Regenerative Champions

Join us for a conversation with our regenerative champion, Lisa Helm Hancock. She is the founder of Dayton Urban Grown in Dayton, Ohio. Lisa transformed a small urban lot into a thriving incubator farm that trains new growers and demonstrates profitable, regenerative practices. She produces year-round specialty crops while building soil health through no-till methods and biological diversity. The...

Join us for a conversation with our regenerative champion, Tia Stuart. She is the co-owner of the Restoration Family Farm in Trotwood, Ohio. Tia shares how her farming journey was rooted in caring for her family’s health, and how that purpose expanded into a commitment to nourishing her broader community. She reflects on the critical role small-scale farmers play in advancing food sovereignty and...

Join us for a conversation with our regenerative champion, Gregory Stover. He co-owns the Stover Farm with his wife. The Stover Farm transitioned to organic regenerative farming due to its desire to produce healthy food. Greg is motivated by the possibility of great outputs with their sustainability focus. He highlights the challenge of maintaining financial sustainability as a farmer. The materia...

Join us for a conversation with our regenerative champions, Tinu Daboiku. He is the passionate owner and steward of Glorified Dirt LLC and Farm. As a beginning farmer, Tinu was motivated by friends to embrace farming not just as a livelihood, but as a pathway to self-sufficiency and regeneration. Through his journey, Tinu reveals how regenerative practices are a long-term investment in healing the...

Join us for a conversation with our regenerative champions, Reinhold and Melissa Finkes. They are the passionate owners of the Finch Creek Farm in Xenia, Ohio. What started with just 2 acres has now grown into a thriving 300-acre regenerative farm. Faced with serious health challenges, Reinhold and Melissa made a powerful discovery: to heal themselves, they had to heal the soil. Today, their pastu...

Join us for a conversation with our regenerative champion, Gregory Muhammad. He is the passionate owner of the Oasis Agricultural Learning Center in Dayton, Ohio. In 2011, Gregory bought his 4.5-acre farm for just one dollar. With a deep respect for the science of soil and sustainability, he turned his humble plot into a hub for community nourishment and empowerment. Gregory calls on consumers to...

Join us for a conversation with our regenerative champion, Bruce Linebaugh. He is the farm manager at the Antioch College Farm, Yellow Springs, Ohio. More than just a classroom, the student-managed farm is contributing to environmental sustainability, fostering strong community connections, and empowering the next generation of change-agents. Bruce describes efforts at regenerating the farm with a...

Join us for a conversation with our regenerative champions, Dale and Christine Irby. The couple co-owns Irby’s Old School Farm in Dayton, Ohio. With no farming experience, Dale and Christine started raising chickens at the height of the COVID pandemic in 2020, transforming uncertainty into empowerment. But it wasn’t easy. From lack of support to weather challenges, Dale and Christine faced r...

Join us for a conversation with our regenerative champions, Rick and Brittney Miller. The father-daughter duo manages the Fairlands Inc. With deep roots in regenerative agriculture, the Millers’ grow non-GMO produce for both local and international markets. Rick brings decades of hands-on experience, while Brittney shares how she’s helping steer the farm toward a more intentional, adaptable...

Join us for a conversation with our regenerative champions, TJ Richardson and Justin Helt. The duo co-owns The Ohio Hemp Company (TOHC) in New Carlisle, Ohio. Founded in 2020, TOHC is driven by the cultivation and promotion of high-quality hemp fiber and grains. They work alongside farmers and researchers to validate the potential of hemp as a renewable resource that reduces environmental impact a...

Join us for a conversation with our regenerative champion, Rhonda Miller. Rhonda is a board member of the Greater Edgemont Community Coalition and Solar Garden in Dayton, Ohio. Since its founding in the 1970s, the community organization has been the heartbeat of Edgemont, sustaining its identity and revitalization through regenerative urban farming education. Rhonda passionately emphasizes the imp...

Join us for a conversation with our regenerative champion, Donnetta Boykin. Donnetta founded the Seven Seed Sowers Co-Op in Dayton, Ohio, to support beginning farmers as they establish their operations. For her, farming is more than just growing food, it is a place of therapy and renewal. Donnetta speaks with gratitude about support from the city of Dayton and the wealth of knowledge through skill...

Join us for a conversation with our regenerative champion, John Evans. He owns the Evans Farms in New Carlisle, Ohio. With roots that stretch back about 120 years, John’s passion for farming was cultivated early through his family’s deep connection to the land. Listen as John reflects on the pressing realities of climate change, which he describes as the most disturbing challenge facing production...

Join us for a conversation with our regenerative champion, Sharifa Tomlinson. From being a nurse to farmer, Sharifa stewards the Arrowrock Farm and Urban Sanctuary in Dayton, Ohio. At the beginning, Sharifa was buying soil to get things growing, but soon realized healthy soil is something to build. That shift sparked her journey into regenerative practices. She describes herself as a placeholder,...

Join us for a conversation with our regenerative champions, Eric Bee and Rebecca Potter. They both serve Agraria Center for Regenerative practices located in Yellow Springs, Ohio. On a 138-acre educational farm, they fulfill the Center’s mission of hands-on farming, community engagement, and ecological restoration. They believe there should be no monopoly in the food system and emphasize through t...

Join us for a conversation with our regenerative champion, Cory Stratton. He is a co-owner of Truest Farms located in Mechanicsburg, Ohio. Cory resigned from his job to become a full-time livestock farmer because of his concerns about the prevalence of unhealthy processed food. In his 4th year, his operation has grown exponentially from 350 to about 5000 birds. Listen as he describes various forms...

Join us for a conversation with our regenerative champions, Graham and Tonni Oberly. They are the passionate stewards of Oaks and Sprouts Limited in Urbana, Ohio. The Oberly’s took over their family farm with motivation to restore soil health and provide healthy food for consumers. Listen as they discuss balancing the cost of farm inputs with growing high-quality produce for their growing co...

A conversation with our regenerative champion, Tiffany Bourgeois. She is an African American woman, a new/beginning small-scale and regenerative farmer who manages ‘All About Growing’ in Columbus, Ohio. Though engaged with her day job, Tiffany describes how the lack of people like her in agriculture deterred her from choosing an agricultural-related career, the need to instill delibera...

A conversation with our regenerative champion, Anisa Ahmad. She is a Punjabi woman from the Indian subcontinent, a small-scale and regenerative farmer who manages the Franklin Avenue Community Garden in Columbus, Ohio. She describes how getting her feet and hands dirty cured her mysterious ailment, her work with young children in the garden, and how the garden has enhanced a sense of community bel...

A conversation with our regenerative champion, Paula Penn-Nabrit. She is an African American woman, a small-scale and regenerative farmer who co-owns the Charles Madison Nabrit Memorial Garden in Columbus, Ohio with her children. She describes how her family felt healed working in the garden as a ‘free grief therapy’, the fruitful collaborations and engagements in the garden, and the h...

A conversation with our regenerative champion, Jodi Spencer. She is an African American woman, a small-scale and regenerative farmer who manages the Dorothy England Farm in Columbus, Ohio. Though her farming passion got her an agricultural major degree, Jodi describes her solitary farming experience in the early beginnings, the need to instill self-efficacy belief among Black and Brown children an...

A conversation with our regenerative champion, Taylor Green. He is a young small-scale, new/beginning regenerative farmer who manages The Urban Farm Church in Columbus, Ohio as the Farm Developer and Education manager. Taylor describes his dissatisfaction with the food system and how he began farming as an apprentice. At the urban farm church, he is helping to build communities around farming, an...

A conversation with our regenerative champion, Jada Williams. She is a young African American, a small-scale and new beginning regenerative farmer who manages the Fresh Roots Farm in Columbus, Ohio. She describes how self-determination propels her to contribute to healthy food accessibility concerns of her community and her needs towards sustaining her farming operation. To know more about regener...

A conversation with our regenerative champion, Kendyl Meadows. She is a woman and a small-scale beginning regenerative farmer, who manages the Three Creeks Produce with her husband in Groveport, Ohio. She describes their desire in the food system as wholesale vegetable farmers, how lack of confidence and knowledge were challenges in their early beginnings, and how they have continued to sustain th...

A conversation with our regenerative champion, Rachel Tayse. She is a woman and a small-scale beginning regenerative farmer who manages the Harmonious Homestead Farm in Columbus, Ohio. She describes her entry into farming, perspectives on regenerative agriculture, and how valuable community relationships have earned her multiple funded projects. To know more about regenerative farmers in Ohio, vis...