Regenerative agriculture is cropping up around the world. The Regenerative Organic Alliance announced that more than 18 million acres are farmed using their certification practices. In the US, it’s a fraction of that — around 130,000 acres.

Tim Cornie is one of those select farmers pioneering regenerative organic. Situated near Buhl, Idaho, his 800-acre farm grows a variety of wheat, heirloom grains (such as Tibetan purple barley), beans, and popping corn. Much of it goes to his 250,000 square-f00t facility about 8 miles from the farm. He bought an old Pillsbury plant and converted it into a space that houses not just his own crops, but that of fellow farmers in the area.

Some of his crop — particularly the wheat— travels about 200 miles to eastern Idaho where its turned into alcohol. Gray Ottley runs the first organic certified distillery in the United States, Distilled Resources, Inc. It just happens to be a few hours from Cornie’s farm. That’s what led the family-owned spirits company Chatham Imports to develop an all-American gin, Farmer’s Gin, which is now the first-of-its-kind using primarily Regenerative Organic Certified ingredients.

Cornie, who has been farming for over 30 years, says regenerative is the way forward. “A lot of it is common sense. If you look after the soil, it looks after you.” But it’s taken years of learning (and sometimes failing) to come to this realization.

And like many farmers, he too has leaned on the experience of others before to him to figure out how to do this successfully for the land — but also for the business. For him, that mentor and friend has been Nate Jones, an organic pioneer in Idaho. Jones had been advocating for organic farming in the region since the ’80s. Incidentally, Jones fell into organic farming for financial reasons. “I was going broke as a small-scale farmer. The model wasn’t working. It was too expensive to sustain. So I needed a niche, and another farmer who was growing garlic organically helped me covert over.”

Today, he farms more than 700 acres, like Cornie. The duo meet up and talk pest control, cover crops, weed abatement, soil, and experimental patches in their fields that may or may not have panned out. “It’s a lot of trial and error, even if you know what you’re doing,” says Cornie.

But Jones didn’t just advocate for organic farming. He also included some regenerative practices: such as using cover crops and rotation cycles. Today, he says the organic industry is becoming “commodotized” and that’s pushing prices downward. It’s also a lot a “substitute farming,” he says, where farmers are simply using market-bought fertilizers and pesticides that are organic-approved to swap out the conventional ones. They’re not really experimenting with crops, weed management, and rotation cycles to improve the soil’s potential. That is true organic farming, in his opinion — and one that’s now being identified more with regenerative organic.

Though both Cornie and Jones do admit that their ways can be more expensive, and sometimes require more labor, with smaller yields, it can pay off. For one, they see it in their soils. “I don’t like to brag,” jokes Jones, “but I’ve got a neighbor that can see my farm from his, and he’s said to me, ‘That soil is just unbelievable.’”

Cornie chimes in, “Ya, I always joke that the ducks like to come to my field of corn, rather than going to the neighbors. They know which one is healthier.”

But there’s one key advice that Jones imparted to Cornie (and advises other farmers who want to get into regenerative organic farming): “Have a buyer. Have a market ready for your crop always. Otherwise, it’s much harder.”

That’s where Chatham Imports comes in. The company agreed to buy Cornie’s wheat in advance. With that in mind, Cornie can grow the crop without worry. Unlike some of the other beans and grains he’s got in the field destined for his own brand, the wheat has a home.

It’s trucked down to Ottley’s distillery, which in many ways is an extension of Cornie’s eco-minded philosophy: the facility has run on wind energy for nearly two decades, been certified organic since 2000, and is helping support the local ecology.

Ottley and Cornie actually met a decade ago. “In 2015, we met Tim Cornie and he was beginning to build out his new business, 1000 Springs Mill, in Buhl. It was the perfect match for us. Because not only did he grow the wheat, he also milled it, which is something we’d have to do offsite.”

Ottley was excited about the prospect that every step of the process could be traced. “The chain of custody,” he says, “can now trace from the dirt it was grown in by the farmers, to where it was milled and then to the facility it was boiled in, fermented, and distilled. That’s what organic is all about. It’s about the traceability of the agricultural product through to a finished product for humans.”

And Ottley was especially excited to see that Cornie was interested in sustainable and regenerative farming — given that each bottle of gin uses about 2.5 pounds of wheat. “It’s good to know that we’re able to support a more sustainable future as well with our hero ingredient.”

That hero ingredient then goes through a detailed process that Ottley says could include a 100 variables before one lands on an alcohol that has a “sweet flavor in the front of the tongue, is smooth in the throat, and doesn’t, what we say ‘burn the gill,’ going down. Farmer’s Gin has that smooth, sippable quality.”

Priced at around $30, it’s not the cheapest of the gins. But there’s a reason for that. “How are we going to support these farms, these communities with bottom-of-the-barrel commodity pricing? We need a better model,” says Cornie, driving through the back roads of Buhl.

For him, gin is just the beginning, and one of the many tentacles to his operation. But he hopes that more companies back America’s regenerative organic farmers who are looking for a healthier model for farmers and the soil. “We’ve got to start eating better, and looking after ourselves better. At the root of all that is farming.”

Cornie hopes that, in addition to being the farmer of Farmer’s Gin, his own brand 1000 Springs Mill can help Americans discover a pantry of US-grown regenerative organic everyday staples, which he sells to grocers across the US and online directly.

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — The legal battle over Idaho’s Abortion Law continues to play out.

On Tuesday, in the case of USA v. State of Idaho, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard new arguments about the ban.

The Biden Administration sued Idaho two years ago. The suit contends the law violates the Federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA, because it prevents doctors from performing abortions that save their patients from serious infections, organ loss or other major medical issues.

John Bursch, the Vice President of Appellate Advocacy with the Alliance Defending Freedom, is representing Idaho in Court. He said the law requires medical staff to save both the mother and the unborn child if they come into the hospital and are injured. However, an injunction added by the district court would allow doctors to perform abortions in the emergency room.

“The Biden Administration turns that on its head and says, no, the EMTALA doesn’t treat the baby as a separate patient at all. The only one we’re concerned about is the mom and we can make this an abortion mandate in states like Idaho which have pro-life laws,” Bursch explained.

The Supreme Court heard the case in June but sent it back to the lower court on a procedural issue. But Bursch said the high court did issue a ruling that defined when abortions could be allowed even with Idaho’s restrictions.

“They said you could not perform abortions for a mental health reason, they said that if the baby had already reached viability, then it had to be delivered under EMTALA, it said the emergency had to be acute, like happening right now,” Bursch said.

The conflicts between whether Federal Law supersedes Idaho Law, or vice versa has led to confusion.

Mistie DelliCarpini-Tolman, the Idaho Director for Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates said it’s also led to concern among Idahoans over how the law could impact them.

“People have approached us, worried that if they leave the state to access legal care outside of the state, they could be arrested coming back, which is absolutely untrue,” DelliCarpini-Tolman said.

She adds the lack of clarity also makes it difficult for doctors. Under Idaho’s Law, those who perform abortions could face prison time and lose their license.

“We’ve heard heartbreaking stories of doctors who are standing in emergency rooms or in other emergency room situations trying to get people to act to help care for patients. And being unable, even to get folks around them even if they are willing to act because people are afraid,” DelliCarpini-Tolman said.

Bursch argues Idaho’s law does allow doctors to perform abortions to save a mother’s life. It’s up to the doctor’s good judgment to do that.

For now, both sides are waiting to hear the Ninth District Court’s Ruling, which may take weeks to months before it’s issued.

Copyright 2024 KMVT. All rights reserved.

Great Harvest in Idaho Falls is giving away the ultimate holiday prize package! It includes: a sweets tray, a farmhouse basket full of goodies, a pumpkin roll, a Thermos with Snake River roasted coffee beans and a $100 gift card! To enter to win, follow the instructions in this video: