Regenerate brings together ranchers, farmers, educators, conservationists, scientists, technical assistance providers, and thought leaders to share their work and grow a more cohesive and generative community.
Regenerate 2024 – Innovating for a Resilient Future
Participants-turned-graduates in Quivira Coalition’s New Agrarian Program take the stage at Regenerate 2024.
01/21/2025
By: Kevin Alexander Watt
Cole Harris (Office of Kat Taylor), Kathy Webster (TomKat Ranch), Kevin Watt (Bookcliff Consulting), Wendy Millet (TomKat Ranch)
Regenerate brings together ranchers, farmers, educators, conservationists, scientists, technical assistance providers, and thought leaders to share their work and grow a more cohesive and generative community. The theme of this year’s conference was “Innovating for a Resilient Future” and featured talks including climate stress and policy changes that would support regenerative agriculture.
Kevin Watt represented TomKat Ranch and gave a talk titled “Collaborating to Train Regenerative Technical Assistance Providers.” This presentation discussed how essential technical assistance programs are for promoting regenerative agriculture and shared the curriculum from the four-day pilot Regenerative Agriculture and Conservation Planning workshop hosted at TomKat Ranch last year.
The goal of the presentation was to share the course’s innovative curriculum and collaborative structure which was created in partnership with San Mateo Resource Conservation District, staff from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Point Blue Conservation Science, and Carbon Cycle Institute. Above all, the presentation aimed to inspire others to create similar partnerships. Excitingly, several attendees from organizations across the United States approached TomKat Ranch afterward to request more information so they could host similar training workshops in their communities.
Kevin Alexander Watt speaking at Regenerate 2024.
Kathy Webster, in her dual role as a board member at the American Grassfed Association (AGA) and the Food Advocacy Manager at TomKat Ranch, hosted two roundtables with AGA board Vice President Don Davis on the new regenerative standards being incorporated into the AGA certification. These new standards have been a crucial focus of Kathy’s work to empower consumers with reliable and trustworthy information about the environmental impact of their purchasing decisions.
Dr. Jonathan Lundgren, a keynote speaker, presented the 1,000 Farms Initiative, which explores the impact and viability of regenerative agriculture across the country. He shared findings from data collected across the first 750 farm participants. The 1,000 Farms Initiative supports the growing scientific understanding that regenerative agriculture provides many valuable co-benefits including supporting healthy carbon cycles, promoting biodiversity above and within the soil, enhancing nutrient density in food, and improving producer economics. However, the most moving part of his presentation was his emerging data on the serious negative impacts that conventional agriculture has on the health of farmers and ranchers.
Kathy Webster, TomKat Ranch, holding court at Regenerate 2024.
One of the biggest highlights of Regenerate each year is the graduation ceremony for the participants of the Quivira Coalition’s New Agrarian Program (NAP), a remarkable program that pairs young people who are passionate about conservation and regenerative agriculture with experienced ranchers for immersive apprenticeships. Since 2008, NAP has successfully graduated over 100 regenerative agriculture apprentices, and this year they had their largest graduating cohort with over 30 young people completing the program. This graduation is always an emotional and inspiring part of the conference where attendees of all ages and experience levels come together to publicly welcome and celebrate a new generation that will continue the important work of regenerating and stewarding the land.
