Conference Speakers
Each year, the Soil & Nutrition Conference brings together leading thinkers and practitioners, each outstanding in their field, to share their insights and personal experience as we grow the movement around food quality!
Featured Speakers
Zach Bush, MD
Dr. Bush is one of the few triple board-certified physicians in the country – with expertise in Internal Medicine, Endocrinology and Metabolism, and Hospice/Palliative care. The breakthrough science that he and his colleagues have delivered offer profound new insights into human health and longevity as well as how we can re-engage the power of mother earth to reach food and and health independence. His education efforts provide a grassroots foundation from which we can launch change in our legislative decisions, ultimately up-shifting consumer behavior to bring about radical change in the mega industries of big farming, big pharma, and Western Medicine at large.
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Kris Nichols, PhD
Dr. Kris Nichols is a leader in the movement to regenerate soils for healthy soil, crops, food, people and a planet. As the founder and principal scientist of KRIS (Knowledge for Regeneration and Innovation in Soils) Systems Education & Consultation, Dr. Nichols is addressing current and future agricultural needs by building upon a soil health foundation to identify biological methods for agricultural production and tools and practices to reduce pest issues, soil erosion, fossil fuel use, and greenhouse gas emissions. These systems are resilient and adapt to climatic uncertainty by increasing nutrient and water use efficiencies; improving pollinator activity and food security; and providing long-term solutions to agricultural economic viability, food insecurity, and ecosystem services loss.
Dr. Nichols was Rodale Institute’s Chief Scientist from 2014-2017 and prior to that position, Research (Soil) Microbiologist with the USDA, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in North Dakota. Kris holds a PhD in Soil Science from the University of Maryland, a M.S. in Environmental Microbiology from West Virginia University and a B.S. in Plant Biology and in Genetics and Cell Biology from the University of Minnesota. Kris grew up on a 640-acre grain farm in Minnesota and has received several awards including the 2012 Conservation Research Award from the International Soil and Water Conservation Society.
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Kathleen DiChiara
Educator, health advocate, author
Kathleen DiChiara,
FDN-P, INHC, BNI-P
Kathleen DiChiara is a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition® Practitioner, Bio-Individual Nutrition Practitioner, Integrative Health & Nutrition Coach and Author of the bestselling book, The Hidden Connection. She received specialized training in the biochemistry and specialized diets for autism, allergies, autoimmune and other chronic conditions and is a professionally-trained chef. Kathleen is currently studying cellular biology and the mitochondria.
As a nutrition educator and researcher, Kathleen has dedicated her work to increasing the public’s knowledge about the connection between nutrition and patterns of disease. Her studies and practices aim to address the health of the whole by taking into account the physiology and biochemistry of the human body and our connection to our external world in nature. Her personal journey back to health and her son’s autism recovery serve as the inspiration for her work and a reminder of our innate capacity to heal. She has a passion for nutrition and microbial research and an insatiable curiosity about the many ways in which we can access healing opportunities every day.
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John Kempf
John Kempf is the founder of Advancing Eco Agriculture, a plant nutrition and biostimulants consulting company. A top expert in the field of biological and regenerative farming, John founded AEA in 2006 to help fellow farmers by providing the education, tools and strategies that will have a global effect on the food supply and those who are growing that supply. John is the host of the Regenerative Agriculture Podcast, where he interviews top scientists and growers about the science and principles of implementing regenerative agriculture on a large scale.
Through intense study and the knowledge gleaned from many industry leaders, John is building a comprehensive systems-based approach to plant nutrition – a system solidly based on the sciences of plant physiology, mineral nutrition, and soil microbiology. He has a unique ability to simplify and clearly explain very complex concepts in the areas of soil and plant health. He skillfully discusses the larger social and environmental impacts of food, agriculture, and ecology. John’s mission is to provide support to the world’s farmers and globally impact our food supply.
As a farmer who grew up in and remains a part of the Amish community, John has a very special understanding of plants’ functional immunity. He sought out alternative approaches to prevent damage to his crops once they stopped responding to conventional pesticide treatments. With results proven on his own farm, John went on to found AEA to share his success and insight that healthy crops do not require chemical treatments or genetic modifications.
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Gerald Pollack
University of Washington,
4th-Phase Inc.
4th-Phase Inc.
Professor of bioengineering, researcher, author
Gerald Pollack, PhD
Dr. Pollack received his PhD in biomedical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 1968. He then joined the University of Washington faculty and is now professor of Bioengineering. He is also Founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal, WATER, convener of the Annual Conference on the Physics, Chemistry and Biology of Water, and Executive Director of the Institute for Venture Science.
His interests have ranged broadly, from biological motion and cell biology to the interaction of biological surfaces with aqueous solutions. His 1990 book, Muscles and Molecules: Uncovering the Principles of Biological Motion, won an “Excellence Award” from the Society for Technical Communication. His 2001 book, Cells, Gels and the Engines of Life, and his newest book, The Fourth Phase of Water: Beyond Solid, Liquid, and Vapor won that Society’s “Distinguished Award,” their highest distinction. The latter book went on to receive the World Summit Excellence Award.
Pollack received an honorary doctorate in 2002 from Ural State University in Ekaterinburg, Russia, and was more recently named an Honorary Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and foreign member and Academician of the Srpska Academy. He received the Biomedical Engineering Society’s Distinguished Lecturer Award in 2002. In 2008, his colleagues chose him as the recipient of his university’s highest annual distinction: the UW Faculty Lecturer Award.
Pollack is a Founding Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering and a Fellow of both the American Heart Association and the Biomedical Engineering Society. He received an NIH Director’s Transformative R01 Award. He was the 2012 recipient of the Prigogine Medal for thermodynamics of dissipative systems, and in 2014 he received the Scientific Excellence Award from the World Academy of Neural Therapy, as well as the Dinsdale Prize from the Society for Scientific Exploration. He has presented two TEDx talks on water. In 2015, he won the Brandlaureate Award, previously bestowed on notables such as Nelson Mandela, Hillary Clinton and Steve Jobs. In 2016 he was awarded the 1st Emoto Peace Prize. And, he appears briefly in the 2016 Travis Rice sports-action film, The Fourth Phase, named after his recent book.
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Vail Dixon
Vail Dixon is a regenerative farmer and holistic grazing mentor, whose focus is to help growers increase yield potential and quality – without chemicals or expensive inputs. She specializes in systems design while connecting biology, chemistry and physics for an integrated approach to soil building.
Vail helps growers and grazers create HEALTH and WEALTH from their soil, by discovering ways to let nature do the work, and nurturing awareness of small details that lead to large breakthroughs.
Vail’s farming and research helped her discover important connections between soil, plant, animal and human health. Her Grazing Power, and Grow Your Soil programs combine Holistic Management, Permaculture Design, and Biological Farming to help growers find their own unique and streamlined path to soil health.
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Michael Phillips
Michael Phillips is renowned for helping people grow healthy fruit using herbal protocols. The “community orchard movement” that he helped found at GrowOrganicApples.com provides a full immersion into the holistic approach to orcharding. His Lost Nation Orchard is part of a medicinal herb farm in northern New Hampshire. He is the author of The Apple Grower and The Holistic Orchard which recently received Garden Book of the Year honors from the American Horticultural Society. Michael teamed up with his wife Nancy to write The Herbalist’s Way, to explore the many paths whereby herbalists find their green niche. His work has been compared with Sir Albert Howard and J.I. Rodale’s classic books on organic gardening. Michael’s latest, Mycorrhizal Planet: How Fungi and Plants Work Together to Create Dynamic Soils, will rock you!
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Mark Shepard
Mark Shepard is the CEO of Restoration Agriculture Development, Forest Agriculture Enterprises LLC, and runs New Forest Farm, a 110 acre perennial agricultural savanna, one of the first of its kind in the USA. New Forest Farm is a planned conversion of a typical row-crops grain farm into a commercial-scale, perennial agricultural ecosystem using oak savanna, successional brushland and eastern woodlands as the ecological models.
Trees, shrubs, vines, canes, perennial plants and fungi are planted in association with one another to produce food (for humans and animals) fuel, medicines, and beauty. Hazelnuts, chestnuts, walnuts and various fruits are the primary woody crops. The farm is solar and wind powered.
Trained in both mechanical engineering and ecology, Mark has developed and patented equipment and processes for the cultivation, harvesting and processing of forest derived agricultural products for human foods and bio fuels production. Mark was certified as a Permaculture designer in 1993 and received his Diploma of Permaculture design from Bill Mollison, the founder of the international Permaculture movement.
He is the author of the bestselling book Restoration Agriculture: Real-World Permaculture for Farmers, available at http://www.acresusa.com/restoration-agriculture-in-practice-book-dvd-combo
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Fred Kirschenmann
Leopold Center for Sustainable Ag
Advocate for sustainability and soil health, farmer, author
Fred Kirschenmann, PhD
Frederick L. Kirschenmann, a longtime leader in sustainable agriculture, shares an appointment as Distinguished Fellow for the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University, and is President of Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture. He also oversees management of his family’s 3,500-acre certified organic farm in North Dakota. Kirschenmann holds a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Chicago and has written extensively about ethics and agriculture. He has held numerous appointments, including the National Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production operated by the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and funded by Pew Charitable Trusts, and was a member of the first National Organic Standards Board. He helped found Farm Verified Organic, Inc., an international agency that expanded to provide both ICS and FVO certification. His book, Cultivating an Ecological Conscience: Essays from a Farmer Philosopher, follows his writing on farming, philosophy and sustainability.
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Bryan O’Hara
Bryan O’Hara has been growing vegetables on his Connecticut farm, Tobacco Road for over 25 years. He speaks throughout the Northeast on vegetable production techniques and is known for providing “mountains of details in a concise, practical, and cohesive manner.” His farm produces high quality, nutrient-dense food using no pesticides and working with nature as much as possible in a close relationship. With an intensive focus on building the health of the soil, he employs no-till natural farming methods. Bryan also introduces indigenous microorganisms (IMOs) from the surrounding forest into his compost systems and foliar sprays to feed, protect, and invigorate their field soil and vegetable crops.
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Jennifer Stagg, ND
Dr. Jennifer Stagg is a practicing naturopathic physician and is the founder and medical director of Whole Health Wellness Center in Connecticut. Dr. Stagg is also the author of Unzip Your Genes and is routinely interviewed and appears as an expert guest in the media on the topic of nutrigenomics. She has always been passionate about science and health and started out as a doctoral student in Biochemistry at the University of Iowa. Dr. Stagg is the former director of the USDA – Agricultural Research Service Medicinal Botanical Program at Mountain State University. She also serves on medical advisory boards and is an industry consultant. Dr. Stagg is a well known authority in precision lifestyle medicine, a medical educator and sought after speaker and has appeared on NBC, ABC, CBS and FOX.
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Jill Clapperton, PhD
Jill Clapperton is an internationally-recognised lecturer on how to create and manage the long-term health and productivity of soils. Jill was the Rhizosphere Ecologist at Agriculture and Agri Food Canada Lethbridge Research Centre studying the interaction between soils, plants and soil organisms; she also developed and implemented the Worm Watch program for Environment Canada. After moving to the USA with her family, Jill founded Rhizoterra Inc, a consulting company that connects nutrient density in food with healthy soil. Rhizoterra is a purveyor of information and independent research that supports food growers and consumers around the world in making informed decisions based on science.
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Mark Cohen
Independent organic inspector, farmer, ethnobotanist, educator and consultant
Mark Cohen
Mark has a background in wildlife biology, ecology, ethnobotany, permaculture, cooperative land use, and renewable energy. Mark has been an organic inspector with OEFFA for 26 years, and lives in Southern Ohio at Far Valley Farm, a 30-year old intentional community he helped co-found. Living off the grid for 37 years and growing a wide range of crops, seeds, honey, mushrooms, and medicinals. He founded the Belize Agroforestry Research Center, a permaculture research and teaching facility based in Southern Belize, and spent 25 winters in Central America practicing and teaching tropical permaculture. Mark is constantly learning, teaching, and consulting (cross-pollinating) in his travels.
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Selena Ahmed
Montana State University
Asst. Professor, Sustainable Food Systems
Principal Investigator, Food and Health Lab
Principal Investigator, Food and Health Lab
Selena Ahmed, PhD
As a researcher and an Assistant Professor at Montana State University, Dr. Ahmed’s interests are at the intersection of the ecological, cultural, and health aspects of food systems. Her research examines the effects of environmental and management variation on multiple dimensions of agro-ecosystems in the context of global change and links to livelihoods, dietary quality, and food security. She leads the Agro-ecology and Phytochemistry Group of the Food and Health Lab at MSU in collaboration with Dr. Carmen Byker Shanks. This work includes local, regional, and international projects that seek to inform evidence based management plans and outreach to promote environmental and human wellbeing. Dr. Ahmed’s research is grounded in socioecological and chemical ecology theory and incorporates a range of social and natural science methods. She measures multiple dimensions of food systems including crop quality (phytochemical and sensory), ecosystem services, and socio-economic and health outcomes.
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Karl Hammer
Founder and president of Vermont Compost Company, Karl’s fascination with farming, commitment to composting, and sensitivity to soil health began over forty years ago. He first started experimenting with composting and field soil management on his Vershire, Vermont hill farm in the 1970s. In the process of transitioning from dairy farming and commercial vegetable production, Karl started his first commercial composting business in the 1980s.
Karl is a farmer, a compost specialist, and a humus connoisseur. A comprehensive understanding of soil and plant science, combined with practical farming experience, allow Karl to understand the needs and challenges organic growers face. Recognized as a pioneer in the field, Karl is committed to crafting consistent, living, compost-based soil mixes to ensure grower success and the revitalization of soil health.
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Beverly Rubik
Institute for Frontier Science
Founder/Director of IFS
Faculty member, Integrative Medicine and Health Sciences, Saybrook University
Faculty member, Integrative Medicine and Health Sciences, Saybrook University
Beverly Rubik, PhD
Beverly Rubik earned her Ph.D. in Biophysics at University of California, Berkeley. She is internationally renowned for her research on the biofield, the field of energy-with-information of living systems. Beverly is president/ founder of the Institute for Frontier Science, a nonprofit laboratory in Oakland, California, and is also adjunct faculty in Integrative Health at Saybrook University.
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Dan Kittredge
Bionutrient Food Association
Real Food Campaign
Real Food Campaign
Farmer, founder/executive director of BFA and RFC
Dan Kittredge
Dan has been an organic farmer for more than 30 years, and is the founder and executive director of the Bionutrient Food Association, a non-profit educational organization whose mission is to “increase quality in the food supply”. Known as one of the leading proponents of nutrient density, Dan has worked to demonstrate the connections between plant health, soil health, carbon sequestration, crop nutritional value, flavor and human health. Out of these efforts was born the Real Food Campaign, which has engineered the prototype of a hand-held consumer spectrometer that is designed to test nutrient density at point of purchase, thereby empowering the consumer to choose for nutrient quality. Via this tool, the deeper goal is to connect the economic incentives of consumers to growers to drive full system regeneration.
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Lisa Stokke
Lisa Stokke has been a lifetime advocate for healthy food systems, and through this commitment co-founded Food Democracy Now!, a nonprofit organization of 750,000 members where she advocated and brought awareness to the importance of organic and regenerative agriculture through progressive policies and regulations that benefit family farmers, citizens and the environment. As the Executive Director of Next 7, a non-profit organization focusing on solutions to our greatest issues with the next seven generations in mind.
Her work through Food Democracy Now! has been featured in the book Modified (2016), and also in the New York Times, NPR, Politico and numerous other national publications. She was also recognized in Shape magazine as “Mom of the Year” and a “Woman Making a Difference”. She has spoken at numerous conferences as an environmental, food and agriculture activist throughout Europe and across the U.S.
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Greg Austic
Greg is an open technology advocate, principal developer at Our Sci, as well as co-organizer of the Gathering of Open Science Hardware (GOSH) and the Gathering for Open Ag Tech (GOAT). He’s a jack of all trades capable of getting an idea off the ground quickly and inexpensively. Prior to Our Sci, Greg co-founded PhotosynQ, a platform for collecting, sharing, and analyzing plant health data, and the MultispeQ, a low-cost device to measure photosynthesis.
With this background in successful open source technologies, Greg and his team at Our Sci have partnered with the BFA and Real Food Campaign, and will lead the development of the platform and sensors for the Bionutrient Meter.
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Mark Jones
Mark is the CEO (Collaborating Ecological Organism) of Sharondale Farm. He was introduced to fresh, home-grown produce as many of us were–in the garden with his grandmother. He became fascinated with fungi during a college mycology class and then accepted a graduate research assignment studying a fungal wilt of Tabasco pepper. Following a M.S. degree in Plant Health from LSU, Mark learned and practiced the craft of carpentry and grew a construction business. His hobbies building gardens, working with kids and disabled adults in horticultural therapy, and practicing permaculture led him back to agriculture and growing mushrooms.
After designing and building outdoor living spaces and encouraging people to grow food in Portland, Oregon, Mark moved to his family’s homestead Sharondale in the summer of 2004 to continue developing perennial polycultures that integrate fungi and mushrooms with fruit, flowers, and fiber plants. Mark’s current work includes practicing and teaching about: low-input mushroom and microbe growing for small farm diversification and resilience; fungi that contribute to agroforestry and support natural resource management plans; intercropping mushrooms in the food forest for production of food, medicine, and soil fertility; and collecting local strains of mushrooms that have potential as food, medicine, and earth healers.
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Cynthia Daley
Cynthia Daley is a professor within the College of Agriculture at California State University, Chico, and Director of the Regenerative Agriculture Initiative (RAI), a program designed to support producer trainings, applied research and educational programming in regenerative production practices. This consortium of farmers and scientists support the ideology that when done regeneratively, agriculture can be the solution to soil degradation and climate change.
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Robert Van Risseghem
Naturally Noble
Western Environmental Services
Robert J. Van Risseghem
Robert is the developer of a unique product line of soil amendments, designed to address mineral deficiencies and associated health effects. He founded Western Environmental Services in Cheyenne, WY, as well as Naturally Noble, a company that produces dehydrated food products, which are grown in these soil amendments. His 30 years of professional experience of both organic and inorganic wastewater treatment allowed him to study minerals in their organic and elemental forms. He believes that health symptoms are associated with mineral deficiencies in the soil and consequently our diet. His ultimate goal is to identify the maximum loading capacity of mineral uptake into plants, in order to provide a higher quality food product.
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Jack Lazor
Jack has been farming in Vermont since he left college in 1973. He began as a homesteader with his wife Anne, and together they built a very successful, vertically integrated dairy farm over the last 45 years. Butterworks Farm is known for its fine herd of Jersey cows, it’s fertile soils, lush forages and wonderful yogurt. For many years, Jack prided himself on growing all the grain (and seed) for the dairy herd as well as flours, meals and dry beans.
Throughout his farming career, Jack has been on a constant quest for perfect soil. After exploring the mineral realm, he has come to a natural understanding of soil tilth and the diverse biology that has so much potential to capture carbon and heal the Earth’s climate woes. After 40 plus years of producing organic grains, Jack and Anne have transitioned their dairy herd to 100% grass fed. Tillage has been eliminated and all crops are grown using organic no-till methods.
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Liz Taggart
Combining her 45-year-long interest in practicing and teaching meditation, and studying the practices found in the ancient Sanskrit texts of the Vedas, Liz approaches farming with an understanding of “inner and outer sustainability.” The consciousness-based practices of the Vedas, such as Yoga and Ayurveda, and dozens of others, provide growers with the tools to culture their inner unlimited resources. In turn, farming is approached from a holistic understanding that all of nature, all aspects of a farm – the farmer, the farm, the plants, animals, seasons, and universe – all function from a common source of consciousness and intelligence. Holistic farming yields extraordinary harvests.
Established 10 years ago, Amba Farms is an award winning organic farm, focused on nutrient dense soil and carefully sourced seeds, and grows a wide variety of produce, berries, fruits and flowers for restaurants, markets and CSA members in Northern Westchester, NY.
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Sarah Leathers
Sarah Leathers is the Founder and Executive Director of Healing Meals Community Project, a national network of organizations building healthier communities by empowering young people, promoting community service, caring for our neighbors in need, and restoring healthy and organic fresh foods to their place as the foundation of health for people and planet. Sarah will be presenting with Ellen Palmer.
Sarah studied at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition, and has worked extensively with youth in many different fields. Having seen the power of believing in our young people and giving them an opportunity to succeed, Sarah has gone on to develop a wellness curriculum for high schools and colleges, guiding young people to be their best selves in all areas of their lives.
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Ellen Palmer
Ellen Palmer is the Co-Founder and Associate Director of Healing Meals Community Project, a national network of organizations building healthier communities by empowering young people, promoting community service, caring for our neighbors in need, and restoring healthy and organic fresh foods to their place as the foundation of health for people and planet. Ellen will be presenting with Sarah Leathers.
Ellen is passionate about the healing power of food and helping people, especially youth, reach their highest potential, best health, and happiest life. She coaches young adults and professionals around the world to develop the emotional intelligence, daily practices and lifestyle habits to thrive physically and emotionally. She studied at The Institute for Integrative Nutrition, and her experience comes together at Healing Meals Community Project to help build the internal and external processes and systems for a sustainable model for community caring and health improvement.
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ML Altobelli
Curiosity and experimentation has been the backbone of ML Altobelli’s work in gardening and soil development for over 30 years, and that approach has allowed the development of highly functioning gardens in a wide variety of garden settings including schools, nursing homes and home gardens of all kinds. She is a horticulturist and fine garden landscaper with a small farm of goats, ducks, a horse, bionutrient dense hugelkulture beds and custom growing all based on bionutrient dense management (including the animals).
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David Forster
David Forster is a soil and farm consultant focusing on economically and environmentally regenerative agriculture. His soil consulting business, Forster Soil Management has been helping conventional and organic growers for five years, and he is now the Bionutrient Food Association staff agronomist. With a background in industrial engineering, but a passion for agriculture, he has been intensively studying soil and plant health and agronomy for over 10 years.
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