover, a co-founder of Timeless.

MAD Agriculture Collaborative Acquisition

MAD Markets recently acquired Timeless Seeds with the help of many funders to begin addressing the “missing middle.”

Timeless Seeds is a Montana-based company started by four farmers to get organic lentils, grains, and other crops processed and distributed into the market. MAD Markets hopes to strengthen its work connecting farms, brands, processors, distributors, retailers, and institutional sourcing partners.

They aspire to repeat the same strategy across other grain mills and processors nationwide to develop markets for farmers and sourcing to brands and buyers.

Case Study for Collaborative Funding

From the Forbes article covering the news…

“The funding for this deal is coming from a variety of supporters — all fixated on impact and regenerative agriculture. Firms include Terra Regenerative Capital, a public benefit investment company, and Builders Vision, an impact platform, which is anchoring the investment in Timeless Seeds. Together with Blueberry Capital and twenty-four other mission-aligned investors, Mad Markets plans to launch an acquisition strategy for infrastructure across the country, starting with this purchase.”

Educating Farmers About Accessing Capital

12 Financial Levers of Soil Health

Patrick Smith from Soil Upside aggregated the "12 Financial Levers of Soil Health" to clarify the regenerative capital landscape for farmers and funders.

As mentioned earlier, context matters with capital. Every project and farmer is unique, existing within a network of variables. Not every financial product or service will serve every circumstance, but understanding where leverage is in the system can better facilitate transformation on the farm, in the soil, and throughout the food system.

The 12 Financial Levers Advancing Soil Health by Soil Upside

Entrepreneurial Education for Farmers

One key point raised at the event was the importance of farmers educating themselves on investment literacy and sharpening their business know-how.

I met up with Dawnelise Regnery Rosen, the executive director at FARMpreneurs™.

FARMpreneurs™ is a week-long business sprint where farmers bring their “Big Hairy Audacious Goals” and develop a strategy, collaborate with peers, and learn from social entrepreneurs with decades of educational and operational experience.

And best of all, it’s free for farmers thanks to the generosity of Ideagarden Institute.

I have been working with her on their digital marketing strategy to help bring this program nationwide to equip more farmers with the entrepreneurial skills they need to become leaders in their local food system. Follow along on LinkedIn or Instagram.

FARMpreneurs™ Alumni

The application deadline is October 28th if you are a farmer or rancher.

And again, it’s free - so you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Your support is an investment in the professional development of farmers.

Like Jesse Smith from White Buffalo, who attended FARMpreneurs™ in 2020 with the hopes of developing a value-added product using regeneratively sourced foods.

And to know that Figure Ate Foods emerged from FARMpreneurs™ excites me to see what farmers at the upcoming strategic sprints will create!

Dawnelise and myself at RFSI enjoying the incredible regenerative snacks

Read Time: 4 minutes

Alexandre Family Farms has been leading the way in proving that dairy can be regenerative, both from an ecosystem management perspective and for human health. Their dairy is south of the Oregon / California border, where the redwoods meet the Pacific Ocean along the rugged, beautiful coast.

Their farm is truly a family affair. Blake and Stephanie proudly manage the farm with their children and their families, a testament to their commitment to the land.

The Start of Alexandre Family Farms

In 1992, Blake and Stephanie Alexandre purchased their dairy in Cresent City, California. Farming has been in their families, both being fourth-generation themselves. In 2001, they received their organic certification, making them the 9th certified organic dairy in California. And that was just the start of their leadership and innovation.

Instagram post

A Farm Where Life Flourishes

My fiance and I visited their farm earlier this year, driving north along the Pacific Coast Highway. Before getting to Cresent City, you can drive through the Avenue of the Giants in Humboldt, where small patches of old-growth Redwoods groves remain. Seeing 300-foot (100 meters) trees leaves a sense of awe and humbleness of how unique and beautiful this area of the United States is.

Arriving at Alexandre Family Farms, we were struck by its beauty. The lush green grasses amongst the soft rains created a perfect backdrop for learning more about what makes this regenerative organic dairy so unique.

Cows Walking to the Milking Parlor from the Pasture

Farming Regeneratively & Humanely

Today, Alexandre Family Farms manages five separate grass-based, regenerative organic dairies across northern California, spanning over 4,300 acres. They do this while conserving land for wildlife and restoring riparian zones, and without pesticides or synthetic fertilizers, a truly remarkable feat.

Their dairies are regenerative certified through both Regenerative Organic Alliance and Land-to-Market, giving them multiple metrics to ensure their claims.

The temperature rarely gets above 70º F or below freezing, and they receive 70" of rain annually, allowing their cows to graze lush green grass year-round. Their milking cows graze on pasture 18 hours a day, walking to and from the grass pastures for about an hour, in the free-stall barn for 2 hours, and the milking parlor for 3 hours each 24 hours.

Every morning, their “Cow Pusher” drives a four-wheeler out to the herd and guides them to the milking parlor, where they voluntarily enter to be milked. In the free-stall barn, they eat their mixed organic ration of alfalfa, grass silage, vitamins, and minerals.

Compassion and humane treatment of their animals are of the utmost importance, which is why they use a third-party animal humane certification program, Certified Humane, to ensure they are doing all they can to give these cows the best life possible.

Cows Grazing Fresh Grass at Alexandre Family Farms

Wildlife Conservation & Ecosystem Management

Their farm is home to hundreds of bird species and wildlife that choose to live here, even if they are passing through during their migratory journey along the Pacific Flyway.

In the spring, Aleutian Geese make their way south, and Alexandre Family Farms is a crucial stopping ground for them on their way to Modesto, California.

For the record, 35 geese can eat as much as 1 dairy cow, and tens of thousands spend time in the area each year. Alexandre has farmland adjacent to State Parks, which they set aside in the spring so these geese have plenty to eat. Their efforts, along with those of private and state landowners in the area, have significantly contributed to removing the Aleutian Goose from the Federal Endangered Species List.

In 2009, a herd of 52 Roosevelt Elk crossed the Smith River onto their property. Since then, they have nearly tripled in numbers while calling their farm home. These are just a few examples of successful conversation efforts achieved by their regenerative focus.

Teaming up with the California Fish and Wildlife Service, California State Parks, the North Coast Regional Land Trust, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), they are restoring habitat around the farm, including riparian zones directly flowing into the ocean just miles away.

Cows in Pastures Co-Existing with Egrets

Grazing-First Genetics & Global Crossbreeding

If you visit most commercial dairies, you will see one type of cattle — Holsteins. At Alexandre Family Farms, you see a wide diversity of cows of different colors due to crossing breeds from all over the world — New Zealand Kiwi Cross, German Fleckvieh, New Zealand Ayrshire, Dutch Holstein, and Danish Jersey.

The diversity of these crossbreeds has produced a shorter-statured cow with strong feet and legs to be better grazers while roaming their vast, wide-sweeping pastures 365 days a year. And one trait every single cow on their farm shares is that they all produce A2 milk; a beta-casein protein that differs from most commercial dairy milk.

A2/A2 Means Both Parents Have the Gene Versus Typical Commercial Breeds

The A2/A2 Difference & Why Not All Milk Is Equal

Today, the protein found in cow’s milk comes in two variants: A2 beta-casein and A1 beta-casein. Originally, cow’s milk only had the A2 beta-casein protein present (A2/A2), the same primary protein found in human milk, making it the most natural form for the human body and more easily absorbed and digested.

However, the protein has changed over time—from A2 to A1 beta-casein, which is what most commercial dairy contains. A1 beta-casein is more difficult for humans to digest and has been linked to inflammation and gut discomfort, which is why many have strayed away from milk and other dairy products.

Alexandre Family Farms genetically tests their dairy herd to ensure all their animals only produce A2 beta-casein milk. If you or anyone you know has issues with dairy, have them try Alexandre Family Farms products and see if they can tell the difference both grass-based management and A2 genetics play on the quality of the milk

Read Past Stories

Wanted: Farmers with big goals. 🌎

One week that will redefine your farm's future.

www.regenerativeroadtrip.com/p/farmpreneurs-strategic-sprint

The healthiest red meat on the planet 🌎🥩

How an invasive species is helping regenerate the Hawaiian island of Maui.

www.regenerativeroadtrip.com/p/healthiest-red-meat-on-the-planet

A better blueberry has arrived 🫐

Regenerative organic to the rescue.

www.regenerativeroadtrip.com/p/regenerative-organic-blueberries

Fungi's regenerative role in forestry 🍄🌳

Using DNA sequencing to grow healthier, bigger trees.

www.regenerativeroadtrip.com/p/fungis-role-in-regenerative-forestry

Perennials promise a new paradigm. 🌾

The Land Institute's mission to transform grains.

www.regenerativeroadtrip.com/p/perennials-promise-a-new-paradigm

Read Time: 5 minutes

FARMpreneurs™ is looking for climate-smart farmers with big goals to transform their farms and impact their local food system.

Their first program was a huge success, and they just opened up applications

The best part? And this program is free for farmers to attend.*

Farmers, Do You Have A

“Big Hairy Audacious Goal”?

FARMpreneurs™ is empowering climate-smart farmers with mindsets and business skill sets to grow and thrive as social entrepreneurs. They believe that if individual farmers were better equipped to achieve their “Big Hairy Audacious Goals”, then their growth and impact would have positive cascading effects across the food system.

The problem is that most farmers don’t have time or money to complete a formal MBA program and learn practical social entrepreneurial strategies for their business.

That’s why Will Rosenzweig created the FARMpreneurs™ strategic sprint. 

He knew that farmers were extremely busy.

So, he condensed decades’ of business experience, social entrepreneurship education, and food systems change into just 7 days — so farmers could learn and create impacts.

Farmers need this information. Most can’t afford it or don’t have time.

But, as you will see, one week is enough to transform farmer’s futures!

Strategic Sprint at Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture

A Week-Long Strategic Sprints for Farmers

A strategic sprint is a condensed, accelerated period of time that innovative companies and organizations use to set goals, identify challenges, clarify values, and create direction for their teams. They may host this in a retreat setting where the distractions of work are away so they can focus on the task at hand — develop the playbook that will bring their “Big Hairy Audacious Goal” to life.

Will is the Faculty Co-Chair at Berkeley Haas Center for Responsible Business. He spent his career teaching social entrepreneurship, food systems education, innovation, and entrepreneurial leadership and has experimented with new education models.

He’s packaged it together with his team at FARMpreneurs™ and tailored it to provide farmers with the tools and resources needed to return home and become change-makers in their local food systems.

Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture

The First Round of FARMpreneurs™ at Stone Barns

The FARMpreneurs™ Strategic Sprint, developed at Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in 2019 by the FARMpreneurs™ faculty. It has proven impactful and transformative for all the farmers, helping their farms profit and grow while becoming change-makers in their local food system. 

The program was paused because of the pandemic and other circumstances, but they are relaunching the program this January for 36 climate-smart farmers!

Alumni Impacts on Local Food Systems

The impact of the FARMpreneurs alumni only started in this week-long program. Their skills are only beginning to grow, and the success and transformation on their farms and in their local food systems are proof that this program creates change.

• 100% of them are still farming

• 100% increased profits

• 100% increased their Climate Smart practices

• 100% of our alumni report direct positive community impact

• 80% of our alumni have increased their acreage

Emma Jagoz’s Story from Moon Valley Farm

— Purchased Farmland & Appointed Position in Government

Emma Jagoz was farming 7 separate leased plots when she attended the program. She arrived with a big vision to create local jobs, build a resilient food hub, and grow healthy food for her community in the Chesapeake Bay.

Listen to Emma’s Testimonial

Since the program, she has purchased her own farm and profitably scaled her business fivefold—all with grant funding. Emma Jagoz of Moon Valley Farm now also holds the first organic seat for the Governor's Agricultural Commission in Maryland.

What the Alumni are saying about FARMpreneurs™

Wanted: Farmers with BIG Goals

FARMpreneurs just opened applications for two strategic sprints they are offering this January. At each cohort, 18 farmers will bring their “Big Hairy Audacious Goals” to a space to be supported by mentors with decades of social entrepreneurship and food system education and collaborate with their peers.

FARMpreneurs™ Recent Post on LinkedIn

Do you know any climate-smart farmers who want to transform their local food systems? We built this week-long entrepreneurial program to…

www.linkedin.com/posts/farmpreneurs-strategic-sprint

Upcoming Strategic Sprints

• January 5-10

  • Bishop's Ranch - Northern California

• January 19-25

  • Carnation Farms - Redmond, Washington

This program is free for farmers — thanks to the Ideagarden Insitute.

Farmers only pay for the associated travel costs of getting to and from the program.

Join a Live Q&A with Will Rosenzweig on the FARMpreneurs™ Strategic Sprint

Join Will Rosenzweig and the rest of his team on Monday September 16th @ 10am - 11am (PT). If you can’t make it to the live event, they will send a the recording.

If you know any farmers who are ambitious, curious, and hopeful about transforming their local food systems and being a leader in their local community, let them know about this program.

And again, it’s free for farmers — thanks to the Ideagarden Insitute.

Farmers only pay for the associated travel costs.

Read Time: 5 minutes

Cereal grain crops are humanity’s main source of carbohydrates and plant-based proteins. More than half of the grains produced globally are for human consumption directly, a third feeds animals, and wha’s left are used for industry.

But every single cereal grain species grown is an annual plant, having only one growing season, yielding one crop.

What if our global grain supply flipped from annual production to perennial?

The Land Institute’s mission is shift modern agriculture from an annual cropping dependent system to a perennial paradigm.

The Promise of Perennial Agriculture

Wes Jackson’s, alongside his wife Dana, founded The Land Institute in 1976 with the goal of developing perennial polycultures. The vision was to have fields worldwide filled with multiple productive perennial crops growing together, mirroring what occurs in natural ecosystems.

The Land Institute is located in Salina, Kansas sitting on about 650 acres in total — with plant nursery plots, 92 acres of farmland, 90 acres of upland farmland, and 200 acres of hilly native and restored prairies.

The Land Institute’s test plots in Salina, Kansas

The Land Institute’s Perennial Project

Central to their work is the development of perennial grains, legumes and oilseed varieties they believe will create a paradigm shift to modern agriculture.

Cultivating perennial crops isn’t new. Human’s have been cultivating them for thousands of years alongside annuals — grapes, alfalfa, asparagus, fruit and nut trees to name a few major ones.

The opportunity ahead can’t be understated, as 70% of our cropland are currently devoted to growing annual cereal grains.

The team at The Land Institute examining their test plots

Why Perennials?

The majority of our calories currently comes from annual cereal grains such as wheat, rice, corn, millet, oats, and barely. Annual crops have their benefits, as they focus more of their energy into the “seed”, which we harvest.

They must be planted every single year, which usually requires frequent tillage and application of herbicides to control weeds when the annual cereals are getting established. The frequent soil disturbance causes significant amounts of soil erosion, nutrient leaching, and changes in soil composition, often harming the fungal communities.

Annual cropping systems keep farmers on “an economic treadmill of instability”, using The Land Institute’s wording. They buy costly inputs every year and spend time and wear and tear on their equipment tilling and planting.

Perennial crops offer many benefits, including increased carbon sequestration due to their deeper roots, better water infiltration, ecosystem nutrient retention, and multiple functions for farmers such as winter grazing.

And have the potential to create less work for farmers.

Achieving Perennialization — Combining Wild & Domestic

Over the last 10,000 years or so, humans have selectively bred plants to match their needs — whether that be for taste, ease of growth, productivity, and even aesthetics in the case of ornamentals. This has created massive transformations from the crops we grow today and their wild ancestors.

The Land Institute takes existing annual grain crops and hybridizes them with their wild perennial cousins. When successful, these “wide hybrid crosses” produce plants that maintain the seed yield and quality of their annual parent while inheriting the perennial lifecycle from the the wild parent.

It can take decades and countless generations to achieve those desired traits in the offspring that will then be grown out for seed production and scaled.

Research plots at The Land Institute selecting certain plants for desired traits.

GMO’s vs Hybridization — Is Any of This Natural?

The process that The Land Institute uses is not the same as gene editing.

Biotechnologies like CRISPR and Cas9 allow plant geneticists to insert and remove genes. These species are GMO’s, or genetically modified organisms.

The main difference between hybridization and GMOs is the former takes pollen from one plant and applies it to another, relying on the process of sexual reproduction, while the latter uses non-sexual transfer of genes using biotechnology to bypass the natural reproductive process of pollination.

Some argue the benefits of GMOs generate desired traits quicker that natural selection and hybridization. But those who oppose this technology argue this “non-natural” process is too new to be considered safe.

This debate is for another day, but just to be clear — The Land Institute’s development of perennial crops DOES NOT USE GMO TECHNOLOGY.

Meet Kernza® - The Perennial Grain

The Land Institute’s first viable commercial perennial grain is Kernza®. It’s an intermediate wheatgrass (Thinopyrum intermedium), the cousin of the annual wheatgrass and has been grown for a highly palatable fodder for livestock and wildlife. Now, it is being bred for human consumption.

Source: The Land Institute - Comparison of Kernza® roots & annual wheatgrass

Deeper Roots & Dual Purpose

Kernza® grain’s extensive root system can reach over 10 feet underground, storing carbon deeper in the soil profile through root exudation. By it’s perennial nature, the roots are active for more of the growing season.

Farmers are also finding ways to extend their grazing season by stocking the fields after harvesting the perennial grain or early in the spring. And some are even experimenting with intercropping Kernza® with clovers or alfalfa to increase the diversity and available forage for their livestock.

Please, Patience on the Perennial Paradigm Shift

One criticism of Kernza®’s current state is yield.

In 2023 there were 2,405 acres planted and the average grain yield was 300 pounds per acre. In perfect conditions it can yield up to 1,200 pounds per acre and through more development in breeding, they are aiming to raise the averages to be more competitive with annual wheat varieties.

For perspective, the current average yield is 20-30% of typically annual wheat, so it still has quite a ways to go to be competitive and enticing for farmers.

Yields are known to decline in successive years with Kernza®, as the perennial nature of the grain isn’t fully instilled into the hybridized offspring.

In an interview with a plant scientist at The Land Institute, the issue of yield was summarized perfectly — patience mixed with persistence.

“I feel quite confident in concluding that we can get perennial plants that will yield abundant seed, it’s just a matter of how many generations it will take to develop them. If you can only increase the yield by so much per year and you have to increase the yield by five times, that takes decades. There’s just no way around it. So, we’re always looking for ways to substitute money, effort, land, and technologies for time.” — Lee DeHaan, Plant Scientist

“Drink Up to Drawn Down” - Patagonia x Dogfish Brewing

I’ll Drink to That…

For now, we can all spread the word about the potential of perennial grains and enjoy some of the fruits of its labor so far! There have been multiple collaborations with restaurants, bakeries, breweries, distilleries, and food companies around the country to begin using Kernza® in their products.

My favorite collaboration is between Patagonia and craft breweries around America. The partnership with Dogfish Head captures the mission with their “Drink Up to Drawn Down” campaign, showcasing the carbon sequestration potential of the perennial grain while enjoying a pilsner brewed with it.

Beyond Kernza®

The Land Institute’s goal extends beyond their first commercial grain, Kernza® into revolutionizing the entire annual cereal crop production. This ambitious project covers legumes, oilseeds, rice, and sorghum — all major global crops.

Legumes intercropped in Kernza® in the test plots at The Land Institute

Perenial Legumes

The idea behind perennializing a legume is to provide nitrogen-fixing companions to polycultures with other perennial grains. These can be a high-protein food for both human and animal consumption and provide livestock with high-quality forage.

Currently, there are more than 20,000 legume species in the world and only around 15 pulse (grain) and 40 forage legumes traded globally, so the opportunity to expand our crop options is immense.

They have created a roadmap and identified legume species to begin the hybridization process to develop a commercially viable perennial species.

Perennial Rice in Yunnan Province of China

Perennial Rice

Rice feeds 4 billion people globally and is the most consumed grain by humans. Behind corn and wheat, it is the third largest cereal grain worldwide in metric tons. The opportunity to perennialize rice can’t be overlooked.

In the Yunnan Province of China, a high-yielding perennial rice has already been successfully developed in a relatively short two-decade timeframe. This rice is providing similar yields to annual rice over eight consecutive seasons.

This is direct evidence that it’s possible to develop competitive perennials.

And even more of a reason for The Land Institute to stay focused on their goal.

Read Time: 4 minutes

When we think of deserts, we don’t automatically thing of agriculture. We think of saguaro cactus, intense dry heat, scorching sun, and lack of water.

Phoenix, Arizona had 133 days of temperatures at or above 100º F last year and only 4.25” of rain. Farming in the Southwestern United States is not for the faint of heart. Despite the hurdles, Oatman Farms is farming regeneratively, conserving billions of gallons of water, and growing nutrient dense grains.

Water Scarcity in the Arid Southwest

Over Reliance on Colorado River

More than three-fourths of the water diverted from the Colorado River is used for agriculture — with alfalfa and hay crops destined for animal consumption accounting for nearly half.

Source: Los Angeles Times

The Colorado River irrigates 90% of nation's winter vegetable production and 15% of nation’s farmland. It’s been quite the feat of engineering to divert an entire river system to feed a growing and hungry nation.

However, from 2000 to 2015, water consumption exceeded the total river flow. And in August 2021, a water shortage was declared by the federal government for the first time ever.

Unlimited Groundwater for Foreign-Owned Farms

The growing water shortage in the southwest has brought attention to foreign-owned farms and Arizona’s groundwater resource management.

Arizona’s State Land Department leased thousands of acres to a farming operation owned by Middle East dairy giant, Almarai.

They were originally permitted to pump unlimited groundwater, but recently the lease has ceased. These alfalfa harvests were being grown using precious groundwater, then be shipped half-way across the world to feed dairy cows.

The conversation has since shifted to how the state can conserve and protect access to water for a growing population. And another farm south of Phoenix is showing how regenerative agriculture can be a huge part of the solution.

Regenerating Desert Landscapes Using Farming

Source: Oatman Farms

Oatman Farms & First-Generation Farmer, Yadi Wang

Five years ago, Dax Hansen and his wife purchased their family’s degraded cotton farm in Gila Bend, Arizona which was on the verge of collapse. They couldn’t let the family farm’s legacy fail, so they turned to Regenerative Organic Certified® agriculture to restore and regenerate it.

Thus, Oatman Farms was born.

Yadi Wang is the farm’s manager and also a first generation farmer with a seemingly infinite appetite for curiosity and learning. I’ve had the pleasure of hanging out with Yadi many times, even sampling their regenerative grains at Wildernesses Brewing in both brewed and baked forms.

Watch the video to hear Yadi’s story firsthand and his dedication to regenerative agriculture and fixing the food system in the Southwest.

White Sonora Wheat - Oatman Farms

Growing Locally Adapted Varieties

Often in agriculture, we try to force crops to grow in regions they aren’t adapted or accustomed to. We’ve done a pretty good job at forcing environments to grow what we want, but not without costs.

Oatman Farms has taken a different approach.

Their main wheat variety, White Sonora, is an heirloom variety of wheat that has been grown in this region for generations. It is believed to be the first wheat introduced to the New World over 300 years ago and thought to be the oldest arid-adapted grain variety cultivated in the Arizona area.

It is extremely drought tolerant, disease resistant, and highly adaptable. By choosing varieties best suited to local contexts, Oatman has remarkably cracked the code on water conservation in the desert environment.

Source: Oatman Farms Regeneration

Conserving 1 Billion Gallons of Water Through Soil Health

Every pound of their wheat conserves about 700 gallons of water from surrounding aquifers in comparison to the water intensive crops grown nearby. Choosing the right varieties has lowered the irrigation demands, while focusing on soil health has helped recharge the aquifer and capture more of the rains.

Since implementing soil health practices, Oatman farms increased their soil organic matter from 1.2% to 2.4% from 2019 to 2022.

This may not seem like much, but for every 1% increase in soil organic matter, about 27,000 more gallons of water per acre can be stored. And in the desert, every single drop of water counts.

They’ve measured moisture retention in the soil up to 5 weeks after a rain, even with the daily maximum temperature above 90º F and find their pants soaked in the morning due to transpiration and dew from the living plants.

Over the years, the water infiltration rates in their fields has increased exponentially. In 2019, it took 1” of water 13 minutes and 27 seconds to infiltrate the soil fully, but only 16 seconds in 2024!

Water is entering the soil quicker, limiting erosion and runoff, while increasing the available of moisture to plant roots deeper in the soil profile. Rains can come fast and heavy, so increasing soil organic matter and water infiltration rates helps build resiliency on the farm amongst the arid desert environment.

Rethinking Agriculture in the Southwest

Alfalfa, a Thirsty Crop Out of Place?

In Arizona, alfalfa rules. Their alfalfa yields are among the highest in the world and their year round weather allows for up to 10 harvests per year.

The seasonal water use for alfalfa around the Phoenix area is about 74 inches annually. Despite alfalfa’s higher water footprint (water used per dollars generated), it’s actually lower than many other crops because of the higher than average prices it’s fetched recently.

However, the increased demand for alfalfa is applying pressure on the delicate water supply of the Colorado River and aquifers.

Alfalfa predominantly feeds into Arizona’s dairies, directly feeding their population they’d otherwise have to import from surrounding neighboring states. But 20% of the alfalfa produced is exported, having increased substantially since 2015 with a likelihood of continued foreign demand.

Learn more about Oatman Farms

Agriculture as the Solution, Not the Enemy

I don’t see a future where alfalfa production ceases to exist in Arizona. Oatman Farms does paint a picture how regenerative agriculture and soil health can lower alfalfa’s irrigation demands and replenish groundwater levels.

The Southwest desperately needs to pivot their agriculture practices to conserve water, regenerate their ecosystems, and feed a growing population.

And this doesn’t mean giving up beef, as we’ve seen how cattle can actually make it rain and turn deserts back into thriving grasslands.

Farms served by the Central Arizona Project canal have already had their water allocations significantly reduced, requiring them to fallow significant acreage or stop farming altogether. Hopefully those restrictions are wake up calls and invitations to exploring the potential of regenerative agriculture in the desert.

Read Time: 5 minutes

There is an entire kingdom underneath our feet that remains largely mysterious. Fungi have an entire taxonomic kingdom devoted to them, yet we keep discovering new species and uncovering more ecological significance.

And they hold the key to accelerating carbon sequestration and helping foresters profit by growing healthier trees.

Fungi’s Unseen Role in Ecosystems

After I read The Hidden Life of Trees, I remember walking on a trail among some of remaining old growth forests of New Zealand and feeling a deep sense of awe at what was really happening on around and beneath me.

Only 150,000 species of fungi have been documented, with an estimated 1-12 millions more worldwide still left to discover. Their roles vary, but all of their ecological functions are absolutely essential for life to function on Earth.

Saprophytic

Most people are familiar with the fruiting bodies of fungi, which are the reproductive expression of certain fungi, known as macrofungi.

Saprophytic fungi are the largest group of macrofungi. They are responsible for breaking down dead plant and animal material, recycling nutrients and making them more available for the soil food web and growing plants.

These fungi are contain fruiting bodies we commonly associate with ‘mushrooms’. Think of shiitake mushroom farming, where oak stumps are inoculated with spores, then as the fungi breaks down and feeds on the wood, it produces fruiting bodies that we consume as food and medicine.

Without saprophytic mushrooms, the forest floor would be covered in a deepening layer of bound nutrients and plants would be unable to cycle those to fuel new growth themselves.

Source: Chico State - How Fungus Might Save Us

Mycorrhizal

Microfungi, on the other hand, exist almost exclusively as a mycelium living underneath the surface in soils and don't produce fruiting bodies at all.

Without these fungi, forests would fail to function properly.

Mycorrhizal literally translates to “fungus-root,” accurately put, since this type of fungi enters the plant's roots, forming a direct association with it.

This symbiotic relationship extends the plant's root system, increasing its absorptive area and essentially plugging it into the extended mycelial network.

The fungi are fed sugars from photosynthesis through root exudates, and the plant is fed nutrients and water out of its reach from the mycorrhizal fungi’s extended network. Some estimates up to 30% of the sugar (carbon) that trees photosynthesize from sunlight are fed to fungi, but varies by ecoregion and tree species.

Trees can even sense sick and weakened neighboring trees and send them needed nutrients. The same neighborly nutrient sharing benefits young growing saplings, who are more vulnerable but are strengthened by plugging into the immense mycelial network that benefits the entire forest ecosystem.

Without the mycorrhizal fungi network, the trees in a forest are alone on an island. But when soils and roots are inoculated with healthy fungal populations, the forest becomes a vast connected community network.

Moving Towards Regenerative Forestry

Funga is developing a fungi-first approach to forest restoration, forest management, and scalable climate action.

Dr. Colin Averill founded this public benefit corporation after realizing the rise of climate tech and major corporate interest in large scale carbon removal.

Bringing over a decade of experience researching the forest microbiome, he and his team are restoring the power of fungal biodiversity to the forest industry, accelerating tree growth and carbon drawdown.

Globally, all plants on land already remove ~30% of the carbon we emit.

Funga is seeing if they can make that drawdown even more efficient.

Human Microbiome Meets the Soil

Human Microbiome Meets the SoilSource: Funga Tech Explained

The Human Microbiome Project developed research resources to enable the study of the microbial communities that live in and on our bodies and the roles they play in human health and disease.

Funga took this approach and applied them to the forest floor.

Their team is visiting forests from all over the world, taking soil samples, and sequencing the DNA from the soils. With this data, they compare that fungal microbiome information with climate and soil data to:

• (1) which forests harbor fungi linked to accelerated tree growth and carbon removal

• (2) do those fungi resemble intact, wild communities native to this part of the world?

They learn which forests are rich with high performing communities of fungi and then identify them “donor forests.”

Soil is then sourced and used an inoculant in their nursery trees that will be planted following clear cut harvests. It’s vital to reestablish wild populations of fungi before planting new trees, especially if there are no host trees left.

Source:

Meet the North America’s Largest Forest Seedling Provider

Funga recently teamed up with PRT-IFCO, North America’s largest forest seedling provider. They currently grow more than 600 million seedlings annually to bring their database of soil DNA to even more acres for forest.

With access to more trees and more trials, they are gaining clarity on which fungi promote tree growth across regions and help farmers grow healthier trees with more yield, sequester carbon, and help restore forest health.

Carbon Markets Financing Forest Regeneration

Trees stores roughly half of their carbon in their wood and the other half in their roots into the soil (depending on the species). Healthy forest ecosystems stores carbon, as well as the tree itself. The increasing of wood volume directly enhances carbon storage from healthier fungi networks.

This quantifiable data lets Funga to leverage the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) as a financing mechanism for regeneration. The partnership allows them to launch this natural climate solution at scale and providing PRT-IFCO an additional value proposition for their clients from the soil microbiome restoration, increased yield, and carbon market engagement.

All while growing healthier trees, accelerating carbon drawdown, and increasing yield for farmers, and financing regeneration!

Brought to You By

If you enjoyed this piece, check out previous posts and connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter.

With the regenerative agriculture movement growing so fast and having such a multi-disciplinary nature, it’s tricky to keep up with everything going on.

I’ve been collecting and searching for the best regenerative resources in order to foster learning, collaboration, and

For those interested in finding new opportunities for work, to learn, find funding, or discover new brands to support, there are plenty of routes to begin your regenerative rabbit hole adventure!

By no means is this an exhaustive list. In fact, this is a starting point and I encourage your feedback and input. If you notice anything missing or think something should be added to the list, go ahead and DM me on LinkedIn.

Table of Contents

• Soil Health

• Livestock Management

• Water Management

• Cover Crops

• Nutrient Density

• Ocean Farming

• Agroforestry

• Food Waste

• Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG)

• Textiles

• Certifications

• Funding, Capital, & Grants

• Small Farms

• Climate

• Jobs

• Non-Profits

Soil Health

• Green Cover - Soil Health Resource Guide

• SARE - What is soil health?

• Soil Health Institute - Strategy & Theory of Change

• Rodale Institute - What is Healthy Soil?

• Soil Health Academy - Case Studies

• Kiss the Ground - The Soil Story

• USDA NRCS - What is Soil Health?

• Nature - The concept and future prospects of soil health

Livestock Management

• Savory Institute - What is Holistic Management?

• The Stockman Grass Farmer - Suggested Books

• Quivira Coalition - Building soil on western working landscapes

• Noble Institute - Principles to Regenerative Grazing

• Good Meat Project - Resources for Eaters, Ranchers, & Chefs

• The Nature Conservancy's - Regenerative Grazing Program

• Chico State - Regenerative Grazing Systems

Water Management

• Smart Water Use on Your Farm or Ranch - SARE

• Keyline Design - Water for Every Farms

• Zach Weiss - Water Stories

• Frontiers - The Critical Role of Water in Regenerative Agriculture

Cover Crops

• Green Cover - Ongoing Soil Health & Cover Crop Webinars

• SARE - Managing Cover Crops Profitably

• Rodale Institute - Cover Crops in Organic Systems

• Practical Farmers of Iowa - Cover Crop Strategies & Resources

Nutrient Density

• Rodale Institute - Understanding Nutrient Density

• Bionutrient Food Institute - Nutrient Density Reports

• Nutrient Density Alliance - Consumers & Nutrient Density

• Van Vliet Lab - Publications on Nutrient Density & Human Health

Ocean Farming

• GreenWave - Global Network of Regenerative Ocean Farmers

• ReGen Agrotech - Regenerative Seawater Agriculture (RSA)

• Seatopia - Regenerative Aquaculture Farms

Agroforestry

• Savana Institute - Climate Resilience in Midwest agriculture

• Propagate Ag - Grow Profits with Tree Crops

• Agroforestry Regeneration Communities - Food Forests 

• Regenerative Agroforestry Podcast

• World Agroforestry (ICRAF)

Food Waste

• ReFED - Food Waste Analysis & Solution Focus

• Natural Resources Defense Council - Multi-Level Resources

• Feeding America - Food Waste with Food Rescue

• Reuters - Don’t Waste Food, Actions We Can All Take

• Reuters - Methane Breakdown from Food Waste

Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG)

• Regen Brands Podcast

• Regen Brands - CPG List of Brands

• Regenerative Organic Certified® Directory

• Regenified® Certified Directory 

• Land to Market Verified™ Members

Textiles

• North Face - Regenerative Rubber & Cotton Commitments

• Patagonia - Regenerative Agriculture & Cotton

• Advancing Eco Agriculture - Integrity Grown Cotton

• Citizens of Humanity - Regenerative Cotton Program

• Range Revolution - Regenerative Leather

Certifications

• Regenerative Organic Certified®

• Regenified®

• Land-to-Market™ Verified

• Soil Carbon Initiative

• Demeter Biodynamics

• Glyphosate Free by the Detox Project

• The Real Organic Project

• Non-GMO Project

• regenagri

Funding, Capital, & Grants

• Steward

• Investing in Regenerative Agriculture Podcast

• Harvest Return

• Iroquois Valley REIT

• Regenerative Food Systems Investment - Directory

• ZeroFood Print - Grants for Farmers

• Refronté Ventures - Grant Writing

• Stray Acres - Grant Writing Assistance

Small Farms & Market Gardening

• The Market Garden Institute

• Neversink Farms

• Elliot Coleman & Four Seasons Farm

• No-Till Growers Podcast

Climate

• Carbon Underground - The Science of Soil & Climate

• The Nature Conservancy - Food, Climate and Nature

• Project Drawdown - Food, Agriculture, & Land Use Solutions

• Rodale Institute - Climate Change Whitepaper

Jobs

• Regen Job Listing

• AgCareers

• Quivira Coalition

• Of The West

• Food Systems Network

• Farm and Ranch Jobs

• North American Food Systems Network

• Good Food Jobs

• WWOOF

• Conservation Job Board

• Terra.do Job Board

• UnderstandingAG Job Board

• Land Trust Alliance Job Board

Non-Profits

• Savory Institute

• Rodale Institute

• Soil Health Institute

• Kiss the Ground

• Regeneration International

• The Carbon Underground

• Bionutrient Food Association

• The Organic Center

Read Time: 3 minutes

There is a new blueberry on the block that goes beyond organic. Its impact stretches deep down into the soils and far past the farm gates.

betterful® is a Regenerative Organic Certified® (ROC) blueberry brand that is packed with even more nutrients and antioxidants than conventional berries, that taste better and are better for the planet.

And despite another new regenerative product hitting the shelves, it’s making me question the dark direction the blueberry industry has been heading.

Beyond Organic Blueberries 🫐

Credit: betterful®

Regenerative Outcomes Lead to Better Berries

AC Foods is a vertically-integrated producer with a portfolio of farm brands focused on soil health and regenerative agriculture.

And betterful® is their newest brand addition!

Their farming practices focus on soil health, enhancing soil biodiversity, and reducing erosion resulting in tastier, more abundant blueberries.

Since 2018, they’ve witnessed a 127% increase in organic matter. They’ve also reduced their water (30%) and energy use (46%) per pound of blueberries.

Holistic Solutions to Common Farm Challenges

All farms face similar issues, and the common reactive solutions include spraying pesticides at the sign of an infestation. Some farms are taking a different approach, seeing the farm nested inside an ecosystem and asking what can they do to find productive harmony.

betterful® uses owl boxes and raptor perches to naturally control common pests. They also have planted 170 acres of native pollinator habitats to assist the pollination of blueberry crops and support our native insect species, which has resulted in a 267% increase in wild pollinator species and similar increase in beneficial predator insect species since 2016.

Credit: betterful®

Not All Berry’s Are Created Equal

What we are discovering about nutrient density now is mind boggling.

The Bionutrient Food Association, a leader in nutrient density research, has found that a 100 gram sample (about 4 ounces) of blueberries could have anywhere from 3,000 units or 43,000 units of antioxidant compounds.

That’s more than 13:1 variation!

And variation is similar among nutrients across other fruits, vegetables, grains, and meats they’ve tested over the years.

Their research presents more questions than answers.

Two quotes from the conclusion of their 2020 Data Report:

These two points offer some pushback around the assumption that all tillage is always negative and that soil health automatically results in nutrient density across the board for all nutrients.

But one conclusion that seems perfectly reasonable to assume is that that the nutritional values and nutritional data on food packages are wildly inaccurate.

Another conclusion from the Bionutrient Institute's research is, “the only thing that we found that correlated with nutrient levels was soil life... The mode we used to discern that was soil respiration.” (35:00 → podcast).

How better soil respiration is achieved varies based on soil type, crop rotation, geography, rainfall, etc. But it results in an increase in a crop’s nutrient density, flavor profile, and shelf-life; all aspects a farmer and food purveyor want.

So, with all of this in mind, what kind of blueberries am I buying at the store?

“Organic” Blueberry Nightmares

Organic Hydroponic Blueberries Grown in Bags?

America is the only country that allows crops grown hydroponically or in soilless cultivation to be certified organic under USDA regulations. From what we are learning about the importance of soil health regarding shelf life, nutrient density, and flavor — this should be concerning.

The video above is a blueberry grower (not associated with AC Foods), nor is he (ROC certified), but is certified through the Real Organic Project. He gives an insight look at the lack of integrity of “organic” regarding blueberries.

The Real Organic Project actually sued the USDA for “certifying hydroponic as organic.”

But unfortunately the law won.

Credit: Blueberries Consulting Magazine

Is This the Best We Can Do?

An article by Blueberries Consulting Magazine in 2020 claims that in Mexico five years ago 5% of the nursery plants that were destined for hydroponics.

And now? More than 25% of the plants are destined for soilless cultivation or hydroponic management projects. And it’s safe to assume the same is happening in Peru and Chile, the other main exporters of organic blueberries for the US.

America is a net importer of blueberries and the integrity of the organic certification is wavering.

Growing blueberries in soilless medium does allow for production to happen almost immediately if nursery stock is available, but at what cost?

I personal find this distasteful, though I do dream of a world where blueberries are widely affordable for all, given their widely known health benefits.

To keep up with the growing consumer demands, the food and farming industry is incentivized to “cut corners”, quicken production, and focus on yield, often at the expense of nutritional quality and taste.

But what we have learned about soil health and shelf-life, maybe going the extra mile to farm regeneratively is the best path forward for everyone.

A betterful® Way to Grow Blueberries

Credit: betterful®

A Regenerative Label You Can Trust

The Regenerative Organic Certified® program certifies farms and products to meet the highest standards in the world for soil health, animal welfare, and farmworker fairness.

And does not allow aquaponics, hydroponics, and other soilless practices.

They go beyond just farming practices and incorporate the regeneration of social relationships, ensuring the farmworkers are being treated justly.

Learn more about the Regenerative Organic Certified® framework, which uses USDA Organic as a baseline and goes beyond it to set the bar higher for our food and farming systems worldwide.

Credit: betterful®

Find betterful® Near You

betterful® is grown in California and Oregon, and available in Arizona and California shelves at select Whole Foods, Bi-Rite, NewLeaf, Berkeley Bowl Marketplace, and Oliver’s locations from April through September.

If you’re close to those stores, give them a try before the season ends!

Read Time: 4 minutes

We all agree that regenerative agriculture solves many modern problems, including climate change, ecological degradation, biodiversity collapse, rampant chronic diseases, the obesity epidemic, etcetera.

However, catalyzing change and figuring out which levers to pull remain some of the most crucial bottlenecks. Seeing so much private money flooding the space to fund new startups focused on regenerative agriculture is exciting.

But what if a fraction of every food dollar spent could fuel farmers to adopt and implement regenerative agriculture on their farms, one acre at a time?

With total food and beverage sales in the United States reaching $2.3 trillion in 2023, imagine if 1% was set aside to fund regeneration.

Well, Zero Foodprint is paving the way for that reality.

Do Market Incentives Really Drive Change?

The Failed Adoption of Organic Agriculture in America

Organic agriculture accounts for less than 1% of the total acres under production in the United States. However, demand for organic produce and products has grown significantly, accounting for 5.5% of annual food sales.

Organic acres have been trending upward, but not enough to keep up with domestic demand. Despite the high premiums of organic products, imported organic foods have outpaced domestic adoption in the United States.

All despite organic farming often being more profitable than conventional.

Source: USDA

So, why don’t more farmers switch to organic if it’s so lucrative?

For 50 years, organic has shown increasing demand in the marketplace, fetching consistent premiums, but adoption amongst farmers has ultimately failed to capture significant market share across farmland.

If incentives from premiums and consumer demand were strong enough to change agricultural practices, don’t you think organic farming would have gained a stronghold among producers?

Transitioning to organic takes three years, a period ripe with risk, both financially and agronomically. Soils take time to rejuvenate, and farmers cannot access organic premiums while they wean off conventional inputs.

Farmers are strapped financially and barely making ends meet, receiving only $0.14 from every food dollar. Most don’t have a “regenerative” savings account to plant cover crops, build hedgerows, or adopt agroforestry, let alone take the leap to transition to organic agriculture with no safety net.

Federal funding programs through the USDA exist to help farms adopt conservation practices, such as the Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP), and about $4 billion is allocated annually.

This amount appears significant, but these programs are often backlogged, and many farmers are turned away. I’ve also talked with farmers who avoid these programs, as they limit what practices can be implemented and what the farmer can do within them.

Farmers wanting to transition to organic have assistant options, with more government-funded programs on the rise, but what if funding could come collectively from every single food sale?

Instagram post

Generating Resources for Regenerative Adoption

Zero Foodprint is rallying the food and beverage industry and consumers to capture “small donations” from food sales to help fund regenerative agriculture.

By teaming up with restaurants, grocery stores, and food service businesses, consumers and businesses contribute small percentages (1%) of food sales to fund farmers wanting to practice regenerative agriculture.

Those selling food align themselves with what consumers value, especially Gen Z. Consumers can truly “vote with their dollars,” knowing firsthand that a percentage of their money is directly helping regenerate farmland.

With tipping becoming the norm and annoyingly demanding upwards of 20% for a cup of coffee, a 1% regenerative “tip” is a practical channel for funding change. Of course, it still gives the option to opt-out.

“A 1% nationwide food tax is not on the policy horizon, yet almost every jurisdiction could create real climate action by establishing optional fees of 1% from the local food economy for reinvestment in the regional foodshed. San Diego, for example, could create a funding mechanism to scale up its Carbon Farming Program Pilot. A 1% optional (opt-out) fee at San Diego’s 8,100 restaurants would generate over $100 million per year, or more than $400 per acre/year.“

- Source: Zero Foodprint Positioning Paper

Applications now open for Zero Foodprint’s Restore Grants

Regenerative Grants for Famers - Applications Now Open

Zero Foodprint distributes various grant packages to farmers from the money generated through consumer sales at their partner businesses.

These grants aim to help farmers return carbon to the soil and implement regenerative practices on their land.

They are currently working with farmers in California, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington, with plans to expand to more states as they onboard more food service businesses in those areas.

To date, they have awarded $2.4m in grants to farmers that have sequestered more than 104,000 tons of CO2e.

They just opened up applications for their next round of grant funding.

If you know any farmers in California, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington who want to implement regenerative practices on their farms, have them apply to Zero Foodprint’s Restore Grant! Applications close on August 20th.

Changes in Consumer Behavior Isn’t Enough

Anthony Myint, founder of Zero Foodprint, wrote a position paper outlining their vision for collective regeneration. Read it if you have time, but I’ll share the main point that resonated with me.

Changing Eating vs Changing Farming

“The topic of who eats the beef is another systems-level quandary. If one thousand individual consumers chose a plant-based diet, we wouldn’t know if it actually contributed to meat replacement in the larger food system. So much depends on the boundary of analysis – plant-based meat sales in the US are soaring, but US beef exports concurrently hit record highs. In other words, successfully changing consumption does not seem to reduce beef production worldwide. It certainly reduces a personal or organizational carbon footprint, but because global demand for beef outpaces the reduction in first-world beef consumption, the macroeconomic impact is almost certainly not a 1:1 effect. There is definitely leakage and the effect of a shift in consumption may be negligible. In the absence of government intervention around production or consumption, the only certain systemic progress is improved grazing.“

- Source: Zero Foodprint Positioning Paper

Roots Down Farm - a grant recipient raising animals regeneratively.

This really resonates with me, as many of the proposed solutions we hear are focused on changing consumer behavior. If every single person ate plant-based food, then the entire farming system would miraculously change, but the truth is more complex. Or if we all just biked, then we’d slow emissions.

Change in consumer behavior is important, but it often isn’t 1:1.

That’s important to remember as we search for the biggest levers for transformation. If we want to regenerate all farmland acres, we need to change more than just consumer habits.

The solution may not be in what we eat but rather in shaving a small percentage of all food sales to fund farmers actively regenerating their land.

Read Time: 4 minutes

The average American wastes around $1,500 of food annually. For most people, this food waste goes into the trash and is destined for a landfill.

Reencle is here to change that by making composting at home as easy as throwing food scraps away. Instead of throwing your food waste in the trash, just dump it in their home composter and wait for biology to break it down!

Food Waste in America

Household Food Waste

Almost 100 billion pounds of food, or 145 billion meals, is wasted in America. It’s estimated that half of that food waste comes from households. Quantifying household food waste is tricky and challenging, but it is essential to understanding how our actions can create a real impact.

Food Waste in Landfills

Of municipality solid waste, food is the largest category at 22%. Plus, food waste in landfills turns anaerobic (without oxygen), creating the perfect environment for bacteria that produce methane, accounting for 1.6% of all human-made emissions. It may not seem much, but methane has a more potent greenhouse effect than carbon dioxide, though the molecule is shorter-lived. Solving the problem of food waste deserves attention.

Meet Reencle, The Home Composter

Reencle Prime - Home Composter

Household Food Waste, Be Gone

Reencle, a South Korean-based company, has taken the home composting scene by storm. South Korea has eliminated food waste and is now leading the global movement towards creating circular solutions for food waste.

With so much food waste originating from households, the gap in simplifying composting seems evident retrospectively. Reencle stands out from the competition in many ways, as they embrace the biological composting process, and their bin speeds up the decomposition process.

Reencle Compost Starter Kit

Embracing Both Biology & Technology

When you receive your Reencle, you must jumpstart the biology using their “Compost Starter Kit,” before adding any food waste. This kit contains activated charcoal, wood pellets, microbes, and glucose.

There are three microorganisms inside: one that loves salt (Basophile), one that loves acid (acidophiles), and one that loves heat (thermophile).

In combination with these microbes, the bin has three metal prongs that rotate more than 950 times per day, aerating the food scraps, keeping them from going anaerobic, and incorporating the materials together.

Dehydrated Food Waste vs Compost

Many home composters are akin to dehydrators than they are composting. Reencle doesn’t expose the food waste to high heat, which eliminates the water content crucial to compost’s decomposition process.

Microbiology is essential to compost.

The dehydration process successfully reduces the mass and volume of food waste. However, it doesn't break down the organic material into the humus-like substance that defines actual compost.

Dehydrated food waste needs to undergo further decomposition to become true compost that can be applied as a soil amendment. Reencle assists biology by embracing and empowering nature’s decomposition process!

Don’t Waste Food! Period.

Since half of food waste occurs at home, we can’t blame institutions entirely. Our actions are crucial to solving the problem of food waste.

Besides purchasing a Reencle or starting a compost pile at home, we can all take many daily actions to reduce our personal food waste.

Understanding Expiration Dates

Most of us misunderstand expiration dates to no fault of our own. They are confusing, and we want to eat safe food. You may not realize that food date labels generally indicate freshness, not safety.

If the food is spoiled or showing signs of mold, use your judgment before throwing it out. Otherwise, eat it and enjoy!

Process & Upcycle Ripe Foods

If you have too much fruit ripening too quickly, do something with it.

You can freeze it using a vacuum food sealer or process it into jam or banana bread. During peak growing season, find some time to make jams, sauces, and salsas and fill your freezer. We are spoiled to have all produce available year-round and have forgotten that these crops only produce seasonally.

Go to the farmer’s market and ask for their “ugly” produce. Sometimes, they will give it to you for free, and you can make delicious upcycled food products.

Get Chickens & Feed Them Food Scraps

If you can, get chickens; they are magical. They turn food scraps into eggs. I know this isn’t an option for everyone, but I wish it were. Check with your local regulations to see if you can start your own backyard flock.

Belgium experimented with giving a few chickens to households to reduce food waste, and the results were outstanding. They distributed 6,000 urban chickens, which reduced 100 tons of waste into the local landfill in the first month! Plus, those families had loads of eggs for themselves and others.

Donate to a Local Food Bank

Much of the food we throw away could be donated to local food banks. Not the food scraps from our plates, but often, our pantries are full of canned goods and prepared foods that we don’t eat until we throw them away.

Maybe it’s time to go through your cupboards, clean out anything you haven’t eaten yet, and bring it to your local food bank. Then, you can become more mindful of buying more than you need next time you visit the grocery store.

In a country where we waste 40% of the food we produce, yet 44 million people are food insecure, something is seriously wrong. Donating to a local food bank makes a difference, even if it’s just a few items.

Find a Local Composting Program

If you can’t afford a Reencle or compost in your backyard, then find a local composting program nearby. When I lived in an apartment in Phoenix, Arizona, R.City was my best option. They even came and picked up the food scraps weekly. It was less than $30 per month, and they donated their finished compost to urban farms around the city.

Composting is great, but we can take many actions beforehand to ensure that our food waste becomes a resource for another part of the food system.

If you enjoyed this article, please share it with someone in the regenerative agriculture and food space!

Forward them this email or send them the link below!

www.regenerativeroadtrip.com/p/home-composting-simplified

Read Time: 5 minutes

The Hawaiian island of Maui is on the brink of ecological devastation due to an invasive ruminant introduced to Hawaii more than 150 years ago.

However, an ambitious project aims to redefine our relationship with invasive species in a way that creates regenerative outcomes, all while feeding its community and beyond some of the healthiest red meat on the planet.

Redefining Relationships with Invasive Species

The Invasive Introduction

Given their extreme isolation, the islands of Hawaii are some of the most delicate ecosystems on the planet. Before humans, plant and animal species had to travel by wind or water to call this tropical oasis home.

Axis deer were originally gifted to King Kamehameha V from India in 1867 and released on Molokai shortly after.

In 1959, only 9 Axis deer were introduced to the island of Maui in Hawaii for the purpose of recreational hunting. That number exploded over 20 years, peaking at around 200,000. The ecological damage that ensued has threatened the native flora and fauna.

Invasive Axis Deer Browsing in Maui - Credit: Maui Nui Venison

Unintended Consequences

Hawaii lacks the predators to keep the population of these deer in balance. Coupled with the year-long grazing, the explosion in their numbers has devastated the ecosystem.

The native Hawaiian flora did not evolve with large mammals trampling or grazing, making them even more at risk to these invasive ungulates. Many of these species, like the native trees, fail to regrow after they’ve been browsed.

Overgrazing has created bare soils around the island, allowing invasive plants to take root that spread through the deer's poop and hitch rides on their fur.

And where plants fail to reestablish on the bare soils, rain washes nutrients and top soils into the ocean, impairing the health of the coral reefs around Maui.

Soil Erosion from Overgrazing by Axis Deer - Credit: Hawaii DLNR

Eradicate or Steward?

Often, the conversation surrounding “native vs invasive" species appears warlike, harkening to a battle for territory.

Who should be where? How can we eradicate the invasive plants to save the native flora? What chemicals or tactics can we take to control their spread?

While I understand the philosophical and pragmatic framework, I don’t believe it is the only way to approach the challenge.

The strategies at hand feel frantically reactive, responding to an invasive infestation rather than being proactive or, dare I say, regenerative.

An invasive takeover is serious, putting delicate ecosystems at risk. As their establishments are often accidental, this problem does require reactivity, but can the response be more mindful without total eradication as a guiding light?

A Truly Regenerative Business Model

Balance Over Business

Maui Nui Venison has set out to turn this invasive deer into a nutritious food source for their local community and others beyond the Hawaiian islands.

In the video above, their mission shines through.

Instead of sales goals, they have management goals for the deer and the land. Instead of profits, they see their business as contributing to the regeneration and healing of Maui’s ecosystem through mindful management.

They have a long waitlist of customers eager to enjoy the nutritious meats from this non-native deer. Their vision is to harvest the Axis deer mindfully, culling their numbers while monitoring their impacts on the land.

Sustainably and Humanely Harvested

The Axis deer roam around the island of Maui, presenting challenges when it comes to harvesting these animals.

Maui Nui Venison is dedicated to creating a stress-free harvesting process and takes extra measures to ensure it’s as humane as possible. All of their harvesting occurs at night, when the animal is most at ease.

Maui Nui Venison Team Harvesting at Night - Credit: Maui Nui Venison

Once animals are shot, each one is carried out on the backs of the team and brought immediately to a mobile processing unit that is driven to the herds.

Mobile Unit Used to Process Axis Deer - Credit: Maui Nui Venison

A USDA inspector is with them during the entire harvesting process. When the animal is initially processed, a USDA veterinarian inspects each carcass before receiving a stamp of approval for sale to ensure the safety of the meat.

The Healthiest and Most Nutrient Density Red Meat

Axis deer in Hawaii have access to a diverse diet, browsing hundreds of species of plants year-round. Their stress levels remain relatively low due to the lack of predators and seasonal impacts they’d face natively in India.

Starter Box from Maui Nui Venison

This combination of diverse diet and low stress has created one of the most nutritious red meats on the planet.

Working with Stephan Van Vliet, PHD
 from Utah State University, they have gathered some phenomenal nutritional data from their meats.

The meat from the Axis deer contains:

• 2–4x the Antioxidants

• 8–64x the Healthy Fats

• 22% More Protein

Surprisingly, you can acquire a significant portion of your daily vitamins and minerals in only a 3.5oz serving (22% DV vitamins and 37% DV minerals).

Collaboration with Patagonia Provisions - Credit: Maui Nui Venison

A few years ago, they partnered with Patagonia Provisions to bring these nutritious meats to more people through their delicious venison links.

This collaboration marks an exciting time in our food system as companies continue to collaborate to provide healthy foods raised in ways that benefit and regenerate the ecosystems they depend on.

Native Hawaiian’s Relationship With Nature

The team at Maui Nui Venison uses the Hawaiian word Kuleana, which loosely means responsibility, to represent their dedication to the land and their community at large.

Hawaiiʻs people have a long history and rich culture, highlighting what it means to live in harmony with nature and coexist within an ecosystem.

Their wisdom and relationship with nature extend beyond my personal understanding, so I invite you to learn more about it through their words.

The Kohala Field system is a prime example of this wisdom in action and how we all have much to learn about land management and regenerative agriculture from Hawaiiʻs people and their ancestors.

Life on an island presents the challenges of finite resources and land management while coexisting with the natural world we all depend on.

Maui Nui Venison and other local ranches, farms, and organizations are leading the way forward by embracing the ecosystem relationships and ancient wisdom of the Native Hawaiians who first called these islands home.

And I want to acknowledge Hawaii as an Indigenous space where the descendants of the original people are today identified as Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) and the events that have transpired since contact with Europeans.

There is much to learn about the history of this beautiful archipelago of islands and the current challenges that Native Hawaiian people face today.

Regenerative Agriculture is all the buzz in farm, ranching, and food system circles, but what is it exactly? It is probably easiest to begin with the dictionary definition of regeneration.

As clear as that definition appears when applying it to farming and agriculture, it is equally important to realize that regenerative agriculture is dynamic. It is an evolving framework that aims to create a net-positive food and farming system ecologically, economically, and socially.

Regenerative agriculture is multidisciplinary. It draws from many principles, philosophies, practices, and industries to create regenerative outcomes on the farm and beyond. 

Principles versus Practices

Implementing a particular practice or technique on the farm is not simple enough to consider your farm regenerative. Regenerative agriculture, at its core, is a principle-driven and outcome-based approach to farming. It is a new way of making decisions, approaching farming as a business, and rethinking the supply chain after the food leaves the farm. These principles are focused on improving various outcomes—more resilience against weather and climate, more above and below ground biodiversity, higher nutrient density of the food, less reliance on external inputs, and better underlying economic profitability.

Outcome Based Thinking

The first principle of regenerative agriculture is viewing farming outcomes through a lens of consistent improvement over time. We can’t be confident that regeneration is occurring unless we determine which outcomes are worth measuring and compare results season after season. 

These outcomes can then guide the decision-making process. These results guide which agricultural practices, products, and actions are actually delivering results.

Third-party verification ensures that the outcomes and measurements gathered are accurate and without bias, which helps farmers receive the clearest data from what’s happening season after season. 

Various emerging regenerative certifications provide seasonal on-farm testing to verify what is happening. Their verification frameworks and definitions of regeneration agriculture vary slightly, but all aim to set standards for what it means to be “regenerative.” 

This is important for the farmer, the farm’s brand, and consumers to ensure that any claims being made are backed up with unbiased measurements and transparent outcomes.

Regenerative Certifications & Their Frameworks

• Regenified

• Land to Market & Ecological Outcomes Verified (EOV)

• Regenerative Organic Certification

• Soil & Climate Alliance

• Real Organic Program

Ecosystem Health Begins with Healthy Soils

The Six Soil Health Principles

All farms depend on the soil to grow their crops. Soil is a living, breathing, and vibrant ecosystem with its own entire food web. The health of the soil food web depends on various conditions, many of which farms can purposely create by following the six principles of soil health. 

Understand Context:

The practices and techniques vary depending on whether a farm is along the coast, in the desert, or the tropics–raising livestock, growing vegetables, or tending a coconut grove. Understanding the context of the farm is the most important starting point, as each circumstance–being geographical, crop-specific, climate, access to markets, etc–will determine the limitations and parameters each farm must abide by to cause regeneration. 

Minimize Soil Disturbance:

Maintaining healthy soil structure allows the soil food web to thrive. Every time the soil is tilled or disturbed, the populations of bacteria and fungi living in the soil are disrupted and destroyed. Whatever the farm’s context, minimizing soil disturbance is vital to regeneration.

Keep the Soil Covered:

Keeping soils covered with living plants or residues reduces erosion, conserves moisture, moderates soil temperature, and provides habitat and food for soil organisms. Cover crops are useful tools for maintaining soil cover during non-growing seasons, can be grazed with livestock, and help control weeds.

Maximize Biodiversity:

Increasing above and below ground biodiversity through crop rotations or intercropping enhances soil biodiversity, breaks pest and disease cycles, and improves nutrient cycling and soil structure. 

Maintain Living Roots:

Keeping living roots as long as possible feeds the soil food web, improves soil structure, increases water infiltration, and enhances nutrient cycling. This can be achieved with cover crops, perennial crops, or sequential plantings. If your context doesn’t allow for cover crops after your cash crop, then minimizing soil disturbance and covering your soil residue is next best. 

Integrate Livestock:

Incorporating livestock into the farm’s rotation can help recycle nutrients, improve soil organic matter, and stimulate plant growth. Livestock can help manage cover crops and crop residues and provide diversity in income and product offers. If a farmer can’t manage livestock independently, they can collaborate with a neighbor who does. Managing livestock regeneratively involves rotational grazing, holistic management, and ethical welfare.

Ecosystem Processes That Drive All Life

Nestled into ecosystems, farms depend on ecological processes to function, soil being one. Improving ecological outcomes appears different across the various expressions of agriculture, but they all share these cycles. When these cycles function properly, there is resilience and a sense of harmony across the ecosystem.

Energy Cycle

All life depends on photosynthesis, which starts with plants’ ability to capture the sun's energy and turn it into sugars. This process drives life below and above the surface. Measuring Brix using a refractometer can give farmers an inside look at how efficient plants are at photosynthesizing. The healthier the plant, the more sugars it can produce.

Water Cycle

The water cycle is the continuous water movement within the Earth and atmosphere. There is the big water cycle and the small water cycle. Farms can affect the small water cycle on their farm by increasing the infiltration rate, increasing soil organic matter, and reducing erosion. For every percentage of soil organic matter increase, 25,000 gallons of water can be stored. That’s a tremendous amount of water, especially for areas with relatively low rainfall. 

Nutrient Cycle

Healthy soils help decompose non-living materials to make the energy and nutrients available for living organisms. Regeneration of this cycle helps reduce residues and allows bound nutrients to become bioavailable for living plants. Soils are full of nutrients and minerals, but without living soil biology making them available, they will remain unavailable to plants. 

Carbon Cycle

Carbon is what life on Earth is based upon. The cycle, in reference to regenerative agriculture, starts with photosynthesis, where plants take in carbon dioxide and turn that carbon into sugars they use for themselves. The cycle also involves root exudates, where plants exchange sugars with soil biology in exchange for nutrients and minerals they need. This carbon is then stored in the soil, increasing the soil organic matter and future food for the soil food web.

Essential Farmer & Consumer Outcomes

Economics

All of these principles are important, but the adoption of regenerative agriculture will remain slow unless the economics work in favor of the farmers adopting it. Regenerative agriculture is more profitable than conventional farming for many reasons, but one major reason is the decreasing dependence on external inputs and access to more premium markets. 

Nutrient Density

For consumers, regenerative agriculture promises to increase the nutrient value and density of the raised foods. There is tremendously important research and development unfolding, touching on how farming practice influences food quality and how that impacts human health. 

Is Regenerative, Organic or Organic, Regenerative?

This question is often presented when regenerative agriculture is introduced. The answer is yes and no. To become certified organic, there is usually a list of products one can and cannot use. Organic agriculture, in its simplest form, typically excludes harmful chemicals and synthetic fertilizers, but that alone doesn’t ensure a farm is improving its land. 

Regenerative does not have to be organic. Organic does not automatically equal regenerative. Organic can be degenerative to landscapes, but it can also be regenerative. Organic agriculture often uses heavy tillage for weed control, which, done in excess, is degenerative to landscapes. 

Once again, outcomes must be observed and measured over time to determine whether or not a farm is regenerating and improving the right criteria.

Additional Regenerative Resources

Understanding regenerative agriculture is a continual educational and experiential adventure. I have gathered resources and articles from individual leaders and leading organizations in regenerative agriculture to help you jumpstart your learning journey and fuel understanding.

• How Do You Define Regenerative Agriculture? - Savory Institute

• Science Based Regenerative Farming - Rodale Institute

• Possibilities of Regeneration - Kiss the Ground

• What is Regenerative Agriculture? - Noble Research Institute

• The Difference Between Organic and Regenerative Agriculture - Noble Research Institute

• Why Regenerative Agriculture? - Regeneration International

• Definition of Regenerative Agriculture - Carbon Underground

• Paradigms of Agriculture - Ethan Soloviev

• Nutrient Density & Regenerative Agriculture - Nutrient Density Alliance

Regenerative agriculture is becoming more discussed amongst farmers and consumers alike. Whether you are a farmer, in food service, or a consumer, our food system is going through a radical shift for the better.

This dynamic approach to producing food, fiber, and fodder is reshaping the world’s food and farming system, ensuring that the impacts on the land leave them better for future generations.

Books to Read and Documentaries to Watch

• 14 Must Read Books If You Eat Food 📚

• 21 Documentaries to Inspire a Lifetime of Eating 🎥

• New to Agriculture? Start With These 4 Questions 📝

• 10 Must Read Books If You Eat Meat or Care About Animals 🐮

• 5 Life Lessons You Can Only Learn From Working on a Farm 👨🏻‍🌾

If you have any suggestions for additional resources or want me to add anything to this article, DM me on LinkedIn.

Read Time: 4 minutes

Low, infrequent rainfall characterizes desert climates around the world. However inhospitable and brittle, these same deserts present unique opportunities for regenerative transformation.

Worldwide, deserts have spread and “sprouted up” from overgrazing and mismanagement, but now, livestock are restoring their vitality.

Human Folly & Global Desertification

Arable land worldwide has been degrading at an accelerated rate. Almost half of our food production occurs in dryland areas with low or variable rainfall, and more than 2 billion people live in these environments.

Grasslands and rangelands make up half of the dryland areas in the world. Traditionally, these environments were used to raise livestock, but they are recently being converted into crop production. The rangelands are home to more than 50% of the world's livestock population.

Grasslands once covered about 40 percent of the United States, but only 5 percent remains due to cultivation crops or urban development. Some of these grasslands extend southwest to southeastern Arizona, southern New Mexico, and western Texas, where the Chihuahuan Desert creeps up into the United States from Mexico, where the majority of this biodiverse ecosystem is.

Deserts Weren’t Always Deserted

According to accounts of Spanish explorers in the 1600-1700s, the lush grass of the Chihuahuan Desert used to be “belly high to a horse.” North America’s largest desert produced grasses at densities and heights we would deem nearly impossible when scouting these brittle and arid regions today.

Less than two hundred years later, due to livestock overgrazing, oil and gas drilling, and agricultural cultivation, only 15% of the grasslands of the Chihuahuan Desert remain intact.

Historically, this ecoregion was once the only place where grizzly bears, wolves, and jaguars could be found in the same locality. This ecosystem must have been rich and productive to house such an array of predators, even with annual rainfall less than 10 inches.

Accounts of desertification like this are found throughout the world, and the story rhymes— livestock overgrazing, industrial and urban development, and agricultural cultivation. But past actions do not define future fate.

Alejandro Carillo’s Regenerative Ranching Journey

Alejandro Carillo’s adventures in Mexico’s Chihuahuan desert started young. In the winter, his dad would bring him along to hunt mule deer. He would spend the summers on desert cattle ranches doing roundups and riding the range.

These early experiences set the foundations, becoming aware of the emerging frustrations and challenges that ranching in the desert presents, such as the decline in the carrying capacity of the land and the increasing inputs ranchers required to make a living.

In 2004, Alejandro returned to his family’s ranch to help his dad. A couple of years later, by luck or fortune, he met his regenerative mentors, who lived close by and practiced Holistic Management on their ranches.

The film “To Which We Belong” documents his and his father’s interpersonal journey and the regenerative transformation of their family’s ranch.

How Cattle Regenerate Deserts

High Density, High Impact

Alejandro had three separate cattle herds before adopting holistic management. Combining all herds into one herd to graze together across the landscapes concentrated their impact, manure, and urine.

Moving Cattle Frequently & Adaptively

They move the herd multiple times daily to new forage. They assess each paddock's forage quality to determine how long to graze it. This adaptive decision-making per paddock basis allows for the right amount of impact.

Allowing Land to Rest Properly

When Alejandro started implementing adaptive grazing, some of the pastures were over-grazed and some were over-rested. Rest periods for previously grazed pastures were extended to 12 months between grazing events.

Fencing and Access to Water

There is permanent fencing and water around the ranch to ensure that cattle, no matter where they are have water. There are 21 reservoirs at higher elevations to allow for gravity water flow downhill to smaller 38 troughs. Each reservoir stores up to 40,000 gallons and each trough holds 2,500 gallons.

This water storage also has become a huge draw for wildlife, providing more watering options for deer, birds, and other species of the Chihuahuan Desert.

Stimulating Soil Biology

The herd's bunching causes a concentration of urine and manure, which stimulates soil biology. Combined with rest, the soil can cycle those nutrients, germinate the existing latent seed bank, and begin to cover the bare soil.

The awakened soil food web also increases the nutrition and quality of the grasses that grow, reducing mortality rates and the need to supplement feed throughout the year, while allowing the ranch to carry more head per acre.

Desertification is a Choice

The Carillo’s family ranch is living proof that desertification is a choice. It’s a choice to allow it to happen and it’s a choice to regenreate it.

Regenerating the Chihuahua Desert

The results speak for themselves.

• Water infiltration is 18-20” per hour versus their neighbors 2”.

• The ranch has tripled their stocking rates, from 200 to 600 without increasing the amount of acres they graze.

• Acres per cow ranged from 150 acres and now the acres required per cow is 42 acres.

• Cows required supplemental feed from March through July of each year, but now none is given, as the herds are on pasture the entire year.

• Mortality rates dropped from 10% to 1%.

• Net revenue of the ranch has increased 350% with triple the cow numbers and a lower unit cost of production.

They also witnessed that the cattle herds were more trusting and easier to work with due to the frequent and predictable moves. They’ve noticed that they don’t have to “herd” the cattle, just lead them to the next paddock.

And now the ranch requires less labor to operate even though cattle are moved twice daily, making it much more profitable than before.

Can Regenerative Agriculture Restore the Rain?

There is emerging evidence that plant microbes can influence precipitation. This phenomena is referred to as “bio-precipitation.”

Alejandro has carefully documented the formation of storm clouds over his ranch where little-to-no storm clouds form over his neighbor’s ranches.

Now it’s easy to want regenerative agriculture to solve all of the environmental problems humanity is facing, but it’s much more difficult to deny what has happened and occurs on land that has regenerated.

The only question remains, shall we regenerate?

Read Time: 4 minutes

My first introduction to cover cropping was when my dad and uncle planted daikon radishes in one of their fields following soybeans to help break up compaction. Seeing these gigantic radishes emerge from tiny seeds and seemingly split the ground was miraculous.

And seeing something else growing besides corn and soy excited me.

They purchased this seed from a local seed business based 30 miles away. Since then, Green Cover has grown from a small family business in rural Nebraska into one of America's largest cover crop seed companies, servicing tens of thousands of farmers and ranchers.

From Humble Beginnings to Hopeful Ambitions

In 2008, Keith Berns and his brother Brian started experimenting with cover crops on their farm, curious about how to decrease water usage.

Brian and Keith Berns observe cover crops in their fields.

The initial results were so promising that the following year they founded Green Cover to service cover crop seeds to farmers in the area, hoping to help them increase water infiltration and organic matter while improving soil structure.

Right Place Right Time

Since the conception of Green Cover, cover crops have increased significantly. According to USDA Census of Agriculture surveys, the adoption of cover crops on farms of all sizes and types has increased steadily, from an estimated 10 million acres in 2012 to 20 million in 2020.

Green Cover’s facilities located in Bladen, Nebraska.

Green Cover saw the benefits firsthand on their farm and realized that farms of all shapes and sizes would also benefit. Farmers just needed access to diverse varieties of seeds and knowledge of how to apply them properly.

Leading with Education

Much of my regenerative learning journey started by reading Green Cover’s annual Soil Health Resource Guides and attending their summer field days, where their cover crop plots are on display, discussing each variety’s use case and comparing monoculture plantings to diverse mixes.

10th Edition of the Soil Health Resource Guide by Green Cover

I’ve always admired their dedication to education and research, realizing that cover crop application varies immensely across various farming modalities.

They’ve amassed an invaluable library of webinars, interviews, and resources that are freely available for anyone interested in deepening their understanding of soil health and cover crops, to empower them to adopt regenerative agriculture on their farms.

(re)Covering Farmland Across America

Successful Cover Crop Stories

Rick Clark, a customer of Green Cover, has successfully integrated cover crops into his 7,000-acre no-till, organic row crop farm. Cover crops are crucial in his weed mitigation, fertility, and the biological engine that has allowed him to wean off his dependence on synthetic and chemical inputs.

Rick Clark crimping rye cover crop with soybeans at V2 stage

This has created a much more profitable operation and proves that regenerative agriculture can be applied at scale, profitably and successfully.

Cost Share Programs

Now, farmers around the country are beginning to explore cover crops more seriously, partly due to the growing number of cost-share programs available through the USDA NRCS and Climate Smart Commodity Programs.

Cover crops protect the health of the Chesapeake Bay downstream.

Maryland has successfully implemented a statewide cover crop cost-share program, resulting in massive adoption and retention across acres statewide. This program is funded by the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund and the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund to restore the health of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem, from which their state derives much value.

How Farmers Can (re)Cover Their Land?

Creating a Cover Crop Plan

Remembering the first of the six soil health principles, which is knowing your context, is essential to understanding how and where cover crops fit into farms.

Applying practices to your farm operation doesn’t necessarily make them regenerative. In the wrong context, they can create the opposite desired effect. It’s important to realize that cover crops are a tool, which needs to be used at the correct instance to have a regenerative outcome and deliver all of the benefits associated with improving soil health.

Smart Mix Calculator

Green Cover created a tool to help farmers gain clarity and insights regarding cover crops. Their Smart Mix Calculator allows farmers to plug in their context—zip code, which calculates annual rainfall estimates, estimated acres they’ll plant, the following cash crop, seeding method, and desired goals (nitrogen fixation, erosion control, compaction issues, supplemental grazing, or stockpiling for winter, etc.)—and then gives them a variety of cover crop suggestions and rates that fit into their rotation.

Green Cover’s Smart Mix Calculator

Tools like these are invaluable in removing the guesswork for farmers who want to introduce cover crops and improve their soils. Alongside cost-share programs that alleviate the initial costs of the seed, we can expect to see the number of farmland acres using cover crops across the United States continue to increase dramatically.

Cover Crops Make Sense, But Do They Make Cents?

Last week, a LinkedIn post I published sparked a meaningful discussion on whether regenerative agriculture makes farmers money.

These principles and practices make obvious sense on their own, but the big question for farmers is, “Do they help make my farm more profitable?”

If they don’t, they most likely won’t be adopted because farmers have immediate economic pressures to attend to that supersede, which some would consider “doing the right thing.”

Keith Berns discussed this topic at a recent event Green Cover hosted, whether or not regenerative agriculture makes sense AND cents.

More and more evidence and research show that regenerative agriculture is a more profitable way to farm while providing consumers with ecological restoration and nutrient-dense foods.

Green Cover is leading the way by providing farmers with a diverse array of cover crop species and providing growers with the resources to be successful.

Looking to Dive Deeper?

Explore These Regenerative Resources

• 14 Must Read Books If You Eat Food 📚

• 21 Documentaries to Inspire a Lifetime of Eating 🎥

• New to Agriculture? Start With These 4 Questions 📝

• 10 Must Read Books If You Eat Meat or Care About Animals 🐮

• 5 Life Lessons You Can Only Learn From Working on a Farm 👨🏻‍🌾

Brought to You By

If you enjoyed this piece, check out previous posts and connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Read Time: 4 minutes

A battle is brewing for the future of biodiversity in Belize.

But it is one of ideas and relation to nature, not between people.

The Maya have stewarded the land for millennia, resulting in a biodiversity hot spot unlike anywhere else. But their traditional ways of life and farming have been in jeopardy, and now their future is uncertain.

Last summer, I had the opportunity to spend a few weeks with Maya Milperos, who are known as forest gardeners and practice Milpa farming.

I left Belize both immensely inspired and discouraged.

The Maya Milpa Cycle & Indigenous Wisdom

For thousands of years, the Maya have successfully “farmed” the Belize, Guatemala, and the Yucatan of Mexico rainforests.

Milpa is an approach to agriculture with immense foresight and resilience.

Most of us have heard of the “three sisters”, (squash, corn, and beans being grown together), but that is only one small sliver of a larger system.

The Milpa cycle is roughly 20 years in total and broken into four stages.

These stages are split into five-acre plots, so successions of each stage happen simultaneously to fulfill various purposes continually.

Forest to Field ( Year 1-5 )

Image from Maya Forest Gardeners

This Milpa cycle starts with slashing and burning a section of the forest to plant annuals such as corn, squash, beans, and more than 90 other crops.

Field to Orchard ( Year 5-12 )

Image from Maya Forest Gardeners

Fruit trees, like fast-growing perennials such as plantain, banana, and papaya, begin to produce within a year and shade slower-growing perennials.

Orchard to Forest Garden ( Year 12-20 )

Image from Maya Forest Gardeners

As the slower-growing trees (cacao, avocados, mango, and allspice) mature, their productivity becomes more reliable and consistent. However, the canopy begins to block sunlight, preventing annual production from flourishing.

Forest Regeneration ( Year 20+ )

Image from Maya Forest Gardeners

During the last stage of this cycle, the forest garden becomes a maturing forest, similar to the state that was burned two decades before at the start of this cycle. These trees can be used for construction, housing, and medicines.

But with each completion of the Milpa cycle, the forest becomes slightly altered, as specific species are continually chosen and curated to suit the current and future needs of the people and the wildlife.

You can see it in action below.

Image from Maya Forest Gardeners

Narciso Torres & the Maya Elders

The Maya elders have been crucial to Dr. Ford's and her team's research. Together, they have been documenting and mapping their influence on the landscapes in Belize and beyond.

Dr. Ford has been focusing on the ancient Maya city, El Pilar, which she has been documenting and excavating for the past 40 years.

Narcisso Torres & Alfonso Tzul discussing tree species used for construction

While we were there, they learned more about how the Milpa cycle considers traditional construction materials for houses and dwellings.

The Maya people didn’t domesticate animals, so materials needed to be grown near where they would be used, adding even more variables to an already challenging farming environment.

Their wisdom shines so bright as they reflect on all they’ve learned.

They explained that when a child was born, trees would be planted in the Milpa close by, so when they approached their 20s, they would have materials to construct a house as they started a family of their own.

50-Year-Old Food Forest Island

Narciso invited us to visit his Milpa forest garden, which he has been tending to for over 50 years. That day the temperature was well above 100º F, and the walk to his Milpa from his home was excruciating.

Sitting under the shade of Narcisso’s food forest listening to his experiences

But as soon as we stepped foot inside the shade of his forest, life exploded.

The insects were humming, the birds were singing, and the temperature cooled. We tried many fruits and foods I had never heard of or dreamed of.

Narcisso guides the tour around his food forest

Surrounding this island of biodiversity and production was of recent rainforest that had been slashed and burned, then tilled to be planted with dent corn.

The temperature radiating off the soil was disorientingly hot and void of life.

Recently planted corn field adjacent to Narcisso’s food forest

Narcisso claims that since this type of agriculture has proliferated around his Milpa, the rains don’t fall as frequently. I don’t have any claim against or for that statement, but there was at least a 30º F difference between inside his food forest and standing in the middle of the tilled field.

The Mennonite Settlements & Industrial Maize

In the mid-1950s, groups of Mennonites found refuge in Belize after an agreement with the Belizean government, which offered them land, religious freedom, and tax exemptions.

Now, making up less than 5% of the population, they produce most of the domestic dairy and eggs and export much of the corn they produce.

I was astonished by the intensity of the corn production in Belize. Huge swaths of the rainforest have been slashed and burned to grow maize year-round.

And unlike the Milpa cycle, no intentions exist to reforest the areas.

This is not a criticism of the Mennonites.

Everyone I interacted with during my time there was respectable, and they have successfully integrated there. They are a community of people working tremendously hard to provide a great life for themselves and their families.

Some of the communities there still adhere to traditional ways of life and don’t use modern technologies or electricity, but the ones that do embrace it have proceeded full speed ahead.

But the sheer scale of destruction to the biodiversity of the surrounding rainforest to solely produce corn is absolutely atrocious.

And it doesn’t appear to have any plans of slowing down.

Reimagining the Maya Civilization

The most common myth that characterizes the Maya people is that they suffered a population collapse. This myth began in 1524, as Cortez and his men slept regularly under the roofs of Maya homes.

The evidence that the Maya people vanished completely is wrong.

Today, seven million Maya live in Mexico and Central America, which is equal to the population living during the Spanish Conquest.

The Maya didn’t go anywhere! They are still flourishing in Belize and beyond!

Don’t take my word for it; listen to Master Forest Gardener Alfonso Tzul discussing the myth that the Maya disappeared.

Cacao Trees, Vanilla Orchids, & Agroforestry

To end our trip, we were introduced to Ruth Moloney, the founder of the farm Corridgeree, who is introducing and integrating agroforestry into cacao and vanilla production in Belize.

Before starting Corridgeree, she spent her career working with global commodity supply chains, including being a strategic cocoa buyer for Nestle USA, monitoring trading and sustainability for Armajaro, and working on the production side after running two large coconut/citrus operations in Belize.

Ruth shows us how they grow vanilla in the share of an agroforestry system

Their goal is to embrace the richness of the cacao and vanilla genetics present in Belize and showcase better ways to cultivate and produce these high-value crops to farmers around the country.

Both vanilla and cacao grow wild in Belize and are native to the area. These “wild” genetics risk being wiped out due to farmers destroying the native rainforests in search of quick profits.

Growing vanilla on poles under shade cloth for more intense cultivation

So Ruth and her team are searching and cultivating these wild and local genetics to deliver resilience to the crops and profits to local farmers looking for new opportunities to make a living from the land.

And they are making some of the best chocolate I’ve ever had.

Read Time: 4 minutes

A few years ago, my uncle planted pollinator plots on two pivot corners of one of his fields, totaling 27 acres. He had planted rye and vetch the previous fall, which his cattle grazed the following spring.

The idea of transitioning some row crop ground to perennial grasses for holistic grazing was taking root and beginning to sprout in his mind.

Squaring Circles or Circling Squares?

Fitting circular center-pivot irrigation into the square plots of farmland across Nebraska resembles the shape-sorting toy babies play with at an early age.

Fitting the circle in the square does work, and the baby sure claps from accomplishing the task at hand, but when overlayed onto farmland, 10-15% of the land remains unaccounted for.

One square mile equals 640 acres.

And a “quarter section” equals 160 acres of land, the typical size for which center-pivot irrigation is used in Nebraska.

So, out of the 160 acres, 20-30 corner acres typically remain unaccounted for.

Squaring the Circle [SHORT VIDEO]

Mesmerizing montage of center-pivot irrigation across the United States.

vimeo.com/62594731

Of course, unless you add a corner system to the center pivot, which covers most of the remaining acres at a small additional price of ~$75,000+.

These center-pivot irrigation systems are magnitudes more efficient than their gravity-fed predecessors.

And the cost of installing them pays for itself by increasing the evenness and precision of each irrigation pass, which saves water and increases yields.

But still, the corners themselves present an opportunity to add biodiversity to the sea of monoculture that has engulfed the once-diverse Great Plains.

My Uncle’s 27-Acre Pollinator Pivot Corner Plot

The 27-acre pollinator plot teemed with life.

Walking out amongst the 20+ species cover crop mix and feeling the hum of all the insect life was surreal.

Orb weaver spiders weave webs, while honey, native, and bumble bees buzz and pollinate each flower, and barn swallows swoop every dawn to feast on the abundant insect activity.

And across the fencerow, where the neighbor planted corn for silage?

*Crickets* - meaning silence, not actual crickets. Their field was void of life.

And many would ask - Was it worth it? Did it turn a profit? What was the point?

When I asked him, he just enjoyed doing something different. The experiment wasn’t going to make or break the farm, but it offered something fun and new.

He told me he was excited to farm again - for the first time in a long time.

We always joke that once you “see” regenerative, you cannot “unsee it.”

It is a spirit that grips you, one that you become fascinated with.

A desire arises to find ways to work with nature, collaborate with biodiversity, and foster life rather than control and fear it.

For him, this “small” 27-acre pollinator patch fits into a larger vision of a broader perennial-based grazing system.

So it was simply a stepping stone in his regenerative journey on his land.

(Re)Perennializing of the Great Plains

History of the Great Plains & 6-Foot Deep Top Soils

The deep, rich soils of the midwest were partly created due to the relationship between herds of ruminants grazing on perennial grasses, the predators that forced their continual movement, and the perennial grasses responding and receiving time to rest before the next graze.

Millions of American Bison roamed freely across the Great Plains for millennia. They would settle in an area, graze heavily, pee and poo, then, usually through predatory pressures of wolves, be moved to a new area to repeat the cycle.

This heavy grazing, followed by season-long resting periods, allowed the grasses to recover. They extended their roots deep into the Earth to reach nutrients to rebuild the forage the bison previously consumed.

This reciprocal cycle developed some of the deepest, richest soils on Earth.

In the early 1800s, before European settlers plowed the plains and built sod houses, the top soils were upwards of 6 feet deep.

Picture of Root System of Common Prairie Grasses & Species by Pheasants Forever

One image I return to that vividly depicts the vibrancy and resilience of the tall-grass prairie is that of early European explorers on horses, who mentioned that “you couldn’t see the man on the horse when he entered them.”

Imagine grasses so high that they engulfed a human being riding a horse!

The tall-grass prairie contains a massive diversity of life.

More than 300 documented migratory and residential bird species thrive in this ecoregion, along with 55 species of mammals, 75 species of fish, and 53 species of amphibians and reptiles that inhabit the streams, rivers, and lakes that thread this landscape.

This ecoregion also created one of the most abundant aquifers on Earth.

And now, where perennials once ruled and life thrived, two annual species bred for mass production reign supreme — King Corn & Queen Soy.

My Uncle’s (re)Perennializing Plan

For the past four years, my uncle has planted cover crops that his cattle graze on. These have mainly been rye and vetch planted in the fall following soybeans.

But he has also dedicated a couple of hundred acres specifically to growing cover crops for grazing outside of the normal crop rotation—warm-season mixes for grazing during the peak of the growing season and cool-season mixes for stockpiling forage during the winter months.

He gets all of his cover crop seed from Green Cover, which is located only 40 minutes away from the farm but ships nationwide. Green Cover creates custom cover crop mixes to fit any context and cropping system imaginable.

My uncle’s goals are to grow all of his cattle’s feed, move them frequently so they are always on fresh forage, and mimic the movement of the historical herds that once roamed that land in order to regenerate and rebuild his soil.

He started with around 40 cow-calf pairs, which he has since grown to over 200. The next step in transitioning to a more profitable and regenerative grazing system by establishing around 200 acres of perennial eastern gamma grass, a warm-season bunchgrass with exceptionally high productive forage value.

But this is not without risk.

The perennial grass needs at least one year to establish, allowing for a single hay cutting toward the fall.

Then, the following year, the root system will be properly established to graze more heavily and begin the process of perennializing permanently to allow for more dense grazing and recovery cycles.

And it begs the question, “Why is this common-sense path so risky?”

The entire success of a perennial grass system relies on time, cattle, water, and sunlight to grow the grass, whereas the current system requires global supply chains to supply inputs from foreign countries, mass transportation, industrialized processing, and commodity markets to function.

So, which system is really more risky?

Why Don’t More Farmers Dare to Farm Differently?

Policies Incentivizing Behavior

The current insurance and subsidy policies give farmers peace of mind by guaranteeing them a baseline payment if they follow certain practices and plant certain crops, especially in the case of a storm that wipes out a crop.

Farming by nature is a conservative occupation, due to nature’s uncertainty.

Innovation and risk come at extreme costs to potentially guarantee nothing in return, so massive gambles are ill-advised without “betting the farm.”

These insurance and subsidy policies have been established for good reason.

They provide risk mitigation, encourage specific practices, and nurture emerging markets, as in the case of ethanol in the early 2000s.

But with the rising costs of inputs, uncertainty in the global market, and regenerative opportunities on the horizon, many farmers face charting the uncertain waters of transitioning their farms to new markets and methodologies in order to stay afloat and eventually thrive.

Definition of Insanity

Farmers are feeling pressure from all sides—global supply chains, war, rising interest rates, rampant inflation, and unpredictable weather patterns, to name a few that initially come to mind.

The question is whether they must take these risks on their own, whether the delayed Farm Bill will encourage innovation and change, or whether forms of private funding will have to save the day and de-risk regenerative transition.

But whatever moves the needle, I am certain that if we keep doing the same thing repeatedly, the land will not regenerate, farmers will not make a profitable living, and consumer health will not improve.

So, let’s dare to do something different.

Change may begin as small as a pollinator plot on some pivot corners of dryland and may lead to (re)perennializing the entire Great Plains.

That’s my hope.

Until next week.

Looking to Dive Deeper?

Explore These Regenerative Resources

• 14 Must Read Books If You Eat Food 📚

• 21 Documentaries to Inspire a Lifetime of Eating 🎥

• New to Agriculture? Start With These 4 Questions 📝

• 10 Must Read Books If You Eat Meat or Care About Animals 🐮

• 5 Life Lessons You Can Only Learn From Working on a Farm 👨🏻‍🌾

Brought to You By

If you enjoyed this piece, check out previous posts and connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Read Time: 5 minutes

Apricot Lane Farms has inspired and introduced countless people worldwide to ecologically minded farming and regenerative agriculture.

When I first saw their film, it moved me emotionally and spiritually. Seeing the dedication, commitment, and possibilities inspired me to commit to regenerative agriculture fully.

If you have seen the film The Biggest Little Farm, you know what I am talking about. If you haven’t, you should find time this weekend to watch it.

For six months, I had the unique opportunity to live and work on this one-of-a-kind farm, gaining a genuinely immersive and behind-the-scenes experience.

Farming on a Movie Set

Working within this dynamic business was impactful beyond the practical learnings of farm skills and witnessing the regeneration.

The farm is unique in many ways.

Apricot Lane Farm's location near Los Angeles provides a market for their high-quality produce and allows them to host on-farm events, tours, and workshops for urban dwellers eager to experience farm life.

Because the farm's fruits are films, the animals there are actively regenerating the landscapes while playing pivotal parts in the storytelling, which helps connect with children playfully and portrays the regenerative process to adults.

And because the farm is an active movie set, there is immense collaboration between the farm and film teams.

This was my favorite part of being here, as each member of the farm actively participates in discovering new scenes and assists the film crew in capturing the unfolding of the ecosystem’s reawakening.

After setting up at the farmer’s market in Santa Monica

On the Lookout for Ecological Anomalies

During our daily work on the farm, we were encouraged to pause, look around, and observe what was happening around us to find interesting ecological manifestations and anomalies.

This was useful to the filmmaking process and helped develop a more regenerative lens for stewarding the land.

To be proper caretakers of landscapes, we must have keen observational skills, listen to what the land needs, see how it responds to our management, and dig deeper below and beyond what we already know.

Around 10-15% of the land is devoted to wildlife, per Demeter Biodynamic requirements, and the habitat restoration team actively manages that land.

This creates ecological niches for wildlife to thrive in ways that don’t occur on monoculture farms focused solely on production.

If we noticed an ecological anomaly or something interesting, we contacted the film crew immediately — often spurring a spontaneous film shoot.

This created a sense of participation in the film side of the farm, which added an undertone of excitement to daily chores, as you never know what you’d find.

For example, I was moving cattle into their new paddock for the day when I saw an electric fence post covered in praying mantis, which I had never witnessed as numerous. And I discovered a Guineafowl nest amongst the tall grasses of the pasture. We contacted the film crew and moved the cattle to the following paddock to allow these eggs to be nurtured and hatch.

Guineafowl eggs amongst the tall grasses of the pasture

Nightly Chicken Checks & Living on the Farm

All four of us in the cohort lived on the farm during the apprenticeship. We were first responders if animals escaped in the middle of the night, performed chores on the weekends and holidays, checked on sheep during lambing season, and split nightly chores, which consisted of making sure all the chickens, ducks, sheep, and guard dogs were properly put away for the night.

Living on the farm fosters a profound sense of reverence. Seeing it at night and during holidays with fewer people around allows a connection to blossom beyond simply showing up daily for your job, no matter how passionate you are.

Working in the greenhouse during the market garden rotation

Nurturing the Next Generation of Farmers

Throughout the apprenticeship, we split time between all the departments on the farm, spending two weeks at each one for a total of 12 rotations—livestock, poultry, market garden, pack house, orchard, fertility and compost, habitat restoration, and farmers market team, to name a few.

Aside from the filming and storytelling, this gives you some context on how diverse the farm is. The apprentices were threads throughout the farm, weaving through each department as they focused on their roles and tasks.

At each one of these departments, there was a plethora of young people who were enthusiastic, passionate, and skilled. Despite the average age of farmers in the United States approaching 65, the story here was the opposite.

Being from a small town in Nebraska where farmers were our parents and grandparents, it was refreshing to see such vibrancy taking root there.

This may be due to the farm's proximity to Los Angeles or the uniqueness of the farm and the film's notoriety. Still, it was inspiring to be surrounded by the eagerness of the next generation to pursue farming fully.

Examining the health of the honey bees in early spring and checking for swarms

Regenerative Response to Record Rains

The California landscape was blessed with abundant rain in the spring of 2023, but not without massive erosion, flooding, and landslides.

On Apricot Lane, they ended up keeping much of the rain they received, infiltrating and being soaked up by healthy soils.

During the last 12 years, they have transformed desolate orchards into functional ecosystems that soaked up the historic rainfall, keeping erosion and runoff to a minimum.

“Thanks to its high amount of organic matter (from cover crops, compost, and grazing animals), over 228 MILLION gallons of water was sequestered this year.“ - from their Instagram caption 

Instagram post

But the surrounding farms had a completely different reality. They experienced massive runoff, soil erosion, and water pooling for days after the rainfall events.

As rainfall becomes less consistent and unreliable, it is more important to ask how much water we keep rather than how much falls. Their dedication to regeneration proved profitable when the historic rains finally fell.

Inspiring Change Through Commitment

One of the most inspiring parts of being a part of Apricot Lane was that they led by example and focused on what they had control over.

They practiced what they preached but rarely preached at all.

They were more focused on the walk than the talk.

Their farm is surrounded by conventional lemon, avocado, and berry producers.

But their vision was clear - lead by example and inspire through storytelling.

They didn’t set out to change every farm in the area, tell them how to farm, or criticize them for what they were doing “wrong.”

They had a clear goal, and they stuck to their ethos.

“Our focus is seeing and utilizing the interconnectedness of nature to help build soil health, maximize biodiversity, and regeneratively grow the most nutrient-dense food possible.” — from their website.

And to showcase ecological interconnectedness through storytelling, which continues to inspire countless people worldwide and introduces the next generation to a world of regenerative possibilities.

Thanks for reading,

Mitch Hinrichs

P.S. — This reflection is based on my experience working there and does not speak on behalf of Apricot Lane Farms. I respect their mission and team, but I want to make a clear distinction between my personal account and their work.