Campus Sustainability is partnering with US Energy to host Boise State’s first Carbon Summit at the Morrison Center for the Performing Arts on April 21-22 (Earth Day). It will feature speakers and topics within; Sustainability, Energy, Education, Diversity, and Synergy – ‘Planting SEEDS, Growing Community.’ Led by the US Energy team of sustainability coordinators, the Carbon Summit was created to provide a promotional platform to identify, promote, and help scale sustainable solutions.
Author and regenerative agricultural pioneer, Gabe Brown, will be the keynote speaker during The Carbon Summit’s Sustainability and Energy Day on April 21.
Winner of the prestigious 2021 Heinz Award for the Environment, Brown is a North Dakota rancher, soil health educator and consultant who is widely considered to be among the world’s preeminent experts in teaching farmers and ranchers how to transition from chemical-intensive conventional farming practices to more profitable and climate-friendly regenerative farming methods. Through his work with the consulting firm Understanding Ag, LLC and the non-profit Soil Health Academy, Brown and his team have helped their fellow farmers and ranchers successfully apply soil health-improving practices on more than 50 million acres throughout North America over the past several years.
“During last year’s summit, regenerative agriculture advocate Ray Archuleta, described ‘why’ there is pressing need for more farmers and ranchers to adopt soil health-improving principles in their operations,” US Energy Director, Jason Marmon, said. “Through his experience on his own ranch and in his work with agricultural operations across the globe, Gabe will be providing the ‘how’ we can do so in his presentation. This topic is especially salient today because of our organization’s work in promoting regenerative agriculture here in the Treasure Valley.”
Brown is the author of “Dirt to Soil: One Family’s Journey in Regenerative Agriculture” and was recently featured in the award-winning Netflix documentary, “Kiss the Ground.” In the book and in the documentary, Brown describes how he was able to save his ranch from near bankruptcy by applying regenerative agricultural practices and how those practices provide enormous on- and off-farm benefits, including improving the nutrient density of food, sequestering carbon, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving water quality and making farms more resilient to extreme weather events.
“Our vision through this two-day summit is to stimulate multi-generational dialog and collective action to make a positive impact on the environment, climate, economy and in the lives of the members of our community,” Marmon said. “The hope in healthy soil that Gabe brings through his work is both practical and inspirational. Nature has provided us with the tools to address many of the pressing climate, social and economic issues we face today. Gabe is the very best at teaching us how to put those tools to beneficial and profitable use.”
For more information on The Carbon Summit, visit www.boisestate.edu/sustainability/