A morning call for an interview caught rancher Gabe Brown in the middle of doing his taxes.

The good news is his 5,400-acre unconventional ranching operation, Brown’s Ranch, made money this year — again.

On Jan. 9, Brown will visit Grass Valley to be one of three big-name agricultural speakers at Nevada County’s 2016 Sustainable Food and Farm Conference.

Twenty years ago, Brown’s Ranch was losing money year after year, and his family could no longer afford the expensive chemical inputs that had become the norm among his peers.

So instead, Brown turned to nature and developed ranching methods that restored the health of the soil rather than degraded it.

“That’s the key. You observe nature in healthy environments and try to mimic on your own operation,” he said.

In turn, his animals are healthier and ultimately, so are the folks who eat the food he produces.

“It all goes up the food chain until it reaches human consumption. We have a health care crisis in this country — a large part of that I think is our food system,” said Brown.

As an award-winning sustainable farmer and rancher, Brown’s lectures are in demand all over the country — so much so, that he is booked out for the next two years.

His family teaches how they holistically integrate a natural approach to grazing beef, sheep and poultry in the Central Plains where bison once kept things in balance.

No-till cash crops and over 25 multi-species of cover crops help to regenerate the land.

It’s taking things to the next level, going beyond sustainable to regenerative.

“I’ve seen the difference it’s made in our lives. People all over the world are practicing regenerative agriculture,” said Brown.

Brown believes by building healthy soil, other resources stressed by climate change can be improved, such as infiltrating water in the face of drought and carbon sequestration for cleaner air.

Joining Brown are plenary speakers Paul Stamets, a world-renowned mushroom researcher, and Jean-Martin Fortier, a “rock star farmer” known for making six figures on his one and a half-acre Canadian farm.