When Jeff Sandborn first started working with Dr. Bruno Basso over 10 years ago, he didn’t know his collaboration with the John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University (MSU) would lead to him and his Portland, MI, farm being featured in a story published by the New York Times.
But that’s what happened in 2025.
On display in the Sept. 22 article were all the concepts and tools Sandborn Farms has incorporated within its operations since 2014 based on the suggestions of Basso, whose position at MSU spans across the departments of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences and Earth and Environmental Sciences, as well as the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station.
Most visible in the photos and videos were drones, technology that has allowed Sandborn to more precisely apply nutrients to his corn crop. What they have also allowed Sandborn to understand—by way of data gathered through remote sensing capabilities—is where on his property to apply the nutrients.
Areas of land identified as having greater production potential based on soil health metrics have been given heightened attention from Sandborn, while he’s designated other parts of his land deemed to be less productive as spots that can support pollinators, wildlife and the environment.
In doing so, Sandborn has increased his yields, reduced unnecessary application and input costs, and helped restore his land—all of which, he learned, is gaining attention and appreciation, even beyond those he’s worked with.
“Something that I’ve never had happen—I had somebody send me a note for doing what Dr. Basso is promoting in the article,” Sandborn said. “It was a nice lady from Augusta, GA, and she said, ‘I’m thankful you’re employing precision conservation, as mentioned in the New York Times. A win-win.’
“I can say I’ve never gotten a note from a non-farmer or farmer thanking me for doing something like this, so it’s impactful. What Dr. Basso is doing … there’s different schools of thought on anything involving agriculture and the environment, but if you can come at it like Dr. Basso has, it’s more impactful and comfortable. We’ll have more benefit with approaches like his.”
The research coming from the Basso Lab promotes the prosperity and well-being of people, food systems and the environment, which has made it a key part of the MSU Center for Regenerative Agriculture.
The center, which is supported by MSU AgBioResearch, is a hub made up of MSU scientists conducting research on regenerative ag techniques and educating farmers and landowners about how to incorporate them into operations and the benefits that can come from doing so. The team’s goal is to advance ways in which these agricultural components—from people, plants and animals—can work together to strengthen and improve soil health, biodiversity and supply chains.
Regenerative agriculture isn’t a new concept, but new technologies and novel methods are advancing the ways in which it can be done. Examples of techniques that traditionally have been implemented include cover cropping, no-till farming, multi-year crop rotations and the inclusion of pasture recovery periods for animal grazing.
But, in the case of Basso’s work, machine, computer and geospatial technologies have helped him create innovative models to support regenerative agriculture, not only in Michigan, but throughout the U.S. and across the world.
Basso uses machine, computer and geospatial technologies—such as drones—to create innovative models that support regenerative agriculture.
“The vision of MSU as a land-grant university and our goal for the center to be one of the most critical hubs on regenerative agriculture—we can’t think about just helping farmers close to MSU,” Basso said. “We have to design this type of research in a scalable way that helps not only the farmers close to East Lansing, but also the ones as far away as the Thumb [of Michigan] and beyond, because we work regionally, nationally and globally.”
His Systems Approach to Land Use Sustainability (SALUS) program projects crop, nutrient, soil and water conditions under different management strategies spanning multiple years, and his yield-stability-zone metric system gives farmers a greater sense of what soil health is like across their land and what agricultural inputs are needed when and where.
Additionally, a multi-model ensemble framework he co-developed accurately compares data (such as soil organic carbon sequestration and nitrous oxide emissions) from when regenerative agriculture practices are used compared to when other ag practices are used.
Most recently, Basso and his lab members, along with Dr. Jason Rowntree, the C.S. Mott Professor of Sustainable Agriculture at MSU and an advisor at the MSU Center for Regenerative Agriculture, and colleagues from Belgium, published findings at the end of December 2025 that showed the benefits of diversifying crops and integrating livestock systems at scale across the U.S. Midwest using a first-of-its-kind model.
These models and programs are being utilized to deliver knowledge and actionable strategies to people in the state and across the country working to foster regenerative agriculture within the systems that humans, plants and animals rely on. Dr. Kristofer Covey, Asher Wright and Margaret Henry are three of those individuals.
Along with Basso, Covey, an associate professor at Skidmore College in New York, co-founded The Soil Inventory Project (TSIP), a nonprofit organization building soil data infrastructure to inform science-based decisions across the U.S. The collaborative was formed in 2019 at Caney Fork Farms, a regenerative farm in Tennessee where Wright is the farm director. Henry is the vice president of sustainable and regenerative agriculture at PepsiCo, where she currently leads ag sustainability efforts for the company’s Global Sustainability Office. — MSU Extension
