Speaker Lineup
Dr Thomas M. Dykstra, Ph.D.
Dr. Thomas Dykstra is the Laboratory Director of his own lab, Dykstra Laboratories in Gainesville, Florida and serves as the scientific advisor for Advancing Eco Agriculture. For 25 years, he has studied bioelectromagnetics (how electromagnetic fields affect life), especially as it relates to insects. He holds entomology degrees from Cornell University as well as the University of Florida and has been awarded seven patents. Dr. Dykstra consults for farmers, agricultural companies, tech firms, attorneys, international governments, and insurance agencies. He has visited three continents and presents lectures on diverse topics covering entomology, olfactory physiology, biophysics, paramagnetism, neurobiology, and biological antennae. In terms of active research, Dr. Dykstra deciphered the insect olfactory code back in 2016 and characterizes chemoreceptors for various medical and agricultural insect pests.
George Hahn
In 1998 less than one ton of earthworm castings (EWC) were sold annually in all of California.. George had a vision to develop a market for EWC. A 1,000# of eisenia foetida was placed into a compost windrow in the vacant lot adjacent to his office. The worms survived and the operation was expanded to five acres in Carlsbad to 20 acres in Chino then 50 acres in Perris (now 100 acres outside Sacramento produces 100,000 tons/year).
It was observed if the feed mix was changed away from landscape trimmings and manure the level of the recycling biology (specifically chitin recycling and cellulose recycling bacteria) that insect pests no longer would attack Wormgold fed plants.
12 retail garden nurseries carried Wormgold until the LA Times article said “Got Whiteflies Get Wormgold”. The number jumped to 82 in three weeks.
Since the recycling biology is the same that supplies nutrition to the plants, plant health and yield dramatically improved.
40,000 pines were fed in two years where bark beetle attacks were devastating the trees. Less than 1% of the Wormgold fed trees were lost whereas adjacent properties would often see as much as 90% loss. CA DPR (Dept Pesticide Regulation claimed that feeding soil nutrition to the trees was selling unregistered pesticides. This resulted in a cease and desist order and a $503,000 fine. (Nearly bankrupted the company). So all written, electronic, and even verbal claims were stopped.
Wormgold will have an EPA registration in 2023 which will allow Pest repellency and disease suppression marketing in farming, forestry, and landscaping.
George merely observed what God had designed and applied these benefits.
Dragan Macura, M. Sc.
Born in the communist Yugoslavia, emigrated to Canada as a teenager, educated and lived in Vancouver, B.C. for 30 years, and moved to California 22 years ago, Dragan has benefited from his diverse & unique background which shaped his general outlook on the world. Add to this a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Food Science and Technology and Applied Microbiology from U.B.C., along with a hefty dose of School of Hard Knocks Dragan, after a decent dose of academic life, consulting to the food industry, employment in R & D, and 16 years of entrepreneurial endeavors, has decided to do what he can to help save the environment from the overloading with organic wastes and to help the overwhelming depletion of organic matter in agricultural soils. To this end he invented a natural microbial digestion process that he called the Progressive Digestion Process (PDP) that reduces the most difficult to handle food industry wastes (e.g. slaughterhouse waste, CAFO mortalities, etc.) to fast acting, food safe, microbially active bio-fertilizer anywhere in the world.
Dragan’s presentation today will cover how microbes can be used to repurpose organic wastes, how they can be used to protect, help, and shape the plant and soil health, and how they shape and manage the effectiveness of both organic and conventional fertilizers in crop production and the control of environmental pollution in the air, soils, lakes, and the oceans.
Dr. Richard N. Olree Jr. D.C.
Dr. Olree has been a Doctor of Chiropractic in practice in Northern Michigan for 43 years at the same location. He sees an average of 20-to 30 people every day. He also owns a health food store that not only serves the local clientele but from all areas of the world with hair testing and nutritional consulting.
Dr. Olree graduated from Logan College of Chiropractic in 1981 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Human Biology, and a Doctorate in Chiropractic.
Dr. Olree and Chuck Walters, founder of Acres U.S.A., an organic farming magazine, worked together to write the book “Minerals for the Genetic Code” and Dr Olree has written other books such as: “Minerals for Tumor Suppressing Genes”, “A Amishman’s Handy Guide To Minerals, Vitamins and Food Supplements”, “Minerals for Acupuncture Meridians”, “A Chiropractors Metabolomic Handbook of Cerebral Spinal Fluids”, “Minerals, hair and the Human Genome”, and “Is Covid 19 a Telomere Virus” . Books under construction are: “Boron so you Mind don’t Make you a Moron” and “Weak Magnetic Energy and the Human Body”
“Minerals for the Genetic Code” was published in 2006 with thousands of copies sold worldwide. Dr. Olree’s contribution to the book focuses on a chart of the spine he developed that overlays the Standard Genetic Chart and lectures on the usage of trace minerals.
Dr. Olree has shared his Chiropractic services around the world. Following the events of 911, Dr. Olree went to Ground Zero three different times to provide Chiropractic care to the workers at Ground Zero in St. Paul’s church.
Dr. Olree has traveled abroad, traveling to Australia lecturing and treating folks while on tour there. Dr. Olree has traveled to Brazil tending to clients who were participating in the 2016 Olympics’. “Rich” has no plans to retire at any time in the future and truly enjoys his life helping others either directly or by writing books and lecturing.
Dr. Richard Lamar, Ph, D.
Rich’s first introduction to science was working as a technician at the Virginia Tech (VPI) Poultry Science Department in Blacksburg, Va. While working at VPI he began taking forestry courses, which led to an opportunity to work at Mississippi State University in Starkville, Miss., on a Master of Science degree project to investigate the effects of undercutting and mycorrhizal inoculation of hardwood seedlings in the nursery on seedling vigor and out-planting success. This led to an interest in plant-mycorrhizal fungal associations and an opportunity to work with Dr. Chuck Davey to pursue a PhD in forest Soils at North Carolina State University, working on mycorrhizal applications in production of hardwood tree seedlings. After completing his doctorate in 1986, Rich began a two-year post-doc position at the Institute for Microbial and Biochemical Technology (IMBT) at the USDA Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisc., where he was later hired as a soil scientist to pursue the development of a soil bioremediation technology based on the pollutant-degrading abilities of white-rot wood decay fungi (WRF). The development of the technology was successful, and his group received three patents for fungal inoculum production and application of the technology. Theis work also led to Rich’s interest in humic substances because he discovered that the WRF were detoxifying aromatic pollutants by humifying them i.e. using redox chemistry to incorporate them covalently into soil humic substances. In 1996, Rich became Director of R&D at a company that later became EarthFax Development Corp., with a focus on commercializing the fungal-based remediation technology. While at EarthFax Development, he started offering humic and fulvic acid analysis to the humic industry. During this time, Rich started interacting with the Humic Products Trade Assoc. (HPTA) to standardize methods for the quantitation of humic and fulvic acid. A modified version of these methods is now accepted as the Internationally recognized ISO standard method for humic substances. Now at BHN, Rich is Senior Director of R&D and is actively building a solid forward-thinking R&D/QC program to support BHN humic science, product development, marketing, production, and sales.
Isaac Carlson
Born and raised on a conventional, irrigated row crop and orchard farm, Isaac Carlson is a third-generation farmer in the Columbia Basin. Isaac continued to work on his dad’s farm after high school and in 2013, formed Under The Son Farm, LLC. Isaac farms 24 acres of organic grapes as well as 350 acres of conventional row crops. Wheat, buckwheat, beans, sweet corn, peas, alfalfa and timothy are typical crops that he grows. Isaac’s passion for human health influences his farming practices. Successes in his organic vineyard have further motivated Isaac to strive to promote healthy soil biology and reduce the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers in his conventionally farmed ground whenever possible and prudent. He believes that the soil was created by God and is well suited to feed and heal mankind. Isaac is confident we can restore the soil and once again raise nutritious, healthy food. Isaac farms with his wife Audrey and enjoys having his kids out on the farm with him. They have a three-year-old, a one-year-old, and a baby due in May.
David Knaus
David Knaus is the President and Founder of Apical Crop Science LLC, an ag-tech company that combines laboratory analysis, smart data management, and sustainable growing products to provide growers with the tools they need to grow high-yielding crops organically. As a successful farmer, college instructor, and professional crop advisor for over 10 years each, he offers a unique perspective into the challenges farmers face, and how to use the best of academic research and laboratory analytics to drive smart in-field decision-making that has helped growers across the country and internationally.”
Trent Graybill
Trent Graybill is a cofounder and owner of Soilcraft Inc & Soilcraft International, an Ag consulting and biological nutrition company located in Zillah, Wa. He operates as a biological agronomist/CCA & PCA and has over a decade of experience farming and working in Agronomy.