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Dear Community,
Our 2026 Food as Medicine For All - Livestream Conference is less than a month away! As we count down to November 14–15, we are honored to introduce Dr. Carla R. M. Portugal, one of the featured speakers joining us to explore the connections between agriculture, food, and health. An environmental scientist, soil health expert, and educator, Dr. Portugal will share how restoring the soil food web can help grow more nutrient-dense food and contribute to the health of people and our planet.
Restoring the Soil Food Web to Grow Nutrition Your Patients Need
Nutrition specialists prescribe food daily — yet the nutrient density of that food is treated as a given. It's not: it's partly a biological property of the soil it grew in. This session introduces the soil food web — bacteria, fungi, nematodes, and mycorrhizal networks that act as the plant's "gut microbiome" — and shows how soil food web management is an evidence-supported lever for growing nutrient-dense food. Dr. Portugal translates soil biology into clinical language: how microbial nutrient cycling raises crop antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals; what the peer-reviewed evidence does (and doesn't) support; and how practitioners can apply a sourcing checklist with produce-prescription vendors, food pantries, and community farms.
Interactive engagement includes live polling, hands-on checklist practice, and real-time Q&A. Content is scale-agnostic and calibrated for CNS® and allied practitioners.
Speaker Spotlight:
Dr. Carla R. M. Portugal — Environmental Scientist · Soil Health Expert · Educator
Dr. Carla Ribeiro Machado e Portugal
Soil scientist dedicated to healing soil. Lead Scientist and mentor at Dr. Elaine's™ Soil Food Web School (since 2019), where she trains consultants worldwide in the soil food web approach, leads in-person workshops, and connects the school with Portuguese-speaking countries with instruction and translation. Co-founder and Scientific Director of Soil Domains LLC (US) and C&R AgroAmbiental LTDA (Brazil), delivering science-based soil regeneration consulting for agricultural and environmental projects.
Holding a Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences from Oregon State University, a M.Sc. in Environmental Engineering from the Federal University of Santa Catarina, and a B.Sc. in Biological Sciences from the Federal University of Uberlândia (Brazil), her career is built on a truly interdisciplinary foundation, spanning microbiology, environmental impact assessment, and her doctoral research on microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP) as a green alternative for road stabilization in Brazil.
An educator at heart, Carla has taught at Oregon State University as a Graduate Teaching Assistant across multiple courses and terms, coordinated environmental education programs at a botanical garden, and worked with government agencies on environmental management. Today, she brings that teaching spirit to everything she does: mentoring the next generation of soil consultants, speaking to academic and grower audiences, and making soil biology accessible to growers, farmers, students, soil health practitioners, and organizations alike.
Her conviction is simple: healthy soil is the foundation of healthy food, healthy people, and a healthy planet, and restoring it is achievable for every grower, on any budget, anywhere in the world.
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