This event is SOLD OUT!
Tickets are still available for the Wednesday Regenerative Ag Pre-Conference at Asilomar, as well as the EcoFarm opening keynote and several workshops throughout the main conference, which also feature Ray Archuleta, Gabe Brown and David Johnson.
More information on the Wednesday Pre-Conference: Regenerative Agriculture Intensive at Asilomar, Carbon+Soil=Solutions! January 24, 8:30am-5:30pm
Browse the conference schedule
Check-in starts at 8am.
Hosted on the historic Paicines Ranch – which encompasses 7,600 acres of rangeland, vineyards and row crops – this special pre-conference field day will give attendees the opportunity to see regenerative practices on the ranch and learn about the overarching frameworks and core principles from top leaders in the field.
The day starts with an introductory overview of the new Regenerative Agriculture movement, followed by presentations on the fundamentals of soil health and whole-systems thinking. We’ll demonstrate how to put these principles into practice – including the production of specialty compost, and the use of cover crops, no-till systems, animal integration, and holistic planned grazing. As these regenerative management practices boost farm productivity, soil fertility, and water-use efficiency, they pull carbon out of the atmosphere and store it in the soil.
Walking the fields and vineyards at Paicines Ranch, participants will be able to see examples of livestock integrated into annual and perennial cropping systems. Point Blue ecologists will showcase several onsite projects that observe how management decisions can influence the ecology of rangelands and cropping practices in California.
We’ll end with the interactive installation “A Taste of Place,” an actual soil tasting and a catalyst for reflection on the day’s lessons, instigated by artist Laura Parker.
Presenters include:
Agronomist Ray "The-Soil-Guy” Archuleta was nearly drummed out of the Natural Resources Conservation Service early this century for espousing “radical” soil health notions. More recently, Ray spearheaded his agency’s renaissance, energizing NRCS staff across the nation with science-based soil health evangelism, while mentoring cadres of cutting-edge no-tillers like Gabe Brown.
North Dakota farmer Gabe Brown is the celebrated poster kid for a new breed of no-till practitioners who, by embracing high-species-diversity cover crops, broadened rotations and adaptive ruminant grazing, have vastly improved their farms’ productivity, soil function and carbon-carrying capacity.
Late-blooming molecular biologist David Johnson is unraveling “secrets of the soil” on a microbial scale at New Mexico State University, where his Composting Bioreactor pumps out a uniquely fungal-dominant product. Experimental plots, inoculated with just a few hundred pounds per acre of this compost, are showing restored soil fertility with extraordinary biomass volumes and regenerated microbial diversity.
Cost: $90 Organic lunch provided by Jim Denevan, founder of Outstanding in the Field
Special Price: $150 for both Regenerative Agriculture Pre-conferences together!
Logistics: Paicines Ranch is located east of the Salinas Valley, close to Pinnacles National Park. Tuesday night lodging is available at Asilomar Conference Grounds or Paicines Ranch.
