Soil Health Hits the Big Time!

By Courtney White, Resilience.org

Best of all, regenerative agriculture was acknowledged as a shovel-ready solution to climate change. That’s a big reason why over one hundred nations, NGOs, and agricultural organizations signed onto the original ‘4 For 1000 Initiative’. “[It] has become a global initiative,” said French Agriculture Minister Stéphane Le Foll. “We need to mobilize even more stakeholders in a transition to achieve both food security and climate mitigation thanks to agriculture.”

The Way Climate Change Unites Us

By Lynn Freehill-Maye, YES! magazine

While they may not agree on what has gotten them here, growers like Rosmann and Peterson are thinking beyond politicized climate change arguments to figure out solutions. They’re trying to adapt to the differences they’re experiencing, and even trying to mitigate them. Along with fellow PFI members, they’re approaching agriculture more regeneratively: focusing on soil health, planting cover crops, reducing chemicals, and minimizing the runoff that contributes to the Gulf of Mexico’s fishless “dead zone.”

Restoring Soil can Help Address Climate Change

By David R. Montgomery, The Conversation

I believe it’s time now for a global “soilshot” to heal the land. Rebuilding healthy fertile soil on the world’s agricultural lands would require fundamental changes to agriculture, and a new agricultural philosophy.

“The Story of Soil Is the Story of All of Us”

By Annie Leonard, Tom Newmark, YES! magazine

For as long as humans have engaged in agriculture, and even before, we’ve relied on healthy soil and the organisms it supports.

Growing a Revolution: Review

By Mary Wildfire, Resilience.org

The good news is that despite the barriers mentioned earlier, conservation agriculture is catching on—it’s just happening more slowly, spreading from the ground up as farmers note that the local weirdo using these practices keeps getting better yields.

By Reconnecting With Soil, We Heal the Planet and Ourselves

By Leah Penniman, YES! magazine

The truth is that for thousands of years Black people have had a sacred relationship with soil that far surpasses our 246 years of enslavement and 75 years of sharecropping in the United States.

The Climate Solution Right Under Our Feet

By Michaela Haas, YES! magazine

The idea behind regenerative farming is simple and ancient: The mother soil, which nurtures the harvest, in turn has to be nurtured and protected.

How to Turn Dirt Into Soil

By Anne Biklé, David R. Montgomery, YES! magazine

Regenerating soil to change the piece of the planet where you live is possible at multiple scales. It might be a city yard like ours, rooftop garden, community garden, or working farm. Add up these efforts, and we can restore fertility to degraded soils, end hunger, and pull some carbon from the sky.

The Battle To Save Our Dying Soil

By Anna Leach, Presencing Institute

In focusing on soil, Camp Altiplano’s ultimate goal is to learn how to bring degraded land back to life. If current rates of global soil degradation continue, it’s estimated we may only have 60 years of farming left.

Down-to-Earth Policy: Improving Soil Health

By Eva Perroni, Sustainable Food Trust

While awareness of soil health is increasing, current global agricultural regulations and policy and market incentives do not lead agriculture toward a sustainable future.

Agricultural Innovation with John-Paul Maxfield

By Woody Tasch, John-Paul Maxfield, Slow Money

Soil is incredibly complex. Just as with the human microbiome project, there is so much we have yet to discover. If we want to fix climate change, the answer is literally right beneath our feet. Da Vinci had it right when he said we understand the movements of the heavens better than we understand what is happening underfoot. We understand the soil at an intuitive level but not at a practical level.

The True Cost of Food

By Woody Tasch, Daphne Miller, Slow Money

These days I’m focused on the true cost of food. We have the cheapest food in the world. Food purchases make up something like 8% of our GDP. But when you start to factor in all the chronic diseases and environmental impacts—the health footprint of food—then all of a sudden we have the most expensive food in the world. Not 8% but 25% or higher. How is it we have something that is so cheap but so expensive?