In-Person Summer 2023 Soil & Climate Alliance Meeting

Magnolia Hotel in Omaha, Nebraska

June 13 - June 15, 2023

On behalf of the entire Soil & Climate Alliance team, THANK YOU for attending the Summer Network meeting. Your interest and passion are inspiring and help us advance our collective and individual work to transition 90% of food and agricultural acres to the regenerative pathway by the end of 2030.

Resources, Recordings, & More

DAY ONE — Tuesday, June 13:

  • Farm Visit: The Regenerative Journey • Farm of Network member Graham Christensen • Ho-Chunk/Winnebago Farms with Aaron LaPointe, Senior Manager, Ho-Chunk Farms Inc. • Lunch on the Omaha Tribe Reservation of Nebraska • Chef Anthony Warrior, Owner/Chef/Educator, Warriors’Palate Catering and Consultation

  • Real World Regenerative Farming • Russell Hedrick, Co-Owner, Soil Regen & JRH Grain Farms, LLC

DAY TWO — Wednesday, June 14:

  • Opening & Reflection • Ariel Zakarison, Farmer, Zakarison Partnership

  • Making Farming Fabulous While Black • Farmer Cee Stanley, CEO and President, Green Heffa Farms

  • Financing Regenerative Agriculture to Scale • Zach Ducheneaux, Administrator, USDA Farm Service Agency • Dr. Kathryn Milun, Founder, The Solar Commons Project • Tina Owens, Vice President, Agriculture Transition, Intrinsic Exchange Group • Moderator: Julie Davenson, Farm Finance Specialist, Soil & Climate Initiative

  • Regenerative Agriculture in the Time of Drought • Keith Berns, President, Green Cover Seed • Jesse Smith, Director of Land Stewardship, White Buffalo Land Trust • Steve Tucker, Farmer, Tucker Farms

  • What do People Want to Eat? Consumer Data & Regenerative Agriculture • Hans Eisenbeis, Director of Mission & Messaging, Non-GMO Project • Nicole Negowetti, VP of Policy & Food Systems, Plant Based Foods Institute

  • Soil & Climate Alliance Network Initiative Updates

  • Ask Me Anything: Farming Along the Regenerative Pathway • Adam Chappell, Owner/Operator, Chappell Brothers Farms • Russell Hedrick, Co-Owner, Soil Regen & JRH Grain Farms, LLC • Ariel Zakarison, Farmer, Zakarison Partnership

DAY THREE — Thursday, June 15:

  • Short Film: Maya Regeneration Project • Luis Marcos • Maria Gaspar • Jacqueline Francisco

  • More Money, Better Food: Driving Investments in Regenerative Agriculture • Sarah Day Levesque, Managing Director, Regenerative Food Systems Investment

  • Regenerative is Relational: Building the Supply Chain • Jeff Bos, Senior Director, Innovation & Design, Soil Carbon Initiative • Jeremy Bunch, CEO, Shepherd’s Grain • Emily Lafferty, Operations, Seven Sundays • John Strohfus, Founder & CEO, Field Theory Foods (Minnesota Hemp Farms, Inc)

Summer 2023 Speakers

Steve Tucker

Russell Hedrick

Tucker Farms

Soil Regen

Speakers added regularly!

Keith Berns

Green Cover Seed

Chef Anthony Warrior

Warriors’Palate Catering and Consultation

Graham Christensen

GC Resolve

Emily Lafferty

Seven Sundays

Aaron LaPointe

Ho-Chunk Farms

Clarenda “Cee” Stanley

Green Heffa Fams

Hans Eisenbeis

Non-GMO Project

Sarah Day Levesque

Regenerative Food Systems Investment

Jesse Smith

White Buffalo Land Trust

Jeremy Bunch

Shepherd’s Grain

Nicole Negowetti

Plant Based Foods Association

John Strohfus

Field Theory Foods (Minnesota Hemp Farms, Inc)

Jeff Bos

Soil Carbon Initiative

Field & Market Intelligence

Brendalyn King

Salem Hemp Kings

Brady Barnstable

Seven Sundays

Rebecca Gildiner

Daily Harvest

Levi Kokes

Kokes Cattle Company

Melissa Larsen

RealTime Solutions

Jim Sheppard

Legacy Agripartners

Lindsay Kane

WISEcode

Sycamore May

Handsome Brook Farms

Tyler Streit

Flat Acre Farms

Elizabeth Candelario

Mad Agriculture

Ken Roseboro

The Organic & Non-GMO Report

Candace Spencer

Meridian Institute

Stacia Bentley

MegaFood

Farm Visit - Tuesday, June 13

Our farm visit will include stops with leading farmers across Nebraska including:

  • Graham Christensen, 5th generation farmer and the founder of GC Resolve, where we will learn about his regenerative journey and the work being done in Nebraska to mobilize and build regenerative communities.

  • The Ho-Chunk/Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska to hear more about the Tribe's work from Aaron LaPointe, Senior Agribusiness Manager of Ho-Chunk Farms.

  • Chef Anthony Warrior, local Indigenous chef, will prepare lunch for us and speak on Indigenous foodways and the local sourcing of the region. Lunch will be held on the Omaha Tribe Reservation of Nebraska.

Lunch and bus transportation to and from the Magnolia Hotel is included in your registration. During our farm visit, we recommend long pants and close-toed shoes as we will be walking in the fields.

Meeting Venue

Our room block is now full, but there are several accommodation options walking distance from the meeting (rates as of 5/17):

Hotel Deco - 3 minute walk | $199 + tax/fess

Hyatt Place - 7 minute walk | $279 + taxes/fees

Double Tree Hilton - 8 minute walk | $266 + taxes/fees

Hotel Indigo - 9 minute walk | $210 + taxes/fees

Even Hotel - 13 minute walk | $212 + taxes/fees

If you have any questions about accommodations, please reach out to Ginger at gleib@greenamerica.org

Pre-Meeting Orientation

Prior to the meeting we hold an orientation session for those who are joining us for the first time to provide background as well as structural framing for how the network operates to allow us to dive deeply into the content of the meeting. This session took place virtually over zoom on May 31.