It's the 100th episode of the Regenerative Agriculture Podcast! In this special episode, AEA grower James Johnson interviews the voice behind the podcast, John Kempf. James Johnson is a fourth-generation farmer in New Mexico and the Vice President of Carzalia Valley Produce. When James finally took over the family farm in the early 2000s, the outlook of his operation seemed grim. After many years of trial and error with various farming practices, James met the Advancing Eco Agriculture team and ...
Jan 18, 2024•1 hr 32 min•Season 6Ep. 2
Dr. James White is a professor of Plant Pathology at Rutgers University. Dr. White obtained an M.S. in Mycology and Plant Pathology from Auburn University and a Ph.D. in Mycology from the University of Texas at Austin in 1987. Dr. White specializes in symbiosis research, particularly endophytic microbes. He is the author of more than 180 articles and author and editor of reference books on the biology, taxonomy, and phylogeny of fungal endophytes, including Biotechnology of Acremonium Endophytes...
Jan 11, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Season 6Ep. 1
Bob Jones is co-owner and chief executive officer of The Chef's Garden, a family-owned farm in Huron, Ohio, committed to growing exceptional vegetables. Bob leads the farm's cutting-edge food safety and food quality programs, helping develop the most reliably healthy and nutritionally dense fresh vegetables. The direction of the farm changed in the 1980s from growing conventional vegetables when his brother, Lee Jones, had an encounter with a chef who asked him if their farm could grow squash bl...
Dec 21, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Season 5Ep. 20
Austin Unruh founded Trees for Graziers to help farmers establish trees in pastures on a large scale. Austin has worked on over 400 acres for 25 different working farms. Getting trees planted at a large scale and an affordable price led to lots of experimentation to ensure protection and integration into pasture that was minimally intrusive. It's his goal to make silvopasture as easy and cost-effective as possible for farmers. Trees for Graziers offers everything from planning, planting, and aft...
Dec 07, 2023•1 hr 17 min•Season 5Ep. 19
Paul Greive founded Pasturebird after searching for high-quality pasture-raised chicken to feed his family. Unable to find this chicken in stores, Paul and his family took matters into their own hands, setting out to produce nutrient-dense pasture-raised chicken. In the spring of 2012, Paul's brother ordered 50 chicks, marking the inception of their business. Pasturebird is now the largest pasture poultry producer in the world, with a mission to make nutrient-dense chicken more affordable and ac...
Nov 30, 2023•1 hr 20 min•Season 5Ep. 18
Austin Allred is a dairyman located in the Columbia basin of Washington State and operates Royal Family Farms. His parents started farming 50 years ago, and now Austin, as well as his brothers, own their own operations. Together, their four farms have grown over 1 million tons of potatoes, boxes of apples, boxes of cherries, bushels of corn, and bales of hay, beans, peas, asparagus, and more. Austin's dairy produces 1 million gallons of milk per month. Fifteen years ago, the family began their r...
Nov 08, 2023•56 min•Season 5Ep. 16
In this special episode, hosted by Tim Hammerich and the Future of Agriculture Podcast, Tim and John Kempf will challenge several commonly held assumptions about the future of agriculture. Take regenerative agriculture, which is often defined by the ability to improve soil health and sequester carbon. But John Kempf says these are outcomes, even by-products, not the complete definition of regenerative. In this episode, Tim and John discuss: What it means to be regenerative AEA observations from ...
Oct 25, 2023•50 min
Kelton Coleman has been farming since 2011 in the panhandle of Texas. He farms with his dad, grandfather, and father-in-law. He started with conventional agriculture in 2011 but shifted to organic peanuts and wheat in 2013, followed by organic cotton in 2016. His initial journey into organic farming was based solely on economics, rather than soil or plant health. That has since changed, and now Kelton is deeply vested in his crops' health. He first got connected to AEA through the Regenerative A...
Oct 16, 2023•49 min•Season 5Ep. 15
Koen van Seijen has interviewed over 250 investors, investment fund managers, opinion leaders, farmers, and scientists to find out how money can best be used to regenerate soil, people, local communities, and ecosystems. He is currently a member engagement manager of Toniic, the global community of dynamic and active impact investors. Previously Koen supported Aqua-Spark, an impact investing fund focused on sustainable aquaculture companies. In this conversation, John and Koen discuss: Current i...
Sep 28, 2023•1 hr 20 min•Season 5Ep. 14
Dr. Stephan van Vliet performs clinical and translational studies to evaluate the effects of whole food ingestion and physical activity interventions on body composition, physical function, inflammation, insulin action, and intracellular signaling pathways that regulate muscle mass with advancing age. His work has been published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the Journal of Nutrition, and the Journal of Physiology. Dr. van Vliet earned his Ph.D. in Kinesiology and Community Healt...
Sep 08, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Season 5Ep. 13
Anthony Corsaro is an entrepreneur, investor, and regenerative agriculture evangelist whose mission is to help heal our people and planet through ventures that inspire the production and consumption of healthy, nutrient-dense foods. Anthony's family has been deeply involved in the food system for almost 100 years since his orphaned grandfather started selling produce in the early 1930s. That business grew into one of the country's leading regional fresh produce distributors and today serves 2,50...
Aug 25, 2023•53 min•Season 5Ep. 12
Jimmy Emmons is a third-generation farmer from Oklahoma. He and his wife Ginger have been farming and ranching together since 1980. They have a 2000-acre farm with a diverse rotation of crops that include: wheat, soybeans, sesame, sunflowers, irrigated dairy alfalfa, canola, grain sorghum, and several cover crops for seed. Jimmy has been monitoring soil health with soil testing since 2011 and is a proponent of using multi-species cover crops to enhance soil health. He is currently involved in a ...
Aug 03, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 5Ep. 11
Dr. Mary Lucero has over 30 years of experience in scientific research and education in agriculture. Her research examines the microbial relationships between plants and soil health and proves that the regenerative approach offers a way forward for growers and consumers. As Co-founder and Systems Biologist at End-O-Fite Enterprises, she works with growers and biostimulant producers to optimize regenerative techniques to restore microbial ecosystems. Mary and her husband, David, run Jal Farms, a ...
Jul 20, 2023•1 hr 18 min•Season 5Ep. 10
Helen Atthowe is an author and farmer who has worked on developing systems that focus on ecological health by utilizing living mulches and minimal tillage. She is passionate about using the natural nutrient cycles present in ecosystems to reduce system inputs. Her research and experience have shown how focusing on the system can impact weed, disease, and pest management. She and her late husband, Carl Rosato, co-owned and operated a certified organic orchard in California, where they pioneered m...
Jul 06, 2023•1 hr 28 min•Season 5Ep. 9
Charles Eisenstein is a speaker, teacher, and author. A graduate of Yale University with a degree in Mathematics and Philosophy, his work covers various topics, including human civilization, economics, spirituality, and ecology. His published works include "The Coronation," "The Ascent of Humanity," "Sacred Economics," "The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible," and "Climate—A New Story." In the last-mentioned title, he argues that reducing environmental discourse into the single iss...
Jun 22, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Season 5Ep. 8
Steve Tucker is a western Nebraska dryland producer who has been farming for 30 years. He introduced regenerative practices into his operation over 10 years ago and values diversity in his approach. Growing upwards of 10 crops per year while integrating livestock, such as chickens, pigs, and cows. Steve also uses no-till farming practices and biological applications on his farm. Steve advocates for growers to market themselves in order to access more opportunities and advises them to look for al...
Jun 08, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Season 5Ep. 7
Joel Williams is an independent plant and soil health educator who provides lectures, workshops, and consultations on soil management, plant nutrition, and integrated approaches to sustainable food production. Joel enjoys designing farming systems that focus on managing soil biology along with crop and soil nutrition to optimize plant immunity and soil function. He has extensive experience working in Australia, the UK, and Canada, integrating soil and plant analyses as a joined-up strategy for m...
May 25, 2023•1 hr 23 min•Season 5Ep. 6
John Warmerdam is a third-generation stone fruit grower in the San Joaquin Valley of California. His grandfather came to the area from Holland in 1911 and started a small farming operation that John's father, John N. Warmerdam, eventually took over. Today John and his dad farm over 350 acres of peaches, plums, nectarines, kiwi, and almonds. The Warmerdams also have one of the largest cherry-growing operations in the southern San Joaquin Valley and have been innovators in the fruit packing indust...
May 09, 2023•1 hr 23 min•Season 5Ep. 5
Dr. Erin Silva is an Associate Professor and State Extension Specialist in Organic and Sustainable Cropping Systems in the Department of Plant Pathology as well as the Director for the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at UW-Madison. After completing a Ph.D. in Horticulture at Washington State University, Dr. Silva obtained a faculty position at New Mexico State University. During her tenure at NMSU, Dr. Silva taught courses on organic ve...
Jan 19, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 5Ep. 4
Fred Provenza, Professor Emeritus of Behavioral Ecology at Utah State University, is the co-founder of BEHAVE (Behavioral Education for Human, Animal, Vegetation and Ecosystem Management), an international research and outreach program that seeks to understand the principles of animal behavior. For the past 30 years, this group has produced ground-breaking research that laid the foundations for what is now known as behavior-based management of landscapes. Through his research, books, and speakin...
Dec 20, 2022•1 hr 17 min•Season 5Ep. 3
Kelly Mulville, a veteran agricultural consultant, is the Vineyard Director at Paicines Ranch in San Benito County, California. For more than 25 years, Kelly has been obtaining impressive results by merging his experience in viticulture with his understanding of Allan Savory's holistic grazing management techniques. His approach to extended-season vineyard livestock grazing and other ecological practices continue to capture an audience of vineyard managers around the globe. Kelly and John discus...
Mar 17, 2022•1 hr 11 min•Season 5Ep. 2
Joe Lewis is an internationally renowned scientist recognized for his work in entomology and agricultural studies. His discoveries in the behavioral and chemical interactions of parasitoids, insect herbivores, and plants have played a critical role in our understanding of ecological growing. He is also the author of A New Farm Language: How a Sharecropper's Son Discovered a World of Talking Plants, Smart Insects, and Natural Solutions. Listen as Joe and John discuss: Joe's introduction to agricu...
Feb 24, 2022•1 hr 34 min•Season 5Ep. 1
Adam Chappell is a regenerative grower and cover crop advocate from Cotton Plant, Arkansas. Adam started growing with his dad and brother on their 7,500 acre property in 2005, but by 2009 pigweed issues alone had nearly pushed them into bankruptcy. Knowing there had to be a better way, Adam began educating himself about the power of regenerative agriculture, implementing a cover cropping strategy that he claims saved the family farm. Today, Adam's operation grows a variety of broadacre crops and...
Dec 30, 2021•54 min•Season 4Ep. 16
Rick Clark is a fifth-generation farmer from Warren County, Indiana. Driven by a desire to work alongside mother nature, Rick has been implementing regenerative practices on his farm for almost a decade. Rick's commitment to soil health has allowed him to grow his operation to 7000 organic, no-till acres, in part by employing a variety of cover cropping and weed control techniques. In their conversation, Rick and John Kempf discuss: Rick's journey to a fully organic operation Conventional agricu...
Nov 24, 2021•1 hr 30 min•Season 4Ep. 15
Tim Parton is a regenerative agriculture advocate and Farm Manager at Brewood Park Farm in the United Kingdom. Tim has been implementing regenerative practices on his 300-hectare estate for over 15 years. He has received several accolades for his work, such as being named the Arable Innovator of the Year by British Farming Awards and receiving the Farm Innovator of the Year award from Farmers Weekly. Throughout their conversation, Tim and John discuss: Tim's background and retreat from intensive...
Sep 30, 2021•52 min•Season 4Ep. 14
James Johnson is a fourth-generation farmer in New Mexico and the Vice President of Carzalia Valley Produce. When James finally took over the family farm in the early 2000s the outlook of his operation seemed grim. After many years of trial and error with various practices, James found the Advancing Eco Agriculture team where he discovered the benefits of regenerative agriculture. Thanks to his partnership with AEA, James achieved an outstanding yield of 1,490 lbs/acre for Pima Cotton at the end...
Aug 06, 2021•1 hr 36 min•Season 4Ep. 13
Dale Strickler is an agronomist at Green Cover Seed and prominent author primarily focused on soil health. Dale grew up on a family farm outside Colony, KS, and received both his bachelor's and master's degrees in agronomy from Kansas State University. Dale has been an advocate for the use of cover crops for over three decades and continues to experiment, achieving increasingly exciting results. Dale has published two books, The Drought-Resilient Farm and Managing Pasture . His third book, The C...
Jul 23, 2021•1 hr 18 min•Season 4Ep. 12
John Fagan is the Chairman & Chief Scientist at the Health Research Institute, also known as HRI Labs, in Fairfield, Iowa. HRI provides testing services that focus on the nutritional value and biofunctionality of food sources. HRI's research and collaboration efforts continue to help grow the global regenerative agriculture movement in myriad ways. Throughout their discussion, Fagan and John discuss: The scope of Fagan's work at the Health Research Institute. How chromatography, mass spectro...
Jul 07, 2021•57 min•Season 4Ep. 11
Nicole Masters is an internationally recognized agroecologist from New Zealand. Fortified by her studies in ecology and plant physiology, Nicole currently serves as the Director of Integrity Soils, a collection of regenerative agriculture coaches that assist growers around the globe. Nicole is also the author of "For the Love of Soil: Strategies to Regenerate Our Food Production Systems." In this episode, Nicole and John discuss: Nicole's background in vermicompost and her strategy of customizin...
Jun 25, 2021•1 hr 13 min•Season 4Ep. 10
Harriet Mella is an independent Austrian researcher known for her work uncovering the unexplained phenomena of plant growth and development. Informed by her background in microbiology, mycology, and biochemistry, Harriet has a unique capacity to describe little-known connections between emerging biological research and agriculture. During the interview, Harriet and John discuss: Observations on epigenetic expressions and the role of optimal nutrition. The flexibility of plant architecture and it...
Jun 09, 2021•1 hr•Season 4Ep. 9
