Kris Nichols
By Amber Hayden
MENOMONIE — Kris Nichols, PhD, was one of three key note speakers at the 2020 Red Cedar Watershed Conference on March 12, and helped those in attendance gain a better understanding of regenerative agriculture.
Nichols is the founder and principal scientist of Knowledge for Regeneration and Innovation in Soils (KRIS) Systems Education and Consultation. She is currently working as a soil microbiologist and research consultant with MyLand Company LLC and Understanding Ag., LLC.
Her focus is addressing current and future agricultural needs by building upon a soil health foundation to identify biological tools to enhance soil health, water and nutrient use efficiencies, pest and disease management, and mitigate climate change to provide long-term solutions to agricultural economic viability, food insecurity, and ecosystem services loss.
“I was blessed enough on some level to get a lot of perspectives on things with being both a farm kid and a city kid at the same time, and in the same year,” said Nichols. “My dad purchased the farm the year I was born, and it has been a farm we have worked ourselves.”
Regenerative Agriculture
During Nichols’ presentation she discussed the ways regenerative agriculture has become the way to go for farmers which included focusing on the problem not the issues, enhancing resilience and nutritive qualities, and using the power of photosynthesis – allowing sub-atomic levels of energy to flow from the sun through carbon into plants, microbes, and animals.
“How you grow, and what you grow, is impacted by where it is grown,” Nichols stated. “We need a fundamental shift on a large scale.”
Several farmers and ranchers that Nichols spoke with in Iowa expressed they have to grow corn and soybeans, but she asked about growing small grains in Iowa and that they were in an environment that grew short to mid-grass prairie, which is a small grain.
“We have convinced ourselves that we have to grow a tropical grass that we annualized and named corn,” said Nichols.
She expressed to those in attendance of the conference the need for thinking outside of the box, and looking at the entire system of regenerative agriculture.
Nichols also stated that on a quarterly basis to make decisions in the management scheme to address issues such as what was the weather like or what will it be like in the next few months.
“All of those things are going to be part of what you are doing as dynamic changes,” she explained. “Making those innovations, in the short term, but you have the long term goal. And you are looking at things from a system dynamic.”
Her belief is that there is one problem in agriculture, there is not enough soil which is carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen bound to the mineral matrix of sand, silt, and clay.
“The great thing about carbon, it is a wonderful element,” stated Nichols. “It is the ultimate buffer, filter, cleaner, and binder.”
Because of the carbon filter on earth, that is why there was any air or water quality control at all. Carbon also allows the compounds needed to be available when different organisms need them.
Nichols said she is concerned about the future in regard to what farming will begin to look like when the United States no longer grows food, but low quality feed and industrial products and imports food from elsewhere, she said
“You are not going to be able to survive on your landscape as farmers and ranchers if you are getting paid pennies on the dollars to supply low quality feed,” Nichols stated.
With nine hundred million acres in agriculture, according to Nichols, 450 million needed to be in regenerative farming previously with the other 450 million acres needing to be moved within the next ten years.
Nichols does believe the need for farmers and ranchers to continue supplying the feed and industrial products will last for the next 30 to 40 years, and then the world will begin to demand something that has a higher value.
Local Resources
Nichols focused in on the local food movement, stating it is great but the supply has not increased only the demand has.
“We need to start doing this at scale,” she stated. “I’ve done some work with various food companies, and one of the things they are concerned about is how to get the supply chain filled as they want to work with regenerative farms.”
Companies such as General Mills now sit around a table discussing how they connect with local regenerative farms, stated Nichols, as they are wanting to replace 25 percent of their Gold Medal flour with regenerative grains.
Nichols belief is that regenerative farming could go the same route of organic farming, but since the organic farming standards were put into place, nothing has changed.
“What has happened is for the companies to do organic grains and proteins, they go overseas,” she explained. “Because that is where the farmers who made the shift in order to fulfill the supply that was needed.”
Her hope is for local farmers to be able to stay on their farms beyond centuries and into millenniums.
Principles
Nichols gave six principles that she felt were the most important when it came to eco-functional intensification.
The principles are maximizing photosynthesis, diversity, manage livestock, reduced or no synthetic inputs, reduced or no till farming, and soil armor. According to Nichols the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) only states four of the six principles are fundamentally needed.
There is no time anymore to regenerate the soils in the same way the natural eco-system does, stated Nichols.
“Basically the secret is, every organism is preprogramed to be naturally lazy,” she said. “What we call this is conservation of resources, we do the least amount of work for the greatest amount of reward.”
Nichols stated that the principle ideas should be done several times throughout the year, and not just every now and again.
In the state of Wisconsin, the sun shines 365 days a year, explained Nichols, but every year the energy of the sun is captured for one-third of the time.
“You need to have something green and growing for a minimum of 280 days,” she said. “That gives you 85 days off for a vacation. The reality is, if we are going to regenerate our soils in a couple of decades we need to have that influx as much as possible.”
The system was created over time to satisfy the needs of the organisms, but what is needed is to intensify the system to get it to move at a quicker pace, she said.
Solving the carbon problem
“In solving the carbon problem it will allow plants to not have to pay back the carbon to anyone,” stated Nichols.
This will allow the power to change the environment and that does not just affects water and air quality, but also affects what the soil looks like and how it will behave.
Nichols used an example from a farmer, David Brandt, to show what soil would look like after 35 years of regenerative practices.
“We don’t have 35 years, but we can do it in a shorter amount of time by taking lessons and knowledge that we have gained from people like Mr. Brandt and putting it to use,” Nichols commented.
The use of carbon will continue to help with fertility in soil and water use efficiencies, to use nutrients in water and biological activity to add good structure and health to it.
