Advancing Regenerative Agriculture

As part of its sustainability initiatives, Syngenta provides support to grower- and conservation-focused organizations, creating partnerships that amplify farmer-led projects and drive the growth of regenerative agriculture across the United States.

“We’ve seen from a sustainability standpoint that projects started by the farmers themselves have more longevity and get better buy-in,” says Liz Hunt, head of North America sustainability at Syngenta. “Farmer-led programs have a better chance of succeeding long term.”

Trent Wimmer, sustainable solutions key account manager at Syngenta, agrees.

“When local growers know their neighbors and understand the agronomic pressures they’re feeling, the likelihood of success to address those pressures goes way up when they’re led by their peers,” he says.

The company also looks for organizations with direct funding or learning opportunities at the field level, Hunt says, and that can provide insights for improving programs and meeting Syngenta sustainability goals.

Sand County Foundation: Developing Farmer-led Groups

One of the organizations Syngenta partners with is the Sand County Foundation (SCF) in Madison, Wisconsin. Founded in 1965, the national nonprofit takes its name and vision from the 1949 book, “A Sand County Almanac” by Aldo Leopold, who is often referred to as the father of modern conservation. Sand County Foundation partners with self-initiated farmer groups to facilitate peer-to-peer education on regenerative ag practices. Currently, Sand County Foundation is the lead partner for a multimillion-dollar U.S. Department of Agriculture-Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS) Regional Conservation Partnership Program project to develop and fund farmer-led groups.

Heidi Peterson, vice president of agricultural research and conservation at Sand County Foundation, says Syngenta supported SCF’s grant proposal by covering costs for time and resources to develop the application and recruit collaborators.

“The grant from Syngenta supported six months of planning and coordinating,” she says. “It was huge to have that support, to show there was industry interest and get the ball rolling toward conservation progress.”

A Sand County Foundation event brings growers together for peer-to-peer education.

Sand County Foundation helped seed over 8,500 acres of cover crops in Iowa.

Craig Ficenec, senior director of agricultural conservation at Sand County Foundation, says one benefit of the grant is the opportunity to streamline processes for growers to participate in conservation projects without taking time away from their other work.

“We can do clever things like not making each farmer submit an application for drone-seeding of cover crops then wait a year to get funded,” he says. “We can just hire pilots, buy bulk seed, have the farmers sign up and get cover crops custom applied while they’re busy harvesting.”

In 2024, Sand County Foundation partnered with 75 Iowa farmers in Dubuque County Watersheds to seed 8,500 acres of cover crops via drone technology; more applications are expected in 2025.

American Farmland Trust: Saving Farmland

American Farmland Trust (AFT) is on a mission to “save farmland by the acre and by the inch.” The group was founded in 1980 to address concerns about losing farmland to non-farm development. But the goal has since evolved, according to Jean Brokish, Midwest deputy director of AFT.

“Over time, the mission has expanded to think about how we’re managing the farmland so we’re not losing it to erosion. We’re engaging with farmers to protect agriculture’s very foundation: the soil, water and nutrients needed for healthy crops,” she says.

When working with farmers to advance regenerative practices, Brokish says AFT often takes a train-the-trainer approach.

“A lot of our work is about training farmer-leaders who can then share their expertise and mentor other farmers, or helping ag retailers and educators identify ways they could encourage growers to think more strategically about regenerative agriculture,” Brokish says. “Not every regenerative practice is going to fit on every farm, but every farm can find a regenerative practice that can fit.”

AFT regularly hosts on-farm field days and farm tours to highlight regenerative agriculture practices like this event in Livingston County IL.

Planting soybeans into a living cereal rye cover crop is an advanced regenerative ag practice and one that helps build soil health.

Planting native species in field borders is a great way to integrate pollinator habitat on farms in Illinois.

Syngenta recently partnered with AFT and 50 growers to plant 500 acres of pollinator habitat to increase species diversity in the Midwest, primarily Illinois and Wisconsin.

“We were interested in that because obviously pollinator habitat is beneficial for the environment, but it also helps address some of those soil health and water quality issues that are the core of what we’re doing,” Brokish says, noting that there could be a demonstration field day once the habitats are established.

“We thought we might have a hard time finding 500 acres, but it was quite the opposite,” she says. “There’s a lot of interest in this practice.”

Trust In Food: Building Ag Resilience

The mission of Trust in Food, a social purpose initiative of Farm Journal, is to “accelerate the transition toward a more resilient ag system across the U.S.” Trust In Food works to bring value chain organizations to the table as private partners to lead its efforts through change programs America’s Conservation Ag Movement and Trust in Beef.

Our partnership programs bring together the whole agriculture value chain, from the farm gate to innovations and solutions providers so that we can work together to build a stronger, more resilient future for American farm families,” Jamie Sears Rawlings, director of influence engagement at Trust in Food says. “Through this work, we take a farmer-led approach by elevating producers who show how, every day, they are striving to make their operations more profitable and efficient for the future.”

Practicing producers — known as conservation stewards — host local farmer-to-farmer learning events that focus on conservation practices like soil health, innovation technology and marketability.

“Our partners are right alongside us at these field events, giving them the opportunity to showcase their innovations or solutions that meet the everyday issues that farmers face,” Sears Rawlings notes.

“Whether they’re innovation leaders in implementation like Ducks Unlimited, or leaders in bringing tools to the market like Syngenta, those companies are available to growers when they’re ready to take that next step,” Sears Rawlings says.

It’s that access to information that makes Trust In Food important to modern ag, Sears Rawlings says.

“Agriculture is evolving more rapidly now than ever in its history, and farmers need to be able to keep up with that to manage their operations,” she says. “They need information they can trust.”