Gabe Brown: A Pioneer in Regenerative Agriculture
Gabe Brown hardly needs introduction in the regenerative agriculture space. Many discovered soil health through his book, Dirt to Soil, which features farmers and scientists who were early adopters of soil health practices. Few of these pioneers, however, helped create the movement itself. Gabe's story is one of constant learning and adaptation, marked by key breakthrough moments that paved the way for his—and countless others'—understanding of regenerative agriculture.
No-Till on the Plains Kicks it Off
Back in the early 2000s, Gabe and a group from Burleigh County, North Dakota, attended the first ever No-Till on the Plains (NTOP) conference and were hooked. Since then, Gabe has been to many NTOP conferences, field days, bus tours, and other events over the years. Though he may not have envisioned this happening when he attended his first conference, he's become a sought-after speaker and bus tour stop showcasing all that he's learned and continues to learn over the years.
The 2006 NTOP conference in Salina, Kansas, was a turning point for Gabe (as well as many others) that changed the course of his farming career. At that point he'd been using cover crops and no-till practices for 10 years or so. His cover crops consisted of just a few species, and he was planting them in monocultures. One of the speakers at that 2006 NTOP conference, Ademir Calagari, challenged the status quo of monocultures. "Cover crops are meant to be seeded in multi-species combinations," he said. Gabe remembers hearing that and having a lightbulb moment: "Of course, in our native ecosystems, which work very effectively and efficiently, we see multi-species—but not in our ag landscapes." Ademir's credibility came from working with farmers and ranchers in 60 different countries, and Gabe was sold. If multi-species cover crops can work in all those different regions of the world, they must work in Gabe's corner of North Dakota.
The 2006 Demonstration That Changed Everything
That conference gave Gabe and another fellow North Dakotan, Jay Fuhrer, the confidence to trial some of these ideas on the farm in the summer of 2006. That year they planted a cover crop demonstration plot on 10 acres to see for themselves if this multi-species thing really had something to it. In May, they seeded monoculture test strips of radish, turnip, soybeans, cowpeas, and lupins into very dry soil. They also planted two test strips with all those species combined as a mix; one at a half rate and another at a full rate. North Dakota in 2006 was historically dry with only three inches of rain in the first seven months of the year. By July 31, 60 days after planting the cover crops, they'd received less than one additional inch of rain. Needless to say, the growing conditions were not ideal for the experiment. What they discovered, however, stunned them, and confirmed what Ademir had said just six months earlier. The monoculture strips were almost dead and burnt up from the drought, but the mix of all of the seed together outperformed all of the monoculture strips by more than three times in terms of biomass production. Gabe and Jay were sold. Though they didn't know exactly what was going on underground to make this work, witnessing the phenomenon made it clear that plants are designed to grow most efficiently and use moisture most effectively in multi-species groups, not as monocultures.
That summer Gabe welcomed many farmers, ranchers, and scientists to the demonstration plots. Most people were bewildered, but a few people, who had been studying and paying attention to plants and the soil already, were not surprised at all. Dr. Kris Nichols told Gabe, "Of course it makes sense, it's the mycorrhizal fungi of all the plants working together to share resources." That demonstration plot wowed a lot of people that summer and became a well used demonstration for countless other soil health talks around the country.
Moving Beyond North Dakota
Once Gabe started implementing these practices on his own farm, he started to notice changes in the soil and the ecosystem. He spent the next years learning from successes and failures, and overall observing the principles of soil health working on his farm as he experimented with different species combinations, planting windows, and grazing strategies.
The success Gabe found with soil health principles spurred him to share his knowledge beyond his farm. After publishing Dirt to Soil, he wanted to help others adopt these practices. In 2017, Gabe, along with Ray Archuleta, David Brandt, and Allen Williams, started Understanding Ag, a consulting business dedicated to educating farmers and ranchers on soil health practices. Today, Understanding Ag consults on operations managing 36 million acres globally. Gabe finds great fulfillment in watching others succeed with regenerative agriculture. "When we first go out to a client's property, we do a total nutrient digestion test which shows the total amount of nutrients in the top foot of soil. At this point, we have thousands of these tests and every sample we've taken has adequate amounts of nutrients to grow a profitable cash crop." Gabe says this is extremely impactful for farmers and ranchers to witness, and know that their soil has the capacity to grow bountiful and healthy crops, if only they can unlock those nutrients with the help of the soil microbes and a highly functioning soil ecosystem.
The Whole Purpose is Food
But why do we care? What's the point of trying to protect and heal the soil? What good do we get out of regenerating our lands? What is the purpose of trying to do things differently? For Gabe, the whole purpose of agriculture is to produce food, and by doing it differently, he's trying to grow food that not only feeds people, but has the power to heal and keep people healthy. "The next frontier is the phytonutrient compounds in what we're producing. We're finding that as we increase plant diversity we increase soil microbial diversity, and that is directly responsible for bringing the phytonutrient compounds to the plant and making them available. When we grow food that is truly more diverse in these important nutrients, it directly impacts our gut health—for the better." To help verify these benefits and provide market recognition for regeneratively grown food, Gabe co-founded Regenified, a regenerative agriculture certification program. Regenified focuses on soil health practices and phytochemical density in crops, giving consumers assurance that their food was grown using methods that build soil biology, enhance nutrient density, and support ecosystem health.
The word regenerative has been around a while. Rodale used it years ago to describe some of their practices, but in the past ten years or so, it's resurfaced and really caught on as a buzzword. Based on consumer research done by Regenified, 47% of American consumers say they are aware of the word regenerative and 20% say they are willing to pay more for regeneratively grown food. Consumers may have all sorts of reasons for wanting to support regenerative agriculture, but at the end of the day, this is a big portion of the population and based on the survey, this number is projected to continue rising. As the regenerative ag movement continues to grow, and more and more people worldwide are waking up to the power of the soil, Gabe finds himself traveling the world more than 200 days of the year speaking to CEOs, boards of directors, and even kings in other countries. It's proof that no matter where you are in the world, food matters, and high-quality, nutritious food makes a difference.
A Solution for Many Problems
For Gabe, regenerative agriculture offers solutions to many of the world's challenges—the global health crisis, supply chain issues, struggling rural communities, clean water scarcity, and ecosystem degradation. It's a bipartisan movement anyone can support. After all, who doesn't want clean drinking water, thriving ecosystems, and healthy people?
The grassroots regenerative agriculture movement is characterized by eager knowledge-sharing. "When we started, it felt like we were on an island, but not anymore," Gabe reflects. "This is a big movement." He encourages people to find mentors and surround themselves with like-minded individuals. "Being a lifelong learner is critical to success in any business. Never pass up the opportunity to learn."
What began with a handful of farmers questioning conventional wisdom has grown into a global movement transforming how we grow food. And it started with someone willing to question the status quo, run an experiment, and share what he learned—demonstrating faithful stewardship of the land entrusted to him.
