Biodiversity Field Day at Gladney Farm

Bio4Climate friends Tim Jones and Chie Morizuka manage a regenerative farm called Gladney Farm in Hokkaido, Japan. As the name suggests, there’s a lot to be glad about on the newly restored land! Tim and Chie share the love by hosting groups eager to learn from the farm animals and plants. Students of all ages visit the farm on “Field Days” and leave feeling renewed, thanks to the abundance of nature in the area. They also leave with a wealth of knowledge, thanks to Tim and Chie’s rooted discussions. Read on to hear directly from this powerful couple on the beauty of regenerative farming.


In her book “Wilding”, Isabella Tree writes, “In general, the more species living in an ecosystem, the higher its productivity and resilience.” 

On Gladney Farm, we are learning that the more human diversity we can engage in helping us manage our ecosystem, the more resilient it will be.  Usually securing human diversity is difficult. We live in Toei, an abandoned village in Kuromatsunai, Hokkaido, Japan.  Toei has a population of three.  My wife Chie Morizuka (who is the farm owner) and I live in what used to be the center of town.  We have a neighbor, Mr. Otani, who lives about two kilometers to the north.  I am an American citizen and Chie and Otani-san are both Japanese.  We rarely have more human diversity.  But on July 27, 2023 we hosted 23 people from Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Germany, Japan, China, and India. They were part of a joint effort of PARE (a Hokkaido University graduate program for fostering frontiers in populations, activities, resources and environments) and OGG (One program for Global Goals, a global university coalition for creating a sustainable society.)

Chie Morizuka, farm owner, welcomes the PARE/OGG group to Gladney Farm

We walked through our grazing paddocks together, led by Dr. Yoshitaka Uchida with the Hokkaido University Graduate School of Global Food Resources and his student and dung beetle researcher Hazuki Echigo, exploring the biodiversity above and below the ground, and discussing the effects of biodiversity on soil health and human health.

Dr. Yoshitaka Uchida, dark blue hat and white shirt, leads the paddock walk emphasizing biodiversity above and below the ground.

National Research and Development Agency, Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency (I know it is a very long title but this is what their business cards say) scientists Dr. Koh Hasegawa and Dr. Yuhei Ogura met us at the Horokoshubuto River, which dissects Gladney Farm, to discuss how our style of regenerative grazing affects the salmon and white spotted char populations and spawning activities. They have been studying salmon and other native fish on this stretch of river for decades. There have been no negative effects so far according to Dr. Hasegawa.  And, we had a surprise visit by Dr. Masaru Sakai of the National Institute for Environmental Studies who focuses on the impact of agriculture on the environment. He had heard about the PARE/OGG visit to Gladney Farm and thought it would be a good opportunity to see our style of regenerative grazing in action.

Dr. Koh Hasegawa blue shirt with white spotted car, Dr. Yuhei Ogura in blue cap second from right, and Dr. Masaru Sakai in green shirt on right demonstrate their survey techniques and answer questions.

For decades in Texas and Oklahoma, we attended field days and other educational events hosted by agricultural related institutions and industry groups which were valuable, but myopic.The absence of diversity at such events was unremarkable.  When did the disconnect between agriculture and the rest of society occur?  I should have read Wendell Berry’s “The Unsettling of America” when it was first published in 1977. Regardless of when or how, a huge disconnect exists.  Berry wrote that “eating is an agricultural act.” As diverse as we are in our global society, the one thing we have in common is that all of us are involved in agriculture. I submit that a holistic approach, with as much human diversity as possible involved in redesigning the system, offers much greater chances for success in restoring biodiversity and mitigating the ecosystem damage conventional agriculture is causing.

I believe Isabella Tree is right.  The greater the diversity the greater the productivity and resilience.  Our field day guests were diverse in gender, language, culture, religion and countless other ways.  But maybe, their diverse educational backgrounds were most important. They were civil and environmental engineers, specialists in hazardous substances management, forestry, entomology, statistics, mathematics, chemistry, biochemical engineering, information management, infectious diseases, and agriculture.  They brought comments and asked questions that stimulated my imagination, and I suspect their interactions sparked some creative thinking for all involved.

Faniry Adrien, Hokkaido University PhD student from Madagascar, conducting field research on forage diversity, density, and nutritional values on an abandoned rice paddy being regeneratively grazed on Gladney Farm.

The PARE/OGG visit happened to coincide with a visit by my grandson (11) and granddaughter (10).  They were adopted by the group and were treated as equals as we walked the pastures. Human diversity increased. They participated in discussions and asked questions.  

As we walked and heard about biodiversity from the experts, I wondered what their world would look like when they are my age.  I remembered a recent comment by Dr. Allen Williams, who along with Gabe Brown, Shane New, and Kathy Richburg founded Understanding Ag.  Dr. Williams said “No one living on this earth has experienced a fully functional ecosystem.” How will we recognize it?  Will the farmer define a fully functional ecosystem the same as a software engineer, a theologian, a chemical company CEO, a philosopher?  “An object seen in isolation  from the whole is not the real thing.” If we are to achieve a “real” fully functional ecosystem, we must have a holistically diverse vision. 

I have been reading about “paradigm shifts” for decades, yet nothing seems to change.  Now is the time. For us at Gladney Farm, the new paradigm is holistic diversity. This will be the source of our productivity and resilience. 

One of two Climate Data Monitoring Centers used in Dr. Uchida’s research

A good place to start is by watching John Feldman’s Regenerating Life.

…and every school kid knows that the more we humans nurture and protect the land, the more the land will nurture and protect us.  That’s the key to regenerating life.”

John Feldman

Through embracing holistic diversity, perhaps the ecosystem our grandchildren’s grandchildren will live in will be closer to fully functional. This type of paradigm shift requires courage.  We cannot be timid.  We have to move forward with confidence that we will succeed.

A new documentary on Gladney Farm is available at:

The short film is in Japanese but it will give you views of today’s farm in Kuromatsunai, Hokkaido, Japan, and a few old pictures from Gladney Ranch in Thackerville, Oklahoma, USA.

-Tim Jones and Chie Morizuka 

Published

Agraria – Agriculture as More than Farming Workshop with Susan Jennings

This is the workshop that followed Susan’s talk: Agraria – Agriculture as More than Farming

Susan Jennings: Executive Director of The Arthur Morgan Institute for Community Solutions (AMICS)

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Presented at Blessed Unrest conference via online, extending across weekends in April & May of 2020

#agriculture #farming #landmanagement

Agraria – Agriculture as More than Farming with Susan Jennings

In this generational dark night of the soul, what are our opportunities for personal and national redemption? Drawing on her inspiring organizational experiences, as well as recent trips to regeneration projects in England and India, Susan will discuss how re-localization, especially of food systems, can, like Gandhi’s March to the Sea, radically transform our personal, environmental, and political landscapes.

Susan Jennings: Executive Director of The Arthur Morgan Institute for Community Solutions (AMICS)

Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/
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Presented at Blessed Unrest conference via online, extending across weekends in April & May of 2020

#agriculture #farming #landmanagement

Fred Magdoff: The Heart of Life- Soils, Microbes, Plants and Insects

Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/
Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/

The diversity of soil organisms is stunning. Their interactions among themselves and with plants are at the center of healthy soils. Plants (as with humans and other animals) have associated microbiomes that can stimulate defenses against disease and help with obtaining needed nutrients. Plants also have a variety of ways of responding when being attacked by insects, including signaling beneficial insects the presence of their preferred prey or organisms in which they can inject their eggs and use and utilize for egg incubation. Any playwright would be challenged to match the living drama beneath our feet!

Fred Magdoff is Emeritus Professor of Plant and Soil Science at the University of Vermont. His interests range from soil science to agriculture and food to the environment to the US economy.

Presented at Climate, Biodiversity, and Survival: Listening to the Voices of Nature conference at Harvard University on November 17-18, 2018

#plants #microbes #insects

Mel King – From the Past, Into the Future

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Featuring Mel King, Community Activist, State Legislator, Affordable Housing Advocate, MIT Faculty

As a State Legislator, Mel King was a leader in the effort to preserve agricultural land in Massachusetts. He founded the South End Technology Center and led the fight to stop development of land that later became Tent City, affordable housing in the South End. Mel taught in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning and started its Community Fellows Program. He is currently a board member of the Urban Agriculture Institute and speaks to us from a broad understanding of land use and community issues.

Presented at the Urban and Suburban Carbon Farming to Reverse Global Warming Conference, organized by Biodiversity for a Livable Climate, at Harvard University on May 3, 2015.

#affordablehousing #communityactivist #agriculture

Joy Gary – Urban Farming for a Shelter and a CSA

Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/
Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/

Revision Urban Farm is an innovative community-based urban agriculture project that grows produce in its own fields and provides access to affordable, nutritious and culturally appropriate food to residents of the ReVision Family Home and its extended community.

Presented at the Urban and Suburban Carbon Farming to Reverse Global Warming Conference, organized by Biodiversity for a Livable Climate, at Harvard University on May 3, 2015.

#agriculture #nutritiousfood #growyourownfood

Bruce Fulford – Compost for a City

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Featuring Bruce Fulford, Owner, City Soil.

The linkages between urban farms, conservation foundations, and municipalities can all reinforce the power of urban agriculture. Bruce Fulford describes creating agricultural land in an urban setting.

Presented at the Urban and Suburban Carbon Farming to Reverse Global Warming Conference, organized by Biodiversity for a Livable Climate, at Harvard University on May 3, 2015.

#communitycompost #agriculture #conservation

Luisa Oliveira – Enabling and Protecting Urban Agriculture

Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/
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Featuring Luisa Oliveira, Landscape architect, City of Somerville.

Luisa Oliveira led the team that developed an urban agriculture ordinance for Somerville, the first in New England. She speaks on the traditions, benefits and value of growing urban food, and the challenges of regulating agriculture in a densely populated city.


Presented at the Urban and Suburban Carbon Farming to Reverse Global Warming Conference, organized by Biodiversity for a Livable Climate, at Harvard University on May 3, 2015.

#regenerativeagriculture #architect #urbangarden

Thomas Akin – Cover Crops

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Featuring Thomas Akin, State Resource Conservationist, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Cover cropping is a soil health-building practice gaining currency in cropland agriculture but also well suited to improving urban soils. Soil-incorporated cover crops provide large volumes of soluble carbon, the best fuel for the soil food web. Tom Akin gives a brief introduction to suitable cover crops to improve urban soils.

Presented at the Urban and Suburban Carbon Farming to Reverse Global Warming Conference, organized by Biodiversity for a Livable Climate, at Harvard University on May 3, 2015.

#healthysoils #urbansoil #agriculture

Bruce Fulford, Mark Smith, Liz Wiley, Emily Jodka: Urban Agriculture in a Thriving Bioregion

Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/
Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/

Some of the benefits of urban agriculture are well known: increased access to healthy fresh food, reduced “food miles,” and building robust local communities. Looking through the carbon farming lens we also see more benefits: biodiverse landscapes, building carbon-rich soil and creating resilient landscapes that purify the water and air. Our panelists will discuss how to support the growth of urban farm spaces and regional relationships that strengthen them.

Sarah Howard, Earthos, Moderator:
Understanding and stewarding our urban-bioregional systems
Bruce Fulford, City Soil:
Creating agricultural land in an urban setting
Mark Smith, Co-founder, Brookwood Community Farm in Milton, Massachusetts:
Developing farms on peri-urban land – challenges and opportunities
Liz Wiley, Program Manager at Round the Bend Farm, S. Dartmouth, Massachusetts:
Regional support systems for urban farming efforts
Emily Jodka, Founding member of New Urban Farmers, Pawtucket, Rhode Island:
Engaging urban communities and kids in innovative and productive farms

From Biodiversity for a Livable Climate conference “Reversing Global Warming: Carbon Farming for Food, Health, Prosperity and Planet” at Bristol Community College in Massachusetts.
Friday February 20, 2015.

#freshfood #carbonfarming #urbanfarming

Paul Schmid, Maggie Payne, William McCaffrey: Local Carbon Farming

Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/
Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/

How do we continue to farm productively and profitably without having to change everything we do? This panel will focus on several key practical elements that significantly increase the restorative powers of farming for biodiversity and carbon sequestration, along with increasing yields, needing fewer if any synthetic inputs, growing profits, and improving the health of both farmers and consumers.

Ridge Shinn, Grazier, Moderator:
The benefits of livestock for soil, food, economy and climate
Paul Schmid, Proprietor of River Rock Farm, Massachusetts State Rep. from 8th Bristol district:
Raising grass-finished beef, and legislative support for agriculture
Maggie Payne, USDA
William McCaffrey, 2nd Generation Farmer in E. Taunton, Cornell U. Graduate:
Farming produce and cranberries

From Biodiversity for a Livable Climate conference “Reversing Global Warming: Carbon Farming for Food, Health, Prosperity and Planet” at Bristol Community College in Massachusetts.
Friday February 20, 2015.

#sustainableagriculture #carbonsequestration #farming

Engin Atasay, Jim Corven, Rachael Furlong, Zoe Hansen-DiBello: Educating the New Climate Paradigm

Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/
Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/

In this era of global warming and extreme weather events we face the uncommonly difficult task of preparing our children for the future. How do we explain to them what is happening, and how we got here? How do we provide them with the skills and resilience to face these challenges with strength and optimism? Our panelists will discuss models that connect young people to the natural world, help them understand and experience themselves as part of complex and biodiverse ecosystems, and teach the art and science of planetary regeneration.

Paula Phipps, Moderator
Preparing future generations for climate change
Engin Atasay, Assistant Professor of Education, BCC: Building ecoliteracy into education
Jim Corven, Associate Professor of Biology and Director of Organic Agriculture at BCC: Teaching carbon farming as part of organic agriculture
Rachael Furlong from Seeds of Sustainability, a BCC student organization:
Student involvement ranging from fossil fuel divestment to permaculture
Zoe Hansen-DiBello, Marion Institute:
Engaging communities by teaching in neighborhood gardens, and moving toward carbon farming

From Biodiversity for a Livable Climate conference “Reversing Global Warming: Carbon Farming for Food, Health, Prosperity and Planet” at Bristol Community College in Massachusetts.
Friday February 20, 2015.

#climatechange #climateoptimism #climateeducation

Bruce Fulford: Building Soil for a New World

Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/
Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/

Returning carbon to the soil is the foundation of restoring ecosystems. For thirty years Bruce Fulford has been building soils. He will tell us how he does it, and the remarkable results that he’s seen from reclamation and remediation of land, urban composting and greenhouse agriculture.

Bruce Fulford, Principal, City Soil

From Biodiversity for a Livable Climate conference “Reversing Global Warming: Carbon Farming for Food, Health, Prosperity and Planet” at Bristol Community College in Massachusetts.
Friday February 20, 2015.

Diana Donlon: Food and Farming

Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/
Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/

There are critical connections between everyday food choices and climate change. Cool Foods emphasizes the key steps of retiring industrial agriculture and turning to practices which pull carbon and water back into the soils, thereby bringing economic vitality and human health to communities worldwide.

Diana Donlon: Director of the Center for Food Safety’s Cool Foods Campaign

From Biodiversity for a Livable Climate conference: “Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming”
Saturday November 22nd, 2014

#food #farming #climate

Climate and Regenerative Organic Agriculture with Ronnie Cummins

Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/
Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/

Ronnie Cummins, co-founder and International Director of the Organic Consumers Association, leads a network of 850,000 consumers dedicated to safeguarding organic standards and promoting a healthy, just, and sustainable system of agriculture and commerce. He has been active as a writer and activist since the 1960s, with extensive experience in human rights, anti-war, anti-nuclear, labor, consumer, environmental, and sustainable agriculture campaigns. His topic is Climate and Regenerative Organic Agriculture: How to Build a Mass Movement.

From Biodiversity for a Livable Climate conference: “Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming”
Sunday November 23rd, 2014

#movement #climateaction #organic

John Carroll: Local Food Revolution

Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/
Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/

There are many possibilities for food production and agriculture in New England, leading toward the promise of regional food self-sufficiency. What might we do to get there?

John Carroll: Author and Professor in environmental conservation

From Biodiversity for a Livable Climate conference: “Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming”
Saturday November 22nd, 2014

#food #agriculture #foodproduction

Dorn Cox: Soil + Silicon- Open Source Tools for Cover Cropping, Grazing and Organic No-Till

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Please donate to our ecosystem restoration work: https://bio4climate.org/donate/

Dorn Cox is a founding member and board president of Farm Hack, an open source community for resilient agriculture. He is also the executive director of GreenStart and manages his family’s 250-acre organic farm in Lee, NH where he has built and documented low and high tech open source systems for environmental monitoring, small-scale grain and oil seeds processing and biofuel production, and no-till and low-till equipment and cover crop methods to reduce energy use and increase soil health.

Dorn Cox, Organic Farmer and Appropriate-Tech Technologist

Presented at Biodiversity for a Livable Climate “Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming” conference at Tufts University on November 21-23, 2014

#organic #covercropping #soil

Carbon Farming with Ethan Roland

Ethan Roland is an international expert on regenerative agriculture and permaculture design. He will introduce us to how carbon farming enhances productivity, increases profitability and combats climate change. Drawing from the best practices from holistic management, keyline design, agroforestry, living soils, biochar, permaculture design and restoration agriculture, carbon farming offers a whole toolkit for agricultural earth regeneration.

Presented at Biodiversity for a Livable Climate “Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming” conference at Tufts University on November 21-23, 2014

Learn more about Biodiversity for a Livable Climate: https://bio4climate.org/

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#ecosystems #agriculture #climatechange