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Agraria is Ohio’s first Center for Regenerative Agriculture!
About Agraria
Agraria is a 128-acre educational and research farm that explores and demonstrates the benefits of regenerative practices at multiple levels—from the environmental, economic, psychological, and social, to their impact on human health and well-being. Soil regeneration is the root-bed of this work. Our farm property is rented out by up-and-coming farmers who work to utilize regenerative techniques to keep the land healthy for years to come. Be on the lookout for upcoming events and make your own here at Agraria.
Our Mission: Agraria cultivates community resilience by modeling regenerative practices that restore ecosystem health, heal our relationship with the land, and grow just and equitable food systems.
Our Vision: A continuously regenerating world that recognizes the interconnectedness of all living beings, where people live in balance with each other and nature.
What We Do
Our areas of focus are education, ecosystem conservation, and local food systems. Our work encompasses practices that restore and build soil health, protect our water resources, increase biodiversity and wildlife habitat, address climate change, strengthen local food systems, spur relocalization of economies, and regenerate our communities as well as our relationship with the land.
Learn more about the projects underway by watching our video below:
Education
We offer a calendar of events and programs for children, families, and adults each year centered around farming, regeneration, and community resiliency. Agraria also offers a program for beginning regenerative farmers called the Regenerative Farmer Fellowship. Please visit our education tab for more information.
Conservation
The Nature Conservancy Stream and Wetland Restoration Project
Experts from The Nature Conservancy visited Agraria to complete a site assessment in the area around Jacoby Creek
The team from The Nature Conservancy and the firm that is designing the Jacoby Restoration plan--Biohabitats--does water sampling at Agraria in Spring 2021
The Jacoby Creek corridor through Agraria will look, and feel, completely different 10 years from now, thanks to our partnership with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) on a stream and wetland restoration project. Where honeysuckle once grew, native trees and shrubs, and grasses will flourish along the banks of a gently meandering stream, creating a welcoming habitat for wildlife and beneficial insects.
The project calls for removing the dense thickets of Amur honeysuckle that have grown up along the banks of the stream and its tributaries; restoring meanders to the creek, which was channelized in the past to increase the amount of land available for agricultural production; reestablishing and rehabilitating the surrounding wetlands and replanting the restoration area with a variety of native trees and plants. The project will restore wetland and streamside habitat on almost 60 acres of Agraria. This includes more than 20 acres of extra buffer strips that Agraria will be able to use for research and for demonstrating regenerative agricultural practices like permaculture. This is the first time the TNC has collaborated with a landowner on a project that combines mitigation with agriculture. The restored area, along with 20 acres of adjoining farmland, will be protected by a permanent conservation easement.
Jacoby Partnership Project
Agraria is a partner with the Tecumseh Land Trust in the $1.5 million Jacoby Partnership Project. This five-year project is aimed at improving soil and water quality and encouraging conservation practices in the Jacoby Creek sub-watersheds. We also partner with TLT on workshops and events.
This map represents the restoration plans from TNC. The light blue line shows the restored Jacoby creek, the light green represents delineated wetlands, and the dark green represents the total area where TNC will remove invasive species and plant native plant species.
The dark blue line in this map represents an approximation of the current Jacoby Creek at Agraria.
Local Food
We recognize the interconnectedness of soil health, ecological restoration, strong local food systems, and healthy societies, and this is reflected in our work on and off the farm.
Feeding the Soil
Soil regeneration is the root-bed of our work, and we are building soil health on Agraria through regenerative practices like cover cropping, organic soil amendments, conservation tillage, and permaculture.
Feeding Pollinators
We recognize the central role pollinators play in building strong local food systems and sustaining ecosystem health. They are responsible, in part, for the production of 75% of the world’s food crops. At least a third of our garden areas on Agraria is dedicated to pollinator plant species, and in 2020 we planted over 100 sensitive native prairie plants.
Feeding People
Our aim is to transform Agraria into a regional hub that helps build and support a just, equitable, and accessible local food system that recognizes the right of all people to fresh, healthy, culturally appropriate food. We manage the SNAP and Produce Perks Program at the local farmers market, and in 2020 we connected local gardeners and farmers to regional pantries to supply fresh, locally produced foods to neighbors most in need.
