Session: With increasing threat of climate crisis, soil loss, and continued economic challenges to farmers, building extremely robust and healthy soils provides the whole systems approach that is affordable and immediately available to all farmers. At its premise it is biologically based using the complexity of nature and her wisdom to rapidly repair the damage to soils and productivity that have been caused by 10,000 years of agricultural practice. The significant increase in crop yields and levels of carbon capture from the atmosphere made available through regenerative systems also makes agriculture the only current possible avenue for CO2 drawdown while greatly enhancing the water cycle, reducing drought threats, and feeding the growing world's population.
Tim LaSalle is currently adjunct professor and Co-founder and Co-director of Regenerative Agriculture Initiative, Chico State University. LaSalle previously served as the first CEO of Rodale Institute, Executive Director of the Allan Savory Center for Holistic Management, an international non-profit who mission is to restore and regenerate deteriorating landscapes, and he was consultant, advisor, and research coordinator for the Howard Buffett Foundation in Africa on soils and food security for smallholder farmers.