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PROACTIVE FARMING,
SOIL HEALTH & BIODIVERSITY
Registration opens
Breakfast hour w/Sponsor Bingo
Official Welcome & RISE Leadership Award
Break
Asking the Critical Questions Forum: Is Regenerative Ag Our Future?
Catered lunch & Wine
Thank you to our exclusive event sponsor Lallemand Plant Care.
Lallemand group decided in 2006 to put its knowledge and technological assets in microbiology and fermentation for the agricultural world. And so was born the Lallemand Plant Care business unit, which has since grown significantly through the acquisition of companies specializing in plant bio protection and bio fertilization.
Two parallel workshops. Choose 1.
This workshop will elucidate the critical importance of soil health and biodiversity, beginning with Dr. Nick Madden of Vineyard Soil Technologies, and leading expert in “reading” your vineyard’s underground brain and understanding and leveraging soil analysis, providing the foundation for informed vineyard management and development. Charlie Dubbe will walkthrough how Agrology’s predictive technology takes monitoring to the next level, tracking real-time soil carbon fluxes and multiple data inputs across air, canopy, and soil – delivering actionable insights and predictive alerts for challenges from frost to heat waves to smoke taint. Eric Mayer of Napachar will share the value of flame-cap kilns to provide low-smoke and low-emissions wood waste processing AND develop biochar, offering a dual climate solution: cleanly processing pulled vines and fuel thinning while creating a powerful soil amendment that stores carbon for centuries while improving water retention and nutrient delivery.
Action Opportunities:
Dr. Nicholaus Madden is a soil scientist who started working part-time for Vineyard Soil Technologies in 2013 and joined full-time in October 2017. Nicholaus has a Bachelor of Science degree in Hydrology, a M.S. in International Development, with an emphasis in Agronomy, and a Ph.D. in Biogeochemistry. Nicholaus was a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer from 1997 to 1999, and served as an Agricultural Extensionist in Honduras focusing on soil conservation. After receiving his Ph.D. in 2010, Nicholaus worked for seven years managing USAID (United States Agency for International Development) agriculture projects in the Middle East and Central Asia for UC Davis. Before joining Vineyard Soil Technologies, Nicholaus was Chief-of-Party for a USAID project in Afghanistan focused on rebuilding the Afghan agriculture extension system.
At Agrology, Charlie leads regenerative partnerships and business development. With real-time, continuous soil respiration and carbon flux monitoring, Agrology allows the soil to speak, facilitating a more robust dialogue between farmers and their soil microbiomes. This empowers farmers to tie their practices to real-world soil health outcomes, and optimize their regenerative programs within their unique context. When not thinking about plants or soil life, you are likely to find Charlie surfing, kayaking, or hiking in the mountains around his home in Santa Cruz, CA.
Two parallel workshops. Choose 1.
This workshop will share another successful RISE mentorship. Beginning in 2023, Grgich Estate helped to inspire and guide Materra | Cunat’s transition to organic viticulture. Learn from Materra | Cunat’s early transition experience, including reduced tillage and cover crop trials, while Grgich Estate shares proven benefits of eliminating synthetic pesticides and herbicides. Discover how biodiversity supports and amplifies organic practices, with Dr. Matthew Johnson of Cal Poly Humboldt presenting the latest research on barn owls and songbirds as vineyard allies, and Perennial Grazing walking through how strategic sheep grazing creates multiple benefits – from natural weed control to enhanced soil health and carbon sequestration.
Action Opportunities:
We make our Napa wines to celebrate the land and the stories it has to tell – but above all we believe wine should bring people together.
Grgich Hills Estate is an iconic Napa Valley winery located in Rutherford, consistently producing world-class wines.
Featuring Chris Renfro, Founder of The Two Eighty Project
Join visionary Chris Renfro for an inspiring exploration of how viticulture can transform communities and create pathways to wine industry inclusion. Through The Two Eighty Project, Renfro is reimagining San Francisco’s relationship with urban agriculture and wine, turning public spaces into hubs of opportunity and learning. Discover how their Viticulture Fellowship Program, in partnership with Steve Matthiasson and UC Davis, is opening doors for underrepresented communities through hands-on education and paid apprenticeships. Learn how this groundbreaking model connects sustainable farming practices with social equity, demonstrating how the wine industry can grow stronger by growing more inclusive.
Action Opportunities:
In 2019, Christopher and Jannea founded The Two Eighty Project to increase equity and diversity within the wine industry — and access to the spaces occupied by it. They began their work at Alemany Farms, a public park in San Francisco, originally dedicated to giving inner-city individuals the space to practice urban community gardening. As the nature of the space, industry, and city have grown increasingly exclusive, it’s become increasingly urgent to reclaim and revitalize them for the local community.
The Two Eighty Project is dedicated to building a sustainable food and wine community that nourishes every member of the local economy and ecosystem.
Join three leading voices sharing comprehensive evidence for regenerative agriculture’s ability to improve soil health, farm resilience, and store carbon. Dr. Jonathan Lundgren reveals insights from the unprecedented 1000 Farms Initiative, which has already documented regenerative outcomes across more than 1,280 farms since 2022, and shares farm-level results, including economics and net profitability, back to agricultural communities to inspire change. Dr. Kimberly Nicholas will share the results of a recently published study that quantified soil carbon sequestration rates across seven key regenerative practices in vineyards and croplands, finding that all seven practices effectively increased carbon sequestration, and that stacking these practices may further enhance carbon storage. Caine Thompson brings it home with remarkable results from Robert Hall Winery’s side-by-side trial of regenerative and conventional viticulture, from higher soil water content to dramatic reductions in peak canopy temperature to improved wine quality. Together, these leaders demonstrate how regenerative practices are yielding measurable benefits, including financial benefits.
Action Opportunities:
Dr. Lundgren is an agroecologist, Director ECDYSIS Foundation, and CEO for Blue Dasher Farm. He received his PhD in Entomology from the University of Illinois in 2004, and was a top scientist with USDA-ARS for 11 years.
Lundgren’s research and education programs focus on assessing the ecological risk of pest management strategies and developing long-term solutions for regenerative food systems.
Lundgren received the Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Engineering by the White House. Lundgren has served as an advisor for national grant panels and regulatory agencies on pesticide and GM crop risk assessments. Lundgren has written 107 peer-reviewed journal articles, authored the book “Relationships of Natural Enemies and Non-prey Foods”, and has received more than $3.4 million in grants. He has trained 5 post-docs and 12 graduate students from around the world. One of his priorities is to make science applicable to end-users, and he regularly interacts with the public and farmers regarding pest and farm management and insect biology.
Lundgren’s research and education programs focus on assessing the ecological risk of pest management strategies and developing long-term solutions for sustainable food systems. His ecological research focuses heavily on conserving healthy biological communities within agroecosystems by reducing disturbance and increasing biodiversity within cropland.
Caine Thompson, Head of Sustainability for O’Neill Vintners & Distillers and Managing Director of Robert Hall Winery has cemented his industry leadership in sustainable winegrowing and operations throughout his wine industry career.
In 2017, he joined Rabble Wine Company and as President (prior to O’Neill’s acquisition in 2021), he led the brand with the Earth in mind. Several of these sustainability programs he started continue at Rabble today through Caine’s direction at O’Neill (1% for the planet). He also initiates and implements green practices, leading the charge for sustainable certified for 200+ growers (15,000 acres) on behalf of the entire O’Neill organization. Since joining O’Neill Vintners & Distillers in October 2020, Caine has developed and launched a regenerative viticulture case study that will impact wine farming practices for years to come, which has now evolved to 1,000 in conversion to regenerative organic.
Lallemand group decided in 2006 to put its knowledge and technological assets in microbiology and fermentation for the agricultural world. And so was born the Lallemand Plant Care business unit, which has since grown significantly through the acquisition of companies specializing in plant bio protection and bio fertilization.
As a leader of the regenerative agriculture industry since 2006, Advancing Eco Agriculture (AEA) creates real and lasting change on millions of acres in North America by helping farmers to become more resilient, efficient, and profitable. AEA’s highly trained consultants work with growers to combine nutritional supplements and biological inoculants and regenerative practices to implement customized crop programs designed using cutting-edge sap analysis. This science-based approach empowers farms to exceed crop quality markers and to produce healthier soils, stronger crops, and higher yields. AEA is at the forefront of regenerative agricultural media and education, including the popular and highly regarded Regenerative Agriculture Podcast, informative and inspiring webinars, and educational content that serve as a preeminent resource for growers around the globe. To learn more about AEA’s regenerative programs and products, visit the website or subscribe to the Regenerative Agriculture Podcast.
Agrology is a leading climate tech start-up and Public Benefit Corporation with a mission to help farmers adapt to and beat climate change with real-time analysis and predictive insights. The Agrology platform consists of climate and carbon monitoring systems, both based on ground-truth data and machine learning. The Agrology Climate Monitoring System delivers predictive insights and warnings, up to three days in advance, for wildfire smoke taint, extreme weather, soil conditions, pest and disease emergence, and irrigation. Agrology’s Carbon Monitoring System tracks soil carbon sequestration in real time, quickly detecting carbon loss via carbon dioxide emission events. Agrology customers include Braga Fresh, The Duckhorn Portfolio, Boisset Collection, Dana Estates, Emeritus Vineyards, Jordan Vineyards and Winery, Joseph Phelps Vineyards, Langtry Farms, Lawrence Vineyards, Mission Hill Family Estate Winery, Renteria Vineyard Management, Signorello Estate, Silver Oak Vineyards, and numerous specialty farms. Agrology is the winner of two highly selective National Science Foundation SBIR Awards, a 2023 WINnovation Award, and is a recipient of a USDA Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities grant. Agrology has offices in Alexandria, Virginia, and Sonoma, California, and can be found online at Agrology.ag.
Napa Recycling is the recycling, compost, and garbage service provider for the City of Napa and southern Napa County, as well as the operator of the award-winning Napa Recycling & Composting Facility. Recycling and composting help save resources, energy, and money. They keep materials out of the landfill, provide jobs, combat climate change, and “close the loop” through the creation of new products out of recycled materials. Through Napa’s convenient recycling, composting & waste reduction programs, we all work together towards the ultimate goal of Zero Waste.
At Scout, our mission is to assist growers, wineries and vineyard management companies achieve their financial objectives, grow better quality fruit, and increase their yields using data harvested during the growing season.
We believe in the blending of traditional farming intuition with state of the art data collection and AI assisted insights will enable sustainable, profitable, and high quality farming for generations.
We are dedicated to helping our customers make the best decisions to maximize their efforts across all their planted sites while improving their bottom line.
Wild Farm Alliance was established by a national group of wildlands proponents and ecological farming advocates who share a concern for the land and its wild and human inhabitants.
In the year 2000, we came together to discuss how humans don’t have the right to farm nature out of existence, but rather the responsibility to be conservationists and stewards of that wildness.
Bringing wild connectivity across farming landscapes is the work of Wild Farm Alliance.
Napa Green is a global leader in sustainable winegrowing, setting the highest bar for sustainability and climate action in the wine industry. Napa Green facilitates systematic soil to bottle certification for wineries and vineyards, and provides the resources, tools and connections to continuously level up leadership. In 2021, Napa Green was the first sustainable winegrowing program in the world to redevelop Vineyard certification standards to focus on climate action, regenerative carbon farming, and social equity. In 2022, Napa Green and community partners launched a first of its kind, six-event Climate & Wine Symposium (Napa THRIVES now RISE) with over 65 speakers and 600 total guests.
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