Work with someone who has completed Dr. Elaine’s™ Training Program to rapidly restore the Soil Food Web to your soil and watch your yields increase dramatically.
Soil Food Web Consultants
You can find Soil Food Web Consultants all over the world. More are being trained all the time.
Have your Soil Assessed
A Soil Food Web Consultant will assess the biology in your soil as well as other metrics to produce a full report on the condition of your soil food web.
Restore the Soil Food Web
You’ll be provided with all the biologically complete amendments you’ll need to regenerate your soil. If your project is large enough you may wish to produce these yourself.
Adopt New Farming Techniques
Once it’s established, you’ll want to ensure the survival of the biology in your soil by making a few simple changes to the way you farm. Your consultant will show you how.
North America
Soil Food Web Consultants who work in the continental U.S. and North America:
Todd has spent his life dedicated to the field of biological regenerative soil restoration. Building on the work of Dr. Elaine Ingham, Todd has pioneered methods and systems of restoring land and agriculture fertility. His methods are tested in the real world, on working farms, nurseries, greenhouses, vineyards, orchards, turf fields and landscapes. Clients who work with Todd and his team often gain far more than just results, they gain a permanent relationship and the confidence to achieve their vision for their land.
I wear many hats but my main focus is on fostering a community around microbe farming. I have a passion for helping the unseen lives in the soil come into view through images and videos taken with a microscope. Check out the MyMicrobes.org to see some of my projects, or visit @SoilMicrobeLibrary and @catalyst_microbe_adventure on Instagram and Facebook to see my videos and images. I enjoy consulting at Catalyst BioLogical solutions, an on-site service developed around creating and maintaining soil fertility. I’m a founding member of the Sierra Soil Biology Association. It’s a non-profit organization of biology-focused people. We’ve got soil food web consultants, lab techs, and community influencers, all of whom promote the regeneration of soil. We aim to raise the quality of food by increasing microbial biomass in agricultural soils.
I Casey Ernst, originally a city boy from Reno, Nevada. I found my passion for nature and natural systems in the Andes Mountains of Southern Ecuador. After seven years of learning how to reforest land, build natural irrigation systems and implement permaculture design, I found myself wanting to make a deeper impact on larger communities. Out of that drive, Catalyst BioAmendments was formed. As an owner and operator at Catalyst, I have discovered the beneficial impacts of increasing biological communities in soils on plant and ecosystem health.
DocTerre was founded in 2015 by Vivian Kaloxilos, graduate of McGill University School of Environment with ecological field experience at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. She was the first Canadian to complete the full certification training with Dr. Ingham in 2015, after several years of practical demonstrations, ecological field work, agro-ecological design, and agricultural experience.
Nick has focused extensively on soil health since his time as an undergraduate at Oregon State where he discovered the works of Dr. Ingham and others. Prior to starting his consulting career in 2016, he had spent a decade working in agriculture, holding such posts as Research Assistant (OSU), Integrated Pest Management Field Scout, small-scale Organic Farmer and USDA NOP Organic Inspector. Now he spends his time sharing his exploration and implementation of soil health principles and techniques with clients in the Western U.S and beyond. “My mission is to maximize agricultural soil regeneration, which requires bringing soil life into clear view, then empowering farmers to nurture it”.
Thomas Schneider has spent nearly his whole life working in Regenerative Agriculture and Landscape Design. After training with Dr. Ingham, In 2015 Thomas started DynamicWholeScapes, a company which focuses on regenerative agriculture education, consultations, and projects.
Kevin Fretz is a lifelong ecological entrepreneur. In 2016 Kevin Fretz founded Green Earthology after more than 30 years working with recycling, soil restoration, and landscaping companies worldwide. Kevin’s company uses Dr. Elaine’s Soil Foodweb principles on their projects across the U.S.
Brian was formerly in IT for 25 years before he made the switch to follow his passion. He completed Dr. Elaine’s™ Consultant Training Program in just 1 year and is now running a successful business as a Soil Food Web Consultant and Lab-Tech. When they are not working with clients throughout Northern California, Brian and his wife, Shelby, can be found raising biologically grown produce and animals on their homestead.
Email: [email protected]
Elias Bajalia is a well-rounded steward of the land. He is a graduate of Dr. Elaine’s™ Soil Food Web School Consultant Training Program and is a certified Permaculture Designer as well. He has been focusing on growing organic food for 20 years. He integrates a whole systems approach to agriculture, which starts from the life in the soil, or more often than not, a lack thereof. Visit his Biotilth website to find out how he can help you turn your dirt back into healthy, living soil.
Kevin grew up as an Iowa farm kid, attended the U.S. Air Force Academy, and completed a 26-year military career. After seeing “Food Inc,” in 2008, Kevin and his wife, Mikki, began critically researching nutrition, links to human health, and flaws of Industrial Ag. They also toured Polyface Farm and started their own in 2015 raising beef, pork, chicken, turkey and eggs. The quest for better pasture and true “nutrient dense” foods led Kevin to training with Korean Natural Farming and the Soil Food Web. He hopes to help others leverage biology over chemistry to enhance their soils, their crops and livestock, and ultimately their portion of the planet.
After retiring from academia, Eric moved with his family to remote Southern Utah where he took a job as caretaker of a 200-acre property. The ecological restoration of this property became his main focus, and it was during this time that he attended a week-long workshop with Dr. Ingham. Eric was immediately a convert, and continued his education under Dr. Ingham. In 2019 Eric was hired by the Soil Food Web School as a Consultant Training Program Mentor, and in 2022 he was certified as a Certified Foodweb Consultant. The last 5 years has seen Eric using his experience and knowledge to help local famers, ranchers and landowners restore their land and increase their soil health. He currently is owner and director of High Desert Soil Works, LLC, a soil fertility consulting company working throughout Southern Utah.
Allen has a wide variety of career experiences from mechanical engineering, logistics, to land planning. He started his career in the soil biology field in 2009. He recently completed a three year NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) that studied Dr. Elaine’s™ Soil Food Web School assessment and treatment methods for a 4-acre urban farm in Jacksonville, Florida. This project implemented no-till practices, cover crops, and Integrated Pest Management. Allen has consulted with farmers, urban gardeners, permaculture practitioners as well as those in the landscape industry to transition them from a chemical-based nutrient program to a biological program.
Casey has been in regenerative agriculture since 2012 and has experience in farm-to-market gardening, microgreen and gourmet mushroom production, permaculture consulting and project design/implementation, and aquaponics. He has been heavily involved with soil health and soil microbiology since 2017, making this fascinating field his career focus. Daily life for Casey is split between composting and performing soil health work as Full Circle Soil Health, creating composting tools as Vital Grow Inc., and farming. His hobbies include growing food and the exploration of coffee and cooking.
Los Suelos Vivos was founded in southern Mexico by Brian Daubenspeck, farmer and consultant. The consultancy and lab are currently located in California.
Email: [email protected]
Ronald Cain
Michigan, U.S.
Ronald studied horticulture in college and following graduation in 2015 he found Dr. Elaine’s™ Soil Food Web courses. In these courses he learned exactly how to utilize a microscope and make high quality compost, teas, and extracts. With the knowledge and experience Ronald has gained, he focuses on helping others to rebuild soil health, manage ecology and restore land.
Phone: 810-844-1217
Spero Latchis CCH. has had a long career in natural medicine. It is from this background that he came to understand the vital importance of soil regeneration work. Spero feels that if humans are to begin to heal themselves as well as the entire planetary ecosystem, they must first heal the soil. While operating a free homeopathic clinic in Himalayan India, Spero and his partner Robin were distressed to learn that the only food available to them was covered with highly toxic pesticides. Thus they began farming two acres of compacted clay earth that received 12 ft. of rain every summer. Studying the work of Dr. Elaine Ingham taught them how to turn their dense clay into fertile soil. In 2017 they moved to Maine and founded the nonprofit Living Soil Network. In 2022 Spero began making ecologically alive compost with the new Living Soil Company, and today consults on projects in the northeastern US.
Andrea is a certified Soil Food Web lab tech and Consultant who wants to help everyone from local gardeners to large municipalities discover the human and environmental health benefits of healthy soil.
Simeon is a young soil scientist with a background in engineering who is passionate about helping farmers, ranchers and greens keepers transition their land to regenerative practices utilizing the 6 principles of regenerative farming. He specializes in providing on the farm solutions to help the grower produce their own fertility onsite instead of subscribing to yearly applications from another company. After graduating high school where he won two national awards for innovative compost heat extraction systems, he went on to start an engineering training in New York. Simultaneously he started the Soil Food Web program and eventually transferred out of engineering to pursue a degree in plant science. This combination of engineering and plant science background helped him work with Hiwassee Products on developing the Bio-Extractor. Simeon has used the equipment he helped developed to help growers and turf professionals transform their management practices to reduce or eliminate the need for chemical inputs by promoting a healthy plant which than is able to resist adverse conditions and diseases. His favorite quote is from Rick Clark because it provides the context that is needed to switch from the safety net of conventional agriculture to the new world of regenerative. “If you are not uncomfortable with what you are doing, then you are not trying hard enough to change.”
Julie’s soil journey started by completing a Permaculture Design and Permaculture Teachers Training Course in 2009. She was hired to design a private two-acre farm which later became Lettuce Grow Farms and Educational Center located in El Prado, New Mexico in 2010. Struggling as a grower with poor soil structure she enrolled to study at the Soil Food Web School in 2020 and has completed the foundation courses, Laboratory Technician Program and the Consultant Training Program. Currently, Julie is a certified Consultant with the Soil Food Web School and operates a composting business called Lettuce Grow Farm- Soil Builders in Taos, New Mexico.
Cooper and Miles operate in the U.S., South America, India, and across the world. Their company, Terraforma LLC implements biological projects globally with commercial agriculture operations to reduce inputs and optimize output. With an emphasis on soil health and its biological functionality, Terraforma customizes solutions and practices that integrate with the farmers agronomic strategies. All agricultural landscapes are different, and Terraforma’s systematic approach positions their clients to enhance their bottom line as we build soil health.
Kent Holle
Johnstown, Colorado, U.S.
Kent spent 35 years in the turf industry, including 22 years at a large Colorado School District. Here he had the freedom to experiment with many natural and organic products and systems. He worked hand in hand with the EPA and Colorado State University in designing programs that reduced synthetic fertilizers and pesticides on sports fields and playgrounds and also training other districts statewide in these methods. Through working with CSU, he found out about Dr. Elaine and the SoilFoodWeb. Since then, Kent has been dedicated to SFW methods and rejuvenating abused dirt. He is now committed to assisting growers of all sizes in bringing their soils back to health.
Email: [email protected]
Leslie W. Lewis, Ph.D., had a first career working in liberal arts colleges, teaching and supporting the interdisciplinary humanities and sciences, and also tending to the business side of higher education. She came to the study of soil health as an academic researcher and writer as well as an organic grower with decades of experience as a vegetable farmer. She now puts hands-on growing knowledge together with living systems thinking for farmers, homesteaders, and residential householders. Living Systems Soil LLC offers consulting services that are conceptual, practical, and appropriate to scale, beginning with microbiological assessment of soil health. Workshops are also available.
Email : [email protected]
Vera is a former software engineer currently developing a career in soil health. In 2020 she found out about permaculture, regenerative ag and soil microbes and absolutely fell in love with the soil-ution to almost all the world’s problems. Same year she enrolled in the Soil Food Web School classes to learn soil microscopy and how to make soil-healing amendments like biologically rich compost, extracts, and teas. Vera is a certified Soil Food Web Consultant and Lab-Tech at Veriterra Lab that was created to support farmers, gardeners, and landscapers in implementing soil regenerative practices.
Phone: +1(312)-439-8707
Email : [email protected]
At the beginning of his career, Joshua devoted almost a decade to creating environmentally benign chemical tools for industry, followed by another decade studying the biology of invasive species. However, he didn’t find his true calling until someone informed him about the plight of Earth’s soil and shared the incredible insight that it is possible to steward the soil into a vibrant ecosystem while growing food simultaneously. Since 2021, Joshua has been developing tools to support gardeners, farmers, and land stewards in cultivating healthy, living soil and abundant yields through consultation, soil assessment, and biological soil amendments.
Phone : 781-859-9976
Email : [email protected]
Declan has been turning compost piles since he could lift a pitch fork. His professional work in agriculture began in the Peace Corps as an agricultural volunteer in Cameroon. Here he found a passion for regenerative agriculture and soil building. Since becoming an SFW consultant he has proven his knowledge and soil restoration abilities by working with dairy farms, wineries, small scale farms and market gardens, landcare groups, and permaculture guilds, teaching the value of biologically active soils and composts.
Email: [email protected]
Julian knows what it’s like to think growing plants in soil is cursed. But it was his own journey of seeing plants become naturally disease and pest resistant through investing in soil biology that led him to start his own consultant business after graduating Dr. Elaine’s™ Consultant Training Program. He has experience helping farms, orchards, gardens, and contaminated soils in need of mitigation. He loves to use his mathematics education background to find empowering, profitable solutions for his clients. Julian believes working with soil and growing plants should bring JOY instead of non-stop, COSTLY and STRESSFUL decisions.
Wesley Sander has spent most of his life in and around agriculture. He grew up raising farm animals on a small acreage, then studied journalism and environmental biology before spending the next decade covering farm-related topics for several publications. After that came a transition to small-farm management, and the discovery of just what can be accomplished when the soil foodweb is put to proper use. This all culminated in FoothillBio, established in 2015 to help clients understand their soils’ living communities through laboratory analysis and consultation.
Phone: (530) 648-0694
Email: [email protected]
International
Soil Food Web Consultants who work outside North America:
Shane is a passionate horticulturalist with 20 years’ experience in Organic farming and together with the family runs the largest organic banana farm in South Africa, at over 1800 hectares which employs over 2000 workers!
In 2015, the family farm was losing productivity due to high costs, heat stress, insect pressure, diseases and decreasing yields. The farm in spite of being certified organic (EU) for over 19 years was under strain, but thanks to Dr. Elaine’s™ work and online courses, Shane was able to redirect the farms growing methods.
Shane quickly worked his way through the online classes and quickly implemented a sustainable biological plan. This meant producing and using large quantities of biologically active BioComplete™ Compost and BioComplete™ Compost Tea.
Shane increased his yields by 150% in the first season and reduced input costs by ~60%. He continues to see improvements year-on-year.
Cooper and Miles operate in the U.S., South America, India, and across the world. Their company, Terraforma LLC implements biological projects globally with commercial agriculture operations to reduce inputs and optimize output. With an emphasis on soil health and its biological functionality, Terraforma customizes solutions and practices that integrate with the farmers agronomic strategies. All agricultural landscapes are different, and Terraforma’s systematic approach positions their clients to enhance their bottom line as we build soil health.
Florès Sens System (and CEO Renald Flores) has been around the world the past 5 years onward hunting for best practices in soil microbiology, regenerative agriculture, regenerative grazing (Savory Institute), agro-ecology & permaculture design, self sufficiency, soil regenerations conversions and human community holistic decision making.
They gathered all that, mixed it, shook it up and are now serving their expertise & solutions for: soil ecosystem regeneration, soil microbiological analysis, quality BioComplete™ compost making (skill transfer & multi scale operational set up), design of regenerative agriculture systems (grazing, crops, cover crops, no till), and design, execution & management for transition projects toward 100% organic & soil regeneration programs.
Tanja has five years of experience in restoring soils. As a Soil Food Web Consultant, she leads projects, workshops and is a CTP mentor. She advises on soil improvement plans and offers support to implement them. Tanja is also affiliated with the Botanical Garden of the TU-Delft. She uses her knowledge and experience to help farmers switch from a chemical-based approach to a biological one, using the SFW-approach.
Phone: (+31) 06 – 538 33 454
Email: [email protected]
Birgit, a former trainer and programmer for a well-known Office suite, started her Soil Food Web journey in 2014. She has graduated from Dr. Elaine’s™ Soil Food Web School Consultant Training Program and has a Permaculture Design Certificate.
She can help making plans for soil restoration using the Soil Food Web approach and advise best practices for the implementation of these plans. Birgit also teaches workshops about the soil food web and microscopy. Helping people understand the Soil Food Web approach is her passion. She is based in the Netherlands and prefers most to work in Dutch or German.
Phone: +31(0)6-588 66 098
Email: [email protected]
Website
Ib is a Danish farmer. He has worked in farming all his life and owned his own farm for 20 years, with 110 ha arable and a 500-sow pig unit. He started the move away from conventional chemical farming, back in 2010, when he transferred 20 ha of his land to growing organic strawberries.
Since 2017, Ib has been a farmer / teacher at a Danish boarding school for 9 and 10 graders, where he runs the school’s 46 ha organic farm. He teaches organic farming, both practice and theory, and SFW methods to his students. He has done extensive work on SFW field trials, both at the school, where some of the work has been done by the students, and on farms nearby for the last three years. During this time, he has gained experience of using the SFW system through studies in arable crops, grazing fields, forage fields, strawberries, orchards and greenhouses.
He has a good technical background and is working on getting systems up and running that can easily be put in place on organic as well as conventional farms. His aim is to get Soil Food Web solutions brought out to farmers and growers in a practical and cost-effective way.
Phone: +45 20129322
Email: [email protected]
Skype: Ib.Borup.Pedersen
I had been searching for logical answers to the questions that had been accumulating in my mind about soil. Only after I was introduced to Dr. Elaine’s work I was able to understand the connection between soil and all other living organisms. My excitement following that encounter has continued to grow over the years. In order to produce healthy food, it is necessary to prioritize the vitality and diversity of the soil. I take great pride in contributing to the vitality of the soil through the production of biological compost, as well as providing educational and advisory services.
Email: [email protected]
Ruth Cory lives on a 20-hectare reforestation project in Catalunya. She initially trained as a psychologist and naturopathic doctor but then decided to treat soil instead of people! Ruth has the Permaculture Certificate and Diploma and has taught permaculture and nature connection around the world. She is looking forward to building up the Soil Food Web training and soil treatment around Spain.
Lisa Price is a certified Soil and Food web tech and consultant. A passionate educator on soil life and its inner workings. Lisa offers a soil analysis service of microbial life in your soil.
Often found with her hands in the earth, Lisa is right at home in Ravenshoe on a biodynamic beef and vegetable farm that she runs with her partner Simon. They sell seedlings to the home gardeners and support and empower people to grow their own food.
Leisha is the founder of the Living Ground Project whose mission is to restore and rejuvenate soil, plant and human health with microbes. Living Ground offers microbe soil tests, education, consultancy, Microbe Rich Compost, Microbe & Health Tourism and apprenticeships (food sovereignty, growing healthy, nutritious food and medicine and how to transform foods to help the human being). The Living Ground Project’s mission is to grow microbes, share knowledge, generate value and provide opportunities for everyone using symbiotic commerce at its foundation. The Soil Squad is actively working with farmers and growers to regenerate using biological means and the Project is an education and tourist center/destination for anyone who wants to learn.
Leif is a Farmer, Crop adviser, Agro-engineer and has Permaculture Design Certificates in permaculture and regenerative design. He has been teaching compost making, permaculture, regenerative farming, and gardening in Denmark and Africa since 1985 and focuses on using regenerative and holistic methods.
Leif strives to support nature’s biological cycle of SOIL-PLANTS-ANIMALS and also to make farming and food production a regenerative copy of nature, emphasizing reducing inputs and increasing outputs. He has found that using a microscope to identify and quantify the soil food web in soils and compost is a vital part of this strategy.
Phone: +45 31269752
Email: [email protected]
Websites: permaculturefarmers.com , permaculturefarmers.dk
Rubén is an agronomist with more than twenty years of experience working in sustainable and regenerative agriculture in Asia, Latin America and Spain, including six years with the United Nations at FAO. He currently provides producers in Spain with tailor-made solutions for increasing soil fertility while decreasing production costs. Originally from a farming family in the north of Spain, Rubén deeply understands the small net margins inherent to conventional agriculture as well as how essential farmers are in maintaining rural ecosystems, and he is passionate about accompanying their transition from chemical-based to biological-based agriculture. Rubén also teaches at the University of Valladolid in Spain, currently focused on microbiology applied to agriculture, plant nutrition and regenerative agriculture practices.
Phone: +34 633808933
Email: [email protected]
With over 40 years of experience and 30 harvests, there’s not much Nick doesn’t know about farming. He has managed large, arable-based estates worldwide, won numerous awards, and devised the Farm-to-Fork program, encouraging children to learn about food production and soil health. He currently plays a pivotal role as the Estate Director at Wild Ken Hill in Norfolk and is a leading advocate for regenerative agriculture in the UK.Over the years, Nick has grown increasingly concerned about the damage we’re doing to the soil and recognized the importance of learning more about soil ecology. He is now a fully qualified consultant through Dr. Elaine’s Soil Food Web and is passionate about supporting fellow farmers in transitioning to regenerative practices. Nick has launched Wild Soils to provide consultancy to farms in the UK and overseas.
Phone: +44 7979 785880
Email: [email protected]
A teacher by training and gardener at heart, she discovered permaculture in 2012, which led her down a path of learning and delving into the magical properties of compost and recognizing the fundamental role of soil in functioning ecosystems.
She has been studying and practicing the Soil Food Web approach to soil regeneration since 2020. Primarily as an educator, she brings the knowledge of regenerating soil ecosystems and rethinking agriculture to vocational students, farmers and landscape professionals in her part of the world.
Her favorite systems are traditional European mountain pastures, old school orchards and vegetable gardens.
She believes that understanding the complexity of natural systems and selfless human cooperation can lead humanity to the better world our hearts know is possible.
Making some kick-ass bioactive compost along the way doesn’t hurt either!
Anton de Jager, a seasoned farmer with 26 years of experience, manages 11,000 hectares
at De Keur Estate (Pty) Ltd. The family enterprise specializes in diverse crops like pome
fruit, stone fruit, cherries, berries, and onions, alongside cattle and sheep rearing. Amid
rising input costs, the estate prioritizes sustainability, transitioning to biological farming.
Anton, having completed online courses by Dr. Elaine, now serves as an in-house
consultant. Collaborating with Todd Harrington, a Soil Food Web expert, for 2.5 years, Anton
eagerly embraces continuous learning at De Keur Estate, shaping a future of sustainable
agriculture.
Phone: +27(0) 83 627 0860
Email: [email protected]
Alex Yakaumo
Soil Care Consultancy
Suriname, South America
Meet Alex Yakaumo, a permaculture expert living in Suriname and deeply dedicated to sustainable living practices. With a profound understanding of Syntropic Agroforestry and a lifelong commitment to self-sufficiency, Alex advocates for a healthier environment in Suriname and beyond. Having completed the SFW school Consultant Training Program, he now also offers soil consulting services, aiming to improve soil health, promote regenerative planting methods, and empower Surinamese communities to cultivate nutritious fruits, vegetables and vibrant ecosystems. Alex’s mission is to contribute to a more resilient and healthy ecosystem through sustainable agriculture and environmental stewardship.
Phone: (597) 8113360
Email: [email protected]
Arved studied viticulture until 2013 and worked as a vineyard manager for various organic wineries. In 2020, he began his studies at the Soil Food Web School and at the same time, he founded a market garden with his wife. He experiments a lot on his own farm and gathers experience, which he then passes on in consulting. His focus in consulting is on the specialty crops of viticulture and horticulture. Lectures and courses on the soil food web are just as much a part of his daily work as the microscopic examination of soils and composts.
Phone: 0049-174-2687524
Email: [email protected]
Niels and Priya, founders of MicroVida TV, specialize in regenerating soils through microorganisms, permaculture, and syntropic farming. Their journey began when their garden in La Gomera, Canary Islands struggled to yield growth. Microorganisms not only transformed their soil but also deepened their understanding of human health. Now based in Mindo, Ecuador, they guide others in transitioning to regenerative agriculture. Through workshops, soil analysis, local collaboration, and online consultancy, they nurture sustainable practices—all in service of nurturing our planet’s most vital resource: healthy soil, which sustains life and fosters resilience.
Phone: +593 (0)98 952 3958
Email: [email protected]