Two regenerative agriculture pioneers, Rick Clark of Indiana and Blake Alexander of California, stood alongside Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins as the department announced a new $700 million investment in regenerative agriculture.

Given recent history, skepticism is understandable. Cuts to farm-to-school lunch programs, the rollback of farmer grants funded under the Inflation Reduction Act, and a longstanding lack of consistent support for small and mid-sized family farms have left many producers wary of federal promises. I understand the doubt. Many farmers have learned, the hard way, to expect little.

Still, this moment matters.

As someone who followed RFK Jr. to the White House, I have remained clear-eyed about the limits of his authority at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Agriculture policy does not sit within HHS, and his portfolio is already full. Yet Kennedy has long understood the opportunity that regenerative agriculture presents, not just for farmers but also for public health, environmental resilience, and food quality.

That understanding helped inspire Kelly Ryerson, Rick Clark, and me to co-found American Regeneration, an organization created to educate, inform, and influence this administration, particularly within the MAHA ecosystem, on why soil health must be part of the national agenda.

Over the past year, our team and advisers made eight trips to Washington, meeting with policymakers, submitting memos, and engaging in sustained dialogue. Across those conversations, one conclusion became unavoidable. If policymakers want conventional producers to transition toward regenerative practices, they must fund the transition and tie that funding to measurable outcomes.

For me, seeing this announcement felt like a long-held vision beginning to take shape.

I was traveling home from the 50th anniversary of the Acres Conference in Madison, Wisconsin, where my sister, Mollie Engelhart, shared the main stage with regenerative leaders such as Will Harris and Joel Salatin. We screened an educational cut of Common Ground for more than 600 farmers and hosted a Q&A with regenerative pioneers Gabe Brown and Rick Clark. From there, I headed south to the Mycelia food systems conference in Sebastian, Florida.

During an Uber ride, I received a message from Calley Means, a White House adviser to Secretary Kennedy and a leader within the MAHA movement. "Check your email," she wrote.

Inside was a preview of a regenerative agriculture framework scheduled for release in the coming weeks.

Over the last year, Means and I have exchanged ideas on how USDA and HHS could work together to encourage soil-health adoption among conventional growers. Those discussions, across meetings, memos, and policy proposals, kept circling back to a principle long championed by Gabe Brown. Incentives only work when they reward real results.