Our Story

The Turner Institute of Ecoagriculture, Inc. (“Institute”) — an agricultural research organization, is a Nebraska nonprofit corporation operated exclusively for charitable, scientific, and educational purposes, under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The Institute is primarily engaged in the conduct of agricultural research related to our ranching and conservation activities.

The Institute will achieve its mission by using its livestock, land, operational scale and biological diversity to research and demonstrate how sustainable ranching can meet economic and production objectives while protecting and enhancing natural resource and conservation values of large landscapes.  Ecoagriculture is an area of scientific study regarding how sustainable agriculture and ranching can be conducted across diverse landscapes while maintaining ecosystem services and integrity — while contributing towards solutions for local and global issues — e.g., climate change, native species and habitat loss, environmental contamination, water depletion, food production, and socio-economic resilience of rural communities.  The Institute is conducting its research in conjunction with several land-grant colleges and universities.  Through agricultural research and education, the Institute will focus on the following:

  1. Serving as a model research organization advancing the practice of ecoagriculture and conservation management to holistically consider the interconnectedness among agriculture and pastoralism, wildlife, water, fisheries, forestry, biological resources, tourism and recreation, and renewable energy, and how they can be managed synergistically for ecosystem and economic sustainability.
  2. Conducting and promoting research and education with respect to sustainable land and water use, including agriculture, silviculture, recreation, wildlife management and conservation.
  3. Using scientific research and innovative management to understand and improve the productivity of rangelands for wildlife diversity, water conservation, livestock health and production.
  4. Conducting and promoting research, programs, projects, and education that encourage the preservation, conservation, and restoration of sensitive and imperiled species and their habitats, as well as ecological communities across large landscapes.
  5. Developing and promoting ecologically and economically sustainable renewable energy sources through research, education, programs and projects that examine the benefits and consequences of energy production on natural resources and agricultural practices.
  6. Conducting scientific research to explore, develop, and test marketplace opportunities for non-conventional agricultural outputs such as carbon sequestration, water storage, pollination, wildlife habitat, nutrient cycling and other ecosystem services.

By using our lands to research and demonstrate how ranching operations can meet economic and production objectives while protecting and enhancing natural resources and conservation values of large landscapes, we hope to drive outcomes — e.g., food production, ecosystem health, community health – upon which humankind depends.

 

“To succeed you have to be innovative.”