Recent National No-Tillage Conference speaker Gabe Brown, owner of Brown's Ranch in Bismarck, North Dakota, was named by the Natural Resources Defense Council as the 2012 Growing Green Awards winner in the Food Producer category.

For over 15 years, Gabe has merged back-to-basics agrarian practices with innovative science-based sustainable farming techniques on his 5,400-acre diversified family ranch.

For Gabe, healthy soil is the renewable resource that sustains all. By making use of a 100 percent zero-till cropping system, mob grazing, and polyculture cover crop and polyculture cash crop rotations, he has successfully transformed conventional grazing and cropping operations into models of regenerative agriculture.

Brown's Ranch also integrates its cow-calf and grass finished livestock operations with a highly diverse cropping rotation, which includes over 25 different cash and cover crops resulting in high yields and strong net profits. Gabe's trailblazing work has made him a leader in regenerative ranch management.

Read Gabe's blog post about this award here.