Toronto Star
· collected 2026-09-10 · by Jessie Wardarski The Associated Press
The towering maple trees and native hazelnut bushes on Salvatierra Farms break up the surrounding corn and soybean fields that sprawl across southern Minnesota.
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that → tower → Minnesota
Small compared with its neighbors, the 63 acres (25 hectares) of land was once a conventional row crop farm.
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acres → compare → land
Transformed by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin, an agronomist and regenerative farmer who grew up in the northern Guatemalan rainforest, Salvatierra Farms embraces crop diversity and natural solutions — no herbicides, pesticides or chemical fertilizers — for its poultry or other operations.
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Farms → transform → poultry
He wants it to be a model for others.
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it → want → others
Drawing on his formal agricultural education and the wisdom of his Indigenous elders, Haslett-Marroquin’s approach to farming has brought together an unlikely network of Midwesterners dedicated to caring for the Earth for spiritual reasons.
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approach → draw → reasons
They include Lakota tribal members, former large-scale farmers and Catholic sisters.
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They → include → members
Their shared motivation comes amid rising interest in nature-based spirituality and related societal shifts: a rethinking of modern agriculture, growing secularization, climate change anxiety and intensifying interest in health and wellness.
“These dark green spiritualities — the ones that have a kind of sense of the intrinsic value of nature, of our belonging to it and not superiority over it — are growing rapidly around the world,” said University of Florida environmental studies professor Bron Taylor.
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Taylor → share → Florida
Regenerative farming has deep roots
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farming → have → roots
Nineteenth-century America saw homesteaders pledging to cultivate public land they received for free.
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they → see → land
In the 1960s, a “back-to-the-land” movement surfaced alongside a new wave of environmentalism.
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movement → surface → environmentalism
And many of today’s approaches to land stewardship are rooted in Indigenous traditions developed over centuries.
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many → root → centuries
These practices, to an extent, were overshadowed as the food system scaled rapidly to feed the growing global population.
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system → overshadow → population
They are now finding new life on some large conventional farms and among young farmers drawn to the regenerative agriculture movement.
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They → find → movement
It’s “farming in a way that is good for the health of the soil, the health of the land and the health of our people and communities,” explained Rob Myers, director of The Center for Regenerative Agriculture.
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Myers → farm → Agriculture
What that means depends on the farmer.
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means → mean → farmer
Many in the U.S. practice just one method, like planting cover crops or refusing to till the land to minimize soil disturbance; others take a more holistic approach.
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others → practice → approach
Starting in 2020, Josh Payne, a Missouri teacher turned farmer, transitioned his grandfather’s land from row crops to fully regenerative animal grazing and agroforestry, which incorporates naturally growing chestnut trees and other native vegetation into his practices.
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which → start → practices
It’s a shift based in his evolving Christian faith and influenced by the writings of Christians like the late Kentucky farmer Wendell Berry, who advocated for embodying the Bible’s teaching that the Earth is a gift from God meant to be cared for.
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Earth → ’ → God
“My faith helped me understand that what I do is a vocation,” Payne said.
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Payne → help → what
While Haslett-Marroquin doesn’t believe in organized religion himself, he sees common ground among all who feel spiritually connected to the land, as he does.
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he → believe → land
He envisions a regenerative system that empowers small farmers and their communities, a global movement that “restores all of creation and gives us a different reason to live and have purpose.”
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that → envision → purpose
A spiritual connection began in the rainforest
Growing up poor
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Growing → begin → rainforest
, Haslett-Marroquin and his brothers trekked into the rainforest to help their father plant crops.
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father → trek → crops
Though exhausting work, it awakened his kinship to nature.
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it → exhaust → nature
“That’s where we lived,” said Haslett-Marroquin, who has Achi and other Maya heritage.
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who → ’ → Achi
“That can uplift an innate intelligence that we are born with.”
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we → uplift → that
When he and his wife moved to Minnesota in the early 1990s, he knew he would challenge the system and farm with what he describes as a spiritual integrity that allows all living things to flourish naturally.
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things → move → integrity
In 2022, Haslett-Marroquin co-founded Tree Range Farms, a group of independent poultry producers who use regenerative farming practices.
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who → co → practices
The farms raise thousands of organic, free-range chickens under growing perennials — harvestable plants like hazelnut and elderberry bushes.
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farms → raise → bushes
Salvatierra Farms, which doubles as a research and training facility for farmers, is part of that ecosystem.
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which → double → ecosystem
Haslett-Marroquin sees his farm, started in 2020, as the blueprint for a global movement he envisions.
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he → see → movement
“To me, a little bit of knowledge with a lot of wisdom and solid spiritual grounding is where the solutions are going to come from.”
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solutions → go → wisdom
Midwest farmers find healing with the land
Nick Hernandez of the Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota is also part of Tree Range Farms’ community.
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Hernandez → find → community
In 2016, he met Haslett-Marroquin while seeking ways to reconnect his community to the land through food, and learned regenerative poultry practices from the Minnesota farmer.
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he → meet → farmer
“I see food as a way of not only finding healing, both mentally, physically, spiritually, and culturally, but as a way of being able to develop ourselves,” said Hernandez.
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Hernandez → see → ourselves
In 2020, he started Makoce Agriculture Development, a nonprofit developing and rebuilding Indigenous food systems on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, including a fully functioning farm.
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he → start → farm
Gail Fuller, a former large-scale farmer who grew genetically modified corn and soybeans on 3,200 acres of family land in Kansas, met Haslett-Marroquin in 2020.
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who → grow → 2020
They were both presenting at a soil conference in Salina.
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They → present → Salina
Fuller was on a journey to give up conventional farming practices, including chemical weed killer, after feeling mentally and physically unwell, and betrayed by the industry he loved.
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he → give → industry
“When you farm from a kill mindset for how many generations, how can that be a positive on the farmer or on the farm?” said Fuller, who now owns Circle 7 Fuller Farms with his wife Lynette, 50 miles from the land his family farmed for generations.
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family → farm → generations
…and 16 more, not listed.
