Brian Mattingly is an eighth-generation farmer in Marion County, Kentucky, who grew up fascinated by soil. Shortly after college, he was hired at Maker’s Mark, a global whisky brand headquartered just three miles from his childhood home. Now as Director of Star Hill Farm Operations, Mattingly oversees 1,100 acres of regenerative farmland and forest and helped launch the Maker’s Mark Regenerative Alliance, which is working to transition 1 million acres of farmland to regenerative management.
“We’re trying to get the entire planet to realize, this is our opportunity to heal what we’ve broken inadvertently over decades,” says Mattingly.
Mattingly’s work rehabilitating farmland has evolved over 30 years, integrating best practices in soil conservation and ecosystem management long before regenerative agriculture entered mainstream conversations. But he says it’s a lifelong journey: even the leading soil biologists have much to learn about what’s happening beneath the ground.
“In 1993…what we thought we knew about soil then, to what we know now, it’s ridiculous. We didn’t have any real depth of understanding of the billions of living organisms,” Mattingly tells Food Tank. “It’s just mind-boggling to me.”
When he was hired, Star Hill Farm was fewer than 300 acres and leased out to local farmers. And according to Mattingly, it wasn’t well cared for: “I think [Maker’s Mark was] getting US$1,500 a year to lease this farm out, and it was causing erosion that would take 100 years to fix.”
The company soon stopped leasing its farmland at Mattingly’s advice. He worked with local forestry and wildlife organizations to start rehabilitating the soils and installing low-cost solutions, such as nesting boxes to support wild and native species. But it was a slow process—Mattingly was working outside of his day job, which was in operations, and had no budget for farm improvement.
“Sustainability and environmental things weren’t really talked about a lot back in the early 90s,” says Mattingly. “There wasn’t any budget and it wasn’t my job title, but I volunteered to take on some of those projects just to be a better steward of the resources that we had.”
A few other employees took an interest in the work, forming an “eco team,” which set up sustainable practices not only on the farm but at the distillery itself, such as cardboard recycling. Mattingly worked with a lumber mill to harvest the declining lumber from their land, sold it, and used the income to purchase native warm-season grasses and pollinator mixes, which helped build soil health, reduce erosion, and increase biodiversity on the farm.
Soon, Maker’s Mark executives saw the value in these practices: the farm was flourishing. Mattingly’s two-year goals grew into 50- and 100-year visions for the farm. The company established a 33-acre Natural Water Sanctuary on its distillery grounds, preserving the land that filters the water for its whisky. Finally, Mattingly had a budget, and he was able to transition away from distillery operations to oversee Star Hill Farm full-time.
“That was a great opportunity for me to really go back to what I’ve wanted to do all my life,” says Mattingly. “Not a lot of places that would let you create your own career path, but just giving me the liberty to do those small things 30 years ago evolved into now, the position that I’m in doing it.”
Today, Mattingly conducts agricultural research on regenerative farming methods, hosts soil health conferences, and works with local farmers to share tried-and-tested best practices. Under his leadership, Maker’s Mark became the world’s first distillery to be Certified Regenified, a third-party verification for regenerative practices. This year, the company released its first-ever American wheat whisky, made from Star Hill Farm grains.
Mattingly emphasizes that he is fortunate to have the support of a salaried job. Many farmers in his county must work multiple jobs to make ends meet and face diminishing yields due to poor soil health. He hopes that the research and support he can provide through Maker’s Mark—such as financial backing for education, technical assistance, and the costs of Certified Regenified verification—can help farmers keep their families in farming.
“There are so many farmers whose children just can’t come back to the farm. It’s not whether they wanted to or not, two farm families can’t make a living. And then you’ve got depleted soil, which is what’s inhibiting their profit opportunities,” says Mattingly. “So that’s where I’m excited. If they’ll implement these [practices], we’ll be able to at least see them have more of an opportunity to take that next generation and stay on the farm.”
Mattingly has seen firsthand on his family farm and Star Hill Farm how healthy soils can heal the land and restore critical ecosystems—often seeing great improvement in just one year. For him, regenerative agriculture offers a hopeful vision for the future of agriculture.
“Nature has always known best,” says Mattingly. “We’ve tried to manipulate it, and for many years, we didn’t see the consequences we were causing. But now we’ve seen it. It took 70 years to break it to the point it’s broken…through regenerative agriculture, in a much, much shorter time, we can restore it.”
This article is part of Food Tank’s ongoing Farmer Friday series, highlighting the stories of farmers across the U.S. working toward a more sustainable, equitable food system, produced in partnership with Niman Ranch. Mattingly recently shared his story at Climate Week NYC: A Night of Storytelling Honoring Our Farmers. Watch their story and others on Food Tank’s YouTube channel.
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Photo courtesy of Brian Mattingly
