Pasquale Caccavella of Salem Soil Solutions (pictured right) sat down with Will Eley from Piedmont Environmental Alliance to chat all things Green Business Network. Salem Soil Solutions is a certified Soil Food Web Laboratory and new member of PEA’s Green Business Network. Pasquale’s soil testing abilities and products are helping farmers, gardeners, and landowners cultivate landscapes more regeneratively. Learn more about Salem Soil Solutions here
WE: Pasquale Caccavella of Salem Soil Solutions! Thank you so much for taking to catch up with us about your business and its values-driven, earth-first mission. Your trajectory from casual gardener to soil microscopist to eco-entrepreneur is impressive. Give us the 30-second version of that origin story. A light-bulb moment or a slow-but-steady falling of the dominos?
PC: It was definitely a slow-but-steady falling of the dominos. I started out just wanting to grow my own food—health and nutrition were my gateway into gardening. But once I saw how soil health directly impacts plant health, I went down the rabbit hole. The big light-bulb moment came when I learned that most soil today is biologically dead, stripped of the microbes that make plants thrive. That realization pushed me to study soil microbiology, train with Dr. Elaine Ingham, and ultimately launch Salem Soil Solutions. Now, I help turn dirt into soil and rebuild soil health naturally. Everyone has a green thumb—we’ve just overlooked our most important tool kit in the garden: the biology.
WE: Indeed. All soil is dirt, but not all dirt is soil, right? I really appreciate you speaking to healthy, living soil as the foundation of the toolkit. It has me thinking about how we organize people for climate action: setting up individuals and leaders for success in the broader sustainability space, whether it’s someone who is in the first year of their green career or someone spending their first weekend poking around a community garden –we want people’s first experience with earth-care to feel both worth their time and materially impactful. Your work and Salem Soil Solutions products clearly create an environment for people and their passions to thrive from day one onward. When that foundation is right, when ‘dirt’ is ‘soil, we can do big things together.
PC: Absolutely! Soil is the foundation of everything—whether it’s a first-time gardener or a farmer transitioning to regenerative practices, success starts with understanding that soil is alive. What we call dirt is just soil void of life, while true soil is living dirt. The difference is huge. A biological approach recognizes microbial life and organic matter, while traditional models only focus on physical components like sand, silt, and clay, sometimes with a chemical analysis. But that only tells part of the story.
I love that you’re thinking about setting people up for success in sustainability because that first experience is everything. Working with nature, not against it, makes everything easier. When people get their hands dirty and see the results, that’s when passion takes root—they realize they’re part of an abundant ecosystem ready for their unique influence. I think the soil has as much interest in the person as the person has in the soil. Once you start working with it, it calls you back again and again.
WE: Tell us more about what you have planned for 2025? For Salem Solutions, even where you see the regenerative agriculture space heading.
PC: 2025 is a big year for me as I’ll be conducting a large-scale biological application study with Honeybee Hemp Farms in Lewisville, North Carolina. This will be my first major field application of my products and expertise, where we’ll track multiple plant and soil health markers throughout the growing season. It’s an exciting opportunity to demonstrate how biological soil management can enhance crop resilience and productivity on a larger scale.
Beyond the planting season, I have several educational events lined up this spring. I’ll be at the Cobblestone Farmers Market opening on April 5, the Piedmont Environmental Alliance Earth Day Fair on April 26, and I’ll be hosting a webinar on Landscaping with the soil food web with HalfMoon Education Inc. on May 5. This year is all about expanding impact, sharing knowledge, and putting regenerative principles into action.
I want to pause for a moment to highlight the word "regenerative." The phrase "regenerative agriculture" is almost becoming a single word, a catch-all term people associate with sustainable and healthy farming. But we need to keep in mind that we don’t call it "generative agriculture" and that we don’t just call it "agriculture" anymore either. The very need for the word "regenerative" implies that something has been lost and must be restored. True regenerative agriculture operates on the principle that when something is taken, something is also given back.
I often wonder if agriculture itself is becoming a dirty word. For too long, conventional agriculture, or modern agriculture, has been extractive, focused on short-term yields at the expense of long-term soil health. But agriculture should never be a one-way transaction. It should be a cycle, a system where the land is nourished as much as it nourishes us. The good news is that the shift is happening.
Regenerative agriculture is gaining momentum at an incredible pace. More people are recognizing that conventional farming’s dependence on synthetics is not only unsustainable but also harmful to our health and environment. At the same time, awareness is growing around the connection between soil health and human health, with nutrient-dense food acting as true medicine. Restoring soil also rebuilds the soil sponge, reducing the risks of droughts and natural disasters while preventing tens of thousands of tons of fertilizers from polluting our oceans and waterways. The list goes on...
Consumers play a vital role in this global restoration effort. Every conversation with a local farmer and every dollar spent at a farmers market is an investment in healthier soil, stronger communities, and a more resilient food system. The shift is happening from the ground up, as small farms, gardeners, and land stewards seek real solutions that regenerate rather than deplete our soil. The future of agriculture isn’t just organic, it’s biological, and I’m excited to be part of this transformation.
WE: Pasquale, we can’t thank you enough for sharing your time and expertise with us. We look forward to a big 2025 with you in our Green Business Network line-up. We will see you at our 20th Anniversary Piedmont Earth Day Fair on Saturday, April 26th at The Winston-Salem Fairgrounds, rain or shine. And do keep us in the loop about your collaboration with Honeybee Hemp Farms. Really fascinating, critical work you are doing.