@Stephen_Sinnott

Yeah- Something I hear from conventional broad acre crop producers (I follow some of these folks on youtube and instagram) is that they would like to move to organic (the concept of “regenerative” hasn’t filtered to everyone quite yet), or just more responsible growing methods, but they all pretty much believe that it comes with reduced yield across the board, made up for by organic premium prices. I believe that in most farmer’s hearts, they want to be doing the right thing.

I think that the emotional response that comes from desiring to be better stewards of their land (and the heart knowledge that modern agricultural practices are not that), paired with factual yield data and the publicity generated from achieving those kind of yields biologically would be very powerful.

I imagine you are right about AEA’s bandwidth- I can tell you from my personal experience, having a current shopping cart approaching $15k and likely to rise that I have been super unimpressed with the quality of consultation I received (or didn’t receive, more accurately) from one of their newer additions. I attribute that to growing pains, and don’t hold it against them. Fortunately, I’m a true believer and also deeply interested and dedicated to studying all of this, so I’m able to piece together much of it on my own.

That being said, what I understand from hearing John talk about that, is that he doesn’t desire for AEA to become a giant monopoly on biological agriculture, but for their presence in the marketplace to force a movement in the direction of regenerative and biological agriculture by the industry as a whole. I wholeheartedly agree with that position.

I suspect weed control may be the biggest barrier in a biologically based approach to a record yield goal.