LANCASTER, Ohio – “Regenerate” means to create anew or restore, and it’s a word that’s been around since the 14th century.

It’s gotten renewed attention in recent years as it’s become a buzzword for agriculture that is supposedly friendly to the environment. According to recent data, farmers make up less than 2 percent of the U.S. population. Of that small percentage, a method of farming called “regenerative farming” is an even smaller portion.

Judith Horvath, founder of Fair Hill Farm in Lancaster, firmly believes in working with nature to accentuate natural processes that foster health from soil to food, people and the planet. Horvath is one who is aware of how nature works and how to aid it. She believes in regenerative farming.

“You work with nature, not against it,” she said. “Output for one thing is the input for the other.”

Horvath was not raised on a farm, nor was she in FFA. She was, however, in 4-H for a year or so.

“Here I was, a suburban kid and for a project I raised Polyphemus moths,” she laughed.

Before finding a home in a rural setting, Horvath had 20 years of experience in corporate operations management. She led multimillion-dollar projects across investment banking, human medicine and scientific publishing. Her academic background includes undergraduate degrees in biology and communications, complemented by a master’s degree in operations management.

“I came to a fork in the road, thinking about what was important. I found myself with this unfulfilled feeling,” she said. “I felt like something was missing. I would come home at the end of the day tired and with nothing to show for it. We wanted a more healthy lifestyle and decided to make the move.”

Feeding her family was the main motivation for purchasing a 19-acre farm. Her children were allergic to dyes in food and she had trouble finding affordable, chemical-free options. The Horvaths turned their backyard into an organic garden complete with chickens, but it didn’t last long.

“We raised chickens in the suburb. I’d still be in suburbia if we hadn’t been booted out because of the chickens,” she said. “We ended up selling our house and bought farmland that needed years of work. It was 19 acres and when we bought it, there was no farm, no fencing. Just a barn with one door. There were no bushes, no flowers. Just a broken water line. We had brambles 12 feet tall. We worked hard since we moved here in 2013.”

The family moved to the farm and built it up little by little.

Today, she and her husband tend to eight kinds of animals such as sheep, goats, chickens, dogs and several other species, including one of her favorites, the broad-breasted turkey.

“They’re pest patrol and they break up rooster fights,” she said. “They deter hawks from picking off our chickens. A long time ago, turkeys used to be called the farmer’s friend, and I can see why.”

No chemicals are used on the farm and all her sheep are grass-fed. Horvath is a firm believer in rotational grazing, too.

“They deposit their manure and they move on and the grass grows again,” she said. “It’s a cycle where the grass is trimmed, and part of the grassroots dies off and then that carbonaceous biomass is left in the soil. Rotational grazing helps the sheep, but also the soil. One percent more of organic matter enables your land to hold 22,000 gallons of water per acre.”

The water filters slowly and keeps the grass green even in the summer. It also trickles down and recharges the aquifers and helps prevent run-off in the field. Regenerative farming has become a true passion for the Horvath family and they love sharing their knowledge.

“It’s all cyclable,” she said. “Perennial crops, compost, rotational grazing and the like. It’s a dynamic system that relies on knowledge of ecosystems and such. Regenerative farming is using methods and practices so that the animals are replenishing the nutrition that they require in order to build their own body mass.”

Since earning her certification as a permaculture designer and doing regenerative farming since 2013, Judith has channeled her experience and business acumen into agribusiness consulting and creating biocompatible design models that promote sustainable living and local food production. She is a podcast host and has built a national network of like-minded agricultural entrepreneurs who share a vision of living close to the earth and the ways of the distant past. She’s even part of a project to create locally sourced grocery stores.

“I think we can design living areas where people who want to farm don’t have to compete with people who want to live in suburbia,” she said. “There are ways to design communities where people can live near farms to see how it can be done in a sustainable way so they’re not so disconnected where their food comes from. When we’re disconnected from our food source, we don’t know the effort that it takes and understand that there are people out there working every single day to produce that food.”

“For me, farming is a calling, not a career,” she said.