Rick Clark, a no-till organic farmer from Indiana, recently encouraged a group of farmers at a field day to move away from synthetic pesticides.

“Eliminate all of these caustic inputs that are harming our bodies. We can farm without all these inputs,” he said. “Let’s figure out how to move forward and make it happen.”

Clark emphasized that farming is about more than building soil health. “This is about building soil health and human health,” he said.

Clark was the keynote speaker at a field day focused on regenerative agriculture organized by soil health consultants Continuum Ag held in Washington, Iowa in June. Nearly 250 people, mostly farmers, from 20 states attended the field day in person, and another 1,000 joined the event online.

Clark said he began with no-till farming and cover crops but now farms organically with no-till and diversified cover crops.

“No-till organic is hard,” he said. “But I am particular about doing things a different way.”