Bismarck farmer featured on Wheaties box

Bismarck farmer and rancher Gabe Brown is being recognized by General Mills for his work in regenerative agriculture.

Brown is working with the company to implement the practices into future food production, and they put him on a Wheaties box because of it. While the box won't be distributed for mass production, he says it's still a cool memento.

On a farm northeast of Bismarck, Gabe Brown and his family proudly showcase how they've changed their way of both farming and ranching.

“We had four natural disasters in a row and I tell people although those were hard to live through they were absolutely the best thing that could have happened to us,” Brown said.

Brown says after losing all or most of his crop in the mid-90s, the family changed to a regenerative way of farming.

“They forced us to look at how nature functions and how ecosystems function and how to work with nature instead of against it,” Brown said.

Since then, he says their operations have become profitable every single year. Now Brown travels around North America speaking about his practices. He's also partnered with others to create the Soil Health Academy. It's how General Mills, and their sustainability group got in touch with Brown. He says they believe this is the future of production agriculture. And it's why they put him on a Wheaties box.

“I think it's a testament to show that there's a real change in agriculture coming and that change is towards regenerative agriculture,” Brown said.

Brown says it's humbling, and a salute to all who are going down the regenerative path.

Brown has retired from farming, turning the operations over to his son. He says he makes a point to be home during the summer to help during the busiest time of the year but travels about 200 days a year educating farmers and consumers about regenerative agriculture.