Episode 164: Navigating Economic Pressures in Tree Fruit with Sam Godwin

Regenerative Agriculture Podcast

AEA Marketing

Earth Sciences, Science, Natural Sciences

4.7 • 546 Ratings

🗓️ 28 August 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sam Godwin is a second-generation farmer operating a 300-acre organic orchard in north central Washington, primarily growing apples, pears, and cherries. His farm, which is small by industry standards, faces economic pressures in a market dominated by larger operations, and so has adopted organic practices since the early 2000s to differentiate and add value.

Sam is in his second year of integrating practices to enhance soil health and reduce input costs, guided by consultants from Advancing Eco Agriculture. By using sap analysis and tools like compost, clover, and fish products, he has seen significant improvements, particularly in cherry yields, achieving over 10 tons per acre with high-quality fruit.

In this episode, John and Sam discuss:

The challenges of operating a small family farm in a consolidating industry
The transition from organic to regenerative agriculture practices
Improvements in cherry yield and quality using sap analysis
The importance of soil health and cover crops like clover in orchards
The role of proprietary genetics in gaining a competitive market advantage
The significance of succession planning for the next generation of farmers

Additional Resources
To read additional case studies on AEA's success in cherries, please visit: https://advancingecoag.com/case-studies/

About John Kempf
John Kempf is the founder of Advancing Eco Agriculture (AEA). A top expert in biological and regenerative farming, John founded AEA in 2006 to help fellow farmers by providing the education, tools, and strategies that will have a global effect on the food supply and those who grow it.

Through intense study and the knowledge gleaned from many industry leaders, John is building a comprehensive systems-based approach to plant nutrition – a system solidly based on the sciences of plant physiology, mineral nutrition, and soil microbiology.

Support For This Show & Helping You Grow
Since 2006, AEA has been on a mission to help growers become more resilient, efficient, and profitable with regenerative agriculture.

AEA works directly with growers to apply its unique line of liquid mineral crop nutrition products and biological inoculants. Informed by cutting-edge plant and soil data-gathering techniques, AEA's science-based programs empower farm operations to meet the crop quality markers that matter the most.

AEA has created real and lasting change on millions of acres with its products and data-driven services by working hand-in-hand with growers to produce healthier soil, stronger crops, and higher profits.

Beyond working on the ground with growers, AEA leads in regenerative agriculture media and education, producing and distributing the popular and highly-regarded Regenerative Agriculture Podcast, inspiring webinars, and other educational content that serve as go-to resources for growers worldwide.

Learn more about AEA's regenerative programs and products: https://www.advancingecoag.com

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, friends. This is John. Welcome to the regenerative agriculture podcast, where we have all kinds of conversations related to regenerating soil health,
0:08.1	regenerating the quality of food, and ultimately regenerating public health, which, as it turns out, is kind of having its moment in the sun with what is happening politically here in North America, but it is really
0:22.8	coming to a greater global consciousness. More people are aware of the impact that the quality
0:30.4	of the food they have that they are consuming is having on their own health and the impact that it is
0:36.0	having on ecosystems.
0:40.7	So lots of fun conversations to be had in this direction.
0:45.7	And in this discussion, I'm joined by Sam Goodwin in this episode.
1:00.3	And I've been looking forward to having the conversation with Sam because we live in a moment where we are at the moment we are the lowest farm income relative to a relative price index.
1:02.9	We're at the lowest farm income that we've been at in 100 years.
1:05.2	Many farms are negative income.
1:07.2	23 and 24 were very challenging.
1:08.8	25 is even more challenging.
1:12.8	And in that very challenging macroeconomic context, how do we think about moving forward with regenerative agriculture in that particular
1:18.9	environment? So, Sam, I want to say thank you for being here. Thank you for being willing to
1:23.9	share your story. I've really been looking forward to this discussion.
1:33.5	Tell us a bit about your operating context, the environment that you're operating in, the scope of your operation. Yeah. Thanks, John, for inviting me. I've been looking forward to the conversation
1:39.4	as well. We're a small tree fruit farming operation in north central Washington we farm apples pears and cherries
1:48.9	predominantly we do a little bit of stone fruit too but nothing really to speak of our focus has
1:57.8	been to really get good at growing organic fruit.
2:02.4	And that's really been the journey we've been on.
2:05.2	We were first certified organic in the early 2000s.
2:10.1	I'm a second generation farmer.
	...

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