October 10, 2026
Spotlight Stories
Spotlight 1 – Greenwich Time details a budding food scrap pickup service that wants your coffee grounds and egg shells. Read the story, here.
Spotlight 2 – Farm Progress says that if we want healthier soils, we need to start thinking like a banker. Check it out, here.
Spotlight 3 – The New Hope Network examines some of the surprisingly positive nutrition data coming from the regenerative beef sector. Take a read, here.
Industry Updates
New Barn Organics and BAM the Brand, Inc. have partnered to accelerate buckwheat’s role in regenerative agriculture. BAM makes America’s first buckwheat-based plant milk, and the partnership aims to expand buckwheat’s place in the American diet as a climate-resilient regenerative crop. [link]
Researchers at UC Santa Cruz are exploring ways to help farmers go fully organic. The team is analyzing a new steam technology that could offer an alternative to pesticides and fumigants. [link]
A new study led by the Institute of Soil Science at the Chinese Academy of Sciences finds soil texture and moisture conditions are as important as crop diversification for building soil carbon. Researchers say these physical soil conditions can matter just as much as, if not more than, diversification practices when farmers aim to increase soil organic carbon content. [link]
Virginia Tech’s 2026 Global Agricultural Productivity (GAP) Report finds agricultural productivity growth has slowed to its weakest pace in 50 years. The report shows global agricultural productivity grew just 0.63 percent annually from 2015 to 2024. [link]
USDA Secretary Brooke L. Rollins announced a $180 million investment to launch the Seed Sovereignty Initiative. The initiative aims to strengthen U.S. agricultural security by protecting the plant genetic resources that underpin American agriculture and enable future innovation. [link]
A large-scale field study in Ecuador finds that farms integrating trees into production store significantly more carbon in their topsoil. These agroforestry systems also maintained better fertility than simplified monocultures and treeless pastures. [link]
Pennsylvania Senate Democratic Policy Committee Chair Nick Miller hosted a hearing on today’s challenges in agriculture and farming. The hearing examined current state-level tools and supports while identifying forward-looking policy solutions. [link]
Two University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers received nearly $1.6 million from FFAR’s Efficient Fertilizer Consortium. The grant, from the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research, will fund research into how fertilizers perform under Midwestern growing conditions. [link]
A comprehensive new review published in Discover Soil argues that diversified cropping systems can rebuild degraded soils and suppress pests simultaneously. The review finds such systems can also conserve water and stabilize farmer incomes at the same time. [link]
Staff from federal legislative offices in Maryland and Virginia joined the Chesapeake Bay Foundation on a tour of Clagett Farm. The 283-acre farm in Upper Marlboro is a working regenerative operation run by the nonprofit. [link]
Food grown to Regenerative Organic Certified standards can be measurably more nutritious than conventionally grown food. The finding comes from a new report by the Regenerative Organic Alliance and food-testing company Edacious. [link]
Walmart and McDonald’s are each contributing $9 million to launch the Great Plains Grassland Fund. The public–private fund, managed by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, will help protect and sustainably manage intact grasslands across the U.S. Great Plains. [link]
In Case You Missed It…
In mid-August, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) announced that it had awarded more than $1.6 million through its Nitrogen Enhanced Efficiency Fertilizer Discount program to expand the use of nitrogen-saving fertilizer technologies on farms across Minnesota. See more, here.