Regenerative Farming and Soil Health Consultant
Understanding AG and The Soil Health Academy
Chuck Schembre is a Regenerative Specialty Crop consultant for Understanding Ag and serves clients across a broad geographical range in the United States, with an emphasis on California and the West. He specializes in orchards, vineyards, and diversified vegetable cropping systems, and has experience working with small grains, hay crops, and pastures. Chuck provides expertise in soil health analysis, regenerative crop fertility, biological disease and pest management, advanced horticulture practices, input reduction strategies, and ecosystem restoration. Chuck also assists clients in small livestock integration, specializing in orchard and vineyard livestock integration, providing the core understanding of adaptive grazing principles and how to manage livestock regeneratively while complying with food safety regulations. Chuck has studied and practiced many agroecological farming disciplines and draws on many of these disciplines in his own farming and consulting, including permaculture, biointensive growing, natural Korean farming, organic farming, and holistic farming principles. He believes the most powerful common thread between all these disciplines is an emphasis to emulate nature’s design, promote life below the soil, and harness the power of the earth’s free resources – sun, water, air, and mineral.
Chuck has been working in agriculture and natural resource positions for 20 years, which includes managing small-diversified farms, fruit orchards and larger scale vineyards, and working as a soil scientist, agronomist, and resource conservation specialist in California and Nevada. Throughout Chuck’s multiple positions, he has served as a soil health educator, conducted many presentations and trainings, and has worked with 100’s of farmers and landowners providing on-farm technical assistance and soil health consulting.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in Earth and Soil Science from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and is a Certified Professional Soil Scientist (CPSS), and Erosion and Sediment Control Specialist (CPESC).
