Episode 172: Systems, Software, and Stewardship with Matthew Fitzgerald
Regenerative Agriculture Podcast
AEA Marketing
4.7 • 546 Ratings
🗓️ 11 December 2025
⏱️ 67 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Matthew Fitzgerald is a "1.5 generation" organic grain farmer operating 2,500 acres in Minnesota, situated where the big woods meet the prairie. Alongside his father, Joe, he manages a diverse rotation of crops on land originally preserved by organic pioneer Mabel Brelia. Matthew focuses on navigating modern economic challenges while actively fostering opportunities for the next generation of land stewards.
To manage scale and improve yields, Matthew founded FarmFlow, a system that began as a visual whiteboard to track field passes and has evolved into software for optimizing execution. By integrating these standard operating procedures with emerging AI tools, he aims to professionalize organic operations and prove the financial competitiveness of sustainable agriculture.
In this episode, John and Matthew discuss:
-
Overcoming high barriers to entry for beginning farmers through creative partnerships and policy.
-
The concept of FarmFlow and using visual tools to manage complex organic systems.
-
Data analysis revealing the strong correlation between field pass frequency and increased crop yields.
-
Decommoditizing organic grain to ensure financial viability and economic independence.
-
Leveraging AI tools like FieldLark to enhance agronomic decision-making and operational efficiency.
-
The importance of team diversity and "quorum sensing" in building resilient farm operations.
Additional Resources
To learn more about FarmFlow, please visit: https://www.tryfarmflow.com/
To learn more about Matthew, please visit: https://www.fitzgeraldorganics.net/
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
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi, friends. This is John. Welcome back to the regenerative agriculture podcast where we have all kinds of fun |
| 0:05.6 | conversations related to improving our soil health and improving the health of the things that we're growing. |
| 0:12.3 | And in today's world, today's macroeconomic climate, perhaps one of the most important conversations is how do we |
| 0:20.3 | maintain and improve the financial health of our operations? |
| 0:23.5 | Because obviously that is a foundational prerequisite on which everything else rests. |
| 0:27.3 | Because if we don't have the resources to be good stewards, then we all know what happens. |
| 0:34.2 | Stewardship suffers and declines. |
| 0:36.2 | And the things that we're responsible for managing |
| 0:39.0 | necessarily go into decline and this has been a macro trend for the last century or more you |
| 0:49.4 | could argue even longer that there have been all kinds of externalities in agriculture |
| 0:53.8 | and that there has been all kinds of externalities in agriculture and that there has been |
| 0:56.7 | this extractive, this financial extraction that's occurred from agriculture, but this has really |
| 1:00.8 | been accelerated in the last 50 years or so and is continuing. And so it's important for us |
| 1:06.2 | as stewards and as farmers to be thinking about how do we put herself into a different position. How do we man? And this is one of the topics I'm going to be speaking about next week here at the Acres conference. But anyway, too much of a monologue. I'm delighted. I'm joined here today by Matthew Fitzgerald. Matthew, thank you for joining me. Tell us a little bit about your story, your background, the scope of the things that you're working on on your farm in Minnesota. Yeah. Hey, John. Thanks for having me. I appreciate that opening comment because |
| 1:32.3 | well, I'll tell our story and how it connects to financial stewardship and we'll see where it goes |
| 1:38.4 | from there. So I'm a second generation farmer. My parents, Anna Joe, moved to Minnesota from Iowa in the year 2000, so 25 years ago. |
| 1:49.8 | And we are a 100% organic grain farm. |
| 1:53.4 | And I'll share a little bit about the origin story of our farm and how we as beginning |
| 1:59.3 | farmers, kind of, I would consider myself a 1.5 generation because my folks started |
| 2:03.5 | in their 40s. They were kind of midlife crisis, wanted to become farmers, raised kids in a farm, |
| 2:09.7 | farm contacts, but weren't multi-generation. So how did they get into it? And really, that was the |
| 2:15.7 | organics niche. And our farm has really paralleled the growth of the organic industry. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from AEA Marketing, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of AEA Marketing and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.