Ag Emerge Podcast

Thanks for joining us, today we welcome Dan Miller, Founder and CEO of Steward. Steward is a private lender providing regenerative farmers, ranchers, fishermen, and producers the capital they need to expand and sustain their businesses. And through Steward’s innovative online platform, qualified lenders have the opportunity to join in their mission and help fund the growth of regenerative agricult...

Thanks for joining us, today we welcome Dr. Allen Williams a 6th generation family farmer and founding partner of Understanding Ag, the Soil Health Academy, and Regenified. Allen and his colleagues specialize in whole farm and ranch planning based on the concept of regenerative agriculture. They’ve worked in all 50 U.S. States and with farmers in dozens of countries globally. Watch episode: https:...

Thanks for joining us, today we welcome Dr. John Tooker. Dr. Tooker is a Professor and Extension Specialist in the Department of Entomology at Pennsylvania State University. We have a great conversation with him as he discusses his research studying relationships among plants, invertebrate herbivores, and natural enemies to understand the factors that regulate populations of herbivorous insects an...

Thanks for joining us, today we welcome Eric Jackson and Dr. Stephan van Vliet, Eric currently serves as the Board Chair of the Bionutrient Food Association, on the BoD of Victory Hemp Foods and an advisor to Homeplate Foods, Water Asset Management, Other Half Processing and The Yield Lab. He is a Strategic Advisor to the Applied Ecological Institute and he also serves on the Steering Council for...

Thanks for joining us, today we welcome Alan Lewis. Alan is the Vice President of Advocacy & Governmental Affairs at Natural Grocers. Alan navigates government affairs and food and agriculture policy for Natural Grocers, a Colorado based health food chain founded in 1955 with over 170 stores in 20 states. At the federal, state and local level, Alan engages on food, agriculture, nutrition, rural ec...

Thanks for joining us, today we welcome Erin Martin, founder of Conscious Aging Solutions connecting others with preventative and conscious approaches to longevity. Erin is a Gerontologist, and is passionate about studying the process of aging. And her story gets even more exciting because of her life experiences and a kind of a-ha moment during a trip to a blue-zone area that enforced her desire...

Thanks for joining us, today we welcome Clint Brauer, CEO and Founder of Greenfield Robotics. Clint has a great story. He grew up farming in south-central Kansas and went to K State where he got into technology. After graduating from college and spending a decade plus in media and technology, in Los Angeles, San Fransisco, and New York, Clint decided to return to his roots in Kansas, launching MG...

Thanks for joining us, today we welcome Dr. Fatma Kaplan. She is the co-founder, CEO, and CSO of Pheronym. Not only is she an entrepreneur and accomplished scientist with experience in biology and chemistry, but she also has a passion for understanding the intricacies and behaviors of both parasitic and beneficial nematodes. Monte and Fatma explore everything from nematodes in agriculture to nemat...

Paul Greive, is Pasturebird’s Co-founder and VP of Sales and Marketing, located in Temecula, California. Paul shares with us Pasturebird’s awesome story and what has driven their team to reinvent American poultry production. They’ve worked to scale the production of regenerative poultry, raising over two million chickens without antibiotics or drugs. They’ve kept their focus on the land, the anima...

Brad Schmidt, is the Manager of Agronomy at Regeneration Nation. We’ve had the pleasure of knowing Brad for several years and he was one of the speakers at our first AgEmerge event back in 2019. Brad has a passion, not only for soil health but for bringing people together to share their regenerative management experiences. Brad had the opportunity to work and learn under Dr. Dwayne Beck at the Dak...

Research scientist Dr. Ryan Schmid and student scientist, Tia Busenitz both from the Ecdysis Foundation, join us for episode 081. Ryan leads the foundation’s rangeland studies. His current research focuses on how regenerative grazing affects pollinator and dung arthropod communities, and how arthropods facilitate the cycling of nutrients in Grasslands. Tia’s current research is focused on honey be...

Dr. Stephanie Seneff, is a Senior Research Scientist at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. On this podcast Monte and Dr. Seneff discuss her research and work in understanding the role of toxic chemicals and micronutrient deficiencies in health and disease. Sometimes our topics are hard but necessary to hear. Hopefully, this conversation...

David Brandt of Brandt Farms and Walnut Creek Seed is a living legend. If you know your soil health, no-till history, and follow the leaders in these areas then you know how fortunate we are to get to visit with David. He’s been no-tilling since 1971, back when they called it trash farming and a whole list of other things. But David would not be deterred, he continued to test systems, implement co...

Russell Hedrick is a first-generation farmer in the foothills of Hickory, North Carolina. Known as one of the most progressive young farmers in the country for his work utilizing soil health practices on his cash crops. He was just awarded as the winner of the North Carolina soybean yield record in 2021 and in 2017 he won the North Carolina Corn Yield Contest. He was the first person to win in the...

Paul Mikesell, is Founder and CEO of Carbon Robotics where they have developed a system and technology for weed control that uses computer vision and very high powered lasers as the action for weed eradication. Listen in as Paul talks about the opportunities this technology creates! Paul Mikesell is the founder and CEO of Carbon Robotics. Paul has deep experience founding and building successful t...

Nofence CTO Oscar Hovde Berntsen and CEO Knut Bentzen talk with us about how Nofence has worked to develop technology to graze animals and control moves using virtual fencing technology. Monte discusses with them the opportunities virtual fencing could create through managed grazing utilizing daily or regular moves. They also explore other opportunities virtual fencing could provide through proper...

Ben Moest is a third-generation grain and livestock farmer located in Stephenson County, IL near the WI border where he and his family own and operate a hog and cash crop operation. Ben is the President of High Plains Grains, which he operates with his brother, Grant Moest, and two other partners. They raise 100% non-GMO corn & non-GMO soybeans along with small grains including wheat, rye, and oat...

Dr. Liz Haney is Founder of Soil Regen and co-founder of Regen Mills and Heritage Ground. Liz is a soil and ecosystem scientist with experience in regenerative agriculture education, soil health testing and analyses, carbon as well as conservation practice modeling. Today Monte and Liz unpack all of those areas including soil testing in the regenerative space, carbon, mobile milling, and everythin...

Ag Solutions Network entered the soil health game with biologicals almost two decades ago. We’ve seen farmers and our dealer network successfully impact more and more acreage with a soil health first approach. In 2019, AgEmerge began as an event idea where we gathered awesome speakers along with a dynamic group of growers to really challenge old paradigms and have conversations that resulted in sy...

Monte and Kim discuss a range of topics including some of the exciting things Monte’s been working on, thinking about, and implementing over the past year. This time of year also gives us an opportunity to evaluate what worked, and what didn’t, as well as explore new ideas and opportunities. And, we talk about some topics happening right now in agriculture. Monte Bottens has deep roots in agricult...

Dr. Pam Marrone spent her 30 plus year career focused on biological products for pest management and plant health, having started and led three bioag companies. She’s a scientist, a CEO, a serial entrepreneur, a pioneer and that’s just the short list. In her words, she says, she got “hooked on microbes” early on and spent her career looking for environmentally responsible biologically based soluti...

Dino Giacomazzi, is the CEO of Giacomazzi Almond Company, Inc and the 4th generation to manage his family’s farm founded in 1893 by his Swiss-Italian great-grandfather. The operation consists of 700 Acres of Almonds, 300 acres of Corn, wheat & Alfalfa, and 2 miniature donkeys. Dino talks with us about his farming journey, including family farming identities, industry dynamics, new opportunities an...

Dr. Fred Provenza, is Professor Emeritus of Behavioral Ecology in the Department of Wildland Resources at Utah State University where he directed an award-winning research group that pioneered an understanding of how learning influences foraging behavior and how behavior links soil, plants, herbivores, and humans. Today, he and Monte explore some of that research and the connections between animal...

Thank you so much for joining us! It’s a true honor to get to speak with Dr. Don Huber Professor Emeritus of Plant Pathology at Purdue University. You’ll want to read Dr. Huber’s full bio in the show notes. He is a pioneer in his field, his experience, knowledge, and understanding of plant pathology and physiology is simply remarkable. The AgEmerge podcast is committed to asking tough questions an...

Seth Watkins is a farmer from Clarinda, Iowa, and joins our podcast as he and Monte discuss what it looks like to think differently about our responsibilities as farmers. This summer Monte heard Seth’s TEDx talk about his passion for stewarding his land and where he said what he really wanted was clean water, healthy soils and happy cows. You’ll quickly hear that Seth wants to share what he’s lear...