The Soil Health Partnership is pleased to announce that John Mesko has joined as the Development Director, bringing vision and a breadth of experience to the SHP team.
Mesko grew up on a diversified crop and livestock farm in Minnesota, gaining a passion for farming and tremendous respect for farmers. After graduating from Purdue University with a bachelor's degree in agronomy and a master’s degree in agricultural economics, Mesko’s diverse career in agriculture has centered around helping farmers become more financially and environmentally sustainable.
He served as a sales agronomist and technical information manager for Mycogen Seeds. As a County Extension Director for Purdue University, his work centered on farm management and developing new markets for farmers. In addition to raising and selling grass-fed beef and lamb for a dozen years, John has led two sustainability-minded nonprofits: The Sustainable Farming Association and the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service. Mesko now resides in St. Paul, Minnesota.
“Globally, agriculture has the single greatest impact on the environment. By focusing on soil health, we have the opportunity to be a force for good. Our efforts cannot only lead to an abundance of food for a growing population, but we can improve the capacity of our environment to mitigate climate change, improve water quality and sustain these and other positive outcomes.” shared Mesko. “Farmers are the original caretakers of the environment. SHP’s work to learn about and promote soil health building practices in real-world, on-farm contexts puts farmers at the center of the discussion of these important global environmental issues.”
In this role, Mesko will build and maintain SHP’s broad spectrum of partnerships, expanding the resource base for the important work of building soil health and creating a sustainable future for farming and food. He joins a strong national team that is focused on identifying and sharing the economic and environmental benefits of varied soil management strategies and provide a set of regionally specific, data‑driven recommendations that farmers can use to improve the productivity and sustainability of their farms.
“Sustainability, in part, means practices which are profitable for farmers,” Mesko said. “With our focus on on-farm testing, we are looking for partners who want to play a lead role supporting farmers in the development and promotion of solutions which work for farmers.”
"Partnerships are core to our work at SHP. Thus, ensuring we continue to work closely with our existing and new partners is critical,” said SHP Executive Director Shefali Mehta. “I'm pleased that John Mesko is joining SHP and bringing his passion and experience to our young and growing organization."
COVID-19 Resources
NCGA is taking a series of actions to do our part to help contain the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) and the economic fallout it is creating for corn farmers and our customers. Short term, this means instituting policies to protect the health and safety of our stakeholders and the broader communities we serve. Long term, we’re focused on creating solutions to help corn farmers and our customers recover from the financial impacts of this crisis.
CommonGround
CommonGround is a group of farmers connecting with consumers through conversations about science and research and personal stories about food and misinformation surrounding farming. Supported by the NCGA and state corn organizations.
SHP
The Soil Health Partnership (SHP) is a farmer-led initiative that fosters transformation in agriculture through improved soil health. Administered by NCGA the partnership has more than 220 working farms enrolled in 16 states. SHP’s mission is to utilize science and data to partner with farmers who are adopting conservation agricultural practices that improve the economic and environmental sustainability of the farm.