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 mob grazing have vastly improved their farms’ productivity, soil function and carbon carrying capacity, while reducing all chemical inputs, fertilizers, herbicide and pesticides by 80%.
Photo caption: Gabe Brown, Ray Archuleta, David Johnson
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 staffs across the nation with science-based soil health evangelism, while mentoring cadres of cutting-edge no-tillers like Gabe Brown.
Late-blooming molecular biologist David Johnson is unraveling ‘secrets of the soil’ on a microbial scale at New Mexico State University’s Institute for Energy and the Environment, where his Composting Bioreactor pumps out a uniquely fungal-dominant product. David’s work opens the possibility of spreading a compost revolution across millions of US acres with no access to masses of urban greenwaste or manure.
This dynamic trio has much to offer our production information-hungry EcoFarm audience.
Read about EcoFarm's keynote speakers Winona LaDuke, John Ikerd, Doria Robinson and stay tuned for the Successful Organic Farmer keynote speakers to be announced!