Montana Partnership Reduces Food Waste and Supports Sustainable Gardening and Food Production Through Biochar

If you live in Missoula, Montana, you’ve probably seen the blue e-bikes transporting food scraps around town. The nonprofit Soil Cycle began when Missoula resident and backyard gardener, Caitlyn Lewis, saw a nexus between reducing organic waste to divert valuable materials from landfills and improving her neighborhood gardens’ growing potential by making biochar.

“I think about food a lot because I love to eat and value the effort and beauty of the growing process. Wasted food is a big issue, and I think we should honor our food enough to return it to its natural cycle,” Lewis said.

Six years later, Soil Cycle has gone from Lewis picking up scraps from a few clients to six bikers transporting upwards of 60,000 pounds of compost per year. With a bigger staff and a new executive director, they also educate the community, create quality natural fertilizers, and take compost to a new level, all while remaining human-powered.

Turning a Concept into a Product

Soil Cycle's biochar blend is available in Missoula, Montana.A small local houseplant business contacted Soil Cycle because they wanted a soil amendment that could hold nutrients and water while having a fluffy texture for potted succulents. After doing some research, Lewis learned about biochar and found a partner in Bad Goat Forest Products. This Missoula-based company builds live edge furniture, timber frame, and log shelters using wood sourced from local forest restoration and urban tree removal projects.

Mark Vander Meer, the founder of Bad Goat Forest Products, has been practicing and stewarding long-term sustainable forest management in Montana. Soil Cycle team members use the discarded wood shavings from Bad Goat in their 900-degree kiln.

The result is a fine, charred mixture, called biochar, a type of charcoal produced for use in soil by heating biomass in limited oxygen.

Biochar is a very porous, high-carbon form of charcoal that, when mixed into soil, increases airflow, water retention, and nutrient-holding capacity. Its unique structure provides the perfect home for beneficial bacteria, which protects and defends plant roots. Using biochar in the soil allows for continual nutrient and mineral exchange to feed plants and, over time, supports a biologically active carbon storage system, which could help capture the excess carbon in our atmosphere.  Biochar provides the most durable form of soil carbon. When  produced at high temperatures, it lasts for hundreds to thousands of years in soil.

“We are excited to showcase the potential of biochar because when added to soil, it is one of nature’s many miracles,” said Lewis. “Storing carbon in our soil is also a powerful tool against climate change. It is cost-effective, highly efficient, and designed to work with nature. This unique structure provides the perfect home for beneficial bacteria, which protects and defends plant roots.”

Soil Cycle blends its particular biochar mix with worm castings, Montana volcanic minerals, Azomite, kelp meal, raw sugar, and sand. These materials support plants in homes and gardens to improve overall plant growth, yield, resilience, and nutrient-holding abilities while improving soil moisture retention.

“Our partnership with Bad Goat Lumber has shown us how a waste product – both from wood products and food scraps – can become a rich and valuable source of nutrients when placed under pressure – the diamonds of the soil. This partnership has allowed us to create a product that we couldn’t otherwise by using their facility and biochar-making setup,” said Lewis.

Their Biochar Blend is sold in several nurseries around Missoula and is most popular for house plants. Even though they work with biochar on a small scale, the Soil Cycle team sees potential for backyard gardeners and urban farmers so everyone can experience using it and see its potential application on a larger scale.

Accelerating Biochar

To replicate partnerships like Soil Cycle and Bad Goat Lumber’s and scale up biochar production for use in agriculture and forestry, the country needs a coordinated research program to inform farmers, ranchers, foresters, and gardeners on which types of biochar will work in their conditions. Congress is crafting the 2023 Farm Bill, which presents a big opportunity to ensure the promise of biochar is realized.

The National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) is asking Congress to invest in biochar research through the Farm Bill, specifically under the Biochar Research Network Act. It will authorize the USDA to establish a national-scale research program to test different biochar types in different soils and circumstances. With better research will come innovation and practical tools for Montana farmers, ranchers, gardeners and foresters to improve soil health and productivity, as they help solve climate change by storing carbon in soil.

The continued evolution of biochar has entrepreneurs like Lewis thinking big.

“We know it will take time to educate our customers (and future customers) about the incredible benefits biochar can give their soil. Even though biochar has been used for centuries, it is still new to most people,” Lewis said.

Sustainability Project Transforms Cafeteria Waste into Usable Compost

Remember scraping off your tray in the lunchroom as a kid? Did you ever think about where that waste was going or if it could be more than just garbage? One nonprofit in Silver City, New Mexico is getting its hands dirty and helping kids and school districts reduce lunchroom waste into a valuable learning experience.

The New Earth Project is developing compost processes to create a symbiotic relationship and benefit the community. Carol Ann Fugagli, Education and Outreach Director for the Upper Gila Watershed Alliance and the New Earth Project, explained how they use everyday materials to teach students about climate change and sustainability.

“The looming climate and biodiversity crisis is a real existential threat, and we want to create community resilience,” Fugagli said. “We are focused on educating, inspiring, and empowering youth in our community through educational activities and employment opportunities.”

Carbon capture through composting

New Earth collects food surplus from three school cafeterias and combines it with woody biomass, agricultural byproducts, and biochar in Johnson-Su compost bioreactors. Every week, they fill these bioreactors with this waste and divert approximately 1200 pounds of food waste from the local landfill. The Johnson-Su composting method is a static, aerobic process that produces a diverse, fungal-dominant mix that interacts with plants to sequester carbon in soils, increase water infiltration and retention, fix nitrogen, and increase plant growth.

Students participating in the New Earth Project biochar effort in New Mexico.

Students participating in the New Earth Project biochar effort in New Mexico.

To increase the value and effectiveness of the compost, they add 10% biochar into the mix. Biochar is a charcoal-like substance made by burning organic material from agricultural and forestry wastes (wood chips, logging slash, manure, or other plant byproducts) in a low-oxygen environment. This process, called pyrolysis, turns into pure carbon, converting it into a solid form rather than letting it escape into the atmosphere.

While biochar isn’t a fertilizer, research indicates it can help retain nutrients in the soil due to its high porosity, allowing it to absorb nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon. Think of a housing complex for billions of needed microbes. It can last in the environment anywhere from hundreds to thousands of years, making it an effective tool to sequester carbon.

After three months of experimenting with the amount and type of biomass and biochar, New Earth found just the right mix to yield the best result. Now that the project has perfected its compost “recipe,” they plan to experiment using other waste streams such as salt cedar, cardboard, and compostable plastics.

Accelerating Biochar

The New Mexico Legislature recently gave a vote of confidence to New Earth’s activities, approving a $100,000 general appropriation to the project in the 2023 spring legislative session.

“Young people are freaked out about the climate crisis. Our project is all about instilling the ethic of restoration and hope in young people. We hope to get a composting system into every school so students can have a project to plug into, giving them real power.”

To realize biochar’s potential, America needs a coordinated research program. Congress is crafting the 2023 Farm Bill, which presents a big opportunity to ensure the promise of biochar is realized.

The National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) is asking Congress to invest in biochar research through the Farm Bill, specifically under the Biochar Research Network Act. It will authorize the USDA to establish a national-scale research program to test different biochar types in different soils and circumstances. With better research will come innovation and practical tools for farmers, ranchers, foresters, and businesses to lean into biochar as a climate solution.

Real-world applications

Biochar-enhanced compost can improve soil health by reducing acidity, upping water and nutrient storage, and providing better drainage and aeration. By increasing pH, biochar can invigorate soils by increasing microbial activity, nutrient availability, and reducing heavy metal toxicity.

Fugagli explained how costly fertilizer may be doing more harm than good. “We’ve killed all the microbiology in the way we grow food. Biochar in the ground makes it a little apartment complex for these microorganisms to give them their housing so they can live in this soil.”

New Earth Project staff grind cafeteria food waste for biochar.

New Earth Project staff grind cafeteria food waste for biochar.

“Many biochar producers are not finding a market to sell to because, for many, biochar is new,” Fugagli said. “We work with Trollworks here in the state and have bought them out more than once. Combining biochar with compost makes sense because we can keep carbon at the roots of our plants where it’s needed rather than in the atmosphere where it causes so much damage.”

The New Earth Compost sits for one year before it can be used. December 2023 is when the first batch will be ready. Marketing their product is their next step. Fugagli said she is contacting larger buyers like a local mine and the New Mexico Department of Transportation to gauge interest in soil remediation projects. They also know that revitalizing agricultural land is a big part of the equation.

“There is no solving our climate crisis without solving the agricultural emissions problem,” she said. “We are working to educate users because you don’t apply it as regular compost – which is what people are used to. You can, but a little goes a long way. Biochar-enhanced compost can help transform ag soils into living soils.”

 

The ‘Black Gold’ that Can Save Soils, Fight Forest Fires, and Power the Planet

If you have ever stared into the coals of a fire pit, you have witnessed the powerful chemical reaction between heat and organic matter. But what if the blackened remains of a bonfire could be used to grow better food, prevent catastrophic wildfires, and slow the acceleration of climate change?

It’s hard to believe such a low-tech innovation could have so many benefits, but that’s the power of a material called “biochar.”

The charcoal-like substance is made by burning organic material from agricultural and forestry wastes (wood chips, logging slash, manure, or other plant byproducts) in a low-oxygen environment. This process, called pyrolysis, heats biomass with the absence of oxygen. It traps the carbon in the biochar itself, converting it into a solid form rather than letting it escape into the atmosphere.

Far from a new concept, biochar is as old as agriculture itself. Adding charred organic waste to fields has been done effectively by Indigenous people for millennia. Still, the idea that biochar could be perfected to maximize soil productivity and mitigate climate change has been around for less than 20 years.

While biochar isn’t a fertilizer, research indicates it supports healthy soil biology. It can help retain nutrients and water in the soil due to its charged surface, which allows it to absorb nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and other essential elements. It can last in the environment anywhere from hundreds to thousands of years, making it an effective tool to sequester carbon.

From waste to energy

Gordon West, founder and CEO of Silver City-based Trollworks LLC, has worked for 35 years experimenting with alternative uses for wood waste and forest products. He grew from operating his own woodworking business to researching forest restoration, then pivoted to using wood chips in commercial products like concrete and erosion control systems. One day in 2012, a local inventor introduced him to biochar cooking stoves, and the wheels started turning.

“We were trying to turn that waste material into an asset, and so my approach changed from making biochar to making heat with biochar as a co-product,” he said.

West believes the biochar byproduct is cheaper than natural gas and roughly as clean when burned correctly. “The energy is actually free, carbon-negative energy created by restoring the environment,” he said. “It’s a clean renewable from a liability. I call it reverse coal mining. Plants remove carbon from the atmosphere. We convert the plant biomass to carbon and a flammable gas (smoke), burn the smoke for energy, and put the carbon in the soil to improve plant growth.”

Biochar producers find that forest and farm waste are excellent free carbon sources. Alternative materials like rice stalks, weeds, pecan shells, and cotton stalks have become popular in New Mexico. Only 1% of the cotton plant is used for cotton. The rest is waste.

The continued evolution of biochar has innovators like West thinking big. “We can replace huge amounts of fossil fuels,” he said. “Because of pyrolysis, you’re still getting a flammable gas to drop into traditional kinds of heaters or even to fuel electrical generators.”

West is currently focused on soil regeneration, thermal fuels, and coupling biochar pyrolysis units to existing boilers and HVAC systems to meet consumer heating needs. He said the greatest interest he’s seen in biochar has been as an energy source–he recently won a grant to heat a classroom building at Northern New Mexico College while making biochar.

He’s optimistic about transforming biomass waste into “bioenergy” while sequestering carbon and creating jobs in rural communities. “Biochar is a new thing, so it’s like trying to grow a market from scratch,” he said. “We hope to grow both things incrementally.”

Accelerating Biochar

To realize biochar’s potential, America needs a coordinated research program. Congress is crafting the 2023 Farm Bill, which presents a big opportunity to ensure the promise of biochar is realized.

The National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) is asking Congress to invest in biochar research through the Farm Bill, specifically under the Biochar Research Network Act. It will authorize the USDA to establish a national-scale research program to test different biochar types in different soils and circumstances. With better research will come innovation and practical tools for farmers, ranchers, foresters, and businesses to lean into biochar as a climate solution.

The continued evolution of biochar has innovators like West thinking big. “For many people, biochar is new, so it’s like trying to grow a market from scratch. But I believe we can replace huge amounts of fossil fuels and transform waste into “bioenergy” while sequestering carbon and creating jobs in rural communities.”

Real-world applications

Biochar improves soil health by reducing acidity, upping water and nutrient storage, and providing better drainage and aeration. Biochar can invigorate soils by increasing microbial activity, nutrient availability, and reducing heavy metal toxicity. When using biochar, some farmers have been able to reduce their phosphorus use by 100% and nitrogen by 85% after a few years.

According to West, farmers use biochar and compost as an extract, brew it in water like a teabag, and spray it on fields as a liquid input. It can also be used as a clay-like seed coating to give seeds a microbial head-start in their growth.

As for alternative uses, biochar can be incorporated as aggregate into concrete, used as a component in asphalt road construction, or as a replacement for activated charcoal to filter and absorb contaminants. Forest Service scientists are researching how applying it to soils at abandoned mines can improve water quality, bind heavy metals, and decrease toxic chemical concentrations while improving soil health to establish sustainable plant cover.

West says the ultimate goal of his work is “giving people things they can do every day” to fight the effects of climate change. “Everybody feels pretty hopeless about these large problems. These ideas have been around forever, and there’s nothing complicated about the technology. It’s just thinking about things differently.”

CBS ‘Saturday Morning’ Features AgriSolar

CBS Saturday Morning featured NCAT’s AgriSolar Clearinghouse and one of the farmers who is partnering with an energy company to graze his sheep among their solar panels during a six-minute piece that aired nationwide.

Pairing farming with solar energy production offers many “stacked benefits,” according to CBS.

“This is going to be a game changer,” NCAT Energy Program Director Dr. Stacie Peterson told CBS. “This is taking off all across the country. We’re here to help you figure out what’s best for your area and connect you with the right people to help you do this if you want this on your farm or in your community.”

“We’re producing food, fiber, and energy all from the same acre of land,” said Solar Shepherd Founder Dan Finnegan. “It’s a smarter way to use this land.”

To learn more about agrisolar, or agrivoltaics, visit NCAT’s AgriSolar Clearinghouse.

How You Can Support Biochar Research

Biochar is one of the most promising tools to build soil organic matter, remove carbon from the atmosphere, and improve soil health. That promise has prompted growing support for federal legislation to increase biochar research. 

Biochar is a form of charcoal designed for use in soil. It is produced by heating biomass in the absence of oxygen – a process called pyrolysis. Potential sources of biomass feedstock include: 

  • dead wood, thinnings, and slash removed from forests to reduce wildfire risk  
  • grass and tree crops
  • the portion of crop residues not needed to prevent soil erosion 

Biochar is not new. Biochar from prairie and forest fires is a significant portion of the organic matter in the world’s agricultural soils. A growing body of research suggests that appropriately designed biochar can improve soil structure and health, enhance soil water-holding capacity, improve soil fertility, and increase yields while building soil carbon and organic matter.  

Building and maintaining soil organic matter is challenging in annual cropping systems. Most crop residue left on soil breaks down in a few years. Even practices that add carbon like cover crops can stimulate microorganisms that decompose biomass, limiting the net gain in soil organic matter.  

The unique promise of biochar is that it provides “recalcitrant” soil carbon that lasts for hundreds to thousands of years. That is why harvesting a portion of crop residue to produce biochar to be returned to soil can result in a net increase in soil carbon. Biochar far outlasts crop residue.     

Interestingly, biochar can also extend the life of carbon from crop residue, cover crops, and other biomass that remains on the land. An Iowa State University found that the long-term increase in soil carbon several years after application of biochar was twice the carbon embodied in the biochar. Biochar slowed the decomposition of other soil carbon. 

Biochar provides farmers, ranchers, and foresters the opportunity to become a powerful part of the solution to climate change. Soil is the globe’s second-largest carbon sink, holding three times as much carbon as the atmosphere. Agricultural soils alone hold about as much carbon as the atmosphere.   

Thus, a 10% increase in carbon in agricultural soils across the globe would provide a 10% reduction in atmospheric carbon dioxide – the greenhouse gas most responsible for driving climate change. In addition, research has found that biochar can reduce soil emissions of nitrous oxide, one of the most powerful greenhouse gases contributing to climate change. That also keeps nitrogen in the soil and available to crops. 

Biochar has great potential. But to achieve it, critical knowledge gaps must be filled. The research results on biochar have been inconsistent because there are many different types of biochar being applied in varying soils and circumstances. So, we need coordinated research to determine which types of biochar can be beneficial in varying soils and circumstances.   

Bipartisan legislation has been proposed to meet that need. The Biochar Research Network Act of 2023 has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives as HR 1645 by Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA), Kim Schrier (D-WA), Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Dan Newhouse (R-WA), Jimmy Panetta (D-CA), Sean Casten (D-IL), and Josh Harder (D-CA). It was introduced in the U.S. Senate as S.732 by Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Jon Tester (D-MT), John Thune (R-SD), and Sherrod Brown (D-OH). 

The Act would establish a national network of up to 20 research sites to test the full range of biochar types across soils, regions, and application methods to assess its potential to enhance carbon sequestration, crop production, resource conservation, and agricultural resilience. It would support research to develop promising approaches to integrating biochar in farming and ranching systems, as well as forestry. 

Support for the Act is growing. A long list of organizations, businesses, and individuals have written to the Agriculture Committees of Congress urging that the legislation be incorporated in the upcoming farm bill. NCAT’s Biochar Policy Project has been a leading force in developing and championing the bill. Click here to read the support letter.

Biochar is a win-win solution. It helps farmers, ranchers and foresters build healthy and productive soil and creates new opportunities to earn payments for removing carbon from the atmosphere. It provides a market for combustible materials removed from forests, supporting efforts to reduce wildfires. It offers the basis for building a new industry that creates jobs and opportunities across rural America along with new markets for biomass. And it removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which lessens climate change. 

There are many reasons to support biochar, which is why it has drawn bipartisan support at a time when the two major parties seem to rarely come together. 

To learn more about the Biochar Research Network Act and how you can lend your voice to the campaign for its passage, contact Chuck Hassebrook at hassebrook@gmail.com. 

Armed to Urban Farm Featured on Scripps National News

A story about the Armed to Urban Farm program’s recent training has been featured on more than 40 television news stations around the country. The free training included two virtual sessions and three days of in-person sessions in Memphis, TN.

Armed to Urban Farm, presented in partnership with the U.S. Botanic Garden, is an outgrowth of NCAT’s Armed to Farm program. Since 2013, more than 900 farmer veterans have received sustainable agriculture training through Armed to Farm.

Armed to Urban Farm is unique in its focus on operating a farming business in the city. Attendees at the Memphis training learned about business planning, marketing, land access, and legal issues farmers can face. In addition, they spent time on urban farms in Memphis, learning from experienced urban farmers and building relationships with fellow farmer veterans.

“They’re here to learn and connect with each other and see what they might be able to take back to their own operations,” said U.S. Botanic Garden education specialist Emily Hestness.

Veterans who attend Armed to Urban Farm come to learn about vegetable, fruit, and flower production, with goals of feeding their families and communities. Many, such as Army veteran Charley Jordan, also have discovered therapeutic benefits from engaging in agriculture.

“It was helpful for me and I figured this must be helpful for other veterans…So, I’m slowly moving on to working more with veterans and mental health and using plants as healing.”

Whatever the farmer veterans’ goals may be, Armed to Urban Farm offers support and educational resources even after the training event ends. Farming is a challenging profession, as NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist Mike Lewis points out, but farmer veterans are used to challenges from their time in military service.

“and we think that if you’ve already started the hardest job in the world, why can’t we transition you into the second?”

NCAT and the U.S. Botanic Garden have hosted Armed to Urban Farm training events in Washington, D.C., Cleveland, OH, and Baltimore, MD. For more information, visit ARMEDTOFARM.ORG.

Watch the full piece, here.

Resilient Butte: Beijing to Butte, Montana 

When I lived in Beijing, people would always ask me how the pollution was. I told them two things: the Communist Party planted trees to stop sandstorms from entering the capital. Second, they also moved factories away from the city, yet didn’t shut them down. Despite all this, the Chinese capital still experiences terrible air quality for periods of the year. This past summer I moved home to Minnesota and was amazed to watch everyone taking pictures of the smoky haze drifting east from California, Washington, and Oregon and south from Canada.  While this was new for them, I was reminded of Beijing. A picturesque lake, glazed over with a harsh bite of reality: the wildfire smoke had finally reached the boundary waters of Northern Minnesota. Little did I know that I would soon move to the largest EPA superfund site in the United States, Butte, Montana where they have been dealing with these environmental issues for decades. 

A hundred years ago, at the height of a copper mining boom, Butte was the largest city between Chicago and the West. After most of the mines shut down, Butte’s population plummeted to only a fraction. Now, the community is growing again after decades of environmental restoration.  

Butte’s future will be shaped by opportunities and challenges related to climate change. Butte is seen by private industry as a good location for clean energy development with recent proposals to develop solar, green hydrogen, and energy storage systems. However, the community faces climate challenges that threaten to undo much of the environmental work of recent years. Community leaders are eager to understand the challenges and achieve the opportunities by developing a climate adaptation and green energy plan. Thus, our project was born—Resilient Butte. 

Butte-Silver Bow County, Montana Technological University, and the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) are partnering to create a Butte Sustainability and Resilience Plan. Unlike us Minnesotans, Montana has been battling drought and wildfire risk for years—risks that are only getting worse.  

One priority is to protect the Basin Creek watershed, the main source of Butte’s drinking water. Vast areas of beetle-killed lodgepole pine in the watershed are at risk of burning in a wildfire, which could fill the reservoir with sediments and plug water treatment filters. Even further, many Butte residents live in old buildings without proper insulation and weatherization, which pose health risks from rising temperatures and wildfire smoke. Those are just a couple issues we want to tackle with this new plan. But our plan isn’t just about the negatives. 

Butte has a rich history. It is well-positioned and has the potential to become a fantastic renewable energy hub. Butte industrial products, including silicon gas and copper, are essential for solar energy. In recent years, Butte has been approached by large-array solar and green hydrogen energy developers, but county officials haven’t yet developed land-use plans to accommodate these new uses.  Meanwhile, the county is eyeing infrastructure investments through the U.S. Department of Energy to develop clean energy projects on former mine lands. The Resilient Butte project will provide an economic development guide for the city-county.  

With our first steps towards Resilient Butte, we’d like to invite the residents in Butte to participate in a survey that can be found at: ResilientButte.org. We would like to also invite you to connect with Resilient Butte on Facebook and Instagram and at our website Resilient Butte. Get involved and help shape Butte’s climate adaptation and green energy plan! 

Watch: NCAT Releases Soil Health 101 Series

In a new video series: Soil Health 101: Principles for Livestock Production, NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist Nina Prater makes the case for modeling soil health strategies after nature’s blueprint that produced that situation in the first place.

We all know the basic story. Plants photosynthesize sunlight and make sugars. They use the sugars to build leaves and stems and roots and seeds – pretty much everything that makes a plant a plant.

But at the same time, they share the wealth by exuding sugars from the roots to feed a “community” of soil microbes and fungi that in turn help keep the soil healthy for the plant.

A classic win-win situation.

“This layer of productive soil on top of the bedrock that we all have to work with is this vibrant living thing that has a community of life within it,” Nina says. “You have to treat it like a living thing because it is.”

And just like any living thing, there are practices that can keep it healthy and practices that can cause it harm.

Nina and other NCAT staffers produced a three-part webinar series – Soil Health 101 – through the ATTRA sustainable agriculture program, along with support from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program (Southern SARE).

You can watch the webinars here:

The series has a particular focus on the role livestock can play in soil health, but its strategies for keeping soil healthy is good information for any producer.

Those strategies are often described as the principles of soil health. Nina breaks it down to five.

  • Minimize disturbance to the soil
  • Maximize biodiversity on the land
  • Keep the soil covered at all times
  • Keep living roots growing in the soil during as much of the year as possible
  • Incorporate animals and use regenerative grazing practices

Nature provides models for how to put those principles of soil health into place, Nina says, and the webinar is full of practical examples of just that.

“To build soil health on our farm, we have to look to nature to figure out how to do that. Nature built all of these soils in the first place,” she explains. “The planet wasn’t created with all these, you know, lush terrains and prairie and everything. All that evolved over time. And it evolved with these ecosystem that built soil.”

To learn even more about the importance of soil health, and to connect with farmers, ranchers, and land managers taking steps to regenerate their soils, visit SOILFORWATER.ORG.

Join Us for the ‘Soil for Water’ Film Premiere

“Your soil health is going to keep you in business. If you take care of your soil, the land will give back to you.” Tina Weldon and her partner Orion are among a growing network of farmers, ranchers, and land managers who are taking steps to catch and hold more water in the soil.

Join the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) on Thursday, February 17 for the world premiere of its film Soil for Water, with a panel discussion to follow.

NCAT’s Soil for Water project is working to capture and hold more water in the soil by building a growing network of farmers, ranchers, and land managers who are taking steps to regenerate the land and strengthen their businesses. This voluntary, free network is now available to farmers, ranchers, and land managers in all 50 states.

REGISTER HERE

Don’t miss the world premiere of Soil for Water on February 17 at 11:00 a.m. MST/1 p.m. EST and join us for a panel discussion with the nationwide team working to support regenerators, and two Texas ranchers who are already seeing success.

Click here to register for this free, informative film screening and panel discussion.

Applications Open for Armed to Farm New Mexico

The National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) is partnering with Holistic Management International (HMI) to bring its Armed to Farm training to the Southwest. Armed to Farm will take place March 28-April 1, 2022, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Participants will attend classroom sessions and travel to local farms for hands-on learning experiences.

Armed to Farm trainings include an engaging blend of farm tours, hands-on activities, and interactive classroom instruction. NCAT Sustainable Agriculture specialists will teach the training sessions. Staff from HMI, USDA agencies, and experienced crop and livestock producers will provide additional instruction.

This training is for military veterans in the Southwest, with preference given to those in New Mexico. The number of participants will be limited. Spouses or farm partners are welcome as well but must submit a separate application.

Click HERE to apply by February 11. NCAT will notify selected participants by February 18.

Sponsors

NCAT is organizing and hosting this Armed to Farm event in partnership with Holistic Management International. Funding is provided by USDA’s Office of Partnerships and Public Engagement.

Questions?

Please contact Margo Hale at margoh@ncat.org or 479-442-9824.