FARGO — A wide variety of 20 speakers gave speeches at this year's Tedx Fargo, including pioneers in the agriculture community, an anonymous speaker with involvement in the war in Ukraine and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum. The theme of this year's event is TedxIf, so several speakers centered their lectures on "ifs", challenging audience members to think beyond the norm.
Gabe Brown was the last speaker of the evening, wrapping it up by giving a speech about his successes through the rejuvenation of soil health. "We need to get to a place where we're using food as preventive medicine," Brown said. Brown is a leading figure for the soil health movement and has been recognized as one of the nation’s top 25 influential agricultural leaders, gathering a long list of awards.
He is also a believer that good soil leads to better food. He advocates for no-till soil, stating no-till soil helps water absorption and helps grow better produce. Brown said no-till soil is able to absorb over 20 inches of rain per hour whereas some tilled soil only has the ability to absorb a half inch.
"I have not stood on a single one (farm), including my own, that is not degraded," he said. Brown said the soil's inability to absorb excessive rainfall creates excessive flooding in streams, rivers and lakes, impacting water quality. He advocated for a multi-step rejuvenation process which creates a more absorbent soil, leading to better production of plants and more nutritious food.
"Through rejuvenatio.