Midwest Center for Regenerative Agriculture
at Powell Gardens
A 795 acre teaching farm outside Kansas City, Missouri.
The Midwest Center for Regenerative Agriculture’s mission is to expand and promote regenerative food systems in our region.
The 795 acres surrounding Powell Gardens, Kansas City’s Botanical Garden, will host Good Oak’s regenerative farming operations.
This project is the collective effort of a coalition of partners, including Powell Gardens, the Audubon Society, Lincoln University, and the USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service.
In the coming months we’ll share opportunities to visit and learn at the farm- until then, we need your help to build it. Make a donation to our non profit partner Powell Gardens to show your support.
Learn more about what’s in coming to the Midwest Center for Regenerative Agriculture.
Good Oak founder Dan Krull and Powell Gardens’ CEO Cody Jolliff discuss the project on National Public Radio
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As natural soil builders, carbon storers, and food and shade producers, trees provide an abundance of benefits to humans, animals, and insects alike. Trees are crucial to restoration and wildlife management projects. In 2024, our tree nursery will grow thousands of native fruit and nut-bearing trees for conservation projects, and even planted on site at Powell Gardens.
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Bees turn nectar from wildflowers into delicious honey without the ecological damage associated with corn syrup or sugar cane production. Natural beekeeping methods prioritize bee health by mimicking their natural living conditions, thus supporting more resilient colonies with less intervention. Good Oak will manage a distributed apiary in woodland and prairie landscapes across the property. The apiary will host demonstrations and educational programming.
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The Midwest’s native ecosystem depends on land management from large herbivores. When introduced and moved strategically, grazing animals like sheep and cattle can be effective tools for creating diverse wildlife habitat, removing invasive plant species, and increasing soil health. This practice is known as conservation grazing, which can support prairie reconstruction if utilized thoughtfully and correctly. Good Oak will graze cattle and sheep will strategically the Midwest Center for Regenerative agriculture is certified by the National Audubon Society’s Conservation Ranching Initiative.
As Audubon Certified bird-friendly habitat, the rotational grazing at Powell Gardens is designed to help grassland birds, the fastest-declining bird species group in North America. Dickcissels, Eastern Meadowlarks and Henslow’s Sparrows are species that stand to benefit from an improved grassland habitat mosaic.