AgEmerge focuses on changing paradigms. When you change paradigms, you change how you think about things. In agriculture, we’ve had to change how we think about things, things like tillage, soil biology, mono-cropping, soil health, fertilizer, and how we use, the list goes on and on.

Mark Twain once said, “What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know. It's what we know for sure that just ain't so.”

Today Dr. Richard Mulvaney joins us on the podcast as we discuss how we think about nitrogen. A native Illinoisan with a longstanding interest in soil science and agronomy, Richard

Mulvaney has been a faculty member at the University of Illinois since 1983. He teaches introductory soils and courses in soil fertility. Dr. Mulvaney has been active in research concerning N transformations in

soils, the long-term environmental effects of N fertilization, and the use of soil N testing to

optimize fertilizer N management. He was one of the speakers on the AgEmerge stage last January and he delivered some paradigm-change thinking that really struck home.

Got questions you want answered? Send them our way and we’ll do our best to research and find answers.

Know someone you think would be great on the AgEmerge 2021 stage or on the podcast? Send your questions or suggestions to [email protected]

We’d love to hear from you!

In this wide-ranging episode, we take an inspiring soil journey through the eyes of Dr. David Montgomery, telling us his story of exploring how soils shaped human civilizations. That exploration resulted in his book “Dirt, The Erosion of Civilizations” and lead to more learning as he investigated the connections between the geology and biology of the soil.

Dr. Montgomery delves into the messy nature of nature and how we’ve come to understand the connections between microbial ecology and the health of crops. Key discoveries of how plants get their nutrition and tee up their defense systems have given us a greater understanding of plant and microbial partnerships.

Those partnerships go even further as we understand the nutrients and compounds from plants that serve to benefit human health. Not only that but in the midst of a pandemic, we’re learning how farmers, who are like-minded in their practices, are working together to provide food that nutrient-dense food directly from farms to consumers.

And there’s more work to be done as we traverse the world of federal programs, current commodity channels, and other old models, looking for solutions that strengthen our new paradigm.

We’ve heard a lot about the “unintended consequences” of our farming practices but today we put a finer point on it as we discuss the “unintended benefits” of the work being done in regenerative agriculture. There’s more at play here than simply soil health.

David R. Montgomery is a MacArthur Fellow and professor of geomorphology at the University of Washington. He is an internationally recognized geologist who studies landscape evolution and the effects of geological processes on ecological systems and human societies. He has authored more than 200 scientific papers and 5 popular-science books, and has been featured in documentary films, network and cable news, and on a wide variety of TV and radio programs. When not writing or doing geology, he plays in the band Big Dirt.

Connect with him at www.dig2grow.com or follow him on Twitter (@dig2grow).

Got questions you want answered? Send them our way and we’ll do our best to research and find answers.

Know someone you think would be great on the AgEmerge 2021 stage or on the podcast? Send your questions or suggestions to [email protected]

We’d love to hear from you!

Today Dr. LaKisha Odom joins us on the podcast. Dr. Odom is a Scientific Program Director at the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research where she pursues her commitment to promoting the use of innovative science, collective impact, and the development of public private partnerships to tackle today’s complex challenges in food and agriculture. She is also extremely committed to cultivating increased diversity in a new generation of food and agriculture scientists.

At FFAR, Dr. Odom spearheads scientific direction of the Soil Health challenge area and manages a portfolio of projects that address issues in sustainable water management, plant efficiency, ecosystem services, crop pest and disease detection, and developing the next generation of food and agricultural leaders.

Dr. Odom received her B.S. in Environmental Science from Tuskegee University, her M.A. in Environmental Resource Policy from The George Washington University and her Ph.D. in Integrative Biosciences from Tuskegee University.

https://foundationfar.org/

Accelerating change: Learning, problem solving and how this pandemic is affecting American agriculture.

Warren Graeff joins us today on the AgEmerge Podcast. Warren is the Senior Vice President, Agriculture Market Manager at PNC Bank and leads the Ag Banking Group throughout the PNC footprint. Since joining PNC in 2007 he developed and implemented the mission and strategy for the PNC Ag Banking Group to provide farmers and agribusinesses with a full range of deposit, credit, and financially related services.

We tap into Warren’s wealth of knowledge in agriculture, leadership and finance while exploring the current conditions, challenges and opportunities we are seeing in agriculture.

We discuss the current situation as we navigate the COVID-19 and the effects this pandemic is having on our global food system and distribution models. Technology, automation and data are at the forefront, and implementation is being ramped up to address these challenges.

Today, Nutritional Therapist Emily Collingwood joins us on the AgEmerge Podcast. As a nutritional therapist Emily consults with her clients, helping them to identify and solve diet-related health concerns. Emily is also the creator of the Facebook Group called "Green Avocado Gang!" where she shares ideas, recipes, and encouragement for her followers as they develop healthy eating habits.

Emily shares her personal journey of how she uses nutrient-dense foods to help address and solve the health issues she was facing and in turn, she wanted to use her knowledge to help others find solutions too.

This podcast explores the importance of building the relationship and conversation between the farmer and the consumer and understanding how food is impacting human health. Emily discusses what she’s looking for as she sources her food, and later, Monte goes deeper into those ideas and what they look like in today’s farming operation. There’s important work to be done to build soil health and growing nutrient-dense food because what we grow has a tremendous impact on people’s health and lives.

This week on the AgEmerge Podcast... Dr. Wayne Honeycutt

Dr. Honeycutt is the President and CEO of the Soil Health Institute where he leads the Institute’s programs to safeguard and enhance the vitality and productivity of soils.

Among his wealth of experience, Dr. Honeycutt has served as the Deputy Chief for Science and Technology with the USDA-NRCS in Washington, DC, and as a Research Soil Scientist with the USDA-ARS just to name a few. His experience in research in the field of soil health is extensive and you can check out his full bio on the Soil Health Institute website to really appreciate all the work he’s done.

We cover so much ground in this discussion from soil health, research, measurements, profitability, leadership, public policy, and education.

We’d also like our listeners to know that this podcast was recorded shortly prior to the events of COVID-19 in the US. Our discussion with. We recognize the efforts across the agricultural landscape to continue to produce nutritious food for our country and the world especially during this difficult and unprecedented time. Thanks for listening.

Soil Health Institute Website

https://soilhealthinstitute.org/

Soil Health Policy Catalog

https://soilhealthinstitute.org/resources/catalog/

Dr. Honeycutt's Bio

https://soilhealthinstitute.org/leadership/

Got questions you want answered? Send them our way and we’ll do our best to research and find answers.

Know someone you think would be great on the AgEmerge 2021 stage or on the podcast? Send your questions or suggestions to [email protected]

We’d love to hear from you!

Today on the AgEmerge podcast, Zara Khan joins us as we discuss how satellite technology can be leveraged to create value in agriculture. Planet has developed the largest constellation of Earth-imaging satellites, which are capturing near-daily imagery of every field across the globe. What’s exciting about the work Zara is leading is that we are just at the beginning of unlocking the potential of this vast and unprecedented empirical dataset. Zara also shares how the technology is being used by other actors such as government and humanitarian agencies.

You can also learn more about Planet by visiting their website, following them on Twitter, and watching media reporting by NBC, 60 minutes, and other news agencies.

WEBSITE: www.planet.com

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/planetlabs

NBC STORY: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/tiny-privately-owned-satellites-are-changing-how-we-view-earth-n1042386

60 MINUTES STORY https://www.cbsnews.com/news/private-company-launches-largest-fleet-of-satellites-in-human-history-to-photograph-earth-60-minutes/

Learn about a digital hub for crop scouting, field observations, and treatment decisions in our podcast with guest Liron Brish, the CEO of Farm Dog. Farm Dog provides digital pest and disease management solutions for growers, agronomists, and Extension Agents across 1.5 million acres. In addition to being Farm Dog’s CEO, Liron serves on the California Department of Agriculture grant review board, the Advisory Board of the iPiPE integrated pest management initiative and is a partner in farm-to-fork restaurants in Texas.

https://farmdog.ag/

In today’s episode, we’ve got a wide-ranging discussion recapping the great ideas explored at this year’s AgEmerge event including Dr. Dwayne Beck’s recommended book list. We’ll talk about Monte’s travels to the Grassfed conference and what he learned from Dr. Fred Provenza, a speaker at the conference.

Also, what does it look like to implement a stacked enterprise model? Monte will discuss some ideas and experiences that lead to wanting to explore this model. There’s a little something for everyone as we continue to seek out innovation, technology and successful practices that support soil health principles.

Recommended reading from Dr. Beck:

Plowman’s Folly: Edward H. Faulkner

Conquest of the Land: W.C. Lowdermilk

The Worst Hard Time: Timothy Egan

Dirt - The Erosion of Civilizations: Dr. David Montgomery

Civilization Critical - Energy, Food, Nature, And The Future: Darrin Qualman

Other books referenced in today’s podcast:

Nourishment - What Animals Can Teach Us About Rediscovering Our Nutritional Wisdom: Fred Provenza

Got questions you want answered? Send them our way and we’ll do our best to research and find answers.

Know someone you think would be great on the AgEmerge 2021 stage or on the podcast? Send your questions or suggestions to [email protected]

We’d love to hear from you!

Walter Lynn combines his wealth of experience as a CPA coupled with his desire to further soil health initiatives into a great portfolio of knowledge. He’ll tell you how he learned that you can’t have economic and financial rewards without biological capital and that’s just one of the great nuggets of info we’ll tap into today. He's worked with clients across the states and serves as the current chairman of Holistic Management International in Albuquerque, NM and the current CEO of Understanding Ag, LLC.