“This was the best event I’ve ever been to.”

“This was my first time attending and I have no suggestions, except how will Acres top the 2023 conference?”

The week kicked-off with our Eco-Ag University Workshops. For two days, attendees learned from expert instructors and connected with others traveling down similar paths. Attendees were able to hear from and talk one-on-one with instructors Don Huber, John Kempf, Greg Pennyroyal, Rick Clark, Mark Shepard, and Jesse Frost. These smaller group discussions and networking times were so insightful to new and experienced farmers alike.

The conference began with a keynote address by John Kempf, a leading expert on regenerative agriculture. Kempf shared his insights on the latest trends in sustainable agriculture and how we can all make a difference. He emphasized the importance of uniting together for the common goal of moving regenerative agriculture forward.

The next morning, we enjoyed a keynote from Macauley Kincaid, who shared his journey into regenerative agriculture at-scale, including no-till, livestock, and how he utilizes cover crops on every acre of his farm. Attendees then moved  into breakout sessions and consulting halls to learn the science and practices of regenerative agriculture to take back to their own farms, gardens, customers, and neighbors. There were sessions on composting, water conservation, the soil microbiome, cover cropping and relay cropping, biodiversity integration, and more. These sessions were packed and generated a lot of interactive discussion. Attendees had the opportunity to learn from experts in the field and share their own experiences. Gary Zimmer’s keynote rounded out the conference perfectly, taking us through the last 50 years of biological farming — attendees got a look at where it started, key influencers, how far we’ve come, and where and how we can continue to grow regenerative agriculture together. The final session was a panel of producers, moderated by Will Harris, discussing how we can bring our family and fellow friends and farmers into the conversation about soil health-related practices to widen the acceptance of these practices and increase the regeneration of our land. 

Our bookstore offered a wide selection of books from new and existing authors. Authors including Will Harris, Mark Shepard, Dr. Nasha Winters, Jesse Frost, Gary Zimmer, Andre Leu, and Megan Neubauer, were on hand to sign books and chat with attendees. Check out our online bookstore here! 

The trade show was another highlight of the conference. Over 70 exhibitors showcased their latest products and services related to sustainable agriculture. Attendees had the opportunity to learn about cutting edge innovations in agriculture and connect with potential partners, win door prizes, listen to exhibitor presentations, and enjoy networking receptions. 

None of this would have been possible without our sponsors and their support of the Eco-Ag Conference and Trade-Show. See below for a full list of sponsors. 

Eco-Ag is the highlight of our year, for all those that attended – we sincerely hope you enjoyed yourselves. Seeing the conversations, networking, and community come together just reconfirms our mission to bring the community of regenerative agriculture together. Thank you so much for being a part of it.

The conference was a great success and we are already looking forward to next year’s event. The 49th annual Eco-Ag Conference and Trade-Show will be held December 9-12, 2024 in St. Louis, MO. We hope you will join us!

2023 Eco-Ag Speakers:

• John Kempf
• Gary Zimmer
• Macauley Kincaid
• Keith Berns
• Greg Pennyroyal
• Dr. Don Huber
• Rick Clark
• Mark Shepard
• Jesse Frost
• Will Harris
• Jason Mauck
• Dr. Laura Kavanaugh
• Lydia Dresbach
• Dr. David Johnson & Hui-Chun Su Johnson
• Dr. James White
• Dr. Nasha Winters
• Megan Neubauer
• Dr. Andre Leu
• Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin
• Dr. Beth Fisher
• John Duke
• Ruben Parrilla
• John Wong
• Stephen Lapp

Easily jump to photos by clicking on the links: Eco-Ag U Workshops | Trade Show and Presentations | Conference Sessions | (coming soon: Keynote Presentations, Reception, Book Signings, and more!)

Eco-Ag U Workshops

Each year, conference kicks off with our all-day intensive Eco-Ag U workshops, pairing attendees with one or two instructors for a full day of in-depth education. This year our Eco-Ag U instructors included:

• John Kempf
• Rick Clark
• Dr. Nasha Winters
• Dr. Don Huber
• Mark Shepard
• Dr. Kris Nichols

Trade Show and Presentations

Just as every year, the Trade Show certainly had something for everyone. Rows and rows of eco-ag innovators interacted with conference attendees, eager to network and discuss the latest tools, techniques and methods. We also continued in the second year of presentations on the Trade Show floor, increasing educational opportunities to all attendees.

Conference Sessions

Once again, our agenda was filled with top-notch speakers – experts on all facets of regenerative agriculture, from healthy soil to farm economics, from fungi to livestock management, and more!

More Photos to Come!

We have lots more amazing highlights from this incredible week, and we’ll be updating them here! You can also check out our social media channels – @AcresUSA on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn – for more great conference content. And be sure to read about Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquín, this year’s recipient of the Eco-Ag Achievement Award!

Attendees came from a variety of backgrounds, with new farmers and experienced farmers learning together, both in the sessions and in conversation in the hallways. Nobody talks about soil health like the Acres U.S.A. community, and that was proven once again by the hundreds gathered for the 2021 Eco-Ag Conference & Trade Show

Below are some more of our favorite photos from the event. For even more photos, visit our Facebook page, Instagram profile or Twitter feed. If you have photos from the event to put on social media, please tag us (@AcresUSA), and post them with the hashtag #ecoagconf21 so that we and others can see and enjoy them too!

Thank you to all who attended and supported this event! The energy was amazing and we can’t stress how wonderful it was to see folks in person once again.

More pictures are below, but be sure to stay tuned for updates about next year’s Eco-Ag Conference & Trade Show, as well as other Acres U.S.A. annual events such as the Healthy Soil Summit and On-Farm Intensives. Sign up for our News & Announcements email newsletter here!

Eco-Ag U Workshops

 Here are some photos of some of our Eco-Ag U instructors – Nicole Masters, Dr. Don Huber and Mark Shepard – delivering their high quality content to ready-to-learn attendees.

Trade Show

With 82 booths on display, the Trade Show had someting for everyone! Row after row of eco-ag innovators ready to network and discuss the latest tools, techniques and methods. For the first time we also had Trade Show Presentations right on the Trade Show floor!

Conference Sessions

Our conference docket was filled with big names in eco-agriculture this year, and topics ranged from human health to soil microbes to livestock and more!

Keynote Presentations

The Eco-Ag Conference featured three keynote presentations this year, from animal behaviorist Fred Provenza, to Will and Jenni Harris of White Oak Pastures, to a star-filled panel with Dr. Nasha Winters, Nicole Masters, Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin and John Kempf.

Eco-Ag Achievement Award

Each year we give the Eco-Ag Achievement Award to an exceptional leader in the agricultural field. This year’s recipient was André Leu, an Australian regenerative farmer with decades of experience on the farm and around the world, International Director of Regeneration International and author of his newest book, Growing Life. Learn more about André and the award here.

Acres U.S.A. Bookstore

Our on-site bookstore was incredibly popular this year, with hundreds of titles available to attendees intent on furthering their learning after conference. Three of our speakers – André Leu, Paul Dorrance and Dr. Nasha Winters – got to hold and sign copies of their new books for the first time at conference.

Want to learn more from conference speakers? Check out our 2021 Eco-Ag Conference Speakers collection still available at our online bookstore.

Continue Learning

Interested in the replay? The 2021 Eco-Ag Conference Replay is now available for purchase here.

Your eco-ag education doesn’t have to end just because conference does! Keep learning with books by 2021 Eco-Ag Speakers, our Eco-Ag U online learning courses, our free EcoFarmingDaily.com website, and our educational weekly email newsletters!

Eco-Ag, Day 4: Exploring the Terrain

The last day of the 45th annual Acres U.S.A. Eco-Ag Conference explored the inner and outer terrain of human health as well as what to do in the event on a zombie apocalypse.

Nasha Winters

Dr. Nasha Winters, a healthcare researcher and author of The Metabolic Approach to Cancer, started the morning with a grim tour of our degraded landscape — pesticide and herbicide use have attacked the biological health of the soil, which we are losing at a rate of 30 soccer fields per minute. We could be facing our last harvest in the 60 years if current trends continue, the United Nations estimates.

You can’t have healthy humans without healthy soil, Dr. Winters explained. To illustrate this connection, she shared a quote from environmental activist and author Satish Kumar: “The words human, humility, and humus all come from the same root. When humans lose contact with soil (the humus), they are no longer humans.”

As the soil degrades, so does our food – which is three times less nutritious as it was just a few decades ago – and our health, Dr. Winters said.

Suicide rates are soaring, she said. One in 6 Americans take antidepressants. “Lifestyle diseases” such as obesity, diabetes and cancer are now seen as an almost-inevitable fate for the majority of Americans.

Our health is under attack, and yet, few will take the measures necessary to protect their health. The average American spends less than 15 minutes outdoors a day. We’re eating junk food. We’re not exercising.

Getting a COVID-19 test and wearing a mask are not the road to robust health, Dr. Winters said. Instead, she outlined a few rules of thumb to follow:

• Get outside and go for a walk (in the woods if you can)
• Eat organic, eat seasonally, eat locally
• Start a garden and get dirty
• Practice mindfulness and breathe clean air
• Hydrate with clean water
• Get good sleep

“One cannot heal in the same soil in which they got sick,” she said.

Dr. Winter is currently working on a new book on therapeutic diets for cancer.

Mark Shepard

Just as the human body has an innate capacity to heal, ecosystems can rebound from near total destruction. That was the focus of Mark Shepard’s presentation on Friday.

Although he acknowledged we are now “living in the zombie apocalypse,” Shepard reminded the audience that an asteroid landed on earth nearly 66 million years ago and incinerated 99% of terrestrial carbon — and yet, the planet somehow recovered.

When Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980 it destroyed the old-growth forest surrounding it, turning the area into a wasteland. However, the forest soon returned. The same can be said for test sites nuclear bombs. No matter what, life finds a way to re-emerge.

“Nature has been able to make it through disaster after disaster,” he said.

As he looks out across the monoculture farms across the country, Shepard sees what many of us now see — dirt not soil, commodities instead of nutritious food. However, he’s confident that if were to walk away from these industrial farms, natural habitats would eventually grow back.

It’s that principle that drives Shepard’s style of permaculture and agroforestry. On his farm in Wisconsin, formerly the site of row-crop and dairy operation, he has designed a food production system based on oak savannah, successional brushland and Eastern woodlands as ecological models. It incorporates animals, both wild and domesticated, and produces an abundance of food.

Panel Discussion

To end the day, Eco-Ag features three farmers who are finding their own unique paths to success within regenerative agriculture. Anna Jones-Crabtree, Kimberly Ratcliff and Steve Tucker are all at different stages in their journey — and also in very different environments.

Jones-Crabtree, along with her husband Doug, runs Vilicus Farms, a 9,600-acre organic operation in northern Montana that grows heirloom grains, pulses and broadleaf crops. She has four full-time team members and an apprenticeship program. She started the farm from scratch more than 13 years ago.

Ratcliff runs Caney Creek Ranch, a diversified, family-owned cattle ranch in east central Texas. She came to the farm after leaving a marketing job on Wall Street and hasn’t looked back. She also owns Farm to Freezer Beef, which markets beef from east Texas ranches, and helped start 100 Ranchers, a nonprofit that seeks to bring together minority members.

Tucker is a dryland, no-till farmer in Venango, Nebraska. He took over the family farm from his grandfather. Over several years, Tucker has transitioned the farm from a conventional monoculture of wheat to a regenerative farm that celebrates a diversity of crops.

Each farmer offered words of wisdom to the audience on Friday:

• Jones-Crabtree: We need to subsidize ecological land use and not commodities.
• Tucker: He realized he needed to start selling things by the pound and not by the bushel. That means he started with the end-user in mind.
• Ratcliff: Farmers must have a succession plan in place if they want to keep the farm in the family.
• Both Jones-Crabtree and Tucker: Always ask, “Who made that rule?”
• Jones-Crabtree: It’s not about recipes for your farming system. It’s about changing your mindset.
• Ratcliff: “If you don’t like how a system is working, get on a committee to change the system.”
• Jones-Crabtree: She’s not out to convert farmers in their sixties to regenerative agriculture. She wants to open up opportunities for the next generation of farmers.

Farm Tour

Kamal Bell took conference-goers on a drone-powered tour of Sankofa Farms, a 2.5 acre vegetable production operation located in North Carolina. His goal is to provide nutrition to food insecure communities. Bell, a teacher by nature and profession, also uses his farm as a classroom to teach Black youth about leadership, teamwork and personal development. Lettuce, kale, collard greens, squash, okra, watermelon, peppers, mustard greens, and navy beans make up some of the produce the farm is growing.

— Ben Trollinger, Acres U.S.A. editor.

All Eco-Ag Conference Highlights

The 2020 Eco-Ag Conference ran from Dec. 1 to Dec. 4. Here are the highlights of each day below:

• Day One Highlights
• Day Two Highlights
• Day Three Highlights
• Day Four Highlights – you’re here!

Eco-Ag, Day 3: John Kempf Slays Soil Science Sacred Cow

On the third day of the 45th annual Acres U.S.A. Eco-Ag Conference, John Kempf took aim at one of the foundational tools of modern agriculture — the soil test.

Kempf is the founder of the Advancing Eco Agriculture consultancy and the host of the Regenerative Agriculture podcast. One of the most the most influential figures of regenerative movement, the Amish Ohioan is a mainstay of the Eco-Ag Conference.

And so it was with some trepidation on Wednesday that Kempf spoke for the first time publicly about his deep misgivings regarding one of the orthodoxies of agriculture for the past 70-plus years.

Armed with more than 1 million data points gathered over the past decade, he declared that a chemistry-based method of soil analysis “has led agriculture astray.” Comparing soil test results with plant sap analysis data over the years has pushed Kempf to a surprising conclusion: Traditional soil analysis does not correlate to plant nutrient absorption, nutrient density or crop performance.

The title of Kempf’s presentation was “Soil Test 2.0” and he laid out a compelling case against the over-reliance on soil tests that reveal the balance of nutrients in a soil — inorganic minerals such as calcium, nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous.

Chemistry, Kempf explained, is only one part of a healthy soil. Other factors include geology, structure and biology. All of these things must be taken into account — particularly the biological dynamism of a soil, he said.

“We can not make reasonable and effective agronomic recommendations from soil analysis with mathematical calculations alone,” he said. “The nutrients plants actually absorb is what matters.”

In the 1930s, Dr. William Albrecht developed the principles behind what is known as the Base Cation Saturation Ratio (BCSR) analysis. These techniques and principles were hailed as a breakthrough, particularly by Acres U.S.A. founder Charles Walters. And, in fact, they allowed agronomists to realize strong crop responses for decades.

That no longer seems to be the case, Kempf said.

That might be because soils are no longer as biologically active as they used to be. Kempf hypothesized that this could be the result of soil compaction from the use of heavy machinery and the indiscriminate application of pesticides and herbicides.

Regardless of the cause of the decline, Kempf outlined what he sees as a new paradigm for agronomy:

• The nutrition plants actually absorb from the soil is the final indicator of what the soil can actually supply.
• If soil analysis correlated with plant nutrient absorption, then nutrient excesses in soil would be high in plants and nutrient deficiencies in soils would be deficiencies in plants. Neither is true.
• The only nutrients which generally correlate between soil analysis and sap analysis are sulfur, zinc and boron.
• Potassium applications drop by 70%.
• Nitrogen applications drop by 60%.

“If your crops produce high yields, of exceptional quality, and are disease and insect free — do you care if your soil analysis report is ‘ideally balanced’?” he asked. “Plants are the ultimate report card.”

Nicole Masters

Keynote speaker Nicole Masters, an agro-ecologist hailing from New Zealand and the author of For the Love of Soil: Strategies to Regenerate Our Food Production Systems, followed Kempf. She wasn’t as concerned with slaying sacred cows as she was with what they might deposit in the soil.

Expanding on Kempf’s insights on a balanced approach to soil health, Masters emphasized that biological function is what drives plant performance and health.

The microbial life in the soil is what builds what Masters called an “underground metropolis.” More than 80% of plant health and nutrition, she said, is driven by biological function, diversity and networks.

Masters also went deep into how an understanding of plant and animal epigenetics could benefit farmers and ranchers. In short, the concept is, you are what your mother eats, she said. Put in plant terms, that might mean inherited traits for drought resistance, seed dormancy and biological relationships.

Epigenetics also means inherited trauma. Pesticides and herbicides, for example, can alter over 600 genes in a plant, genes that are responsible for plant defense and for building strong cell walls. Those biocides, along with synthetic fertilizers, can also shut down communication mechanisms in plants and the microbes and invertebrates in the soil.

Bugs, Masters said, can be your greatest allies. They play a role in decomposition, nutrient cycling, pollination, seed dispersal and building soil structure. They are often food for higher organisms and can act as biological controls within an ecosystem.

In conclusion, Masters offered up several keys to lifting plant and biological signaling, the means of exchange that enables nutrient-dense crops.

• Optimize brix and reduce plant stress
• Diversity, diversity, diversity (plants, animals and microbes)
• Provide diverse food for microbes
• Address any major macro/micro-nutrient imbalances
• Use practices which build carbon and water holding capacity

Marty Travis

Marty Travis, who runs Spence Farm in Illinois, started the day on an optimistic note by describing how he has banded together with 60 other farms to nourish communities in his region while thriving during a pandemic.

Travis, the author of the Acres U.S.A. book My Farmer, My Customer, leads a collective of farmers that used to serve some of the top restaurants in the Chicago area. In March, when the COVID-19 shutdown began, instead of having 35-40 restaurants on their delivery list, the group found they had three. And though the restaurants were shutting down, some for good, they didn’t forget about Marty’s group. The chefs put out the word to their customers that there was fresh food for sale. The demand from families and individuals was so high that the group saw a big spike in its usual revenue. The added labor of sorting hundreds of orders, however, proved to be a challenge and led Travis and his group to a new idea and opportunity.

Travis teamed up with Matt Wechsler — a filmmaker who feature Travis in his 2016 documentary, Sustainable — to open Village Farmstand, a one-stop shop in Evanston, Illinois, for customers of Travis’ farmer network. The group is also partnering with Chicago-area nonprofits to get fresh food into underserved communities.

Travis is now looking to replicate this model across the country.

“There is this whole climate of cooperation, of compassion, of caring,” Travis said.

Rockey Farms Field Tour

Brendon Rockey of Rockey Farms in Colorado gave the audience a tour of his potato operation, and how he introduced more than 40 species into his fields to help with soil health, pest control, weed mitigation and nutrient retention.

“I choose to invest in my soil,” he said. 

— Ben Trollinger, Acres U.S.A. editor.

All Eco-Ag Conference Highlights

The 2020 Eco-Ag Conference ran from Dec. 1 to Dec. 4. Here are the highlights of each day below:

• Day One Highlights
• Day Two Highlights
• Day Three Highlights – you’re here!
• Day Four Highlights

Eco-Ag, Day 2: Gabe Brown Receives Eco-Ag Achievement Award

The 45th annual Acres U.S.A. Eco-Ag Conference kicked Day 2 off with a revealing demographic breakdown.

It was little surprise that a large percentage of the conference-goers identified as certified organic (23%) or “organic in practice” (29%). The number that stood out, however, was the 20% of the attendees who said they are conventional farmers.

Gabe Brown, Wednesday’s keynote speaker, used to be one be one of them.

In 1991, Brown took over his in-laws’ farm near Bismarck, North Dakota. For the next several years, he practiced a farming model based on tillage, synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. It nearly led him to ruin.

Since then, Brown, the author of Dirt to Soil: One Family’s Journey into Regenerative Agriculture, has been a tireless advocate for a farming philosophy that puts soil health at the center of its mission. And that is why Acres U.S.A. on Wednesday named Brown as the 2020 recipient of the Eco-Ag Achievement Award.

“This year’s award winner stood out both for the work he has done on his own farm and the voice he has provided for regenerative agriculture not only in the community of ecological farmers that already exists, but also beyond that into the mainstream,” said Acres U.S.A. events manager Sarah Day Levesque in the award presentation. “He is a pioneer of the soil-health movement and has even brought regenerative agriculture to the front of Wheaties cereal box.”

Brown joins a distinguished group of past winners including Neal Kinsey, Jerry Brunetti, Don Huber, Vandana Shiva, Jeff Moyer and Phil Callahan.

In addition to Brown, the roster of speakers on Wednesday included Paul Dorrance and Vail Dixon. Brown, Dorrance and Dixon all extended a helping hand to those farmers in attendance looking to make the leap into regenerative, ecological and soil-health based farming systems.

Paul Dorrance

Wearing a black cowboy hat, and with mounted antlers on the wall behind him, Paul Dorrance started Day 2 of the conference with an overview of his approach to pasture-based livestock production. Before focusing on agricultural consulting work full-time, Dorrance and his family ran Pastured Providence Farmstead, a southern Ohio-based operation that specialized in grass-fed beef and lamb, as well as pastured pork and poultry.

The former U.S. Air Force pilot emphasized that conventional farmers often act as price takers, not price makers. Dorrance called on farmers to take a stand and fight not just for a better living, but to adopt practices that nourish the soil and communities.

Worldwide, soil is eroding ten times faster than it is being replenished, Dorrance said. Because of that, it is essential that farmers become resilient stewards of the land, adopting key principles of soil health, including:

• Pursue diversity (Remember that nature abhors a monoculture);
• Keep living roots in the soil at all times, and
• Minimize soil disturbance.

Grass-fed and pastured livestock are an important tool for realizing healthy soil, Dorrance said. Yes, he admitted, grass-fed beef produce 20% more methane gas than conventional cattle, but that doesn’t tell the whole story.

For example, the figure doesn’t take into account the amount of carbon sequestration rotational grazing can achieve, he explained. It also doesn’t factor in how regenerative grazing can restore ecosystems and reverse desertification. On a CAFO, manure is treated like toxic waste — on a regenerative pasture, it’s a key to fertility.

Dorrance also pointed to trends in the marketplace to prove the long-term economic viability of grass-fed and pastured meat. While demand for conventional beef is dropping, he said, the consumer’s call for grass-fed is growing exponentially, largely due to its environmental benefits and its superior nutritional profile. In 2012, grass-fed accounted for $17 million in sales in the U.S. In 2016, that number jumped to $272 million.

Additionally, Dorrance revealed what he called grass-fed’s “dirty little secret” — the inputs are next to nothing. That means higher profit margins for the farmer who is willing to spend her time intensely managing livestock.

Vail Dixon

Vail Dixon, a regenerative farmer and founder of Simple Soil Solutions, was next in the batting order. Where Paul Dorrance’s presentation was practical, Dixon began her talk in the world of metaphor and microbiology. The theme of her presentation was “The Upward Spiral of Soil Health.”

Like human health, soil health is not a destination, but a direction, she said. Either you are moving toward health or away from it. She explained that it’s crucial for farmers to be able to identify which stage their land is in. “What is your unique starting point?” she asked.

One might assume the starting point is always a soil sample. That may be, Dixon said, but test results won’t tell the full story, particularly when it comes to the biology present in the soil.

The lowest level of Dixon’s spiral of soil health is bare ground. The first step in soil ascendancy is to get the ground covered. Once plants start growing, the emergence of weeds can begin to tell the farmer about nutrient imbalances. Weeds, Dixon pointed out, are not nuisances to be dealt with, but healers and storytellers.

“I want my weeds to help me get to breakthrough,” she said.

Breakthrough is the phase in which increasing biological activity in the soil begins to set the stage for resilient health. The farmer can precipitate this stage through planting cover crops, using micronized minerals and microbial inoculants on seeds and mulching.

Dixon is currently building her farm in Nelson County, Virginia, into a regional training center for regenerative farming and living that integrates Holistic Management, permaculture, and biological farming. 

Gabe Brown

Before receiving his achievement award, Brown presented to the conference on how to build resiliency in farming operations.

He started with a question: “Are you satisfied with your soil?”

The quality of your soil, he said, is a direct reflection of you as a farmer and your stewardship of the land. Like Dixon and Dorrance, Brown described a vision of farming that takes its lead from nature — no bare soil, no mechanical disturbance (i.e., no tillage), little chemical input (avoid pesticides and herbicides for the most part). And also remember not to overemphasize inorganic nutrients, he said. Ultimately, it’s about the life, or lack thereof, in the soil.

“We are not short of nutrients, we are short of biology to make those nutrients available. Biology is your silent partner, it is the interaction of life,” he said.

The farmer bolsters biology in the soil through cover cropping and maximizing solar energy collection. The root exudates from plants (carbon in the form of sugars, amino acids and organic acids) combine with water to form carbonic acid, which breaks down minerals into digestible forms. This happens with the symbiotic help of a fungal partner known as mycorrhizae.

“Observation is one of the things that I think is lacking in agriculture,” Brown said. “What do you really see in nature? What’s nature trying to tell you?”

That patch of dandelion, for example, might be saying the soil is compacted and low in calcium, he said.

Brown also touted the benefits of integrating crop systems with livestock. Strategic animal management is necessary to building soil through strategic disturbance and the spread of manure and urine. But it isn’t just about where and when cattle graze. It’s also about the how. Brown emphasized the importance of epigenetics. Put another way, let calves and mothers stay together. The mother will pass on nutritional wisdom about what to eat to her calves. This makes a herd more efficient grazers and more adapted to a specific environment, Brown explained.

The Browns combine grazing with no-till growing systems to produce cash crops, cover crops as well as grass-fed beef and lamb, pastured pork and eggs. And because of the abundance of wildflowers and pollinators in their pastures, they also produce honey.

“Make use of the resources you have available and the tools you have available to convert that sun energy into dollars,” he said.

Other Speakers

Following Dorrance’s talk, conference attendees got to take a virtual tour of Kelsey Ducheneaux’s cattle operation on a Sioux reservation in Montana. Ducheneaux is building her company, DX Beef, from the soil up. She gives credit to her ancestors for establishing a thriving ecosystem she can now use to grow her own business, while maintaining the value system they build into the ecosystem.

— Ben Trollinger, Acres U.S.A. editor.

All Eco-Ag Conference Highlights

The 2020 Eco-Ag Conference ran from Dec. 1 to Dec. 4. Here are the highlights of each day below:

• Day One Highlights
• Day Two Highlights – you’re here!
• Day Three Highlights
• Day Four Highlights

Eco-Ag, Day 1: Balancing Minerals, Sequestering Carbon and Saving Our Soils

The 45^th annual Acres U.S.A. Eco-Ag Conference jumped right into the weeds on Tuesday with a graduate-level seminar from Dr. Don Huber on balancing soil minerals as a means of preventing disease and pest pressure.

Dr. Huber, a professor emeritus of plant pathology at Purdue University, said that it is the available mineral nutrition in the soil — and not synthetic fertilizers and pesticides — that will best support a successful farming system over time. Using glyphosate to control weeds, for example, will have a negative impact on a crop’s mineral uptake, resulting in weaker and less nutrient-dense foods. This is because glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup-brand weedkiller, is a chelating agent that ties up crucial soil minerals such as manganese.

As Dr. Huber pointed out in his presentation, the weak link in any farming system is often found underground. Having the wrong proportion of minerals will inevitably affect crop yield and quality.

Gary Zimmer, an organic farmer and founder of Midwestern BioAg, built upon Dr. Huber’s foundation of mineral balance in the soil, outlining a farming system based on biological exchange.

He said a true system should not be based on what the farmer isn’t doing — no-till, for example. While ultimately not an opponent of the no-till philosophy, Zimmer said the farmer must first set the stage by working in the right balance of mineral nutrition, feeding microbial life with organic matter, and building an aerated structure in the soil.

“Don’t till if you don’t have to,” he said.

To Zimmer, soil health means “the capacity of the soil to function without intervention.” That’s a goal, he said, but not always the starting point. He said that a diverse mix of cover crops and strategic plowing could put a farmer on a path that ultimately won’t require tillage.

“You have to earn the right not to till,” he said.

The crux of Zimmer’s talk — largely based on his magnum opus The Biological Farmer — was about sequestering carbon in the soil and keeping it there. That is accomplished by building an ecosystem of underground biology that fosters deep and fugally rich root systems that can properly access the minerals in the soil.

“I want you to grow roots! Roots are the secret to the whole thing,” he said.

While he isn’t against light chiseling through the top few inches of farmland, he urges farmers to leave the middle root zone alone. He explained that it is the structure of the soil —ideally that of a black and crumbly chocolate cake — that is the secret to sequestering carbon in the form of complex macromolecules such a suberin.

The takeaway from Zimmer’s presentation was to sequester carbon in your soil because it creates a more resilient farming system — not just because you want to get a carbon credit payment from the government.

Keynote Panel Discussion

An all-star panel capped the day’s speaker line-up, with Dr. Vandana Shiva, Dr. Rattan Lal, Bob Quinn and John Ikerd gathering together to discuss the essential connection between soil health and planetary peace and security.

Dr. Shiva, an India-based activist and author (most recently of Oneness vs the 1%: Shattering Illusions, Seeding Freedom), took aim at the Green Revolution, which she said has taught the world that soil is an empty container for industrial chemical inputs. The result of that thinking, she said, has been increased poverty, a decline in plant nutrition and degraded soils the world over. She called industrial farming “violence against the earth” that is based on “a war mentality and war chemicals.”

She cited her fellow panelist Dr. Lal’s words when she declared that, “soil is living and therefore has rights.”

Ikerd, an agricultural economist from the University of Missouri (and author of the book Small Farms Are Real Farms), said that while the Green Revolution may have been well intentioned, it didn’t work — not for the farmers who went broke, not for the rural communities that depend on agriculture, and not for the consumers who eat a poor diet that results in disease.

Dr. Lal called malnutrition a “weapon of mass destruction” that kills nearly 30,000 people a day, a horrifying reality people in positions of power rarely talk about.

Along with access to healthy food, the restoration of soil health must be a top priority globally in order to prevent catastrophe, he explained. “If soil health goes down, everything else goes down with it,” he said.

Although the United Nations has estimated that the world has 60 harvests left if we maintain our current agricultural practices, the panelists on Tuesday don’t believe that fate is inevitable.

But to reverse that alarming trend, the panelists argued we must realize that “soil isn’t just something that props up the plant.”

Ikerd said we cannot have healthy food without healthy soil, despite what industrialists might claim about hydroponics and lab-grown meats.

Quinn, a Montana farmer and author who pioneered the production of ancient khorasan wheat under the Kamut brand (see his book Grain by Grain), said that the lack of nutritious food will ultimately lead to the United States’ downfall. He said an epidemic of so-called “life-style” diseases could soon end up breaking the country.

“We have a very high cost for food, but we don’t pay it at the checkout counter,” he said. We pay it in farmer suicides, he explained, and in the erosion of soil, the breakdown of communities, the degradation of ecosystems and in declining health.

Dr. Shiva said this is the result of an industrial mindset that turns food into a commodity that is judged not on its nutrition, but on how much it weighs.

And a large percentage of that weight, Dr. Lal pointed out, is trashed. Food waste, the panelists agreed, is one of the most preventable tragedies of our current food system. It isn’t that there is a lack of food, it’s that it isn’t getting on the right tables or back into the soil of the rights farms. It’s going into the landfill.

In the end, the panelists were optimistic that we can transform agriculture worldwide in the next few generations. Ikerd even estimated that significant change could occur within the next 2 or 3 farm bills. But much of the change will begin with the farmers, who Dr. Lal characterized as the most important stakeholders in shaping the future of land use and ecological health. The panelists also pointed to soil health as a crucial component in reversing climate change through the sequestration of carbon.

— Ben Trollinger, Acres U.S.A. editor.

All Eco-Ag Conference Highlights

The 2020 Eco-Ag Conference ran from Dec. 1 to Dec. 4. Here are the highlights of each day below:

• Day One – you’re here!
• Day Two Highlights
• Day Three Highlights
• Day Four Highlights