The Movement Starts With “Farming Weird” And Is Accelerated By Our Community
Most columns published in early January will contain a list of resolutions or outlooks for the New Year, but not this one. Not because I don’t have lists and hopes for 2022, quite the contrary. Instead, I’d like to spotlight, thanks in part due to some great threads on social media, the role of community […]
Get The Free ‘Scaling Connected Ag’ Whitepaper From America’s Conservation Ag Movement
In this free resource, you’ll get a firsthand look at what U.S. row-crop and livestock farmers and ag retailers say works for them when it comes to using data and technology to drive on-farm decision making. We led four focus groups to glean insights for farmers and ag retailers curious about using data to build […]
Preparing for Sustainable Beef: Two Conditioning Challenges Changemakers Face
One of the most important components of creating change is the psychological concept of “classical conditioning” . Put simply, the idea behind conditioning is to understand a person’s unconscious response to a concept, this concept explains why we react the way we do – whether physically or emotionally – to the world around us. Ensuring that this unconscious […]
Tapping the Trusted Adviser Network
It has been a busy month of conferences and presentations in the world of sustainable agriculture. Last week, I had the privilege to present – in person! – at the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers meeting. In October, I was with the Ag Retailers Association talking with their members about what Farm […]
What It Means To Be A Supportive Change Agent
It’s not hyperbole to say that there is more attention on agriculture, and what it means in practice to be sustainable or regenerative, than there has been in human history. With companies like Walmart, General Mills, Cargill, The Fertilizer Institute, IndigoAg, and so many more rolling out iterations of “acres converted to sustainable ag practices” […]
Not Acres, But People
Regenerative ag targets aren’t about changing acres – they are about changing people. It is no secret that our world faces an immense crisis surrounding climate change and the degradation of natural resources. Realizing the potential positive impact that their supply chains can have, major companies are making headlines by announcing “regenerative ag” commitments with […]
Change Is Human
We must prioritize the humanity of farmers in our change programming. Before they put their dirty boots on in the morning, farmers and ranchers are humans first. If we want to empower our nation’s agricultural system to be more regenerative, sustainable, equitable and inclusive — then we are talking about empowering them to do so. We […]
Farmer Insights Drive America’s Conservation Ag Movement Peer-To-Peer Learning Communities
In the not-too-distant past, a paradox of some U.S. sustainable agriculture activities was that too often, farmers and ranchers weren’t at the table. Alternately, farmers and ranchers were invited to the table to clean up the leftovers—after the big decisions were made. Such an approach understandably left many farmers and ranchers with a bad taste […]
Farmer Learning Community Insights From The Field: A Chorus of Conservation ’Whys’
It seems that so much of the conversation about farmers and conservation centers on why farmers are not implementing conservation, including barriers and limitations to voluntary adoption. Those sentiments sometimes sound like, “If only we could figure out how to reduce the economic consequences of….” or, “That will never work with our equipment limitations…” or, […]
The Key to a Robust Data Network is Actually a Robust Human Network
Digital farm-level data collection, use, and sharing rates across the U.S. are problematically low. These low rates create a snowball effect, ultimately hindering the progress of the farm operation itself as well as the sustainability efforts being undertaken by the supply chains farm products enter. One of the key drivers of low rates of farm-level […]