World-renowned and Central Coast regenerative leaders gathered at Cambria Estate Winery for three days that sparked commitments to action
June 22, 2026 (Santa Barbara, CA) — The first-ever MINDSET Symposium, held June 8–10 at Cambria Estate Winery in Santa Barbara County, brought together a global roster of regenerative agriculture leaders for three days of masterclasses, forums, and field-driven conversation — and left attendees not just inspired, but committed to act.
Designed as a catalyst rather than a conference, MINDSET was built around a motivating question: what shifts will participants make in their farms and the broader landscapes they steward? By that measure, organizers say, the inaugural event was an absolute success. Among planned actions, attendees committed to purchase flame-cap kilns for clean-burn biochar production, establish cover crop mixes spanning multiple plant families, adopt the Sectormentor farm observation and Regen Indicators platform, pursue Regenerative Organic Certification, and fundamentally rethink their relationship with the land and plants in their care.
The program drew a caliber of speaker rarely assembled in one place. Naturalist and author Obi Kaufmann framed the stakes in generational terms: “True landscape regeneration will save multiple generations to come.” Soil and cover-crop expert Keith Berns reminded growers that a single seed can host seven to eight billion microbes, and underscored their agency over the land’s most precious resource: “Farmers have almost complete control over water infiltration.”
Plant-health pioneer John Kempf challenged attendees to reconsider the relationship between grower and plant altogether — describing the root system as an intelligent neural network capable of sensing a farmer’s intentions, and arguing that the outcome of any intervention “has nothing to do with the skills or knowledge of the intervener — it has everything to do with the place from which the intervener comes.” Several attendees described the talk as the moment that reshaped how they think about their daily work.
Watershed ecologist Brock Dolman turned the lens to water as a measure of stewardship: “The health of our water is an indictment of how we’ve been living on the land.” And viticulturist Mimi Casteel urged growers to trust the ground beneath them — following soil indicators first, even when conditions above ground send confusing signals, as the path to genuine resilience rather than mere “fitness.” As she put it: “What we have to love is the system.”
Paicines Ranch Vineyard Director Kelly Mulville named a deep gap: there is still no formal training in agricultural design. We’ve approached farming through engineering, he argued — and it isn’t working. His reframe pointed past technique to relationship: “We’re all in this together — all of life. How do we learn to work with life?”
The response in the room was immediate. One attendee called MINDSET “the Coachella of regenerative agriculture.” Another, weighing it against the established gatherings in the field, said they would choose MINDSET “hands down — the speaker lineup was phenomenal.” A third offered perhaps the most fitting summary of the experience: “You are creating quantum community.”
“I didn’t set out to build another conference — I set out to build a catalyst,” said Anna Brittain, founder and designer of the MINDSET Symposium. “The measure of MINDSET was never going to be attendance numbers; it was always going to be the shifts people make in their farms and the landscapes they steward. The fact that nearly everyone asked when we’re doing it again tells me this community is just getting started.”
With demand established, organizers have set their sights on a return engagement in 2027 and are now in conversation with sponsors, partners, and host venues interested in helping bring the gathering back at a larger scale.
To learn more about the MINDSET Symposium or to explore partnership opportunities for 2027, visit agmindset.com.
The MINDSET Symposium is a gathering of regenerative agriculture and viticulture leaders dedicated to advancing soil health, ecosystem stewardship, and a culture of action across the wine and farming worlds. Founded and designed by Anna Brittain, MINDSET convenes growers, scientists, systems thinkers, and storytellers to translate regenerative principles into on-the-ground commitments.
