“John was president of Animal Science Club, I was president of Sigma Alpha, and we spent a lot of time planning Ag Day,” Amanda said of the decades-old University of Delaware tradition, which draws thousands to the CANR campus each April. “Ag Day was the best day of the year. We had so much fun shearing sheep and doing the milking demo.”

As juniors, John and Amanda enrolled in UD’s study abroad in New Zealand: Sustainable Food Production. The course, led by Lesa Griffiths, professor in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences, and Susan Garey, Kent County extension director, toured commercial dairies that were grazing operated. It changed the trajectory of their lives.

“The experience opened my eyes to pasture-based agriculture, and it pushed me in a different direction as far as the way I wanted to manage livestock,” John said.

Their experience abroad inspired the Places to open Keepsake Farm and Dairy in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, an exclusively grass-fed farm. At Keepsake, cows were pasture-raised without hormones or antibiotics, and the Places shunned the use of chemical pesticides or fertilizers. 

“I was born in Philadelphia, Amanda was born in Brooklyn, so we're definitely first-generation farmers,” John said. “We went all in on farming and loved every bit of it.”

After graduation, Amanda attended the University of Georgia and earned a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM). In addition to working at Northside VCA in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Amanda provided routine care for Keepsake’s animal residents.

In 2019, John seized an opportunity with Nourse Farms, a berry plant propagation company that supplies strawberry, raspberry and blackberry plants to commercial growers, home gardeners, retail and reseller markets. After 12 years at Keepsake, the Places closed the farm.

“I look back on our farm with a lot of nostalgia,” John said. “But I also remember seven days a week, 365 days a year of unending work that comes with a livestock operation.” 

Today, the couple lives in Massachusetts. They have four children, several small animals, one horse, a flock of hens and a large garden. You could say they are still living the dream, CANR style. One thing that has changed is technology. 

As CEO of Nourse Farms, John is heavily involved in controlled-environment agriculture, this technology-driven approach provides optimal growing conditions year-round, uses less water and mitigates disease. His work is influenced by European farmers. In 2005, the European Union banned certain soil fumigants due to their adverse effects on human health and the environment.

“Berries are intolerant to soil-borne disease,” John said. “Without the fumigants, Europe struggled to grow berries consistently in the ground, so they developed high-tech methodologies. The North American berry industry is starting to embrace this methodology of growing berries in greenhouses and high tunnels.”

Consumers are eating more berries, which is creating opportunities for farmers.

“We’re importing genetics from around the world,” John said. “I visit growers and breeders in different countries and bring their genetics into the U.S.”

Another recent innovation in the greenhouse industry uses robotics, artificial intelligence and automation for crop scouting and harvest tracking.

“We’re launching a pilot project right now at our North Carolina facility that is essentially a series of cameras that autonomously move up and down the greenhouse rows,” John said. “The cameras are constantly taking pictures of the crop while the technology measures temperature and plant size, analyzes leaf color, looks for disease and insects.”

John said these advances allow growers to intervene with biological treatments sooner and predict a harvest in advance.

“AI can transmit information to a sales team to say, you're gonna have X number of cases available two days from now or a week from now,” John said. “You can build better sales curves based on current data.” 

While these tools may provide greater efficiency, one thing remains sure.

“You're never going to replace people in agriculture,” John said. “There's way too many calls that need to be made by someone who's educated and experienced.”

Amanda agrees.

“I would say, on the veterinary side of things, we will never be replaced by robots,” she said. “Support staff and hands-on clinical skills are essential. But there’s a lot of cool tech in terms of AI scribes that transcribe spoken notes into the medical record.”

As medical director for VCA South Hadley, Amanda provides veterinary care to cats and dogs. The practice’s patients are a far cry from the cows and pigs on Keepsake Farm.

“In addition to cats and dogs, our practice is heavy into exotics. On any given day, you could see chickens, turtles, geckos, parrots, snakes, guinea pigs and rabbits,” Amanda said.

The future-focused couple believes new technological advances and increasingly health-conscious consumers interested in sustainability are opening new career areas in agriculture. 

“There’s so much opportunity in regenerative agriculture, organics, and pasture-raised niches,” Amanda said. “I think people are exhausted of the conventional way.”

Regenerative agriculture is a land management approach prioritizing topsoil regeneration, ecosystem relationships, climate, water quality and human health. It uses sustainable agriculture techniques like composting, permaculture and holistic management, allowing farmers to work in harmony with nature and limit climate change through carbon sequestration.

Amanda said her feelings about this have only grown over time.

“As a veterinarian, it's difficult to justify many of the conventional ag practices in regards to livestock care and management,” Amanda said. “We have a responsibility to our patients to move away from outdated methods of antibiotic overuse and intensely grain-feeding animals who are innate grazers. We should move toward improved housing, decreased stocking density, increased time outdoors.”

“I also think that's where the consumer is headed,” John added. “The berry industry is growing, not only because berries taste good, but also because the consumer is becoming more health conscious.” 

John recently attended Indoor Ag-Con and brought back some insight. 

“There’s a new career path for someone who wants to be involved with agriculture and is tech-savvy, which wasn't around 10 years ago,” he said. “There is a huge movement toward technology and AI in indoor agriculture.”