The annual Acres U.S.A. Eco-Ag Conference & Trade Show is known for its in-depth, practical content shared by experts and experienced farmers. The 2023 conference will be Dec. 4-7 in Covington, KY, but for those who like to learn year-round, it can be hard to wait for the next conference. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered!
We’ve pulled together a selection of resources from past and upcoming Eco-Ag Conference speakers that will keep you learning while you wait for December. Check out our list of resources, in alphabetical order by last name, below.
Plus! Be sure you’re signed up for our News & Announcement email newsletter so you’ll be the first to know when we add new speaker and agenda updates for the 2023 Eco-Ag Conference & Trade Show. Sign up here!
Rick Clark
Rick Clark is a fifth generation farmer from Williamsport, Indiana, who has made incredible strides in improving his soil health with cover cropping, no-till and non-GMO tactics. Rick is a frequent speaker at Acres U.S.A. events and we highly recommend you see him when you get a chance!
To listen to Rick dispense some of his wisdom, here’s a Tractor Time podcast episode we did with him a little while back. Listen here.
You can also check out the Event Replay of the 2021 Eco-Ag Conference & Trade Show to see Rick Clark’s presentation that year on organic no-till methods.
Paul Dorrance
Author, speaker, consultant and regenerative agriculture advocate Paul Dorrance runs Pastured Providence Farmstead — a successful pasture-based livestock operation, marketing 100% grass-fed beef and lamb, as well as pastured non-GMO pork, poultry, and eggs directly to consumers in southern and central Ohio.
Paul is a frequent contributor to Acres U.S.A. Magazine, and you can read a few of his articles for free at www.EcoFarmingDaily.com, including:
- Equipment that Works for Organic Graziers
- Beginner’s Guide to Livestock Guardian Animals
- A Realist’s Guide to Pricing Your Products for the Market
- Create a Strong Business Plan for Long-Term Success on Your Farm
Paul is author of the book Farming Without Losing Your Hat: A Practical Guide to the Brutal Realities of the Best Job in the World – our featured Book of the Month for February’s theme of farm business and management.
He is also the instructor of the Eco-Ag U Online course Proven Lessons for Success in the Business of Farming, aimed at helping small- to medium-scale farmers and ranchers through the process of creating a comprehensive business plan.
Doug Fine
Doug Fine is a solar-powered goat herder, comedic investigative journalist, bestselling author, and pioneer voice in regenerative farming, including cannabis/hemp. He has cultivated hemp for food and seed-building in four U.S. states and teaches a Sterling College hemp class in Vermont. In addition, he is an award-winning culture and climate correspondent from five continents, and has been a frequent face at Acres U.S.A. events.
Your next chance to learn from Doug in person will be on March 7 at the SXSW event in Austin, Texas.
Doug is the author of many books, his two most recent of which can be found at the Acres U.S.A. Bookstore:
- American Hemp Farmer: Adventures and Misadventures in the Cannabis Trade
- Hemp Bound: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Next Agricultural Revolution
Want to see Doug on the screen? Here are two great free options:
- Doug’s presentation at the Acres U.S.A. 2021 Eco-Ag Conference & Trade Show was recorded for CSPAN, and can be watched for free here.
- Doug was an expert speaker for the Acres U.S.A. Advancing Industrial Hemp webinar in 2020 which can be watched for free here on EcoFarmingDaily.com.
Doug is also one of our expert instructors of online courses at Eco-Ag U Online. He currently has two courses available:
- Long Course: A Grower’s Guide to Regenerative Hemp: From Soil to Seed to Sales – Doug Fine takes students deep into regenerative growing methods and soil preparation as well as strategies for building a profitable business and navigating legal challenges.
- Short Course: Hemp Gardening: Growing Food Security and Fighting Climate Change – This practical and accessible course will teach even a total gardening beginner a full season of lessons, from how to make a hemp seed sprout to what you might want to do with the harvest.
Learn even more about Doug and all his educational opportunities at DougFine.com.
Jesse Frost
Jesse Frost, aka Farmer Jesse, is a certified organic market gardener, freelance journalist, and the host of The No-Till Market Garden Podcast. He is also a co-founder of notillgrowers.com, where he helps collect the best and latest no-till insights from growers in the United States, Canada, the UK, and Europe. He and his wife, Hannah Crabtree, practice no-till farming at Rough Draft Farmstead in central Kentucky.
Jesse’s book is a popular item at the Acres U.S.A. Bookstore. The Living Soil Handbook: The No-Till Grower’s Guide to Ecological Market Gardening speaks to three basic principles of no-till market gardening: 1) disturb the soil as little as possible, 2) keep it covered as much as possible, and 3) keep it planted as much as possible. Jesse guides readers in applying these three principles for their own garden environment to meet their own goals.
You can also listen to an in-depth interview with Jesse on our Tractor Time podcast, where he discusses no-till farming and creating a living soil. Listen here!
If you want to see Jesse in action, take a look at his 2021 Eco-Ag Conference presentation in our 2021 Eco-Ag Conference Replay at Eco-Ag U Online.
Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquín
It’s no surprise to anyone who knows him that Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquín was named as the recipient of the 2022 Eco-Ag Achievement Award at last year’s Eco-Ag Conference & Trade Show, after his keynote presentation.
Regi has been a strong leader in the movement for developing innovative poultry-centered regenerative agriculture systems around the world. He is the founder and board president of the Regenerative Agriculture Alliance, and co-founder/CEO of Tree-Range Farms. He is also a practicing regenerative farmer at Salvatierra Farms in Minnesota.
You can find his book, In the Shadow of Green Man: My Journey From Poverty and Hunger to Food Security and Hope, at the Acres U.S.A. Bookstore.
You can watch Regi’s 2021 Eco-Ag Conference presentation in our 2021 Eco-Ag Conference Replay at Eco-Ag U Online.
Don Huber
Dr. Don Huber Professor Emeritus, Purdue University, has filled classrooms for years at Eco-Ag Conferences.
Hundreds of students have learned from his 55+ years of researching the epidemiology and control of soil-borne plant pathogens with emphasis on microbial ecology, cultural and biological controls, nutrient-disease interactions, pesticide-disease interactions, physiology of host-parasite relationships; impact of GMOs and pesticides on soil, crop, animal and human health; and techniques for rapid microbial identification. He is author or co-author of more than 300 journal articles and three books.
His book Mineral Nutrition and Plant Disease can be found at the Acres U.S.A. Bookstore.
John Kempf
John Kempf is a leading crop health consultant and designer of innovative soil and plant management systems. John is the founder of Advancing Eco Agriculture, a crop nutrition consulting company, and a managing partner at Zeno Capital Partners — an investment fund working in the areas of agriculture, food production, medicine and clean energy.
John is another frequent instructor at Acres U.S.A. events, and led an Eco-Ag U Workshop in 2022 alongside Rick Clark.
John’s book, Quality Agriculture: Conversations About Regenerative Agronomy with Innovative Scientists and Growers, is a distillation of hours of podcast interviews, and can be found in the Acres U.S.A. Bookstore. You can also listen to his interview in one of our earliest Tractor Time podcast episodes here.
Nicole Masters
Agroecologist, author and educator Nicole Masters teaches soil health to students from all over the world.
Her book, For the Love of Soil: Strategies to Regenerate Our Food Production Systems, does a deep dive into strategies to take a soil-first approach to our landscapes, restoring natural cycles, and bringing vitality back to ecosystems.
You can read a feature article about Nicole here at www.EcoFarmingDaily.com:
- Agroecologist Nicole Masters Finds the Joy in Soil Health by Jill Henderson
You can listen to or watch a previous Tractor Time podcast episode with Nicole Masters. You can also listen to one of her 2021 Eco-Ag Conference presentations in the 2021 Eco-Ag Conference Replay at Eco-Ag U Online.
David Montgomery and Anne Biklé
This power couple has been focused on soil health research for years, and we were thrilled to have them present the opening keynote at the 2022 Eco-Ag Conference & Trade Show.
They are authors and co-authors of numerous books, several of which can be found at the Acres U.S.A. Bookstore:
- NEW in 2022: What Your Food Ate: How to Heal Our Land and Reclaim Our Health
- The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health
- Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life
- Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations
David Montgomery and Anne Biklé – alongside other experts – will also be presenting at the eighth annual Farming Evolution event on Wednesday and Thursday, February 22 & 23, 2023.
Farming Evolution will be held at the Phillips County Fairgrounds Event Center just north of Holyoke, CO. To register for Farming Evolution 2023, go to farmingevolution2023.eventbrite.com.
Mark Shepard
Author, farmer and consultant Mark Shepard is the CEO of Restoration Agriculture Development, Forest Agriculture Enterprises and runs New Forest Farms, a 110-acre perennial agricultural savanna, one of the first of its kind in the United States. He has been designing and installing farm and ranch-scale rainwater management systems since 1995.
Mark’s book Restoration Agriculture, and its follow-up companion Water for Any Farm, are frequently at the top of bestseller lists for the Acres U.S.A. Bookstore.
Learn agroforestry from Mark with his popular Eco-Ag U Online course: Practical Permaculture and Agroforestry for Farmers. Not sure the entire course is for you? Try it out with Mark’s short course – Basics of Practical Permaculture.
Marty Travis
Marty Travis is the proud owner of Spence Farm, which he runs with his wife, Kris and son, Will. Since they started their farm, they have grown their co-op to more than 120 participating farms in the Illinois region. Their farm and co-op supplies organic vegetables and heritage meats to some of the top kitchens in the city of Chicago. In 2019, Spence Farm was highlighted in the documentary, Sustainable.
Marty has become a frequent presenter at Eco-Ag Conferences, and you can see him in the 2021 Eco-Ag Conference Replay at Eco-Ag U Online.
Marty is also author of the book My Farmer, My Customer: Building Business and Community Through Farming Healthy Food, which shares a winning formula for success in modern family farming.
Nasha Winters
Dr. Nasha Winters is an adored part of the Eco-Ag Conference community, not only due to what she knows, but the time she gives the audience on site.
Nasha is a sought-after luminary and a global healthcare authority in integrative cancer research and consults with physicians around the world. Based on a personal journey with cancer, Nasha is on a mission to educate and empower the nearly 50 percent of the population expected to have cancer in their lifetime.
Nasha is bestselling co-author of The Metabolic Approach to Cancer and Mistletoe and the Emerging Future of Integrative Oncology, both available at the Acres U.S.A. Bookstore.
You can also catch one of Nasha’s conference presentations in the 2021 Eco-Ag Conference Replay at Eco-Ag U Online.
Gary Zimmer
Gary Zimmer has been speaking at the Eco-Ag Conference for more than 25 years, and attending for almost 40. As the founder of Midwestern BioAg and Zimmer Ag Consulting, he was given the label of “father” of biological agriculture for his work introducing soil biology as a critical piece of soil management, during a time when minerals and chemistry were the only real considerations.
Gary owns Otter Creek Organic Farm, a family-operated, award-winning 1,000 acre farm near Lone Rock, Wisconsin, and has been on the board of Taliesin Preservation Inc. since 2011. Walk the fields of the farm and learn from both Gary and his daughter Leilani Zimmer-Durand during the 2023 On-Farm Intensive with Zimmer Ag. This exclusive event will take place Aug. 15-16, 2023, on Zimmer’s farm in Wisconsin. Don’t miss it!
Gary is the author of The Biological Farmer (Second Edition), and Advancing Biological Farming, and numerous articles on soils and livestock nutrition.
Stay Tuned for Updates for 2023 Eco-Ag Conference
We’ve already announced the dates – Dec. 4-7 – and location – back at Covington, KY, right across the river from beautiful Cincinnati, OH – of the 2023 Eco-Ag Conference & Trade Show, and registration is open! Be sure you’re signed up for our News & Announcements email newsletter to get the latest info on speakers, agenda updates and more for the 2023 Eco-Ag Conference & Trade Show. Can’t wait to see you there!
