The 501(c)(3) non-profit organization carrying forward Elaine’s living legacy of the Soil Food Web School for generations to come.
October 16, 2025. That was the day the Soil Food Web Foundation launched as a 501(c)(3), taking stewardship of a legacy that Dr. Elaine Ingham had spent the better part of five decades building toward. Our mission: to finish what she started by carrying her life’s work into every ecoregion on this planet, and to make Soil Food Web education accessible to every farmer, gardener, land steward, and practitioner ready to do the work.
In our first year, we made significant progress toward our mission, and this year has carried more weight than we could have anticipated.
In February, we lost Dr. Elaine. Her passing came far too soon, and everything we have done since has been an act of the optimism and tenacity that she embodied throughout her life. We updated our logo to include her favorite color, purple, woven into the flowers she loved. It is a small gesture toward something much larger: a commitment to ensure the world continues to benefit from what she spent her life discovering, teaching, and sharing.
This anniversary belongs to everyone who has been part of this first chapter. It is also an invitation to step deeper into what comes next.
A Year in Review: What We Built Together
The past 365 days have been full, and we want to share what this community made possible.
Making education more accessible
We awarded more than $300,000 in scholarships, hosted more than 35 free live events, and released our first Spanish-transcribed course, the Compost Intensive Course, opening the door for a new community of Spanish-speaking learners across Latin America and beyond.
Building better programs
We overhauled the learning management system to improve navigation and create a more personalized student experience. We also launched a mobile app so learners can access course materials wherever they are. The Microbe Library was redesigned with richer content, easier navigation, and new opportunities for students to contribute their own observations. The Advanced Programs have been enhanced with additional self-paced video learning, so mentor sessions can be focused on real practice, troubleshooting, and questions relevant to each student. We also significantly reduced previous access limitations and expiration dates so more students can benefit from extended engagement with the material.
Please note: If you were a past student who felt your access window was too short, reach out to us at [email protected]. Your access has been restored!
We also launched the Compost Intensive Course as a cohort-based program that requires no previous experience and no prerequisites, and is designed to deliver maximum results and learning. This is our most direct path to mastering the art of Biocomplete Compost production, in a 10-week course alongside a community of peers learning and practicing together.
A hidden gem of the past year was our beta group for the Comprehensive Agriculture Program (CAP). The Comprehensive Agriculture Program was designed to support farmers in applying the Soil Food Web Approach at commercial scale in their farming businesses. This program goes beyond the core skills we teach in our other programs and focuses on integrating those skills into a farming system. This year’s pilot brought farmers from around the world together in a supportive community with expert guidance, where they could share the challenges and benefits of implementing the SFW Approach in their own contexts.
Strengthening our communications
We launched a new website, migrated to a more reliable support platform, and began publishing regular newsletters bringing education, community updates, and program access directly to you.
Our new website includes an overview of the Foundation’s history and mission, an updated and growing research database, a new student map and alumni directory to help you find practitioners in any bioregion, ways to engage and volunteer, and so much more!
We now forecast our events calendar a full year in advance so you can plan ahead.
Check it out here: https://www.soilfoodweb.com/calendar/
Building real community
We opened a free public community accessible to everyone, held our first in-person workshop on U.S. soil, and are holding our first workshop in India. We brought some of the most respected voices in regenerative agriculture into direct conversation with our community, including Vandana Shiva, Geoff Lawton, Nicole Masters, Celine Bassett, Mary Reynolds, Clea Chandmal, and David Holmgren.
All of that, and more, in one year.
Growing meaningful partnerships
We deepened our relationship with Isha Outreach and the Save Soil movement to bring hands-on learning to India. We hosted a 2-day Life in the Soils seminar, providing a robust introduction into the Soil Food Web, and a 10-day accelerator workshop. These partner organizations have been working diligently for decades to restore ecosystems at scale and transform local food systems. They have planted billions of trees and feed thousands of people per day with organic food grown on their own farm and the network of farms that they teach and support. The attendees include the local farmers, Soil Food Web students from around the world, and leaders, advisors and scientists from regenerative organizations across India.
In cooperation with the Permaculture Association UK, we launched the Permaculture Design Certificate in honor of Dr. Elaine Ingham and Graham Bell’s final wish. As of the date of publication, our PDC has already attracted 100 students from 23 countries, including a subsistence farmer in Guinea, West Africa, a woman working in refugee camps in Kenya, and a vineyard owner in California.
Why This Work Cannot Wait
Dr. Elaine Ingham dedicated her career to a truth that science has supported for decades and that agriculture is only beginning to reckon with: the living biology in soil is the foundation of everything. The organisms that build soil structure, cycle nutrients, suppress disease, and make plants resilient are not a supplement to healthy land. They are the mechanism through which healthy land exists at all.
When that biology is absent or degraded, no amount of nutrient input fully compensates. This is why conventional approaches require such high volumes of fertilizer and still struggle to deliver long-term productivity. It is also why inoculant-grade biological amendments, compost made to the standard of biologically complete, are so essential! Trial after trial proves that it can begin to restore function measurably within a single growing season.
The Soil Food Web School was built on these principles, and the Soil Food Web Foundation was built to carry them further: to fund scholarships that make the education accessible, to form partnerships that extend our reach, to develop programs that meet practitioners where they are, and to sustain the infrastructure that keeps all of it running.
We know this works. We have seen it work on farms, in gardens, in degraded landscapes brought back to life by people who learned the science and applied it. The question now is not whether this approach is effective. The question is how far and how fast we can take it.
Become a Sustaining Donor
Scholarships do not fund themselves. Free events do not run without infrastructure. Curriculum does not get translated, updated, or made accessible without sustained investment that lets us plan past the next enrollment cycle.
A sustaining monthly gift is the most powerful way to support this work over time. It gives us the stability to commit to long-term programs, to say yes to scholarship applications that would otherwise go unfunded, and to pursue the partnerships and initiatives that no single grant can cover.
Every dollar contributed to the Soil Food Web Foundation is a direct investment in the living soil on this planet and in the people learning to restore it. If Dr. Elaine’s work has ever moved you, if you found a single free webinar worth a dollar or more, of value to you and your work, if a conversation about soil biology has ever changed the way you see the land beneath your feet, this is how you carry that forward.
Become a Sustaining Donor Today
If a one-time gift better fits your giving, that matters just as much. Every contribution funds year two of a critical mission that is desperately needed across the globe.
Upcoming Programs: Come Learn With Us
If you are an action taker and want to be one of the many Soil Enthusiasts who have deepened their knowledge and skills through one of our amazing programs, here are three ways to go deeper with the Soil Food Web approach this season.
Foundation Courses
Decades of Dr. Elaine Ingham’s knowledge, research, and practical knowledge are delivered in our four flagship Foundation Courses. This program is essential for any farmer, gardener, scientist, policymaker, ecologist, agronomist, or other citizen who wants to understand what really drives the soil stability and fertility that supports our planetary health. These are Dr. Elaine Ingham’s seminal lectures on the Soil Food Web and how to restore it.
Learn more about our Foundation Courses
Compost Intensive Course
This is the hands-on composting course our students have been asking for. Over 10 weeks, you will learn the science and practice of producing biologically complete compost, understand what separates a living inoculant from a nutrient amendment, and gain practical skills you can apply to your land within a single growing season. No prerequisites. Open to farmers, gardeners, consultants, and anyone ready to work.
Find upcoming Compost Intensive Course sessions
Permaculture Design Certificate
Launched in honor of Dr. Elaine Ingham and Graham Bell’s final wish, this course integrates Soil Food Web science into the full arc of permaculture design. Students from 23 countries are already enrolled. Whether you are new to permaculture or looking to ground your existing practice in robust soil biology, this program offers a rare combination of ecological design and rigorous scientific foundation.
Discover what makes our Permaculture Design Certificate unique
Not Sure Where to Start?
If you have been watching from the edges, reading the newsletters, attending the webinars, and wondering when the right moment is to get involved, this is it. Every program we offer is designed to meet you where you are and move you forward. Our teaching team is here to support you.
Visit the Soil Food Web School to browse all current programs, or join the free public community to connect with fellow learners and get a feel for what we are building together. You can also download the Soil Food Web mobile app in the Google Play Store or Apple App Store to access your course materials, community updates, and events from wherever you are.
Thank You for Growing With Us
Like the microbes that make up the soil food web and sustain all life, none of the amazing impact we achieved this year happened in isolation. It happened because of the relationships that define our unique global community. Because students showed up and did the work. Because teachers brought their best knowledge and patience to every call and every cohort. Because partners extended our reach into communities we could not have entered alone. Because donors believed in the mission before the results were visible.
As proud as we are of what this list represents, we are also clear about how much remains to be done. We cannot afford to slow down on the efficacy of biologically complete compost as a solution to some of the most pressing challenges facing food systems and ecosystems worldwide. Year two is already underway, and your feedback and participation help shape what we do next.
If you would like to volunteer and get involved, please reach out to us or visit our volunteer page for ideas on how to contribute, from one hour per week to as much time as you can spare.
We are grateful beyond measure for Dr. Elaine’s relentless determination and generosity, and we are committed to ensuring that the world continues to benefit from what she spent her life discovering and sharing. That commitment lives in every program we run, every scholarship we fund, and every student who walks away from this work knowing how to restore life to the soil beneath their feet.
Thank you for being part of it.
With deep gratitude, The Soil Food Web Foundation Team
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