The Ground We Share: Conversations on Soil, Food, and Health

Join us for a keynote presentation by Anne Bikle linking soil to human health. Immediately following, we will feature a panel of local/regional farmers and health care providers joining in conversation to share their soil-food-health stories. Doors open early to engage in related interactive exhibits!

Center for Faith and Life, Luther College

Presented by Luther College Center for Ethics and Public Engagement in collaboration with the Regenerating Soil and Community Project and other Decorah organizations.

Free and open to the public

6:30-7:30pm: Pre-Event:Doors open for interactive exhibits to experience soil, food, and human health

• Engage with soil health & water quality demonstrations (Regenerating Soil and Community Student/Faculty team)
• Learn about regenerative agriculture practices (Winneshiek County Soil and Water Conservation District)
• Experience and taste healthy food produced from the Driftless (Oneota Food Co-op)
• Peruse and check out gardening, cooking, and health books (Decorah Public Library)
• Connect with expertise elevating that food is health (Erin Meyer, MSFS RD)

7:30 pm: Presentation by Anne Biklé: Linking Soil Health to Human Health

Prelude: Dance performance by Luther College Orchesis Dance Group & faculty guests

Is it true that you are what you eat? Not entirely. The full story lies in how we grow the crops and raise animals that make their way into our bodies. Biklé will draw on her most recent book, “What Your Food Ate: How to Heal Our Land and Reclaim Our Health“, co-authored with her husband David Montgomery. Recent and forgotten science reveal intimate connections between soil health and human health traveling along a pathway that winds through soil, the bodies of crops, livestock, and microbiomes, eventually reaching us.

About Anne Biklé
Anne Biklé is a science writer and public speaker drawing on her background in biology and
environmental planning to explore humanity’s tangled relationship with nature through the lens of agriculture, soil, and food. She is particularly enthralled with the botanical world and its influence on humanity throughout history. With the help of mulches and microbes she has coaxed many a plant into rambunctious growth or nursed them back from the edge of death.

Biklé is the co-author of two books, What Your Food Ate and The Hidden Half of Nature. Both are collaborations with her husband geologist, David Montgomery. Her writing has appeared in print and digital media including Nautilus, Natural History, and Best Health. Her regenerative gardening practices have been featured in independent and documentary films and interviews with her can be found on a range of podcasts and radio programs that focus on farming, food, and human health.

Contact for Anne
web: www.Dig2Grow.com || email: Dig2Grow@gmail.com

8:30 pm: Soil, Food, and Health Conversation and Q&A with an award-winning panel of local/regional soil and human health care providers:

Wendy Johnson, Organic and conventional farmer, livestock grazier and entrepreneur. Owner and operator of Jóia Food and Fiber Farm, and Jóia Sleep. Co-manager and director of Center View Farms. Charles City, Iowa. 2024 Iowa Aldo Leopold Conservation Award winner.

Biography
Wendy Johnson is an organic and conventional grain farmer and grazier in Northeast Iowa and writer and public speaker on the intersections of climate and agriculture. She and her husband Johnny own and operate Jóia Food & Fiber Farm, a diversified regenerative organic farm growing food-grade grains, grazing ewes, grass-finishing lambs and cattle, custom grazing cow/calves and selling direct to consumer meats, grains and other edibles. They collaborate with other local farms to help build a robust food shed. She founded Jóia Sleep in 2020, a wool bedding business utilizing their sheep’s wool. Wendy also co-manages her family farm with her father, a 1200 acre conventional row-crop farm practicing extended crop rotations, no-till, cover cropping and have added several prairie strips in their traditional corn/soy fields. In the last five years, Wendy and Johnny have invested in agroforestry practices, adding trees and shrubs to enhance diversity and resiliency to the land and animals. Wendy is an active advocate of all things organic, perennial and promoter of diverse enterprises and people on the land. Her curiosity, passions and experiences have led her to leadership opportunities as former chair of the Iowa FSA state committee, former board member and chair of Practical Farmers of Iowa, and more currently steering committee member of the Rodale Institute Midwest Organic Center, farmer consultant and federal agriculture policy co-lead for Climate Land Leaders, Perennial Promise Growers Cooperative board member and chair, Regenerative Agriculture Foundation board member, Land Stewardship Project’s program committee member and numerous other local, state, regional and national board and committee roles.

Robby Jewell ‘14,  6th generation organic/conventional livestock and crop farmer and co-owner of Jewell Enterprizes, Decorah, IA. 2024 Excellence in Agriculture Decorah Chamber of Commerce Award winner. Nominated for 2025 Iowa Aldo Leopold Conservation Award.

Biography
Robby Jewell is co-owner of Jewell Enterprizes, a 1600-acre farm located in NE Iowa near Decorah. The farm includes stretches of the Upper Iowa River, a portion of Ten Mile Creek (a coldwater trout stream with naturally-reproducing brown trout), and many Driftless Area features including a waterfall, sinkholes, and springs. The farm produces organic turkeys (40,000 raised annually) and pasture-raised pork (100 hogs direct-marketed to consumers). The beef cow/calf operation consisting of 200 cows (calves on pasture) is rotationally-grazed through established pastures, silvopastures, and crop/cover crop fields. Organic crops of corn, oats, barley, peas, and alfalfa make up roughly 500 acres and conventional crops of corn and beans are planted on 250 acres. In a commitment to long-lasting stewardship and farm heritage, the Jewells have 696 acres in an Agricultural Land Easement with the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation – the largest such easement in the state. Jewells also have 95 acres in the Emergency Wetland Program, maintain timber on over 600 acres of highly erodible land, and are actively restoring native oak savannah. The farm uses no-till, cover crops, mob intensity grazing, and a diverse crop rotation – all practices that protect soil health and help manage floodplain. Jewell Enterprizes received the 2024 Excellence in Agriculture Award from the Decorah Area Chamber. Robby is a sixth-generation farmer on a farm started in 1876. He is motivated to keep the farm in the family for future generations and continue the legacy that his ancestors worked so hard to achieve. Robby works year-round with his parents and co-owners Bob and Paula Jewell. Robby is currently a nominee for the 2025 Iowa Aldo Leopold Conservation Award.

Carly Zierke, Organic vegetable farmer and co-owner of Sweet Season Farm, a certified organic vegetable farm in Calmar, IA. Board member of Decorah Farmers Market and Oneota Community Food Co-op.

Biography
Carly Zierke is the co-owner of Sweet Season Farm, a certified organic vegetable farm in Calmar, Iowa, where she farms with her husband, Ethan Zierke. She believes more of our food can and should be grown right here in Iowa, and that we already have the soil and the skills to do it. At Sweet Season Farm, they grow vibrant, nutrient-dense vegetables available nine months out of the year and serve over 75 members through their market share program. Their growing methods center on long-term soil health, using cover crops, compost applications, and diverse crop rotations to build resilience and grow better food. Known for quality produce, practical veggie education, and soil-centered growing practices, Sweet Season Farm helps customers make the most of local food, starting with what’s in their fridge and what’s in season. They help customers solve everyday questions, like whether or not to peel farm-fresh carrots and how to keep salad greens crisp all week long. Through weekly emails, social media, and market conversations, Carly shares real-life tools that make local food easier to use and harder to waste. She also serves on the boards of the Decorah Farmers Market and Oneota Community Food Co-op, contributing her firsthand experience as a grower to local food conversations.

Jake Larkin ‘12 PA-C. Lead Physician Assistant in hospital medicine and clinical preceptor, Emplify Health by Gundersen, La Crosse, WI. Co-founder of plant partners group, which developed the Emplify Health rooftop/hospital farm. 2018 Main Campus Educator of the Year.

Biography
Jake is a lifelong gardener, Luther College graduate (’12) and physician assistant, working in hospital medicine in La Crosse since 2015. He is a clinical preceptor and past advisory board member with the UW-La Crosse PA program, lead PA for the hospital medicine group, and member of the WI Food as Medicine Coalition. Prompted by his experience working in the covid unit throughout the pandemic, Jake co-founded a volunteer grassroots employee group called Plant Partners. Among other projects, the group started a rooftop vegetable garden for employees, which sees several thousand visits annually. After an inspirational experience at Rodale Institute’s inaugural Regenerative Healthcare Conference in 2022, Jake has been volunteering to lead the establishment of an on campus hospital farm, which will use food and farming as outreach at the intersection of population health, lifestyle medicine (healthy eating, physical activity, social connection, stress reduction, avoiding harmful substances, and restorative sleep), and environmental stewardship. When not at work or in the garden, he is striving to be a great father to a newborn baby girl, cooking Harmony Valley’s CSA vegetables, or exploring the Driftless area’s beautiful landscapes by bike, foot or skis with his friends, wife, two dogs and hopefully fly rod.

Erin Meyer, MSFS, RD
Executive Director and Founder, Basil’s Harvest
Clinical Associate and co-founder of Cook Well, Eat Well, Live Well Culinary Medicine program, University of Illinois College of Medicine, Peoria

Biography
Erin is the Founder and Executive Director of Basil’s Harvest, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting human and planetary well-being through regional food systems. Basil’s Harvest envisions a vibrant food industry that supports diverse farming families, healthy soils, and resilient ecosystems. Erin is also a Clinical Associate at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, Peoria. She co-founded the Cook Well, Eat Well, Live Well Culinary Medicine program, where Family Practice Residents integrate culinary skills and nutrition to promote holistic health. Erin holds a Master of Sustainable Food Systems and is a registered dietitian. Before founding Basil’s Harvest, she directed a nonprofit providing experiential sustainable food system programming to culinary and healthcare professionals. She also owned a wholesale and retail business that supported regional organic growers and was a certified diabetes educator. Through her work, Erin leads the Coalition of Regenerative Ag Food Health Professionals (CRAFH) initiative, a transdisciplinary team dedicated to promoting a systems approach embodied in the motto “Healthy Soil Growing Healthy Foods for Healthy People and a Healthy Planet.” This initiative emphasizes research, education, and outreach to achieve its goals. Erin loves spending time with her adult daughters (when they have time for her), playing pickleball, being in the garden, and creating meals through simple preparation that highlight the ingredients. She enjoys kombucha, a tasty glass of wine, and a nice cold IPA.

Sponsors

The following have made Bikle’s four-day visit/events in the Decorah area possible: Basil’s Harvest, Bouska Sisters’ Farm, CM CO-Learn Project (Federal Grant Number NA23OAR4310629 from the Climate Program Office at NOAA), Davi Design Co., Decorah Bank & Trust Co., Decorah Public Library, Emplify Health by Gundersen, Iowa Food Hub, Luther College Center for Ethics and Public Engagement, Luther College Center for Sustainable Communities, Northeast Iowa Dairy and Agricultural Foundation, Oneota Community Food Co-op, Oneota Valley Literary Foundation, Pheasants Forever, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Regenerating Soil and Community Project, Seed Savers Exchange, Serenity Ridge Farm, and Winneshiek County Soil and Water Conservation District.