Mark Highland, The Organic Mechanic

As a young kid, Mark made his connection to the natural world early, digging around in his grandmother’s vegetable garden, pulling weeds, picking caterpillars off plants, and harvesting ripe fruit. The work was hard (but fun!) and he knew he was hooked from the moment he turned over that first forkful of rich Illinois soil.

Academic studies and work experiences

After high school, Mark earned a BS degree in Environmental Horticulture at the University of Florida. It was in Florida that Mark received the nickname, “The Organic Mechanic”. Employment ventures after graduating took him to the west coast, working for a landscape construction company and a certified organic farm.

Deciding to return to graduate school, Mark focused his MS degree studies on compost and potting soil. His academic work helped Longwood Gardens in southeastern Pennsylvania develop composts to use in their own potting soil. After the Longwood Graduate Program, Mark worked as a Compost & Soil Specialist at Longwood Gardens before starting The Organic Mechanic Soil Company, LLC, where he launched the first peat-free, compost-based potting soil in the United States!

Where in the world is Mark these days?

When he’s not out in the greenhouse or warehouse, Mark spends much of his time traveling to garden centers, trade shows similar venues to promote, educate and inspire others to the many rewards of organic gardening. He has taught classes at Longwood Gardens, The Tyler Arboretum, Mt. Cuba Center, The Scott Arboretum, Callaway Gardens, and speaks regularly at public events like The Philadelphia Flower Show, as well as to numerous garden clubs.

At Organic Mechanics, “We work on your soil!” ®

Edwina von Gal

Founder / President

A leading voice in sustainable gardening and landscape design, Edwina von Gal founded the Perfect Earth Project in 2013 to promote ecological land care for the health of people, their pets, and the planet. As principal of her eponymous landscape design firm since 1984, Edwina created landscapes with a focus on simplicity, sustainability, and beauty for private and public clients around the world. Her work has been published widely, including in The New York Times, Vogue, and Architectural Digest, and her book Fresh Cuts won the Quill and Trowel award for garden writing in 1998. In 2024, she was named one of the top 50 Creatives in America by Wallpaper* magazine. She has served on boards and committees for a number of horticultural organizations and currently serves on the board of What Is Missing, Maya Lin’s multifaceted media artwork about the loss of biodiversity, Longue Vue’s National Council, and is a member of the Native Plant Trust’s Council. Her awards include the LongHouse Visionary Award from LongHouse Reserve, the New York School of Interior Design’s Green Design Award, the Isamu Noguchi Award, and Guild Hall’s Academy of the Arts Lifetime Achievement Award for the Visual Arts.

Todays episode is all about the connection between soil health, human health and the health of the planet.

Dan has been an organic farmer for more than 30 years. He grew up on Many Hands Organic Farm in central Massachusetts with his parents, Julie Rawson, NOFA-MA Executive Director, and Jack Kittredge, publisher of Natural Farmer. After working globally in the late 90s and early 2000s with farmers, NGOs, and researchers across India, Russia, and Central America, Dan returned to the U.S. and in 2010 launched the BFA in order to ignite a movement around food quality.

Dan has become one of the leading proponents of “nutrient density,” and works to demonstrate the connections between soil health, plant health, and human health through workshops and speaking engagements around the world, the annual Soil and Nutrition Conference, and an increased presence online through social media, a YouTube channel, and numerous webinars and podcasts.

Dan launched the Real Food Campaign, now the Bionutrient Institute, that, with open-source science partners Our-Sci and FarmOS, are leading the effort to identify and increase nutrition in the food supply. The Bionutrient Institute has engineered and released a hand-held consumer spectrometer, the Bionutrient Meter, designed to test nutrient density at the point of purchase and bring transparency to the marketplace. Via the Bionutrient Meter, the goal is to empower consumers to choose their foods based on nutrient quality and thereby leverage economic incentives to drive full system regeneration.