Marbleseed Conference 2025 - Session

Increasingly, farmers and ranchers will confront radically new climatic and ecological futures. In his talk, Rob Dunn explores what we already know about these futures as well as, in their light, a series of alternative futures for farms. At one extreme, we might imagine “mutualism farms,” that focus on the interdependence of species and maximize mutualisms. An alternate future is robot and AI driven. Between these extremes lurk interesting complementarities. In telling the stories of possible futures, Dunn will consider the kinds of risk that these futures entail. In doing so, he will draw on insights from the studies of crows, belly buttons, slime molds and many other species from which we might learn. As a thought experiment, Dunn will invite participants to imagine what farms and futures that focus on heightening mutualisms look like. When we consider a more (rather than less) biologically connected future, what do we see and what can we, together, create?

Plus, a panel featuring:

Marc Grignon
Marc works on hemp varieties as a farmer. He also has extensive policy and advocacy experience and works with Rural Co.

Glen Philbrick
Glen is a college teacher and farmer in Turtle Lake, North Dakota. He has been awarded several farmer SARE grants and is always curious and trying new things on his farm.

Karin Jokela
Karin has a strong background in pollinator conservation and agriculture. She holds a master's degree in ecology and evolutionary biology from Iowa State University, where she studied skipper butterfly conservation and grassland restoration within agroecosystems. Karin and her husband are also organic vegetable farmers in southern Minnesota, and Karin manages a small native plant nursery on their farm, Sogn Valley Farm.