Meet the Storytellers

Rami Aburomia | Mount Horeb, WI

“When people feel a lack of hope and power, look to your community to rebuild hope and power.   This project to improve our land and build a sustainable business has empowered our family and farm to know we can do something good and powerful for our local and global community.  We hear it when our customers bite into a delicious apple or when we do a field day at the orchard.”

Rami Aburomia starting growing apples 21 years ago as a manager of a u-pick operation south of Madison, WI.  That experience formed a base of knowledge about growing apples and running an apple business in Wisconsin.  After searching for an appropriate orchard site, he planted an orchard on his own land in 2015 which was certified organic in 2017. Atoms to Apples, the orchard comprises only 5 Acres of the 25 Acre farm with those remaining acres being restored to prairie and oak savanna. Rami believes the orchard and native ecosystems benefit each other by providing pollinators services to one and financial backing to the other!   

Erin Arango-Escalante | Verona, WI

"We are rebuilding community networks by centering families most impacted by unjust systems and responding to what they say they need: fresh food and connection This work rebalances relationships disrupted by extraction by treating land not as a commodity, but as a shared partner."

Erin Arango-Escalante is the founder of All Children Thrive and brings more than 20 years of experience leading cross-sector early childhood initiatives at the local, state, and national levels. She centers family voice while advising senior public, philanthropic, and community leaders nationwide on building early childhood programs and advancing policy solutions that strengthen children, families, and economic opportunity.

In addition to her systems work, Erin and her family own Tilly’s Farm, a small, community-rooted farm in Wisconsin dedicated to land stewardship, food access, and co-creating spaces where families feel a sense of belonging. The farm grows fresh produce that is shared with local Head Start families and community partners, and it serves as a volunteer and learning space for young adults with disabilities. Tilly’s Farm was created as a place where people of all ages can reconnect with the land, participate in growing food, and experience community in ways that are welcoming, hands-on, and inclusive.

Rachel Beglin | Bemidji MN

 "I want to break down the false barrier between "agricultural land" and "conservation land" and blend the two to create the kind of agroecological systems that allow humans and fauna to flourish."

Rachel Beglin is a first-generation farmer and budding shepherdess. After graduating with a B.S. in Environmental Science, she thought she'd be going to law school, but two years of sustainable agriculture work in rural Panama with shade-grown coffee farmers changed her course and moved her to work on climate change with her boots on the ground and her hands in the soil. Rachel has spent time working on agricultural tribal food sovereignty alongside the Red Lake Nation and managed an integrated livestock and forest gardening operation in Boulder, Colorado for three years, but now she is exploring what land stewardship, regenerative agriculture, and agroecology look like in northern Minnesota. She rotationally grazes a mixed-breed flock of sheep, forages, grows medicinal and perennial herbs, and gardens organically, all while trying to better understand the deep ecological relationships between the forests, waters, mycelium, four-leggeds, wing-eds, insects, and humans on the land she now calls home. 

Leslie Cooperband | Champaign, IL

"As we restore our land to native ecosystems, we are giving biodiversity and ecosystem health a fighting chance in an otherwise highly altered commodity grain production landscape."

For nearly 20 years, Leslie Cooperband and her husband Wes Jarrell owned and operated Illinois’ first farmstead dairy-creamery, Prairie Fruits Farm & Creamery LLC (Champaign, Illinois). Both soil scientists and academics by trade, they left behind their professorial lives to become goat dairy farmers and farmstead cheese-makers. They milked 80 goats seasonally and made 8-10 styles of artisan cheese, many of which won national awards, including the American Cheese Society and the Good Food Awards. Their pasture-based goat herd was certified “Animal Welfare Approved” for 14 years. Leslie and Wes sold their farm business in February 2024, and it is thriving. They currently live on the neighboring farm, which they are restoring and rewilding.  Leslie writes a weekly Substack post called “Leslie’s Farming with Nature,” and is working on a memoir about her experiences as a dairy farmer and cheese maker. She continues to be involved in the region’s local food system, serving on the Frontera Farmer Foundation board and writing stories about regenerative agriculture and the connections between farming and the natural world.

Taylor Hartson | Berrien Springs, MI

"Learning the language of slight twitches, nibbling mouths, and incessant bleats has helped me make sense of the other languages around me — of weather, of soil, of forests — and as a result, a better caretaker of the land I tend. Land stewardship, at its heart, is relational: regeneration only happens when just enough to meet our needs is taken and more than plenty is left behind, but we can only find that balance by understanding the needs and relationships of our community, both human and more-than-human."

Small ruminant lover and ever-curious land steward Taylor (also known as Tig) has been farming in varying capacities for a decade, discovering their kinship with dairy goats & excitement for cheesemaking in 2019 and never looking back. On all the land they tend, Taylor centers the complex relationships between plants & soil & animals & people and the value of mutual support in a shared ecosystem. At Come & See Farm, they herd around a handful of goats & sheep through the woods and dream up opportunities to gather & share community knowledge & kinship. When Taylor isn't tangled in fencing or chasing a rogue goat, they're making cheese down the road at Verdant Hollow Farms, bark-tanning hides, or spinning piles of wool into yarn.

Denise Greer Jamerson | Princeton, IN

"I would like to tell the story about how my family has been stewarding land as African American farmers since 1855 in a community of African American farmers.  Our family as well as other families are still stewards over land in the rural community. "

Denise Greer Jamerson is a generational farmer from the historic farming community of Lyles

Station, Indiana, where she was raised on her family’s land learning the values of hard work,

stewardship, and community. The land holds deep meaning for Denise not only as a source of

food and livelihood, but as a living connection to the legacy of Black farmers who built and

sustained the community for generations.

Through her work with Greer Farms and Legacy Taste of the Garden, Denise is committed to

protecting farmland, addressing the impacts of climate change, and educating other land stewards

about sustainable practices that preserve the land. Guided by a deep love for her community and

its history, she works to ensure that this land is protected, nurtured, and sustained for future

generations honoring the past while building a resilient future for farmers and rural

communities.

Emily Jones | Spring Grove, IL

"I want to tell a story about resilience that feels human, not heroic. Small-scale farming demands emotional, physical, and ecological resilience in a world that often values speed and extraction."

Emily Jones is a regenerative farmer, storyteller, and community builder at Prairie’s Edge Garden in northern Illinois. For the past six years she has been learning, season after season, how to grow food and flowers while caring for the prairie landscape that surrounds her. The farm is rooted in organic, no-till practices and guided by a philosophy of stewardship shaped by family history. The land she farms is part of a generational story that includes decades of native seed collecting and prairie restoration grounded in reciprocity and respect for the land and its resources.

Through vegetables, flowers, herbs, and native plants, Emily works to strengthen relationships between people and the land that feeds them. Her heart feels grounded in the quiet acts that sustain small-scale farming: saving seed, building soil, and choosing to care for a place long enough to see it change.

She hopes to reach others who feel drawn toward land, belonging, and a more hopeful future. Everyone deserves the chance to experience the joy of tending the earth and sharing in its abundance

Millicent Kasal | Scandia, MN

"I care deeply for this place, its bees, its trees, and its capacity to heal. That love compels me to protect what is fragile, to move slowly, and to steward with respect rather than control. I tend the land because I love it and because I believe love can be a force for protection and action."

Millicent Kasal is a regenerative land steward, storyteller, and technology leader based in Minnesota’s St. Croix River Valley. With more than two decades of experience in information technology and leadership, she currently directs an Enterprise Project Management Office supporting initiatives that strengthen housing stability and community well-being.

Millicent is the founder of Mama’s Honey Haus LLC, a regenerative land project dedicated to beekeeping, agroforestry, mycology, and land-based learning. Her work weaves together ecological stewardship, ancestral knowledge, and community healing through storytelling, ritual, and education.

A doctoral student in Visionary Practice and Regenerative Leadership, Millicent explores how land, memory, and imagination can guide new models of leadership and belonging. Through her writing, teaching, and land stewardship, she invites others to remember their relationship with the Earth and to participate in the regeneration of place, culture, and community.

Oliver Luker and Vanessa Oniboni | McHenry County, IL

Oliver Luker and Vanessa Oniboni are part of Wonderland Community Project, an intentional community in McHenry, IL, working on land-based reciprocal relationships.

Oliver Luker has been telling his kids for years that his job is ‘I draw pictures and tell stories’ – some days, that’s still true. With a varied background encompassing corporate roles, startups, volunteer roles and many accidental injuries, Oliver is passionate about identifying and solving complex practical problems. He is cofounder of Seq Solutions and works in healthcare.

Born in Lima, Peru and with a background in arts and social justice, Vanessa became a certified permaculture designer from the year-long Permaculture Research Institute course in 2022. They enjoy designing ecological processes by establishing connections between elements in ecosystems and the emotional aspects of working within communities. Vanessa is a Regenerative Designer at Mycelium Regenerative Co-Design, and most importantly, they’re learning the Beaver ways.

Kaytlan Moeller | Dubuque County, IA

"I want to tell the story of reciprocity, defining how everyday acts of stewardship like planting native species, restoring cold water stream banks, and protecting pollinators quietly regenerate both land and community. "

Kaytlan lives in the Driftless Region of northeast Iowa, where the Mississippi River meets limestone bluffs and trickles into the remaining tallgrass prairie. She works as the Outreach Coordinator for Dubuque County Conservation and leads Mowing to Monarchs, a grassroots program that helps residents transform traditional lawns into pollinator habitat. Through community storytelling, she explores how caring for a small patch of ground, even a backyard or parking lot island, can grow into a deeper connection with parks, prairies, and public lands. Passionate about sharing the overlooked wonders of the Midwest, Kaytlan’s storytelling centers on cultivating a sense of place and inviting others to see the landscapes of the Upper Mississippi Valley with fresh curiosity and care. She is also intensely curious about the natural world, she is just as likely to talk about spittlebugs, native plants, sink holes, or the best wood to split and whatever else she is actively amazed with. 

Sharon Nordrum | Laporte, MN

"I truly believe that we must speak for those that cannot speak for themselves. I am the voice of all plant, tree, and animal nations that we share our lives with."

Sharon Nordrum is an artist and community advocate from Laporte, MN, who lives with her son and their rescued animals. Raised by parents who modeled hard work and civic duty, she began helping her mother, the town’s first animal rescuer, at age 12 and has spent 47 years fostering animals, funding their care through kennel work as a teen. Professionally, she has been a self-employed artist since 2012, specializing in Woodland Indian and Saami flora and fauna art, teaching in local communities, including Leech Lake, White Earth and Red Lake Reservation as well as in the city of Bemidji.
Recently, Sharon has expanded her impact by joining multiple boards, including MAHUBE-OTWA and the Environmental Initiative, and is the sole community member on the Lottery Coalition, where she advocates for environmental grant funding. 

Jodi Reese and Terry Langan | Griswold, IA

"Iowa has the 2nd highest rate of cancer in the US, 3 years in a row, and our county has the highest rate of cancer in the state. Through advocacy and education, we are bringing our community together to monitor nitrate levels (a known carcinogen), promote and connect local growers with eaters, implement proven conservation practices, and demand a clean water policy. None of us asked for poisoned water; we are being harmed by an unjust system against our will."

Jodi and Terry have been restoring remnant prairie and burr oak savannah in Southwest Iowa for the last 3 years. They are lifelong water protectors and land defenders who believe that being conscientious stewards requires a tangible connection to diverse and thriving ecosystems. Both value healthy food for themselves and their community. They're working towards this goal through several perennial food production systems.

They also value relationships. They strive to broaden their community and improve this tangible land

connection through a nonprofit they co-founded one year ago. The Nishnabotna Water Defenders

consists of a group of people focused on advocacy and public education with respect to improving water

quality in Southwest Iowa. The regenerative practices Terry and Jodi are implementing, informed by

Traditional Ecological Knowledge, are part of the bigger story of water quality, food sovereignty, quality of life, and proving that caring for Mother Earth and one another is possible, hopeful, and happening all over.

Leanna Goose | Leech Lake

Leanna Goose is an Anishinaabeg graduate of Leech Lake Tribal College, a mother of three children, and a co-facilitator of the Rise & Repair Alliance. Leanna has worked on linking science to activism in order to help protect her homeland. She believes Indigenous wisdom can help us live in right relationship with the land around us. Leanna strives to help create a world where the next generations can thrive. Part of that work involves organizing around the protection of manoomin or wild rice.

Leanna is currently working on a research project called Protecting Manoomin for the Next Seven Generations. This project brings together a team from Leech Lake Tribal College and the Leech Lake Division of Resource Management funded by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture to study the impacts of invasive species on the Leech Lake Headquarters rice bed and work to remove invasive plants and reseed manoomin in those areas. Leanna enjoys gardening, teaching her children Anishinaabeg traditions, and learning all that she can about the world around her.

Hear from Leanna:

Timing is everything: Indigenous Wisdom and the Protection of Manoomin (Yale Paprika!)

Groundbreaking bill to protect manoomin incorporates Indigenous lifeways and teachings into Western legal framework (Prism)

Teresa Peterson | Belview, MN

Teresa Peterson, Utuhu Cistinna Win, is Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota and citizen of the Upper Sioux Community. She grew up on a small hog farm and now lives with her husband Jay along the bluff of the Mni Sota Wakpa (Minnesota River), where they raised three sons. Teresa, a land lover and avid gardener, enthusiastically shares her knowledge and experience in growing and foraging foods, preserving, seed saving, and caring for the land.

Teresa is the author of Perennial Ceremony: Lessons and Gifts from a Dakota Garden and co-author of Voices from Pejuhutazizi: Dakota Stories and Storytellers.

Hear from Teresa:

Grasshopper Girl (Pioneer PBS)

In 'Perennial Ceremony,' a Minnesota garden as meditation (MPR)

Brandon Baity | Fargo/Moorhead area

“By drawing connections between cultural loss and environmental decline, we hope to inspire greater recognition of Indigenous knowledge in restoring balance to the land. At the same time, we seek to encourage Indigenous individuals, organizations, and communities to see land regeneration as a vital path toward cultural revitalization, strengthening identity, traditions, and community well-being.”

Brandon Baity is Anishinaabe and a descendant of the White Earth Nation. He grew up in Brooklyn Park, MN and currently lives in Moorhead, MN with his three children, partner, and mother-in-law. He graduated with a degree in social work from the College of Saint Scholastica in 2013. After graduation he worked as a youth mental health practitioner, school social worker, program coordinator for youth suspended from school, and a program manager for youth experiencing homelessness. He was a founding board member and is the current Executive Director of the Indigenous Association in Fargo, ND.

Betty Brennan | Potomac, IL

“Thoughtful land stewardship can create a resilient, productive farm while supporting wildlife and improving soil, water, and habitat. My journey into regenerative agriculture is rooted in both economic and ecological realities—I want my land to thrive for the long haul. Through grazing, diverse cover, and reducing inputs, I’m improving my farm’s health while maintaining profitability.”

Betty Brennan is a lifelong land steward and entrepreneur who has returned to her farming roots in east-central Illinois. Raised on a crop and livestock farm in Streator, she developed a deep appreciation for animals, land, and especially horses. After co-founding and leading a museum exhibit design and fabrication business, in 2021 she transitioned to full-time farming. Today, Betty owns and operates Bluestem Springs Farm, a 250-acre farm near Potomac, Illinois. She rotationally grazes sheep and stewards over 30 acres of conservation land, with most of her remaining cropland now transitioning into the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). Betty shares the farm with six horses and remains passionate about restoring native habitats, improving soil health, and fostering biodiversity.

Jim Chamberlin | Deerwood, MN

“Getting agriculture right, restoring a land ethic to food production, is imperative to solving climate change and the other many environmental issues we face.”

Jim Chamberlin is a Conservation Outreach Specialist for Happy Dancing Turtle, leading their Cows for Clean Water initiative. This initiative supports regenerative grazing from farm to fork, connecting producers to resources, educating consumers on the benefits of well managed grasslands, and supporting market driven conservation opportunities. He and his wife Audra own and operate Island Lake Farm near Deerwood, MN, a 109 acre diversified farm and forestry operation dedicated to using ecological principals in the production of food and forest products. Jim serves as a District Supervisor for the Crow Wing Soil and Water Conservation District and is past President of the Sustainable Farming Association of MN. He is passionate about real food, family, and skiing deep powder.

Liz Dwyer | Clearwater, MN

Jessika Greendeer | Hudson, WI

Bonnie Haugen | Canton, MN

“Farming is everybody’s bread, butter, and water. What I do on my farm affects water quality and quantity for all people, livestock, wildlife, and environments.  We can farm with nature, policy, and regulations. Our rural neighborhoods can have a variety of farm sizes, types, and ownership with farming practices that keep our soils and water clean and plentiful.”

Bonnie grew up in southeast Minnesota on a diversified dairy, beef, pork, and chicken farm. In 1993, she and husband Vance bought farm acres near Canton, Minnesota. Springside Farm was the home of a rotational grazing dairy that Bonnie managed while Vance worked off the farm. Their son Olaf later joined the operation, but due to market constraints from consolidation, the dairy ceased selling in 2024, retaining the livestock that rotationally graze the farm today. Bonnie was instrumental in bringing Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) to Minnesota and is a Master Grazier and DGA mentor. A member of Land Stewardship Project, Bonnie recently chaired the organization's Long Range Planning committee. She is a member of Southeast Minnesota Nitrate Working Group, Responsible Ag in Karst Country, Sustainable Farming Association of Minnesota, GrassWorks, and serves on the grazing subcommittee for the Minnesota NRCS State Technical Advisory Committee.

Paul Mairet | Lake City, MN

"As I deepen my connection with the land through low impact perennial plant work, I accept the label of farmer but also connect more deeply with terms like productive conservation and forest gardening. My primary goal is to work in harmony with nature, to become part of nature as much as humanly possible. I am working to rethink concepts like need, wealth, and ownership, to be a step along the path toward an environmentally just future in which we humans do not place ourselves as separate or above the wondrous and supportive life all around us."

Paul Mairet is a beginning farmer and manager of Nine Hazels Farm, a hybrid hazelnut farm and nursery in Lake City, MN. He brings a background in arts and education and recent years of mentorship from hazelnut farmers, researchers, and artisans to his work. For the last five years, he and his partner Sanna have been fixing up, expanding, and diversifying an established hazelnut farm, a landscape that was once defined by conventionally tilled monoculture but has been the site of inspiring regeneration for the last 20 years. Some of Paul's current projects include developing sustainability-focused perennial nursery infrastructure and processes and researching the potential value and uses of coppiced hybrid hazel wood.

Chrystal A. Odin | Osceola, WI

“Domestic and local flower growers continue to be an empowering force for climate mitigation, species diversification, and soil health. We are not only farmers, we are artists and caregivers.”

Chrystal A. Odin (all pronouns), is a Queer and ADOS mother, spouse, sister, consultant, facilitator, care-giver, and farmer, with over 7 years of professional experience in flower and vegetable farming and “regenerative” agricultural practices. Born in western Pennsylvania, Chrystal spent most of the formative years in central Minnesota. Chrystal is a current resident of Philadelphia Community Farm Inc. (PCF), serving as Community Member and Lead Flower Farmer, and is a member of the PCF Board of Directors. In addition to being a farmer, Chrystal is a visual artist and vocal performer, with roots in theater and jazz, puppets and clowning. Chrystal is an educator and activist for ADO(e)S and Indigenous access to land as a human right; believing that the ancestral relationship of historically oppressed individuals to agriculture is a cultural imperative that contains the legacy of humane process, and that centering this legacy is part of the answer to healing the global harms of colonialism. 

Katie Ross | Stevens Point, WI

“Landscape restoration can be a beautiful and profound point of agency to cool our climate, restore our water cycles, grow nutritious and delicious food, foster incredible biodiversity and reconnect with ourselves and that which sustains us.”

Katie was raised in central Wisconsin, often found wading in mud, searching for interesting things, or trailing her grandfather around his farm. She was always passionate about nature, feeling a deep sense of awe and empathy with the more-than-human world. While pursuing a degree in Ecology, she became hyper-focused on addressing climate change, eventually moving to Australia where she supported rural communities in their transition away from fossil fuels and led Soils for Life, an organisation that supports farmers who want to transition to regenerative agriculture. Now back in Wisconsin, Katie is continuing her work with soil, water, and land stewards and is keen to share stories of rural regeneration happening across the state.

Tessa Sadae Parks | Northfield and Nerstrand, MN

“As more land transitions occur in the coming years, I envision emerging farmers making more strides towards dismantling the ideology of 'get big or get out' that we are seeing from corporate consolidation. With increased land access, we will be able to demonstrate that farm profitability and conservation practices can not only coexist but are essential to farm land's continued health and ability to nourish.”

Tessa Sadae Parks (she/they) is a first-generation, Japanese-Filipino-White farmer who co-owns and operates a beef and certified organic hay operation with her spouse Wyatt (he/him) on 100 percent rented ground in the Northfield area. As part of the Sharing Our Roots Farm Commons Cohort since 2021, Tessa and Wyatt have rotationally grazed Holstein steers, raising them bottle calf-to-butcher to improve soil health and provide quality beef direct-to-consumer. This year (2025), they pivoted to raising feeders and beginning a breeding herd. Her work in agriculture has also led to advocacy work at the state and federal level for emerging farmers and climate-smart practices with organizations like Minnesota Farmers Union, Land Stewardship Project, and National Young Farmers Coalition. Away from the herd, Tessa has worked in organic certification and inspection, and joined Clean River Partners as the Agricultural Practices Conservation Program Coordinator at the end of 2024.

Alejandra (Alex) Sanchez | Mondovi, WI

“At the heart of everything we do is to create land-based textiles grown in harmony with the animals and plants that live on our farm and to preserve these ancient textiles practices. Textiles created in a regenerative way come from the earth and are able to go back into the earth to nourish the soil.”

Alejandra (Alex) Sanchez is the textile artist, folklorist, and shepherdess behind A Woolen Forest Farm. The farm’s focus is the conservation of endangered heritage sheep breeds and the preservation of ancestral textile practices. The farm is home to a herd of Angora rabbits, three llamas, and a mixed flock of heritage breed sheep which include: Jacob, Leicester Longwool, and Navajo Churro. Alex was born in Mexico and sought textile arts as a way to connect with her ancestry and to feel rooted to her homeland. Her work in textiles encourages folks to connect with the land and its animals and to view their wool-craft as both a form of stewardship and a piece of living history through folkloric practices. Alex teaches classes on wool spinning, wool processing, natural dyeing, heritage breed studies, and historically-based textile practices.

Leanna Goose | Leech Lake

Leanna Goose is an Anishinaabeg graduate of Leech Lake Tribal College, a mother of three children, and a co-facilitator of the Rise & Repair Alliance. Leanna has worked on linking science to activism in order to help protect her homeland. She believes Indigenous wisdom can help us live in right relationship with the land around us. Leanna strives to help create a world where the next generations can thrive. Part of that work involves organizing around the protection of manoomin or wild rice.

Leanna is currently working on a research project called Protecting Manoomin for the Next Seven Generations. This project brings together a team from Leech Lake Tribal College and the Leech Lake Division of Resource Management funded by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture to study the impacts of invasive species on the Leech Lake Headquarters rice bed and work to remove invasive plants and reseed manoomin in those areas. Leanna enjoys gardening, teaching her children Anishinaabeg traditions, and learning all that she can about the world around her.

Hear from Leanna:

Timing is everything: Indigenous Wisdom and the Protection of Manoomin (Yale Paprika!)

Groundbreaking bill to protect manoomin incorporates Indigenous lifeways and teachings into Western legal framework (Prism)

Teresa Peterson | Belview, MN

Teresa Peterson, Utuhu Cistinna Win, is Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota and citizen of the Upper Sioux Community. She grew up on a small hog farm and now lives with her husband Jay along the bluff of the Mni Sota Wakpa (Minnesota River), where they raised three sons. Teresa, a land lover and avid gardener, enthusiastically shares her knowledge and experience in growing and foraging foods, preserving, seed saving, and caring for the land.

Teresa is the author of Perennial Ceremony: Lessons and Gifts from a Dakota Garden and co-author of Voices from Pejuhutazizi: Dakota Stories and Storytellers.

Hear from Teresa:

Grasshopper Girl (Pioneer PBS)

In 'Perennial Ceremony,' a Minnesota garden as meditation (MPR)

Seth Watkins | Clarinda, IA

Seth Watkins is the fourth generation of his family to care for Pinhook Farm. Located is Southwest Iowa, the farm was established by Seth’s Great Grandfather in 1848.

Today Pinhook Farm is home to a herd of Angus cattle, a flock of Katahdin sheep, several hives of honey bees, and many newly planted trees. Seth attributes Pinhook Farm’s success to prioritizing stewardship over production by striving to build a system that works with nature.

In addition to caring for the farm, Seth is a TEDx speaker, serves as a United Nations Food Systems Champion, and serves on the board of directors of The Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation.

Hear from Seth:

Farming Evolved: Agriculture Through a Different Lens (TEDxDesMoines)

Peonies & ALE's (Substack)

This bill in Congress would make Iowa's water problems much worse (Des Moines Register)

Leanna Goose | Leech Lake

Leanna Goose is an Anishinaabeg student at the Leech Lake Tribal College, a mother of three children, and a co-facilitator of the Rise & Repair Coalition. Leanna has worked on linking science to activism in order to help protect her homeland. She believes Indigenous wisdom can help us live in right relationship with the land around us. Leanna strives to help create a world where the next generations can thrive. Part of that work involves organizing around the protection of manoomin or wild rice.

Leanna is currently working on a research project called Protecting Manoomin for the Next Seven Generations. This project will bring together the Leech Lake Division of Resource Management, Leech Lake Tribal College students and staff to study the impacts of invasive species on the Leech Lake Headquarters rice bed and work to remove invasive plants and reseed wild rice or manoomin in those areas. The Headquarters rice bed was chosen for this study because it is less than half the area it once was just two decades ago, according to local sources. This decrease in size correlates to when the invasive species Eurasian watermilfoil was introduced in 2004. Leanna enjoys gardening, teaching her children Anishinaabeg traditions, and learning all that she can about the world around her.

Annie Humphrey | Leech Lake

Annie Humphrey is the daughter of a poet, visual artist mom, and a guitar playing old school Indian dad. Annie was born into a large family. They lived on tract #33 in Cass Lake, MN … the hub of Leech Lake Reservation. Annie spent springtime in the maples helping her family make syrup. At age 12 she was able to rice with her big brother. She helped finish hundreds of pounds of wild rice in their yard. Today, Annie still spends springtime in the maple stand, teaching her grandsons what her parents taught her.  She teaches them to honor our mother (Earth) and to have gratitude for the gifts provided.  

During covid, Annie took up carpentry at the Leech Lake Tribal College. The first statement her instructor made was "carpentry and deforestation go hand in hand." This statement hit Annie so hard that she began researching alternative ways to build. Around the same time, Annie was organizing against the Huber Mill. This proposed campus was to be the largest OSB (oriented strand board) plant in America. Annie found her alternative: Building with hemp. She traveled to Fargo, ND to be part of a hemp project/experiment under the direction of Matt Marino. Presently, she is working on her own hemp project. Her teacher is Danny Desjarlais, the hemp construction project manager for the Lower Sioux Reservation. Annie and Danny work towards building healthy homes for their people. 

Lynn Mizner | Palisade, MN

Lynn Mizner has degrees in natural resource management from the University of Minnesota and St. Cloud State University, and a certificate in Alternative Dispute Resolution from Hamline University School of Law. After a career in natural resource management with the state of Minnesota, she settled in rural Aitkin County and is a full-time farmer and advocate for the land and water. She is a mother and grandmother with decades of experience in homesteading and farming in Australia and Minnesota.

Her farm, Chengwatana Community Farm, is on the banks of the Willow River and benefits from the fertile soil of the floodplain. While stewarding the land and water, Lynn’s mission is to share the knowledge and skills she has gained over the years with people who want to build local food and fiber security and the health that comes from growing and eating the best possible food. Lynn also writes for the local newspaper and a variety of other publications about environmental and community issues, healthy local foods and regenerative farming. 

Shanai Matteson and Johnny Barber | Palisade, MN

Shanai Matteson is an artist, writer, educator and cultural organizer who grew up in rural Aitkin County, where she lives today. She is a single mother of two young children and a climate justice advocate focused on creating education and engagement opportunities for other artists and organizers, especially those working on the ground in their Indigenous and rural communities. Currently, Shanai is working on Chengwatana Community Farm as an organizer and advocate, and is collaborating with Annie Humphrey to launch Fire in the Village, a collective of artists and cultural organizers who build spiritual fires of human connection where we live – in Anishinaabe territory, or rural northern Minnesota – and in arts and music communities across the region.

Johnny Barber is a human rights activist and filmmaker who has been documenting the stories of frontline communities around the world for several decades. Recently, Johnny and Shanai have been working together to document communities on the frontlines of resource extraction, and the Indigenous and rural climate solutions that come from deepening our relationships with land and water. Together, Johnny and Shanai will help to document and share inspiring stories of climate land leaders and water protectors in their rural region of Northern Minnesota.

Adam Griebie | Hutchinson, MN

“When we talk about water it’s important to start with how substantially farming has changed the landscape. Farmers should get paid for good stewardship. I want to talk about the power of conservation on private land and creating more accessibility to government programs for land managers, owners and farmers.”

Adam Griebie grew up hunting and fishing along Buffalo Creek, which flows through the 1,000 acres of cropland his family farms. After completing an environmental science degree at University of Minnesota Duluth and work that included raptor research, Adam returned home and joined his father, Joe, in the farming enterprise. Their land includes acres in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP),  pollinator habitat, woods and wetland. Stewarding soil, water and wildlife habitat have always been values on their fourth-generation farm, and Adam is continuing to invest in conservation through other federal programs like the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). The Griebie Farm is also part of the Discovery Farms Minnesota program which gathers on-farm water quality data.

Beatrice Kamau | Beecher, IL

“Taking care of the soil and the life below the soil is important. We are working to cover the ground with trees and shrubs that are both income-generating and benefiting the soil. All of us have to play a role. Maybe some people feel they only have a quarter acre, 5 acres – but everybody, no matter how big or small, needs to focus on changes we have to make.”

Vegetable farmer, beekeeper and landowner Beatrice Kamau founded Multiple Harvest Farm 6 years ago and for the first 5 years farmed a quarter acre in a Chicago neighborhood. Now she is growing the operation on land she owns south of Chicago with a mission “to cultivate a diverse range of vegetables, including cultural varieties favored by African immigrants and other vegetables cherished by local communities, using sustainable practices that preserve soil health and contribute to a balanced ecosystem.” This year is focused on soil remediation, growing food and beginning to implement an agroforestry plan.

Leslie Kaup | Albert Lea, MN

“I want to tell of a journey to regenerative agriculture, from my childhood in Iowa helping to weed a big veggie garden, to Wild Again Farm, my hazelnut farm today. Our current farm fields are blank slates, ready to be recreated in nature’s image. The results could include nutrient dense foods, wildlife habitat, pollination oases, and strong rural communities where people eat food grown by their neighbors, share farm resources, and support each other in so many ways.”

Leslie Kaup is a farmer, activist, and writer who has worked as a cook in a hospital in southern Minnesota for the past nine years. Through this job, she is a union leader and executive board member of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare MN & IA. She grew up in Iowa, moved to Minnesota in 1998, and has an English degree from the University of Minnesota. Leslie is co-founder of the Center for Deep Ecology, a nonprofit which works towards creating the world we want to live in through environmental education. She also works Wild Again Farm, with perennial crops including hazelnuts, apples, berries, and mushrooms.

Ayanna Ilewin Maynard | Bismarck, ND

“I grow out the seeds, research, harvest, seed save, and give every part of the seed/produce back to the community. I do the growing on certified organic land and travel to surrounding indigenous communities to assist on garden projects and ideas. One of my research projects involves growing prairie turnip, echinacea, sweet grass, sage, and wild mint, with a goal of getting these medicines transplanted throughout North Dakota and back into our communities so elders have better access to them.”

My name is Ayanna Maynard, and my Lakota name is Ilewin Mani “On Her Journey She Burns”. I’m a member of the Cheyenne River Lakota Nation, an avid gardener, caretaker of seeds, and an aspiring farmer. I’m a graduate of United Tribes Technical College’s Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems program and the Business Management program. I work with the USDA Agricultural Research Station in Mandan, North Dakota, working on seed-saving projects and seed “rematriation” for indigenous communities, so tribes have more access to traditional foods.  In my spare time, I love to socialize and spend time with my 3 beautiful daughters while decolonizing healing through indigenous ways of knowing: healing through a strength-based process, with focus on shifts to relationships – relationships with myself, community, more-than-human, and mother earth.

Ginny and Kyle McClure | Melrose, MN

“Our hope is to make our family land a healthy habitat for threatened songbirds while prioritizing management decisions to help it weather a changing climate. We both work full-time jobs off the property and have a young daughter, so our story revolves around the impact busy people can have on land they care deeply about, including all the hiccups and small triumphs along the way.”

Ginny and Kyle met while in college in Duluth, eventually moving to Minneapolis and then Columbia, South Carolina.  to complete their respective Master’s degrees in studio art and early American literature. During those years, they contemplated paths for their lives and careers. Kyle grew up near his grandfather’s land in central Minnesota, and the two decided that returning home to positively impact the stewardship of that place would be a hopeful act in the face of climate change and biodiversity loss. They sought a range of experiences to further this goal: an urban farming certificate in South Carolina; WWOOFing in Italy; a sheep dairy internship in Washington; farmers market gigs in Portland, OR; and illustration work for The Greenhorns and Good Food Jobs. In 2015 they returned to Minnesota and have been taking an active role in management decisions, including converting 40 tilled acres to native prairie through the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP); planting bur and white oaks to establish a savanna ecosystem; and initiating a 7-year Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) buckthorn removal project for 150 acres of hardwood forest.

Mike Seifert | Jordan, MN

“My personal vision of regeneration is a world where agriculture heals the land rather than depletes it, and where farmers participate in a more local economy and have more direct relationships with their neighbors and immediate community members. Farmers are innovators, with an eclectic skill set. I think we need that more than ever if - as a society - we're intending to interact with the world in a more holistic way.”

Mike Seifert is a fourth-generation farmer who operates a 100-acre conventional crop farm located just south of Jordan, Minnesota.  He farms alongside his father, and together they have been reintroducing diversity on the land, including a multi-year alfalfa rotation and small grains. They’ve made a switch to no-till practices and are using cover crops as much as possible, and in doing so have reduced their fertilizer and herbicide applications. Mike has started making compost on a larger scale and envisions an operation that generates needed nutrients on the farm and has soil that does a lot of the work for them.

Bryan Simon | Barrett, MN

“People have a vital role to play within ecosystems, but it isn't one of extraction and degradation, it's one of enhancing and facilitating natural cycles and processes that build productivity and ecosystem function. That is why on my farm I have worked to move it from an annual row crop system to a highly diverse native perennial based system, controlled invasive species, restored wetlands, and reintroduced fire and grazing to regenerate our farm.”

Bryan Simon is owner/operator of Lakeside Prairie Farm, and has a B.A. in Biology from University of Minnesota Morris and a M.S. in Ecology from South Dakota State University. Lakeside Prairie Farm currently offers targeted goat grazing to control invasive species and custom grazes cattle.  They have raised and direct marketed grass-fed beef, pastured hogs, free range chickens, eggs, vegetables, oats, and wheat in the past. The land’s most defining feature is the restoration and rehabilitation of the prairie, wetland, and oak savannah ecosystems.

Funwi Tita | Buffalo, MN

“Part of our goal here is to preserve our cultural heritage. From where we come a lot of our history is built around food. If you study our tradition and the way it’s passed on and the way the stories are told, it’s always around farming, around food. People come out to the farm and when you hold the hoe, it’s like you’re being teleported. They start hoeing and then they stand up and start telling stories, about their lives, about experiences they had growing up. They haven’t had that experience of being able to unearth those stories in a very long time.”

Funwi Tita grew up on a farm in Cameroon and came to the United States to attend college. After settling in Minnesota, Funwi and his wife Jennet began growing African greens and vegetables first in their backyard garden and eventually on several plots of rented land. Today Funwi operates Better Greens LLC on 11 acres of land in three locations and sells produce directly to customers and through food hubs like The Good Acre and community food shelves. His goal is to create consistent access to culturally relevant foods for communities of African immigrants in the U.S.

Linda Black Elk

Linda Black Elk is an ethnobotanist and food sovereignty activist who specializes in teaching about culturally important plants and their uses as food, medicine, and materials. Linda works to build capacity in her community and beyond, to promote and protect traditional plant knowledge and environmental quality as an extension of the fight against extractive industry. Linda has written for numerous publications, and she sits on the board of Makoce Ikikcupi, a land justice organization on Oceti Sakowin lands in Minnesota. Linda currently serves as the Food Sovereignty Coordinator at United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, North Dakota and she spends her free time with her husband and three sons, who are all citizens of the Oceti Sakowin.

“We are lucky to have known many amazing gardeners in our lifetimes. It takes a certain type of person to be passionate about growing food, medicine, and flowers … it takes an incredible level of patience, devotion, and willingness to experiment … which sounds a lot like good human-human relationships, doesn’t it? We want to tell some garden stories. We want to hear about our community’s relationships with gardens and the plants they choose to care for. We want to hear how gardens have sustained, frustrated, nourished, and healed our community, and we want to know how this has changed over time.”

Dan Cornelius

Dan Cornelius, owner of Yowela Farms and a member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, grows heritage Indigenous crops, raises animals, makes maple syrup, and harvests wild rice. His overall approach seeks to balance modern equipment with inspiration from traditional practices with no-and-minimal tilleage for crop production and animals to help cycle nutrients.  Dan is also the Outreach Program Manager for the University of Wisconsin Law School’s Great Lakes Indigenous Law Center and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

“I want to tell my story of personal food sovereignty in building my farm and broader seasonal harvest lifestyle. Within this personal story, I will weave in different sub-stories of seeds and animals subsisting from the land, as well as how my personal story intersects with regional and national Indigenous food sovereignty.”

Naima Dhore

Naima is a first-generation farmer, activist and educator committed to caring for mother earth and community building. She founded the Somali American Farmers Association and owns and operates Naima’s Farm LLC in Alexandria, Minnesota. Naima is passionate about organic farming and inspiring young people to become farmers, specifically people from immigrant communities in Minnesota. She is an inaugural member of the Emerging Farmers’ Working Group at the Minnesota Department of Health and educates on sustainable agricultural practices, healthy eating habits and the connections to environmental and community health.

“What I love about my community is that we come together and share knowledge, stories and resources. We utilize the small resources we have and make something great as a community -- but more importantly we do our best to enhance and improve our lives. I am privileged to work with the elders and young people who are passionate about gardening and farming in all stages, ultimately helping them access fresh produce as much as possible. I want to showcase what we’re trying to do – regenerative practices that incorporate cultural practices and foods, scaling up millet, the movement within the East African farmer communities – and our common interest in protecting our soil and resources and rejuvenating farm lands that were historically corn and beans.”

Joseph Gazing Wolf

Joseph Gazing Wolf has dedicated his life’s work to serving marginalized communities globally, with a particular focus on the economically and socially oppressed. As a buffalo rancher and conservationist, he has worked to increase Indigenous and Black representation and to provide field training and hands-on skill development for youth. As a scholar, he has worked with Indigenous communities globally to support the preservation of their cultures and document their efforts to protect ancestral lands.

“This story will begin to capture what true restoration of ecosystems is, how it is ultimately ineffective without restoration of Indigenous human communities and their relationality to land. I will begin this process by inviting Elders from Tribal Nations to tell the story of their ancestral lands from their perspective. The goal is to share the knowledge and narratives of Elders and knowledge holders with younger generations. I hope their stories and experiences will inspire younger generations to continue to restore Traditional Ecological Knowledge in land stewardship practices while healing the destructive impacts of extractive methods that have had devastating impacts on human and more-than-human communities alike.”

Katya Gordon

Katya Gordon is a climate activist, a community leader, and a media resource for northern Minnesota. She and her husband lead Sea Change Expeditions, a non-profit sailing program that engages young people in climate solutions through sailing adventures on Lake Superior. Katya is the volunteer State Co-coordinator for the Citizens' Climate Lobby. She also hosts a weekly radio interview addressing weather and climate, is a reporter and columnist for the Lake County Press, and has written numerous articles and two books--one about climate change for northern Minnesotans, and one about liveaboard family sailing.  Katya and her family live in Two Harbors, MN, where they strive to live Arctic Explorer Will Steger's words that “the solution to climate change is social engagement.”

“I want to use our local radio platform to create an ongoing public conversation about the interconnections between food, soil, and climate change. Who the farmers are around here, what they produce and how to access their foods. Is farming in our area sustainable and viable? The challenges faced by farmers due to climate change. Are there agricultural benefits to our warmer and more volatile climate as the decades pass? What are the barriers to a sustainable food system up here and how they can be overcome? What is the connection to the local indigenous diet, and what can be learned from this? What is the impact behind the fact that we are a largely evergreen forest area, with highly acidic, shallow soil, or clay? What can be done about soil up here to create more local foods while storing more carbon?" 

Meg Nielsen

Even before Meg started school, her grandmother taught her to weed her beautiful flower beds on the family farm in Southern Minnesota. Ever since she has felt a strong spiritual connection with the Earth, the trees and all living creatures – human and otherwise. A founding member of Climate Land Leaders, she is a lover of words, a gardener and a woman of faith. She has worked as the editor of a weekly community newspaper, mothered three children, been partner in a small public relations company, and serves as a deacon in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Meg and her husband Glenn now steward the family farm and are actively working to transform formerly cropped fields to perennial pasture; over the past two years, they’ve moved 50 acres into permanent living cover and are getting ready for a grazier.

“Why would two 70-year-olds with no farming experience suddenly decide to spend the rest of their lives working to change how the land they inherited is farmed? The answer lies in understanding where their life experience intersects with the climate emergency of life on our planet today. It’s a story where the loss of the meadowlark’s song connects with the onset of violent weather events that wash out crops and send topsoil gushing down dead furrows, and where the absence of life in the soil is only outdone by the absence of nutrition in the food we eat.”

Lina "Mama Tshutshu" Nyaronge

Lina, aka “Mama Tshutshu,” is a transplant from Kisii, Kenya. She studied Animal Science, Agriculture and Horticulture Business at the University of Nairobi before moving to the U.S. Mama Tshutshu has been organizing her East African neighbors in Northfield, Minnesota, where she has started several community gardens. She’s on staff at Sharing Our Roots, helping expand farming resources to Northfield’s East African community. Mama Tshutshu is a passionate farmer and loves sharing ideas about cultural ways of practicing farming together.

“The misuse and overuse of chemical pesticides in our gardens and farms has degraded the soil and the community of organisms living in the soil. Climate change has greatly affected our ways of farming especially now that we are faced with unpredictable weather patterns. I want to share stories on three themes with my local Northfield community: interconnections between agriculture and climate change, drawing on my experiences as a farmer in Kenya; the importance of growing our own indigenous food as a cultural practice; and what a communal response to climate change looks like.”

Dr. Ruth Plenty Sweetgrass-She Kills

Ruth Plenty Sweetgrass-She Kills is an enrolled citizen of the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation and is a member of the Maxoxadi Clan. She is also descended from the Fort Peck Sioux and Assiniboine. She has gardened and gathered traditional foods and medicines with her family her entire life. Currently, she serves as the Food Sovereignty Director at her home tribal college, Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College, where she shares some of this knowledge and experience.

“I love my community’s rich cultural history and the way my people have been able to keep some of those pieces alive, in spite of lack of access to land, lack of access to our traditional seeds, loss of widespread/shared knowledge about our traditional foods and practices, and the day-to-day survival way of living. I want to see more of our people growing more of our traditional seeds/crops, eating our traditional foods, and having it available locally. I would also love to see getting these foods to our tribal members who do not live on the reservation."

Ella Robertson and Eric Wanna

We are members of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate. We live on a small farm in the northeastern corner of South Dakota. We have horses, chickens, dogs, cats and one goat and we all serve a purpose in making our home successful. Our dream is to some day add cattle and have our own milk and make butter. We have added solar energy, wind energy and water catchment to draw from other natural resources available. Along with our farm activities, our focus has been on hunting and gathering. Traditional foods, and harvesting from the land has been a part of our lives since childhood. As adults we have grown in our knowledge, continue to learn and share what we know with others.  Our calendar is set by Mother Earth, it changes every year but puts us in tune with your environment and its continual change. It’s not something that we came into easily but has developed over the years, and our children and grandchildren have learned along with us. Generational teaching is important to keeping our traditions alive and ensuring this knowledge is secured for the future.

Ella and Eric are creating a series of short videos about the impacts of climate change, pollution and over-harvesting on honey bees, Indian Corn, Spearing, and Foraging.

Rhyan Schicker

Rhyan is part natural resources professional, and part naturalist, with a heavy dose of soil health enthusiasm sprinkled in. Originally from rural western New York, Rhyan came to Minnesota to work for the Lac qui Parle Soil and Water Conservation District, where she is now District Manager. During the snow-free days of Minnesota, you can find Rhyan in the tractor converting unproductive agricultural farmland into native prairie and wildlife habitats, striving to keep our waters free from Aquatic Invasive Species, and working with local producers to introduce conservation-minded principles into their farming practices.

“I want to show what our innovative region in SW Minnesota is doing in response to unpredictable weather intensified by climate change. I aim to highlight regenerative farmers' stories as well as the journey of conventional farmers transitioning to best management practices. Many stories live within these groups, and all the varied approaches lead down a path toward strengthened rural community and climate resiliency. I hope to engage a variety of audiences with a focus on local community members, neighboring counties, farmers looking to adopt climate smart practices, as well as policymakers who can learn about local impacts of agriculture and climate through our stories. One of the main goals of my work is to “reach beyond the choir” and connect with farmers and landowners who haven't yet engaged in regenerative or sustainable practices. By sharing stories I hope to aid in the acceleration of making climate resiliency and stewardship ethic more of a social norm."