Ray ArchuletaNobel Conference 54

You can watch Ray Archuleta's lecture online.

Ray Archuleta is a farmer from Seymour, MO. He is also a professional soil scientist, with certification from the Soil Science Society of America, and a soil conservationist, water quality specialist and conservation agronomist, with 30 years experience working for the Natural Resources Conservation Service. His unmatched expertise, experience, and enthusiasm for soil health place him at the forefront of this field.

Archuleta teaches biomimicry strategies and agroecology principles for improving soil function. He was a driving force behind National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) efforts to provide farmers, ranchers, foresters and other public stakeholders with the education, technical assistance and advice necessary to ensure sustainable management of the nation’s soils. Archuleta is uniquely skilled at taking the best of what science has learned from practice and research, and communicating it in a way the enables and encourages collaborative adoption of best practices.

Archuleta earned an AS degree in Livestock Science from Northern New Mexico College and a BS degree in Agricultural Biology from New Mexico State University, as well as 30 hours of graduate courses in soil from New Mexico State University. He spent two years in Guatemala as a livestock specialist for the Peace Corps. During his years with the NRCS, he worked in New Mexico, Missouri, Oregon, and North Carolina, and lectured across the country.

Archuleta retired from the NRCS in 2017 to launch a pair of new initiatives, Soil Health Consultants, LLC and the Soil Health Academy. In this capacity, Archuleta continues to share his expertise in soil remediation and restoration while offering hands-on training about soil ecosystem functions to farmers, ranchers, and other land stewards. Archuleta has headlined numerous agronomy conferences, and has been featured in a range of media, including The Progressive Farmer, Daily Kos, Agriculture.com, and GreenBiz.com.

Mr. Archuleta’s Nobel Conference Presentation

Drawing on his experience teaching soil health to diverse audiences, Archuleta presented the essentials of what “living soil” means for agricultural producers caught in the bind between the economic realities of agriculture and their desire to care for the soil that sustains them.