A new guide for farmers' trusted advisors is out. The Nature Conservancy published the Farmer Advisor Roadmap in the spring. The organization says it's going to make regenerative agriculture easier to adopt in the Midwest and beyond.
Regenerative agriculture practices improve water and soil quality and benefit wildlife. The practices have also been shown to make farmers more resilient and profitable. But adopting regenerative agriculture practices can be difficult, especially if farmers do not have the support they need.
Luke Petersen oversaw the creation of the roadmap. He said it's important to include advisors in the shift to regenerative agriculture.
"We need these practices to be really core to how farmers are making everyday decisions," he said. "We need the people that farmers are already talking to about their operation every season — every day, in many cases — they need to be fully bought in and equipped to help those farmers be successful."
Petersen said the guide will make it easier for people across the agriculture industry to share resources and expand regenerative agriculture.
Stakeholders from farmers unions, farm supply businesses and soybean associations worked on the report for a year.
The roadmap has three goals: building awareness of regenerative agriculture, demonstrating how regenerative agriculture can be good for business, and developing skills across the agriculture industry to support this work.
"If you're a farmer, the ask is that you look to where your own team of advisors can help you implement regenerative management on your own operation," Petersen said. "If those services aren't currently available to you, you are really the most powerful voice to help us continue to generate that demand for this trusted advice."
He said developing the roadmap required extensive collaboration, and that same collaboration is central to the guide itself. He said it can be difficult to adopt these practices as an individual farmer, but with support, regenerative agriculture can continue to expand.
Copy Edited by Eryn Lent
