Ex-Marines find renewed purpose in regenerative agriculture
Ryan Erisman and Casey McCausland share common bonds. They both served as Marines, Ryan in Iraq and Casey in Afghanistan, in the mid-2000s. Since leaving the Marines, they both chose the path of regenerative farming, finding purpose in building soil health, eliminating the use of pesticides, and producing more nutritious foods.
“A matter of understanding and building relationships”
Erisman’s experience in Iraq has had a major influence on his farming. As Rifle Company Commander, he led 150 Marines in Iraq’s Fallujah Peninsula in 2007.
Erisman and his men did counterinsurgency, which involved building trust and cooperation with the Iraqi people in their area, aiming to win them over to counter the insurgents they were fighting.
“Our first order of business was to treat every Iraqi with respect and dignity and to understand that they are people first and that they are not the enemy—that the enemy hides among them,” Erisman says. “It was really a matter of understanding and building relationships.”
Erisman is grateful for that experience, and was able to apply what he learned in Iraq to farming after he came home. “My work doing counterinsurgency absolutely influenced how I farmed,” he says.
Ryan Erisman and his daughter Hazel
Regenerative agriculture also involves building relationships, from soil microbes to plants to the environment and more, according to Erisman.
“I think that’s what a true regenerative system is,” he says. “We are facilitators across the spectrum. And that’s soil life to soil life, soil life to plant, plant to plant, plant to human, human to community.”
After Iraq, Erisman found a sense of purpose in farming. “I had to farm in a way that aligned with the world that I wanted,” he says.
Erisman’s 32-acre Odyssey Farm is in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. He raises heritage pork breeds on pasture and grass-fed beef. He sells the pork and beef directly to consumers and in retail stores. His customers include “hardcore foodies” and “local people who miss the way farming used to be,” he says.
He also builds healthy soils, growing a range of cover crops, including triticale, alfalfa, red clover, perennial rye grass, oats, and sunflowers. They are grown in rotation and provide forage for his hogs and beef cows.
Follows organic rules
While his farm is considered regenerative, Erisman follows the organic rules, though his farm is not certified.
“I don’t have to follow the [organic] rules. I choose to,” he says. “My crops are not certified organic, but there have been no pesticides, no herbicides, no fungicides, no imported fertility of any kind, not even imported manure on these fields since 2015.”
“Instead of relying on chemistry, I’m trying to understand the relationships between plants, animals, and environment, so I can raise food that produces the best outcomes for all, which includes our own well-being,” he says.
Erisman’s farm is named “Odyssey” because he sees regenerative farming as a journey.
“It’s a continuous journey, and I think you have to accept that you’re always going to be in some kind of transition and every time you reach a peak, the hope is that it gives you a view of a whole new horizon and another peak to climb. That shouldn’t be a disappointment so much as excitement about a new possibility.”
Ryan Erisman does leadership coaching in addition to farming.
He is skeptical of anyone who says they’ve figured out regenerative agriculture.
“I think to be regenerative means to be in a constant state of awe, learning, and perpetual transition, that you’re always learning and adding to it,” he says.
“It’s given me an appreciation”
Casey McCausland also says farming helped his transition home after serving in the Marines in Afghanistan, where he was an infantry squad leader.
“What helped me was that I already knew I was going to farm when I got home, and I hit the ground running,” he says. “A lot of my friends didn’t really have any plans other than to go to college.”
McCausland says his experience as a combat veteran gave him perseverance and a greater appreciation for life.
“I’ve been in scary situations where my life’s on the line, and now if I’m scared to do something, I can always think back on that experience, and think that life can be a heck of a lot worse than it is right now,” he says.
McCausland farms 1300 acres in central Illinois, growing corn, soybeans, and wheat.
He became interested in regenerative agriculture as a way to cut his farm production costs. He watched videos of cover cropping with well-known regenerative farmers like Rick Clark and Gabe Brown as well as regenerative agriculture expert John Kempf.
“When I started listening to those guys, it all clicked,” McCausland says. “That’s when the importance of soil health started becoming clear to me.”
McCausland grows a variety of cover crops, including cereal rye, radishes, turnips, buckwheat, hairy vetch, winter peas, and balansa clover. The cover crops help reduce weeds and soil erosion and build soil health.
“I just didn’t want to do that anymore”
McCausland has also increasingly questioned the use of pesticides like glyphosate.
“I started looking into that stuff, and then my youngest daughter was diagnosed with Type one diabetes two years ago, McCausland says. “I just didn’t want to do that anymore. I don’t want to be doing stuff that I know could potentially make other people’s kids sick.”
McCausland grows non-GMO corn and soybeans, doesn’t use glyphosate or any fungicides, and has reduced his herbicide use by 50% to 60%. He buys non-GMO seed not treated with neonicotinoid insecticides. While many farmers use glyphosate to kill cover crops, McCausland uses a roller crimper to mow down and kill the cover crop, which creates a mulch into which he then plants soybeans.
McCausland would like to eventually transition to organic but acknowledges that the three-year transition is a challenge. He recently spoke with someone at MAD Markets, which is helping farmers transition to organic, and is encouraged by the opportunities they offer to help with the transition.
“If I can figure out how to do that, then I’ll definitely pull the trigger on transitioning some acres to organic and adding some value,” he says.
For now, McCausland is happy to earn a $2.50 per bushel premium for the non-GMO food-grade soybeans he grows.
Casey McCausland speaking at the 2025 Regenerative Agriculture Summit
“My non-GMO acres made me another $195 an acre more. That’s huge, especially right now with the commodity markets, the way they are,” he says.
McCausland’s farm is certified regenerative through Regenified, a leading regenerative agriculture certifier. McCausland says it was a good fit.
“I just wanted to get in the game early and be ready for when premiums come along or regenerative market opportunities.”
In addition to transitioning to organic, McCausland would like to create a cooperative with a mill to add value to his and other farmers’ production.
“There currently aren’t a lot of farmers in my area doing regenerative practices, but if there was a market for regenerative wheat, and we could add value to it, I think that would open a lot of farmers to the idea of regenerative farming,” he says.
