Chefs for Healthy Soil
NRDC’s Chefs for Healthy Soil is a community working to build a regenerative food system that fosters soil health as a tool to fight climate change.
What's At Stake
You can’t eat healthy food unless there’s healthy soil. When soil is healthy, it can filter and conserve water, capture carbon, and feed the microbes that make our food flavorful and nutritious. These are just a few of the ways in which healthy soil plays a pivotal role in nature—and in our food systems.
Every time a chef and their team buy produce, they make choices about the farmers and ranchers they want to support and invest in. By choosing to purchase from growers who cultivate healthy soil, chefs can be climate warriors. These chefs know that healthy soil grows healthy food—and as public awareness for regenerative agriculture increases, more chefs are lending their voices to the conversation of what a more regenerative food system could look like.
Through Chefs for Healthy Soil, chefs across the country are joining the regenerative agriculture movement to support transformative food and agriculture policies. Their involvement also helps educate lawmakers, the media, and consumers about the inextricable link between soil health, food quality, and climate change.
What does joining Chefs for Healthy Soil mean?
Joining Chefs for Healthy Soil means adding your name to NRDC’s roster of chef advocates to help us promote policies that recognize healthy soil and regenerative agriculture as solutions to our climate crisis.
We understand the amount of passion you have for healthy food might outpace the amount of time you have to spare. We do our best to make it easy to advocate for a more regenerative food system and your level of engagement can fluctuate with your capacity and willingness to participate. Examples of Chefs for Healthy Soil advocacy may include:
- Signing onto a comment letter
- Amplifying actions through social media channels
- Publishing op-eds
- Being a guest speaker at events
- Meeting with legislators
- Hosting educational events that can also help generate awareness about your restaurant
- And more
Through this program, chefs may be publicized through our website, media outlets, social media platforms, advocacy events, and to our more than three million members.
Meet Our Chefs
40 Acres & a Mule Project
Adrian Lipscombe
Austin, TX
Ash'Kara
Daniel Asher
Boulder, CO
Barley Swine
Bryce Gilmore
Austin, TX
BernBaum's
Andrea Baumgardner
Fargo, ND
Bin 707 Foodbar
Josh Niernberg
Grand Junction, CO
Birch Basket
Hillel Echo-Hawk
Seattle
Birdie G's
Jeremy Fox
Los Angeles
Blackbird Woodfire
Casey Absey
Fargo, ND
Border Grill
Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger
Los Angeles
Café Mamo
Michael Thomas Goessman
Grand Rapids, MI
Cafe Ohlone
Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino
Berkeley
Culinary Vegetable Institute
Jamie Simpson
Milan, OH
Flour + Water
Thomas McNaughton
San Francisco
Fruition Restaurant
Alex Seidel
Denver
Granor Farm
Abra Berens
Three Oaks, MI
La Collina
Katarina Petonito and Rochelle Cooper
Washington, DC
Lion Head Ranch
Michael J Garahan, CEC
Emporia, Kansas
Little Egg
Evan Hanczor
Brooklyn, NY
Loaves & Fishes Collective
Sycamore
Nevada City, CA
Luna
Ryan Nitschke
Fargo, ND
Lunchette
Naomi Crawford
Petaluma, CA
M.B. Haskett Delicatessen
Michael Haskett
Sioux Falls, SD
Mercantile
Alex Seidel
Denver
Mission Chinese Food
Anthony Myint
San Francisco and New York
Nick Wallace Culinary
Nick Wallace
Jackson, MS
Odd Duck
Bryce Gilmore
Austin, TX
Overlook Bar and Grill
Ron Duprat
Naples, FL
Penny Roma
Thomas McNaughton
San Francisco
River and Woods
Daniel Asher
Boulder, CO
Rosewild
Jordan Hayes
Fargo, ND
Rustic Canyon
Jeremy Fox
Santa Monica
Shootz
Davin Waite
Oceanside, CA
SingleThread
Kyle Connaughton
Healdsburg, CA
Socalo
Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger
Santa Monica
Sophia Roe
Sophia Roe
New York City
Sour Duck
Bryce Gilmore
Austin, TX
Sqirl
Jessica Koslow
Los Angeles
Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture
Dan Barber
Tarrytown, NY
Sullivan Scrap Kitchen
Terence Rogers
Denver
Tallula's
Jeremy Fox
Santa Monica
TBD Foods
Terence Rogers
Denver
The Duck & the Peach
Katarina Petonito and Rochelle Cooper
Washington, DC
The Manzanita School
Hilary Boynton
Topanga, CA
The Plot
Davin Waite
Oceanside, CA
Tullibee Restaurant and Hewing Hotel
Marque Collins
Minneapolis, MN
UC Davis Health
Santana Diaz
Sacramento
Urbana Farmstead
Margie Raimondo
Little Rock, AR
Wahpepah's Kitchen
Crystal Wahpepah
Oakland, CA
Whistling Boar
David Pitula
Longmont, CO
Woodstock Inn & Resort
Matthew McClure
Woodstock, VT
Wrench and Rodent Seabasstropub
Davin Waite
Oceanside, CA
Yang's Kitchen
Christian Yang
Alhambra, CA
Learn More
Regenerative Agriculture 101
NRDC interviewed more than 100 farmers and ranchers who are building healthy soil and growing climate-resilient communities across the country. This guide incorporates much of what we learned.
Regenerative Agriculture Part 1: The Philosophy
The climate dread was quickly replaced with hope and joy as we learned from Indigenous stewards, Black and Brown farmers, and growers of all shapes, sizes, and in all geographies about how agriculture, and the soil under our feet, can help us combat climate change.
Regenerative Agriculture: Farm Policy for the 21st Century
Farming in harmony with nature fights climate change, improves water quality, and protects biodiversity. NRDC works with growers, ranchers, and community leaders to craft policies for a regenerative farm and food system.
Fighting Climate Change Through Farming
In Central California, small ranches and farms are growing their connections—to the land, to the past, and to each other.
Soil Matters: How the Federal Crop Insurance Program Should Be Reformed
The FCIP, intended to alleviate risk for farmers, actually drives the agricultural community toward riskier farming methods.
Climate-Ready Soil: How Cover Crops Can Make Farms More Resilient to Extreme Weather Risks
Despite the many benefits of cover crops, only 3 to 7 percent of farms in the United States utilize them.
Nature Thrives with Diversity; CA’s Food Systems Can, Too
Our decisionmakers need to think long-term and tie economic recovery with support for our small- and mid-sized farmers, our essential workers, and climate-smart agriculture programs.
“The Biggest Little Farm”: A Bumpy and Beautiful Road to Farming for a Healthier Planet
As industrial agriculture so often pollutes our soil, water, air, and people, this new documentary spotlights a different way to grow food and raise animals.
Become a Chef for Healthy Soil
Join the movement for healthy soil and a regenerative food system. Take the healthy soil pledge and add your name to NRDC’s Chefs for Healthy Soil.
The Healthy Soil Pledge
“You need healthy soil to grow healthy food. I’m proud to join NRDC and its more than three million supporters to advocate for healthy soil and regenerative agriculture. Healthy soil helps us mitigate climate change, keeps our communities resilient, and builds strong local economies—a win for people and our planet. Please join me in advocating for a food system centered on healthy soil and supporting our regenerative farmers and ranchers.”
Meet Our Experts
