| | | | | | | | | How Big Data And Small Farms Can Play An Important Role In Scaling Regenerative Agriculture | | | Those of us who work in carbon and the future of regenerative agriculture recognize the opportunities to help producers make change and be rewarded for their stewardship are enormous. This week’s edition of the newsletter spotlights just a few of the leaders who are making an outsized positive contribution in this field. Our first post features an interview with Dr. Sally Rockey, who retired at the end of February as executive director of the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR). The FFAR team, through its portfolio of programs including AgMission, is assembling collaborators, funding partners and researchers to tackle some of the greatest challenges in agriculture, including the use of data to drive climate-smart ag decision making and adoption. As Dr. Rockey explains it: “We want to be able to connect the data better together.” Then in this week’s ACAM spotlight, meet extraordinary Baltimore farmer Kimberly Raikes, a first-generation producer whose mission is to transform how people grow food and eat. She’s also an ACAM Conservation Steward working to building relationships among Maryland producers to advance the adoption of climate-smart ag — which she describes in part as focusing on “purposeful efforts to manage the use of water, waste and energy while sustaining land.” I hope you’ll spend time reading up on these two leaders making a difference in regenerative agriculture. How are you and your team contributing to the betterment of producers this week? Share your stories with us — we’d love to spotlight your learnings in a future edition of the newsletter. Write to me at nbirt@farmjournal.com. Until next week,
Nate Birt
Vice President, Trust In Food™
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| | | | | | | | | | | Shared by David Frabotta, manager of climate-smart ag interactive programming, Trust In Food: American Farmland Trust's new podcast now has two riveting episodes: The first is a deep dive with AFT President and CEO John Piotti on his calling to rural community development and AFT's staying power in working with farmers toward regenerative agriculture. In Episode 2, Piotti discusses how food supply challenges during the pandemic underscore larger questions about farming in America. In the second half of the episode, ranchers, retailers and consumers talk about how COVID has underscored the importance of local farms. | | |
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| | | Shared by David Frabotta, manager of climate-smart ag interactive programming, Trust In Food: The Ag Innovation Forum took place Feb. 10, and if you missed the in-person event in Kansas City, you can learn more about the cutting-edge developments in ag innovation and emerging technologies in agriculture via on-demand video. Trust In Food Executive Vice President Amy Skoczlas Cole moderated a panel discussion that focused on building more sustainable agriculture systems. This session featured experts with local and global perspectives across the food and agriculture spectrum, including Dr. Sara Place of Elanco Animal Health, Michael Doane of The Nature Conservancy and Dr. Sarah Lovell of The Center for Agroforestry at the University of Missouri. Other session topics included entrepreneurship, and geospatial engineering, automation and digital technology. | | |
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| | | Shared By Ryan Heiniger, director of America's Conservation Ag Movement, Trust In Food: We know changing farming practices can seem risky. Sometimes, all you need to start or succeed is to try that One Good Idea, a clearinghouse of videos and podcasts that feature farmers’ ideas and experiences with practices – such as cover crops, no or low till, rotational grazing, and buffer strips, to name a few – that are helping them improve their soil, land and bottom lines. A collaboration between Midwest and Mid-South university Extension specialists and farmers, the platform is a resource for farmers who want to learn from other producers and Extension specialists about how to be profitable and successful with conservation practices. | | |
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