Thanks for joining us! Today we welcome Jeanne Carver, Founder and President of Shaniko Wool Her story is one of successful adaptation to changing market needs. Jeanne and her late husband Dan have been using sustainable / regenerative practices for decades. Jeanne shares with us that Dan was an engineer and a systems thinker which is key to how they understood the land, soil and their operation. From her family’s Imperial Stock Ranch, she and Dan transitioned from selling commodity lamb and wool to selling retail products that are ecologically sensitive. With the founding of Shaniko Wool Comp ..read more

Thanks for joining us! Today we welcome Chris Jones a Retired Research Engineer from the University of Iowa and author of The Swine Republic, Struggles with Truth About Agriculture and Water Quality. Today he and Monte discuss the agricultural efficiencies and practices that we can make happen in more environmentally responsible ways. That includes a system approach to our entire management practices. Chris talks about how we can work to deploy these practices in enough areas that they can make a difference at the landscape scale. It’s a powerful conversation so let’s jump right in. Chris Jone ..read more

Thanks for joining us! Today we welcome Pamela Tanner Boll an artist, filmmaker, writer as well as the Director and Executive Producer of several films including To Which We Belong. She is also the Founder and CEO of Mystic Artists Film Productions. We’re excited to explore her vision as she worked to, in her words, “shine a light on the amazing possibilities for restoring our lands. And how we could fix our water problems and our climate issues.” She loves farmers and all of that was what brought her to this film. We think you’ll be inspired as you listen to the stories and vision not only fr ..read more

Thanks for joining us, today we welcome Dr. Steven Chen, Chief Medical Officer of Alameda County Recipe4Health, an award-winning “food as medicine” model that intentionally brings together health care, food systems, and agriculture to improve food/nutrition insecurity, chronic conditions, and health/racial equity, while leading the scale and spread of Recipe4Health (R4H). Dr. Steven Chen is Chief Medical Officer of Alameda County Recipe4Health, an award-winning “food as medicine” model that intentionally brings together health care, food systems, and agriculture to improve food/nutrition insec ..read more

Thanks for joining us! Today we welcome Dr. Jonathan Lundgren, Founder and Director of the Ecdysis Foundation and Director and CEO of Blue Dasher Farm. Jonathan was one of our speakers at the very first AgEmerge event and his presentation was so powerful. Watching the work that he and his whole team are doing at Ecdysis and Blue Dasher Farm inspires us to continue to learn and understand the biodiversity necessary to nurture our land. In this episode of the podcast Jonathan says, “you know those entomology problems, those insect pest problems? The reason we don't solve them is because they're ..read more

Thanks for joining us! Today we welcome Dr. Don Reicosk. Dr. Reicosky is a retired Soil Scientist for the USDA-ARS, North Central Soil Conservation Research Laboratory, Morris, MN, and Adjunct Professor in the Soil Science Department, University of Minnesota, St. Paul. He has an exciting discussion with Monte about the foundational research he conducted back in the late 1990’s finding that tillage releases carbon into the atmosphere in sudden rushes of CO2 as the soil is opened up. And now, more than ever, Dr Reicosky uses his time to help growers know this critical information, whether it's c ..read more

Welcome to the podcast, today Dr. Jason Rowntree joins Monte as they have a great discussion about Jason’s research that focuses on identifying the metrics and management that reflect ecological improvement in grazing land and other agricultural systems. And just like many of our guest, he had a moment where his paradigm shifted and it came in the form of a series of hurricanes. And that got him thinking about resilience and what does it mean to look at resilience in agriculture. Jason is also the co-director of the Center for Regenerative Agriculture at Michigan State University. Jason Rowntr ..read more

Thanks for joining us, today we welcome Doniga Markegard a wildlife tracker, regenerative rancher, speaker, and author. Doniga and Monte have a wonderful conversation discussing the methods Doniga and her family are using to graze their animals, how they observe and interact with nature, to lead towards a more biodiverse and balanced ecosystem and they are seeing incredible results. Along with her husband and four children, Doniga owns and operates Markegard Family Grass-Fed raising grass-fed beef, lamb, pastured pork and chicken supplying the Bay Area with local, nutrient dense foods. The fam ..read more

Thanks for joining us! As the year draws to a close, we often find ourselves evaluating the results of this year's harvest and reflecting on the systems and practices we’ve adopted to improve soil health. Some of our guests have shared with us that they’ve changed their practices not only for soil health and water quality but also because of a health event in their lives that prompted an examination of their current systems. Today, we’re bringing you a medley of guests who explore the human health and soil health connection. We’ve picked out some great highlights, with Seth Watkins, a farmer a ..read more

Thanks for joining us, today we welcome Dr. Dianna Bagnall a Research Soil Scientist for the Soil Health Institute. Her current work includes integrating research and outreach to secure the global soil resource. Some of her specific research includes developing functions that show the effect of management on soil physical properties, on-farm soil health assessments, qualitative analysis of farmer interviews, and outreach to farmers in the United States. She and Monte discuss the importance of being able to quantify and assess the practices that are being used to build soil health across the co ..read more