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Iowa’s SOS call: Save Our Soil!

As the country’s leading producer of corn, centuries of continuous agriculture have depleted Iowa’s soil of organic matter and released tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, but a few simple steps could turn it all around and turn the state into the Fort Knox of carbon storage.
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For Jay’s first foray into the corn belt, he makes a visit to Living History Farms, where Elizabeth Sedrel explains that back in the early 1800s, European settlers established an agricultural-based economy in Iowa due to its rich, fertile soil. As the population grew and technology advanced, production optimized and Iowa became the nation’s leading producer of corn. However, all those years of tilling soil has resulted in nutrient depletion and major greenhouse gas emissions – but that’s not to say these changes are irreversible. John Gilbert of Gibralter Farms explains that there are six steps farmers can employ in order to regenerate the organic matter that Iowa’s soils have lost, which, if these practices reach scale, can suck a whole lot of C02 out of the atmosphere.

To delve in deeper, Jay first speaks to Rick Cruse, an agronomy professor at Iowa State University, who informs him that viability of agricultural production within the state depends on soil health, but new practices have been difficult to deploy because farmers aren’t seeing the cost benefit. So Jay chats with Tim Youngquist, a farmer liaison with the STRIPS Program, to see how precision data is helping farmers see how devoting a fraction of farmland to native prairie grasslands can boost their bottom line. Next, Jay hears from Adam Ledvina about how technology is revolutionizing the art of grazing livestock, which he has turned into a prescription service that helps farmers expedite the process of clearing leftover crops and converting them into fertilizer by way of GPS-trackable goats.

But as with any green effort, there is the issue of getting to scale. Fortunately, Robert Bonnie informs us that the USDA has put forth a billion dollar proposal for farmers and landowners to come to them with carbon-reducing projects. With this financial incentive, there is not only the potential for these methods to scale but also the opportunity for Iowa to further monetize their efforts in carbon markets, which will need to grow fifteen times their current size by 2030 in order for corporations to reach their net zero targets, according to climate finance expert Sean Penrith.

CREDITS:

Featuring: Jay Tipton, Elizabeth Sedrel, John Gilbert, Rick Cruse, Tim Youngquist, Adam Ledvina, Robert Bonnie, Sean Penrith, Paula DiPerna
Produced by: Mike Zunic
Executive Produced by: Melissa Panzer, Joan Lynch, Art Bilger
Written by: Jay Tipton, Mike Zunic
Talent Producer: Emily Lallouz
Associate Producer: Diana Aydin
Edited and Sound Mixed by: Lynz Floren
Assistant Editor: Mengfang Yang
Music by: Avocado Junkie
Made possible by: the Walton Family Foundation

Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.