Replanting the Future: Regenerative Agriculture in New Mexico

Ron Dimon is a strategist, facilitator, and author with more than 30 years of experience advising leaders in business, government, and the nonprofit sector. He specializes in helping organizations make smart decisions in complex, rapidly changing environments—work that has taken him from global corporations like Deloitte and Google to civic and community organizations in youth sports, universities, and social start-ups.

Ron has deep experience moderating high-stakes panels and dialogues on topics ranging from sustainable finance to responsible entrepreneurship. While not a geothermal scientist himself, he brings a critical outsider’s lens—asking the questions curious, concerned citizens want answered and connecting technical insights to everyday impact. He believes in the power of public dialogue to spark action, especially at the intersection of innovation, environment, and economic development.

Originally from Canada, Ron lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and teaches social entrepreneurship at UNM’s Center for Responsible Entrepreneurship. He is the author of Connected Planning and Enterprise Performance Management Done Right (John Wiley & Sons).

Emily Leveille is the Chief Investment Office at NMCIC. Prior to NMCIC, Emily was with Thornburg Investment Management for four years, where she was portfolio manager for international and global growth strategies, focusing on fundamental research of publicly listed companies globally to make investment decisions for the fund. Before Thornburg, Emily spent a decade investing in emerging market equities at Nordea in Copenhagen, Denmark and Ashmore EMM in Washington, DC. Emily is a co-founder of the Canyon Road Summer Walk in Santa Fe, and she sits on the board of the Santa Fe Farmers Market Institute. While living in DC, Emily was the Chair of the Junior Board and a board member for an education non-profit New Futures. Emily holds a BA in Politics from New York University and is a CFA Charterholder, as well as a fellow at the Just Economy Institute. She has two children and lives in Santa Fe, NM where she loves to hike, ski, and backpack.

Janice Lucero is the Founder and Owner of Cotton Blossom Gardens, a community-centered agricultural and educational space located in Isleta Pueblo, New Mexico. With over 20 years of experience in technology and community development, she brings a unique blend of innovation and cultural stewardship to her work on the land. Through Cotton Blossom Gardens, Janice has created a space where sustainable agriculture, traditional knowledge, and community connection come together. Guided by core values of love, respect, gratitude, equality, compassion, and unity, her work focuses on strengthening relationships with the land and across generations. Cotton Blossom Gardens serves as a living classroom, offering hands-on experiences in planting, harvesting, soil health, and value-added food production.

Janice has built strong partnerships with local schools, tribal programs, and organizations to expand access to agricultural education and resources. Her work supports youth engagement, workforce development, and local food systems. Through her leadership, Cotton Blossom Gardens continues to inspire individuals to reconnect with the land and build a more sustainable future.

Kristin Swoszowski-Tran owns Ledoux Grange, LLC, a certified-organic, diversified,
regenerative farm/ranch raising produce, cover crop, and native seed. An approved supplier for the New Mexico Grown Program, Ledoux Grange grows produce that has been distributed to Mora, San Miguel, Taos, Rio Arriba, and Colfax counties. Kristin is a farmer/researcher member of the Southwest Grain Collaborative who grows and trials grains and landrace seeds. Ledoux Grange also grows crucial, native pollinator species seed crops commercially for restoration projects, and received a grant to study teff from the Organic Farming Research Foundation. Ledoux Grange raises yak for their multi-use fiber, and creates artisan value-added goods made with products grown on the farm. A multiple-grant recipient, and 3-time Healthy Soil Award winner, the farm explores novel methods and is a dedicated, intentional producer for local food systems and regenerative agriculture. Kristin’s background as a researcher (Ph.D. in psychology) allows her interests in wellness/mental health to fuse with current issues within farming, which can be very stressful on producers. She’s completing training as a ANFT Forest Therapy Guide to better understand how healthy ecosystems, sensory input, awareness, and nervous system interventions can reduce stress and anxiety, and create productivity states.

Founded in 2021, Desert Verde Farm is New Mexico’s only commercial indoor aquaponics farm, dedicated to growing healthy food in a sustainable way. The farm produces leafy greens, culinary herbs, microgreens, and tilapia fish, supplying public institutions, food distributors, food hubs, and local restaurants. Because the farm operates in a carefully controlled indoor environment, it is able to provide fresh, locally grown produce year-round. Last year, Desert Verde Farm produced 35 tons of food.

Desert Verde Farm is now preparing to expand its impact through the development of a fully permitted food processing facility adjacent to the farm. This new space will allow for the creation of freeze-dried culinary and medicinal herbs, mushrooms, ready-to-eat chopped salads, salsas, and pestos.Aquaponics is a highly sustainable growing method, using less than 5% of the water required by conventional soil-based agriculture. In the farm’s system, fish are fed a high-protein diet and naturally produce nutrients that help plants thrive. Beneficial microbes convert fish waste into nitrates that nourish crops, while additional nutrients are recovered from solid waste to support the production of healthy, nutrient-dense food. Byproducts from the aquaponics are sold as soil supplements to gardeners and nurseries.

Reunity Resources is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization operating a two-acre historic urban farm and compost Soil Yard in Santa Fe. Since its founding in 2011, the organization has worked to cultivate a localized, closed-loop food system that advances equitable food access and eco-friendly land stewardship. Through sustainable agriculture and community collaborations, Reunity Resources promotes environmental resiliency, challenges intersectional interdependence, and provides food for those in need. Its vision is a future in which every member of the community can participate in and benefit from a resilient, nourishing food system.

At the heart of Reunity’s work is a closed-loop model that transforms local food waste into a valuable community resource. The organization collects food scraps from residential and commercial sources, composts the material to reduce methane emissions from landfills, and uses the resulting nutrient-rich compost to grow food on the Reunity Farm. This process supports local food access throughout Northern New Mexico while empowering community members to participate actively by recycling their food waste to Reunity.

Reunity Resources is also deeply committed to hands-on agricultural education and workforce development to inspire and equip the next generation of farmers in New Mexico and in the eleven participating, interrelated programs.

Since 2013, the Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) program at Santa Fe Community College (SFCC) has awarded more than 200 degrees to students.  Many of these students move onto University, some become the workforce for existing industry partners and some are opening their own CEA businesses.  The mission statement at SFCC is to “Empower Students and Strengthen Communities” and the SFCC-CEA program does both well.  Using water-conservative recycle systems like hydroponics and aquaponics, the program produces healthy crops for our community throughout the year while minimizing resource use.  Resources like water, energy and nutrients are managed with little to no waste.  Waste from one production process often becomes the input for another process.  Using recycle, water-based systems, crops can be grown in our arid region with little negative impact on the environment. The SFCC-CEA program offers Certificates in CEA and Algae Cultivation. The program also offers an AAS degree in CEA.  Students cross over into other Sustainable areas at the college that focus on the Food, Energy, Water nexus.  

Quivira Coalition is a nonprofit organization working to strengthen the resilience of western working lands and the communities that depend on them. Through education, innovation, and collaboration, Quivira brings together ranchers, farmers, conservationists, scientists, and land stewards to build practical solutions for a changing world.

For more than 25 years, Quivira has championed the idea that healthy landscapes and thriving agricultural communities go hand in hand. Guided by the principle of the Radical Center, Quivira creates spaces where diverse perspectives can come together to learn, share knowledge, and find common ground.

Quivira supports land stewards through hands-on training, mentorship, convening, and collaborative conservation initiatives that advance regenerative agriculture, soil health, biodiversity, and climate resilience. Through programs like the New Agrarian Program, which prepares the next generation of ranchers and farmers; the REGENERATE Conference, which brings together diverse voices to share knowledge and build connections; and partnerships with producers across the West, Quivira helps cultivate the skills, relationships, and practices needed for a more resilient future.