Wide view of cattle grazing a tall, diverse paddock on the northern Great Plains behind a temporary fence line, with a rested paddock of taller grass beyond.

People

Regenerative agriculture in the United States has faces: ranchers who rebuilt their soil one paddock at a time, scientists who measure what that grazing does, teachers who have put thousands of farmers through their schools, and writers who explain it to the rest of us. This directory collects the people a reader meets again and again once they start paying attention.

Every entry links to the person's own site or to the farm, company or organization they lead, and each one was checked in October 2026 for current work: a school, a talk, a book, a harvest, a published result. Where a person is known for a practice, the photograph shows the practice rather than the person.

Gabe Brown: Gabe Brown in a cap and blue T-shirt holding a proof copy of his book Dirt to Soil under a shelter on the ranch, pasture and shelterbelt behind him. Photo: Brown's Ranch Gabe BrownGabe Brown's family ranch east of Bismarck, North Dakota, has farmed without tillage since 1993, with diverse cover crops, integrated livestock and long pasture recovery periods. His son Paul now manages Brown's Ranch while Gabe works full-time with Understanding Ag as a senior partner, wrote Dirt to Soil and speaks at farm conferences across the country.Visit site Ray Archuleta: Ray Archuleta teaching outdoors, holding a cover-crop plant with its root ball of soil, wearing a cap, sunglasses and an event name badge. Photo: Soil Health Academy Ray ArchuletaRay Archuleta spent 30 years with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service as a soil health specialist before co-founding Understanding Ag and the Soil Health Academy. He teaches how soil functions with slake tests and rainfall simulators at schools and field days nationwide, and ranches near Seymour, Missouri, where the academy held its homestead school in April 2026.Visit site Joel Salatin: Joel Salatin smiling in a yellow hard hat, glasses and a green Polyface T-shirt, his face smudged with dirt, autumn woodland behind him. Photo: Polyface Farm Joel SalatinJoel Salatin co-owns Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia, where cattle, pastured poultry and pigs move across the pastures in a planned rotation. He writes books on pasture-based farming, posts several times a week on his Lunatic Farmer blog, co-hosts the Beyond Labels podcast with Sina McCullough and speaks at farming and homesteading events nationwide.Visit site Will Harris: Will Harris in a straw hat and suspenders standing in a crimson-clover pasture holding two jars of soil, an "Organic Farm, No Spraying" sign behind him; the farm's "In Soil We Trust" headline is set into the sky at upper right. Photo: White Oak Pastures Will HarrisWill Harris runs White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, Georgia, a family farm founded in 1866 that raises grassfed beef, heritage pork, pastured poultry, lamb and goat and butchers them on the farm in a zero-waste system. The farm employs more than 160 people in a town of about 100, and he wrote A Bold Return to Giving a Damn.Visit site Rick Clark: Rick Clark in a plaid shirt and cap standing in a flowering clover cover crop at dusk. Photo: Farm Green (Clark Land & Cattle) Rick ClarkRick Clark farms near Williamsport, Indiana, where the family operation runs a no-till regenerative organic system with diverse cover crops, no synthetic fertilizer or pesticides and more than seven crops growing at once. Through Farm Green he consults with farmers, speaks at conferences and gives interviews on soil health and farm economics.Visit site Greg Judy: Greg Judy in a wide-brimmed hat kneeling in a clover and grass sward, pointing to the plants while explaining them on a pasture walk. Photo: Green Pastures Farm Greg JudyGreg and Jan Judy run Green Pastures Farm near Clarksville, Missouri, grazing cattle, sheep, pigs and chickens across 1,620 owned and leased acres and growing mushrooms. He teaches planned grazing, leasing land and low-input ranching through on-farm grazing schools, his YouTube channel, conference talks and the book No Risk Ranching.Visit site Leah Penniman: Leah Penniman smiling up at the camera from among tall amaranth leaves in a mulched garden bed. Photo: Soul Fire Farm Leah PennimanLeah Penniman co-founded Soul Fire Farm in Petersburg, New York, an Afro-Indigenous centered community farm and training center whose programs equip Black, Indigenous and other farmers of color with growing techniques and land stewardship skills. She directs farm operations there, wrote Farming While Black and Black Earth Wisdom, and keynotes national conferences on food, land and justice.Visit site A grower seen from behind applying a fine foliar spray to young apple trees in an Ohio orchard with a flowering groundcover between rows. John KempfJohn Kempf founded Advancing Eco Agriculture, a regenerative agronomy consultancy, and Crop Health Labs. He hosts the Regenerative Agriculture Podcast, wrote Quality Agriculture, teaches two-day workshops for growers and runs regular Ask Me Anything webinars on plant nutrition, crop health and reducing inputs.Visit site Jonathan Lundgren: Jonathan Lundgren in a bucket hat and dark shirt standing in a sunny prairie meadow with autumn trees behind. Photo: Ecdysis Foundation Jonathan LundgrenJonathan Lundgren founded and directs the Ecdysis Foundation, a research nonprofit run from Blue Dasher Farm in Estelline, South Dakota. Its 1000 Farms Initiative studies farms as whole systems, measuring soil, biodiversity and profit on more than a thousand farms across North America, and its September 2026 soil carbon analysis drew on data from more than 2,000 farms.Visit site David R. Montgomery and Anne Biklé: David R. Montgomery and Anne Biklé side by side in their garden in front of Japanese maples. Photo: David R. Montgomery and Anne Biklé (Dig2Grow) David R. Montgomery and Anne BikléDavid R. Montgomery, a University of Washington geologist, and Anne Biklé, a biologist, write on soil, microbes and health. Their books include Dirt, Growing a Revolution and the jointly written The Hidden Half of Nature and What Your Food Ate. Montgomery's ReGen: A New Future for Farming, Food, and Health came out in August 2026.Visit site Rattan Lal: Formal head-and-shoulders portrait of Rattan Lal in a dark suit and patterned tie, smiling, green foliage behind. Photo: CFAES Rattan Lal Center for Carbon Management and Sequestration, The Ohio State University Rattan LalRattan Lal is Distinguished Professor of Soil Science at The Ohio State University and founded and directs the CFAES Rattan Lal Center for Carbon Management and Sequestration in Columbus. His research on soil carbon, no-till and restoring degraded soils earned the 2019 Japan Prize and the 2020 World Food Prize, and he continues to lecture and publish.Visit site Mark Shepard: Mark Shepard in a cap and light shirt with one hand on a young tree in his perennial planting, chestnut trees and tilled ground beside him. Photo: Restoration Agriculture Development Mark ShepardMark Shepard turned a worn-out row-crop farm in Viola, Wisconsin, into New Forest Farm, a 106-acre perennial operation of chestnuts, hazelnuts, apples and grazing livestock modeled on oak savanna. He wrote Restoration Agriculture, runs Restoration Agriculture Development and teaches hands-on water management and agroforestry workshops.Visit site Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin: Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin smiling in a chicken paddock among shrubs and trees, hens and waterers around him and a red barn behind. Photo: Tree-Range Farms Reginaldo Haslett-MarroquinReginaldo Haslett-Marroquin developed a regenerative poultry system in which chickens range through forested pasture under tree cover, raised without antibiotics or close confinement. He leads Tree-Range Farms as CEO, directs innovation and strategy at the Regenerative Agriculture Alliance and works from Salvatierra Farms in Northfield, Minnesota, which trains farmers in the system; in 2026 the network has 13 producing farms.Visit site Peter Byck: Close portrait of Peter Byck with curly hair and dark-rimmed glasses outdoors, the US Capitol area blurred behind him (an older press photo from the Carbon Nation release). Photo: Chrisna van Zyl / Carbon Nation Peter ByckPeter Byck is a documentary filmmaker who directs the Carbon Cowboys series and the four-part Roots So Deep, films that follow ranchers using adaptive multi-paddock grazing and the scientists measuring soil, water, insects and birds on their land. Community screenings run across the country, with dates through December 2026.Visit site Dan Kittredge: Dan Kittredge smiling outdoors in a blue shirt, framed by the association's green circle and leaf graphic. Photo: Bionutrient Food Association Dan KittredgeDan Kittredge grew up on an organic farm in central Massachusetts and founded the Bionutrient Food Association in 2010 to connect soil health with the nutritional quality of food. The association runs the Soil and Nutrition Conference, courses and workshops, and the Bionutrient Institute, which develops tools to measure nutrient density in crops.Visit site Taylor Collins and Katie Forrest: Taylor Collins and Katie Forrest standing together in tall grass with a bison herd and oak trees behind them; the right half of the file is a blank paper-texture panel that held the bio text. Photo: Roam Ranch Taylor Collins and Katie ForrestTaylor Collins and Katie Forrest co-founded EPIC Provisions and in 2017 founded Roam Ranch on 600 acres of river-bottom land outside Fredericksburg, Texas. Bison, pigs, chickens, turkeys and ducks graze together under planned rotation, the ranch tracks its soil organic matter and water infiltration, and it opens for tours, harvests and conferences.Visit site Anna Jones-Crabtree: Anna Jones-Crabtree in a plaid shirt and vest sitting in a flowering cover-crop field, chin in hand, looking across the crop. Photo: Vilicus Farms Anna Jones-CrabtreeAnna Jones-Crabtree and Doug Crabtree own Vilicus Farms, a first-generation organic dryland crop farm near Havre, Montana, that has grown from 1,280 acres in 2009 to more than 9,600. The farm keeps 26 percent of its land in pollinator conservation, rotates more than 20 crops and has run a beginning-farmer apprenticeship since 2013, and she directs the Vilicus Institute.Visit site Justin Rhodes: Justin Rhodes in a flat cap and waxed work apron standing arms crossed on the gravel lane of the homestead, wooded hills behind. Photo: Abundant Permaculture (Justin Rhodes) Justin RhodesJustin Rhodes and his wife Rebekah homestead about 140 acres in western North Carolina, feeding a family of seven from chickens, sheep, other livestock and gardens. His YouTube channel has 1.13 million subscribers and new videos every week, and Abundant Permaculture offers his courses, homestead design help, the book The Rooted Life and a 2026 tour schedule.Visit site

More directories