Listening First: What Farmers Taught Me About Conservation Programs That Work
I’ve spent the last few years asking farmers a lot of questions: What does soil health mean to you? Do cover crops affect how you manage risk on your farm? What makes for a positive conservation program experience?
These conversations, often over the phone, sometimes over coffee at the kitchen table, and sometimes riding along in a sprayer, have shaped the way I think about conservation and the role farmers play as front-line stewards of the land. They’ve also challenged me to reconsider what “good” conservation program design really looks like. It’s one thing to have the right practices and assistance mapped out on paper. It’s another to build programs that actually work for farmers, ones that offer structure but still leave room for the practical realities and unique characteristics of every operation.
Before joining AFT, I had the pleasure of interviewing hundreds of farmers across the Midwest through my role as a researcher at Indiana University (IU). It was deeply meaningful to me on a personal level. too, having grown up in a rural part of Indiana and been farm-adjacent my whole life (my grandparents’ generation was the last in my family to actively farm wheat and sunflowers out in Kansas).
Listening to farmers share their insights, both their successes and challenges, gave me an even deeper appreciation for the complexity of decision-making that goes into stewarding the land. And they reinforced, time and again, that effective conservation isn’t just about what practices are recommended. It’s about whether those practices make sense in the real world.
Hearing farmers’ stories, whether they were just beginning to experiment with conservation practices or had years of experience under their belts, was one of the most rewarding parts of my research. I saw real value in making sure their insights helped shape the academic and policy conversations surrounding conservation. At the same time, I wanted to help scale impact by working more directly with farmers, supporting those ready to take action and helping elevate the voices of those with hard-earned wisdom to share. For all these reasons, I was thrilled to join AFT’s Midwest team earlier this year, bringing my research background into a space where I could support farmers in their conservation efforts.
From Research to Implementation
Contributing to AFT’s Farmer-Led Advancement in Soil Health (FLASH) initiative has felt like a natural extension of that work. As part of my previous research at IU, I had conducted focus groups with farmers across the I-states (Indiana, Illinois, Iowa) to better understand what makes conservation programs resonate with farmers — or fall flat. Through that work, our team began to identify some of the key factors that help programs better serve farmers: simplicity and clarity in the application process, timing that fits with real farm calendars, flexibility in implementation, trusted local partners, and compensation that respects the real costs of change.
Importantly, a recurring theme from those conversations was the desire for programs to give farmers the ability to tailor practices to fit their farm’s specific needs and context. A well-intentioned conservation program might offer a cost-share or technical assistance. But if it imposes a one-size-fits-all approach, without room for farmers to adapt practices to their own operations, it can deter participation or limit their connection to the practice. Without that sense of ownership during the program, it’s far less certain whether adoption will continue once cost-share support ends.
FLASH is built around many of the same principles that surfaced through that research. Designed by farmers, for farmers, FLASH draws on a peer-to-peer model that connects experienced conservation farmers with those who are earlier on in their conservation journey. These farmer-driven groups create a platform for local farming communities to identify the resource concerns that are most pressing in their area, determine where and how to focus their attention, and exchange knowledge about what works (and what doesn’t) for conservation in their region. It doesn’t assume farmers need to be told what to do. It assumes they know their land and their community best, and that with the right support, they can make soil health goals achievable.
Batch and Grow Cover Crop Program
This year, five FLASH groups across Illinois offered a free “Batch and Grow” cover crop program, where farmer leadership selected several cover crop options tailored to local growing conditions to be custom-planted on participants’ fields later this summer and fall. By giving farmers who are newer to cover crops a set of group-approved options, and removing some of the time and management challenges that often come with implementing a new practice, Batch and Grow allows participants to learn not only from their more experienced peers, but also alongside a network of farmers who are at a similar stage in learning how to manage and integrate cover crops into their operations.
Already, more than 60 farmers have signed up for the program, with over 8,000 acres of cover crops slated to be planted this year. It’s exciting to imagine the collective impact of that many acres moving toward better soil health, and just as exciting to think about the conversations, learning moments, and idea-sharing that will unfold along the way.
It’s been deeply rewarding to work alongside a team at AFT that shares a strong respect for farmer knowledge and a belief that meaningful change starts with listening. I’ve been glad to play a small role in helping facilitate the back end of the program, but the real credit goes to the local leadership: the farmers, Soil and Water Conservation District staff, natural resource conservation professionals, and community members who’ve stepped up to turn ideas into action — from recruiting participants to shaping group goals and helping this work take root.
