Conservation of Our Rural Roots with Caleb Smith
To talk to Caleb, you'd think he'd been in this role for many years. He has a way of simplifying the process for growers interested in capitalizing on the ecosystem service market and articulating value in simple terms.
He received his Bachelor of Science from Indiana University in Biology, as well as Botany. He went on to Purdue University and received his Masters in Agronomy where he specifically studied cover crops. From there, his curiosity and desire to learn more about an industry that is changing at an incredible rate only exploded.
Caleb is pictured here on this wedding day with his wife and two sisters.
Co-Alliance has partnered with multiple organizations that provide grower contracts for multiple types of ecosystem services. For each program, Co-Alliance will handle all data collection and enrollment to ensure the process is as simple and efficient as possible, all at no charge to the grower. There is also an abundance of resources about cover crops, herbicides, selecting cover crop species, and grazing cover crops. You can find all the information that Caleb talked about on our Conservation page.
Outside of Co-Alliance, Caleb continues to find joy in being outdoors. He and his wife spend their time raising chickens, turkeys and a large garden.
A very wise person once said you learn much more from listening than you do talking. Take that advice and listen because there was no way to fit all the wildly important and intelligent information that he shared with us in this blog. The conversation with Caleb will certainly leave you thinking, “I should probably go read up about that.”
Join us as we sit down with one of the young, bright minds at the cooperative and discuss American agriculture's outsized role in global decarbonization efforts and how farmers can capitalize on the billions of public and private dollars flowing into this space, and the vital role that livestock should play in climate change mitigation efforts. There is a lot in this brief episode! Check it out: