In 2009, Arkansas farmer Adam Chappell had a pigweed problem. The large, aggressive weed had invaded his 8,000-acre farm in Cotton Plant, and he was spending more than $100 per acre to fight it.

“That weed was singlehandedly putting us out of business,” Chappell told GreenBiz. “We were on a treadmill we just couldn’t get off of, spending ourselves into oblivion.”

Chappell knew he needed a new approach. Herbicides weren’t cutting it. So he researched organic farming and decided to test growing cereal rye as a cover crop to control weeds on a 300-acre corn field. Chappell immediately saw a decline in weeds, but he also noticed other benefits. The soil was easier to work, the field didn’t have standing water after rain, and his irrigation timings were half of what they used to be.

That success set Chappell on the path of regenerative agriculture, an approach to farming that focuses on soil health and overall resiliency through management techniques such as minimal or no tillage, crop rotation and cover cropping.