“Kiss the Ground.” Understanding Ag’s Ray Archuleta, Gabe Brown and Kris Nichols, Ph.D.Upcoming ‘Kiss the Ground’ Movie Features Three Understanding Ag ExpertsQuestions and Answers with Our ‘In-House’ StarsBy Ron Nichols, Understanding AgKiss the Ground is a new, feature-length movie that explores key soil health and regenerative agricultural principles, and features interviews with a wide range […]
Read More
By Doug Peterson There are many things that influence what a person does and how well they take care of the land they own or operate. Several studies show that any kind of absentee or non-operating landowner (investors, heirs, retirees) generally do not invest in conservation on the land as much as owner-operators. There are […]
Read More
By Ron Nichols Sometimes, adversity is a blessing, though rarely does it seem so in the moment. Just ask Roy Thompson, a 33-year-old farmer from Akaska, South Dakota. At age 20, Roy was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, an inflammatory bowel condition that the Mayo Clinic’s website describes as “both painful and debilitating, and sometimes may […]
Read More
By Ron Nichols I first spoke with the then 25-year-old Macauley Kincaid a little over a year ago, shortly after he attended a Soil Health Academy school. After that experience, Macauley went back to his Southwest Missouri farm and began applying the insights and recommendations from SHA’s experts with what can only be described as […]
Read More
Allen R Williams, Ph.D. Parasite control in livestock is a major issue and has been heavily focused on for several decades now. There are numerous anthelmintics (chemical dewormers) available for internal parasite control and a host of pyrethroid and organophosphate products available for fly control. The issue with any of these products is that they […]
Read More
Allen R Williams, Ph.D. The 1859 novel written by Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, was required reading for millions of school kids in English Literature classes and is one of the best-selling novels of all time. The story is set in the late 18th century against the background of the French Revolution. Just […]
Read More
Allen R Williams, Ph.D., Understanding Ag, LLC Did you know that the health of plants, animals, ecosystems and humans is inextricably tied to plant phytochemical diversity? So, what are phytochemicals? In short, they are compounds naturally produced by plants that help the plants thrive in challenging conditions, fight off competitors, pest insects and disease. When […]
Read More
Ray Archuleta, Understanding Ag, LLC Concerns about the US food chain supply made their way into the mainstream this week, as more meat processing and packaging plants suspend operations temporarily due to coronavirus outbreaks in the workforce. When Smithfield Foods announced it was shutting its Sioux Falls plant indefinitely, CEO Ken Sullivan warned that doing […]
Read More
Allen R Williams, Ph.D., Understanding Ag LLC By the time you read this we will be fully into summer 2020. In many parts of the country it has been much cooler than normal well into the month of May. Even here in Mississippi we have had a very pleasant spring. Nighttime temperatures in the 40s […]
Read More
by Shane New and Gabe Brown Empty shelves and meat cases in grocery stores, oil at negative prices, record unemployment, skyrocketing national debt, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected many aspects of our lives. This crisis has exposed the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of our current system, prompting the need and opportunity for a change. Change has […]
Read More
By Ray Archuleta, Understanding Ag, LLC Food is relationship In my previous blog, I examined several institutional, philosophical and educational issues that have created unintended social distancing in agriculture. In this article, I want to shift the focus to examine another type of “social distancing.” This one involves the “relationship” we have with our food. […]
Read More
By Sara Keough MS, CNS, LDN – Eco-Nutritionist “People are fed by the food industry, which pays no attention to health, and are treated by the health industry which pays no attention to food.”-Wendell Berry It may have been this quote from one of my heroes, farmer and activist Wendell Berry, that inspired me years ago […]
Read More