On Tuesday, November 17, the Collective Action Program (CAP) for Regenerative Agriculture invites farmers, researchers, and agricultural professionals across Southwestern Ontario to Learning from the Field, a full day educational forum hosted at Ivey Business School. The day features four confirmed speakers: keynote Rick Clark (Southern Indiana), John Benitz of Libertas Land, Simeon Kleinsasser of Hiwassee Products, and local farmer Chuck Desmarais of Desmarais Family Farms, exploring biological inputs and what a more bioregional agricultural supply chain could look like. Tickets are $25 as an early bird price through November 11, rising to $50 starting November 12, a fraction of the event's $75 value thanks to event sponsorship. Learning from the Field is organized by CAP and hosted at Ivey Business School.
Agriculture in Southwestern Ontario, like most of North America, has become deeply dependent on synthetic inputs such as fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides, most of them manufactured from fossil fuels and purchased through an increasingly concentrated global supply chain. That dependence carries real risk: input cost volatility, supply disruptions, soil degradation, and long term threats to farm viability.
Learning from the Field is a full day educational forum, about 6 hours, bringing farmers, researchers, and agricultural professionals together at Ivey Business School to explore a different path. The central question of the day is whether regional agri food systems can reduce or eliminate dependence on synthetic inputs while remaining ecologically and economically viable, and what a more bioregional supply chain for those inputs might look like.
The event is organized by a farmer project group within the Collective Action Program (CAP) for Regenerative Agriculture, an action research initiative hosted by the Office of the Endowed Chair for Regenerative Agriculture at Ivey Business School. Over two years of participatory inquiry, CAP cohort members identified biological and non synthetic input methods as a critical and underexplored piece of the regional food sovereignty question, and organized this event to bring that work to a wider audience. Ivey is proud to host the event at CAP's request.
Four speakers headline the day: keynote Rick Clark, a leading North American practitioner of no till and cover crop farming; John Benitz, Founder and CEO of Libertas Land, introducing the Libertas operating model of Compounding Adaptation; Simeon Kleinsasser of Hiwassee Products, presenting on biological compost inputs; and local farmer Chuck Desmarais of Desmarais Family Farms, who composts and extracts nutrients on his own farm. The day is facilitated by Jury Gualandris, Session Chair and Ivey's Abell Hodgson Chair in Regenerative Agriculture, who weaves in observations and anecdotes from the front lines of the Collective Action Program for Regenerative Agriculture (CAP), Ivey's action research program with farmers across the region.
The day is education first and practitioner led. It is designed to build practical knowledge for farmers considering a transition, strengthen the regional farming community, and signal that a bioregional agri food supply chain is a present tense project already underway in Southwestern Ontario.
This event is an OSCIA-recognized Knowledge Sharing Event (KSE) for applicants with On-Farm Climate Action Fund (OFCAF) projects in the Nitrogen Management category
Quick Facts
- Event: Learning from the Field
- Organized by: Collective Action Program (CAP) for Regenerative Agriculture
- Hosted by: Ivey Business School, Western University, at CAP's request
- Date: Tuesday, November 17, 2026
- Time: approximately 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM, doors open at 8:30 AM for a meet and greet
- Meals: coffee service provided in the morning and throughout the day, with lunch included for all attendees
- Venue: BMO Auditorium, Ivey Business School, London, Ontario
- Audience: farmers, researchers, and agricultural professionals in Southwestern Ontario
- Tickets: $25 early bird through November 11; $50 starting November 12 (full event value approximately $75, subsidized by event sponsorship)
Confirmed Speakers
- Rick Clark, Keynote (Southern Indiana). A leading North American practitioner of no till and cover crop farming, with over a decade of documented regenerative results and a following that stretches from the US Midwest to Saskatchewan. Full session description below.
- John Benitz, Founder and CEO of Libertas Land. An entrepreneur, investor, and conservationist introducing the Libertas operating model of Compounding Adaptation and a Regenerative Continuum. Full session description below.
- Simeon Kleinsasser, Hiwassee Products (Tennessee). Presenting a demonstration and educational session on biological compost inputs and the equipment that supports them. Full session description below.
- Chuck Desmarais, Desmarais Family Farms (Stoney Point, Ontario). A local grassroots farmer who composts and extracts nutrients on his own farm, using an on-farm lab and microscope to study soil biology directly. Full session description below.
Rick Clark, Keynote
Rick Clark is a fifth-generation Indiana farmer and owner-operator of Clark Land and Cattle and Farm Green Consulting, and a two-time National No Tillage Conference Presenter of the Year. His keynote blends the story of his own farm's transition away from synthetic inputs with practical detail on the system he has built since, planting cash crops into a living cover rather than killing it first, a method he calls Farming Green, alongside diverse cover crop mixes, organic no-till weed management, and the on-farm economics behind each decision.
Rather than prescribing a single formula, Rick speaks farmer to farmer, drawing on both the successes and the failures on his own operation to make the case for measuring farm success by soil health, reduced dependence on purchased inputs, and long-term profitability and resilience, not yield alone. He is known for an open, conversational style that welcomes questions throughout, and for being candid about what has and has not worked as Clark Land and Cattle has moved toward regenerative organic production.
John Benitz, Libertas Land
John Benitz is the Founder and CEO of Libertas Land, an entrepreneur, investor, conservationist, and board member who is happiest on a horse, on a hike, or outdoors. Two words have guided John throughout his life: curiosity and better. A graduate of Western and Ivey, John returns to southwestern Ontario having lived, built, and led businesses around the world, ultimately drawn back to the land through a lifetime of connection to nature and his generational ranching family in the Americas and Argentina.
That curiosity, and a refusal to accept that farms and ranches have to operate the way they always have, led him to extend the family brand, Libertas, into a new generation of work with farmers, ranchers, landowners, and capital partners, rethinking what is possible when nature and living systems are at the centre. In his session, The Land Is Calling, John introduces the Libertas operating model of Compounding Adaptation and a Regenerative Continuum, a practical pursuit of Better, where small changes build and compound, helping farmers and ranchers strengthen their businesses and their land.
Simeon Kleinsasser, Hiwassee Products
The educational portion of the session covers the Rhizophagy Cycle, the remarkable process by which plants actively cultivate and harvest soil microbes through their own root systems, and explores the role that high-quality compost extract plays in supporting robust plant and microbe interactions in the root zone.
The hands-on portion introduces participants to the Hiwassee Products X350 Continuous Flow Compost Extractor, one of the most efficient tools available for producing high-quality compost extract for soil and plant health applications. Attendees will watch a full working demonstration of the X350, from initial setup through the extraction process and cleanup, alongside a direct comparison with a traditional cone tank extraction system, highlighting the practical differences in ease of use, throughput, and the quality of the biology produced. The session concludes with live microscopy, where participants examine the extract samples produced during the demonstration, identify living microbial populations, and see for themselves the difference the extraction method makes.
Chuck Desmarais, Desmarais Family Farms
Chuck Desmarais farms land that has been in the Desmarais name since 1900, about three kilometers south of Lake St. Clair, just east of Pointe aux Roches (Stoney Point), on Brookston clay with some loam. The farm has been transitioning away from synthetic inputs only since 2022, and Chuck is candid that there is still a great deal to learn, including a few disappointments along the way. He is currently finishing the Soil Food Web course, and finds it so interesting that he is in no hurry to complete it.
In his session, Chuck brings firsthand, on-the-ground experience to farmers and gardeners working on biocomplete compost, sharing images of living organisms captured through his own microscope. He is fascinated by the ability of plants to communicate with each other and with the soil microbiome, and by how that communication supports proper nourishment when it is available. Central to his approach is keeping living roots in the ground through planting green, whether cash crops or diversified cover crops, to continually feed the microbiome. As Chuck puts it, his journey is just beginning.
Learning from the Field is presented in partnership with the Ontario Soil Network.
