Agriculture is under both economic and environmental stress, and this fall, KBIA has been exploring what needs to change to sustain agriculture.
Climate change is impacting farmers’ ability to make a living on the land due to unpredictable and volatile growing conditions. Additionally, severe weather caused by climate change results in floods, droughts, or storms that harm crops and farmland.
Regenerative agriculture, the movement that aims to change farming practices to revive the soil and, by extension, local ecosystems and the small farm economy, is seen as a solution to those stressors.
Throughout seven episodes in the first season of The Next Harvest, we’ve heard from farmers on the front lines and learned how farming regeneratively requires community.
“To be around people that are doing that is critical for me. I’m not a desert saint. I’m not going to survive if I just go out and try to do something all by myself,” Iowa farmer Arlyn Kauffman said in Episode 4.
For regenerative agriculture to become a prominent part of agriculture, cultural norms in the industry — and in families — have to adapt.
“That's a good thing to have your grandkids farming where you left off,” retired Charles Payne said in Episode 3. His grandchildren took over the family farm and transformed the row cropland into sheep pasture and a chestnut orchard.
“Of course, it's a different way of farming, but they're on the farm, and they seem to really enjoy it.”
We learned that farming in a way that regenerates the land and fosters an ecosystem is going to look different than what we’re used to.
“I think of it as sort of my long-term outdoor ecological experiment,” farmer and forester Emily Wright said in Episode 2.
The Next Harvest’s first season spoke with farmers who grow environmentally sustainable products and then expel the hard work and creativity required to get their products to customers.
“For 52 days a year, and only four hours on each of those days, I have to make my living,” farmer Liz Graznak, a staple at the Columbia Farmers Market, said.
We learned from the success of the elderberry industry in Missouri — which took decades of research and experimentation through a partnership between farmers and researchers.
“We began to create a plan of how to really make this work. What steps do we have to do to create an industry?” elderberry business owner Terry Durham said.
We also explored how transitioning a conventional farm into one that deploys regenerative methods requires time, training and money.
“It's good for the environment, it's good for the soil. But it does need to bring money back if we're going to spend the money on it,” said farmer Daniel Bonacker.
But there’s still more to explore.
According to the USDA, the average age of farmers in the U.S. is 58. In 2025, in the second season of The Next Harvest, we’ll look into the challenges to young producers and beginning farmers hoping to become the next generation of agriculturists.
KBIA will also analyze the federal and state agriculture policy landscape to learn how the industry came to be how it is now and how legislation and regulation could advance regenerative agriculture.
And we’ll look back at agriculture history and learn how regenerative agriculture methods are, in many ways, a return to the past and are rooted in Indigenous land management practices.
Stay tuned to KBIA for The Next Harvest and find all the episodes at kbia.org.
