Podcasts about dirt the erosion

How does soil health intimately and profoundly impact human health? What's the link between the soil microbiome and the human gut microbiome? How can we begin to restore our health, and the health of the living earth in concert with each other?  These are the questions posed by the outstanding book 'What your Food Ate: How to heal our land and reclaim our health' and the co-authors, Anne Biklé and David Montgomery are this week's guests as we delve deeply into the nature of soil, the functions of fungi, the populations of bacteria we depend on that inhabit our guts, and how we might affect total systemic change in the food and farming system.  So a little light listening for your day. In detail, Anne Biklé is a biologist, avid gardener. She is among the planet's leading experts on the microbial life of soil and its crucial importance to human wellbeing and survival. She is married to David Montgomery, who is a professor of Geomorphology at the University of Washington. David has studied everything from the ways that landslides and glaciers influence the height of mountain ranges, to the way that soils have shaped human civilizations both now and in the past. All of this has led him to write a number of books, including Dirt: The Erosion of Civilisations which explores how our historic - and contemporary - farming practices have critically undermined the living soil on which we depend. Following this, David and Anne co-wrote, The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health and the book we're going to be exploring in depth today:  What your Food Ate: how to heal our land and reclaim the our Health.  David also plays in the band, Big Dirt, which is, and I quote directly from their Facebook page: Americana Alternative. Whatever that means. Roots folk-rock with something to say and fun to listen.I read What your Food Ate earlier this year and if you've listened to the podcast for any length of time, you'll have heard me mention it more than once. It's the most readable exploration I've come across of how our food is grown, and how it could - and should be grown - it's really easy to read, but it's full of the kind of mind-blowing data that we need if we're going to change our habits. You'll hear more in the podcast, but truly, the detail they gathered on the difference in content between food grown in the modern agri-business farm and that grown on a regenerative farm with no chemical inputs and no or minimal ploughing, one that strives to build the soil health and so build the health of everything else... it's both terrifying and inspiring. If you want something to persuade you that you need to change the places you buy your food, this is it. So, here we go. People of the Podcast, please welcome Anne Biklé and David Montgomery. Dig2Grow Website https://www.dig2grow.com/Buy the Books: https://www.dig2grow.com/booksBig Dirt https://www.reverbnation.com/bigdirtmusic

On this episode, Nate is joined by “free range biologist” Anne Biklé and “broad-minded geologist” David Montgomery - a married duo who have been educating about the link between soil and human health for nearly a decade. As we continue to strip the land and soil of its life supporting capacity, our food has become less nutritious, even as we've received more calories. Has the age of ‘The Green Revolution' - accredited with preventing millions from famine - led us to a new epidemic of starvation in the form of micronutrients? How do our modern systems degrade the land, leaving us with lifeless dirt even more dependent on fossil inputs? Can we implement better agricultural practices that lead to lively and fertile soils, better health, and a reconnection with the land that feeds us? About Anne Biklé & David R. Montgomery Anne Biklé is a science writer and public speaker drawing on her background in biology and environmental planning to explore humanity's tangled relationship with nature through the lens of agriculture, soil, and food. She is particularly enthralled with the botanical world and its influence on humanity throughout history. Her writing has appeared in digital and print magazines, newspapers, and her work has been featured in radio and independent documentary films. David R. Montgomery is a MacArthur Fellow and professor of geomorphology at the University of Washington. He is an internationally recognized geologist who studies the effects of geological processes on ecological systems and human societies. He is the author of several textbooks in his field and his work has been featured in documentary films, network and cable news, TV, and radio. Anne and David are married and live in Seattle, WA. In 2023, they published What Your Food Ate: How to Heal Our Land and Reclaim Our Health, which builds on their trilogy of books about soil health, microbiomes, and farming—Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations, The Hidden Half of Nature, and Growing a Revolution. Social Media & Contact for David and Anne web: www.Dig2Grow.com || twitter: @Dig2Grow || email: Dig2Grow@gmail.com For Show Notes and More visit: https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/79-anne-bikl-david-montgomery

Oh hey, it's Mimi again. Gotcha two for the price of one today, because we're speaking with David Montgomery and Anne Biklé. I'm sure they don't need an introduction, because I know at least some of you all will have at least one of their books in your exhaustive libraries. If you haven't heard of them, David and Anne are married, live in Seattle, and are a pair of writers. To quote them, "Dave is a broad-minded geologist and Anne is a free-range biologist with a bad case of plant lust." If that doesn't make you want to hang out with them, I don't know how much better I'm going to be able to do. The reason I wanted to talk to them is not just because their book,  What Your Food Ate, just came out, but also because they have a really great way of going back through the membrane of time and looking at some of the origins of our understanding about the connections between plants, soil microbiology, and our own health. I can't recommend the books highly enough. Dave's mustache is also the mustache to end all mustaches.  A list of some of their amazing works... What Your Food Ate: How to Heal Our Land and Reclaim Our Health (2022) The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health (2015) Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life (2017) Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations (2008) Folks who make the show possible... Certified Naturally Grown grassroots, peer-to-peer, holistic certification. Johnny's Selected Seeds vegetable, flower, and cover crop seeds. BCS America for two wheel tractors + implements. RIMOL Greenhouses quality greenhouses and high-tunnels. ... and, as always, our work is powered by the folks who support us every month over at patreon.com/notillgrowers, you can pick up a copy of The Living Soil Handbook if you don't have one already, as well as a No-Till Growers hat, and you can ask you questions or share your insights into ecological market gardening on our brand new forum at notillgrowers.community.chat  

Delving into soil health is like peeling the layers of an onion back: new layers to soil health are brought to light every day. David Montgomery and Anne Bikle share what they learned and synthesized about soil health and food connections in writing their latest book: What Your Food Ate. As we learn about soil ecology and nutrient cycling, the urgency for caring for health from the soil up is increasingly apparent. David and Anne mention the importance of phytochemicals, micronutrients, fat balances, and microbial metabolites to plant and animal foods, and that new layers and directions for study continue to emerge. Overall, David and Anne encourage farmers and gardeners to do their own on-farm research, particularly in minimizing and eliminating tillage. Similarly, they encourage taking regional approaches to improve soil health and increase farm profitability so we can move forward in new ways. Montgomery, D. R. & Biklé, A. (2022). What your food ate: How to heal our land and reclaim our health. W. W. Norton Company. Available for purchase online at https://www.dig2grow.com/books or from other independent bookstores.Notes and resources for What Your Food Ate: https://www.dig2grow.com/_files/ugd/efeec1_9af7d03df12f447f90dee61521c08707.pdfDavid and Anne's books were written in the following order: Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations; The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health; Growing A Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life; and What Your Food Ate: How To Heal Our Land and Reclaim Our Health.Learn more about the Virginia Soil Health Coalition at https://www.virginiasoilhealth.org/ Please visit our new website with additional conversations and resources at https://www.4thesoil.org.

How do we nourish people rather than just feed them? Is there a more direct link between soil health and human health than we thought? David R. Montgomery and Anne Biklé, authors of What Your Food Ate, talk with us about the deeper, more intriguing aspects of soil health, nutrition, and its implications for human health with us. David and Anne emphasize the importance of asking questions about the foundations of health: soil and nutritious food. David is a professor of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington. Anne attended the University of California, Santa Cruz earning degrees in Biology and Natural History. She holds a Master's Degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley. Anne's career has included work in biology, watershed restoration, environmental planning, and public health.Montgomery, D. R. & Biklé, A. (2022). What your food ate: How to heal our land and reclaim our health. W. W. Norton Company. Available for purchase online at https://www.dig2grow.com/books or from other independent bookstores.Notes and resources for What Your Food Ate: https://www.dig2grow.com/_files/ugd/efeec1_9af7d03df12f447f90dee61521c08707.pdfDavid and Anne's books were written in the following order: Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations; The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health; Growing A Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life; and What your Food Ate: How To Heal Our Land and Reclaim Our Health.Learn more about the Virginia Soil Health Coalition and read the latest Soil Health Tip Tuesday blog post at https://www.virginiasoilhealth.org/ Please visit our new website with additional conversations and resources at https://www.4thesoil.org.

Anne Biklé and Dave Montgomery are a husband and wife team and authors of the newly released What Your Food Ate and the trilogy: Dirt: the Erosion of Civilizations, the Hidden Half of Nature, and Growing a Revolution. Together, with Anne's lens of biology, and David's lens of geology, they explore the topics of soil, land, and human health. In this episode, we explore all things soil. Starting with an exploration of how many dynamics between organisms above ground feel combative, but life beneath the soil is truly collaborative. Anne and Dave explore nutrient cycles and how nutrition in the form of minerals is liberated from rocks by microbial and fungal life and recycled through time. We also explore how plants and animals (including humans) get their nutrition. Anne and Dave touch on the state of our soils and what it means to have lost around half of our soil organic matter in a short amount of time and what we can do about it. Touched on are ideas around taking a long view, and how we can do that with our own health and land health and how the history of the treatment of soil might teach us a little bit more about looking into the future. We look at not just regenerative agriculture, but also the impacts of chemical and mechanized agriculture. Ultimately, Anne and Dave guide us towards the future and just how much hope and resiliency nature is capable of. We also talk about: Policy changes informing changes in practice Boom and bust cycles of agriculture and civilization & so much more Find Anne + Dave: Twitter: @dig2grow Website: dig2grow.com Anne + Dave's Books (in order - but can absolutely be read independently): Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life What Your Food Ate: How to Heal Our Land and Reclaim Our Health Related Ground Work Episodes: Stephan van Vliet (for more on phytochemicals and the dark matter of nutrition) Brad Marshall (for more on omega 3:omega 6 ratios) Alicia Brown (for more on no till agriculture and growing for nutrients) Current Discounts for GW listeners: 15% off Farm True ghee and body care products using code: KATEKAV15 Join the Ground Work Collective: Instagram: @groundworkcollective Find a Farm: nearhome.groundworkcollective.com More: groundworkcollective.com Podcast disclaimer can be found by visiting: groundworkcollective.com/disclaimer Episode Webpage

In this episode, Forrest talks with Dave Montgomery and Anne Biklé about their new book,  What Your Food Ate: How to Heal Our Land and Reclaim Our Health. The authors aim to raise our awareness of the community of life in the soil beneath our feet—or more importantly, the soil on the farms that grow our food. They make a compelling case for changing the ways that food is grown so that the life of the soil is respected and cared for . . . and so that the food produced by healthier soil makes us healthier in turn.Guests: David Montgomery - author and geologist at the University of Washington  Anne Bikle - author and biologist & plant whisperer Book:WhatYour Food Ate: How to Heal Our Land and Reclaim Our HealthDirt book trilogy - Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations; The Hidden Half of Nature; Growing a Revolution Mentions: regenerative farming practices monoculture tillage mycorrhiza the three sisters - squash, beans & corn Farm Bill renewal in the US Earthkeepers' interview with Good Food Clubs Wangari Maathai - Kenyan woman - tree planting project; Nobel Peace Prize price of fertilizer skyrocketed in the last year Actions:  learn about your food - where was it grown, who grew it, how did they grow it? in farming communities - educate about regenerative farming practices and their benefits public policy - vote for elected officials who share your views on the benefits of regenerative practices  find others who care about how our food is produced, and dream up ways to make a difference together!Keywords: monoculture, industrial farming, Green Revolution, regenerative agriculture, regenerative farming, food cooperatives, soil fungus, organic, permaculture, soil ecology, no-till, young farmers, cover crop, crop rotation

Today, we're speaking with geologist David Montgomery, co-author with Anne Bikle of a new book called "What Your Food Ate." Very interesting title. David is professor in the College of the Environment at the University of Washington and earlier had been awarded a MacArthur fellowship. You may already be familiar with him through his acclaimed book called "Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations." Dr. Montgomery has long argued that the root of good health begins with dirt, a factor that we ignore at our peril. Interview Summary   Well, I really admire your work, and this work in this area is so important. We've recorded a number of episodes around the issue of regenerative agriculture, and it's been impressive how much interest there is in this topic, which I think, only a few years ago, wasn't very well known to most people but now is becoming more part of the general discussion, which I see as a very positive development. Let's begin with your interest in dirt. So what is the condition of the Earth's dirt?   Well, sad to say, not very good in terms of our agricultural soils in particular. That's something as a geologist, that's what got me interested in soils is looking at the long history of human interaction with our landscapes and soils and ended up writing a history of farming about how it had degraded farmland around the world over the course of centuries. The short answer is that we have degraded something between about ¼ to 1/3, probably, of the world's potentially viable agricultural land to the point where it's not terribly useful for agriculture. The UN's 2015 Global State of the Soil report concluded we are losing about a third of a percent a year of our ability to grow food on this planet due to ongoing soil loss and degradation. So the physical erosion of the soil and the degradation of its fertility as manifests through the loss of soil organic matter. And, that 0.3% a year number doesn't sound like a big deal on a year to year basis. But think about that over the rest of this century, and it adds up to almost another 1/3 of the world's farmland taken out of production at a time when we really need all hands on deck or all acres on deck, as it may be, to feed the world as our population keeps growing. So, we face a fundamental challenge this century of how to sustain agriculture on a degrading resource base. Our other choice is to think about trying to improve, enhance and restore the soil. That is where regenerative agriculture comes in and where my interest has really grown beyond just looking at the sad experience of past civilizations that degraded their land. And to thinking about possible solutions that will allow humanity to continue intensive agriculture to feed the world well into the future.   So what are some of the factors that have driven the erosion and the degradation?   One of the biggest factors that contributed to the loss of topsoil in societies around the world was tillage, the act of plowing. That seems a little odd to hear at first because isn't that something that farmers do? It helps to provide weed control. It helps to prepare a seed bed for planting, but it also leaves the ground bear and vulnerable to erosion by water and wind until the next plants come in, whether it's a crop or whether it's weeds. If you leave the ground bare and vulnerable, you get the erosional situation like we saw in the Dust Bowl where great clouds of dust blew off the American Midwest when we plowed up the plains when the next drought came in. The same kind of thing happened in slower motion in societies in the past, mostly in response to rain rather than wind, but erosion that proceeded faster than the rebuilding of the soil gradually stripped off the top soil from regions around the world that people depended on to grow their food. And in the modern world, we can actually degrade soil faster with the combination of tillage, the over application of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, which also contribute to decline in soil organic matter, and the concentration on monocultures can also reduce the release of exudates that plants produce and drip into the soils to feed microbes around their roots. That combination is all resulted in degradation of soil organic matter and the loss of topsoil, soil erosion in many parts of the world. So the very foundation, if you will, of modern conventional agriculture, intensive tillage, lots of agrichemical use, and monocultures has helped to undermine the native fertility of the farmland that future generations globally are going to depend on for their food. So one of the questions I've been wrestling with and how I got into looking at regenerative agriculture was how could that process be turned around? How could we actually sustain intensive farming and not degrade the land? Is it possible to actually engage in intensive farming that could improve the health of the world's soils? That started to turn me into an optimist when I ran into farmers, interviewed farmers, and studied their farms where they had indeed done that.   It is impressive to hear those stories. We've had a number of such farmers doing podcasts, and it's very inspiring to talk to them. So let's just take one piece of what you said, the use of tillage. You hear the term no-till farming. What does that mean? What does that look like?   - [David] Yeah, so that would be farming without plowing, and so the challenge is how do you get the seeds into the ground? How do you prepare a field for planting if you still have the remains of last year's crop on it, the so-called crop residue? Over the last century, people have invented new and different farm implements and machines, and there are no-till planters that can actually put seeds down into the soil in narrow little trenches that get good contact between the seed and the seed bed but don't require essentially inverting the soil. They don't rip it all up. They just disturb a little narrow slot to actually get seeds in the ground. What that also allows is keeping the residue from a prior crop as essentially a mulch. If you knock it down, if you kill any weeds that were there physically and knock them down, crimp their stems, you can convert them into mulch that can help keep moisture in the soil, but it also protects the soil from erosion. No-till farming is a way of farming that minimizes the physical disturbance of the soil, and you need different equipment to do it and a different mindset to do it, but it's very feasible to do, and there's lots of different ways to do it. Some farmers use a lot of herbicides to control their weeds in no till. That is the conventional way to do it, but there's others who are pioneering different techniques that don't require the use of a lot of herbicides to do no till. The basic idea of no till is to minimize the disturbance of the soil, and why is that important? Because it enhances the beneficial aspects of soil biology. It allows the natural soil ecology that really evolved in the last 450 million years since plants colonized the continents to work. Soil microbes have these partnerships that evolved between plants and life and the soil that are mutually beneficial. And if you disturb the soil physically, you disturb a lot of the fungal partners that crops are trying to invest in with some of their early growth.   I know the regenerative agriculture approach wasn't called this going back hundreds of years but been used by populations around the world, including Native Americans, but if we fast forward today, do you think that this holds promise for being done on a broad enough scale to really make a social difference?   Yes, I really do. What is different today is that in the past, these practices of crop rotations and of planting legumes in and amongst crops to get nitrogen into the soil, those are not new ideas. They have been traditional ideas in many societies around the world because they worked to help sustain the fertility of the soil. But, what I think we really have the opportunity to do now is to combine some of that ancient wisdom with the modern technology that allows us to do no till at scale. And, to minimize our use of not only physical disturbance from adopting no till but also to minimize the chemical disturbance that comes with the overuse of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers and pesticides. Combining the modern technology with ancient wisdom can allow us to basically expand the realm of regenerative practices to very large-scale farming because unless we all want to become farmers, we're not going to be able to do small-scale regenerative farming and feed the world. Even though most of the world's population is fed by small-scale farmers, those of us in the westernized world relying on very few people to feed very many of us. I've been on regenerative farms that are up to 20,000 acres in the US; big, large mechanized farms that have done an amazing job at rebuilding the fertility of their land. I've also been on very small-scale subsistence farms in equatorial West Africa that are regenerative that have done an amazing job at rebuilding the fertility of their land. Those three general principles of minimizing disturbance, growing cover crop, always keeping living roots in the ground to provide exudates to feed the microbes, and to grow a diversity of plants. That recipe is a combination of principles that different kinds of practices would need to be used on large farms or small farms or high tech farms and manual labor subsistence farms, but the general underlying philosophy of cultivating the beneficial life in the soil underpins all those. And that's how I tend to look at what I would call regenerative agriculture, are farming practices that are tailored to the size of the farm, the environment, the climate, the crops that farmers want to grow, the technology they have access to, but that prioritizes building the health of the soil as the foundation for the farm.   It's nice to hear such a positive outlook on this. You are painting the picture saying that it can be done. Do you think it can be done in a way that can compete cost wise with traditional approaches to farming?   Absolutely, and that was a big focus of what I wrote about in "Growing a Revolution." If you could tell a farmer that you could cut their fertilizer costs, cut their diesel costs, cut their pesticide costs as much as in half, they all start looking at you like going, "Yeah, tell me more. How would you do that?" That's one of the key attractions, I think, of regenerative agriculture. Once the soil is restored to a healthier state, you don't need as much fertilizer. You don't need as many pesticides, and you don't drive tractors around as much if you're doing no till. What are three of the biggest costs on modern farms in north America? Well, fertilizer, diesel, and pesticide. And so if you can teach farmers a different way of farming that starts with a different way of looking at the soil and adopting a different series of practices that allows them to harvest as much while spending less to do it, it's a recipe for a more profitable farm. And for what I've seen in the experience of the pioneering regenerative farmers that I've interviewed, once they've restored fertility to their land, their yields are comparable to, if not better than, their conventional neighbors, and their expenses are less. That's what started turning me into an optimist on this is I've seen a lot of growing interest in farming communities simply because farmers are pushed to the wall and looking for ways to cut costs.   That's so exciting to hear that, and then, of course, at some point government could subsidize these sort of approaches to make it even more cost effective because of the environmental benefits.   There are all kinds of add-ons in terms of benefits, less offsite nitrogen pollution, greater on-farm biodiversity, enhancements to rural economies, and also differences in what gets into the food that we grow that could potentially benefit human health.   I have a million questions to ask you. We've talked about the vitality and health of the soil. Let's talk about the vitality and health of what's being grown in the soil, that is the nutrient quality of the foods. In the book, you note that produces significantly less nutrient dense than in the past. How much is this true, and how less dense is it?   Yes. That's a great question. So one of the things we really delved into in "What Your Food Ate" because it is a central question to thinking about, well, does soil health mattered to human health? And the conclusion we came away with in diving into the peer reviewed literature and doing some of food testing of our own, was that there's three key areas where the nutrient density, shall we say, of food has suffered over the last half century. And that's in terms of mineral micronutrients, phytochemicals, and the fat profiles of our meat and dairy. So how does that work? Well, in terms of mineral micronutrients, a lot of plants partner with fungal communities in the soil to actually trade sugars and fats and proteins. Plants will drip those out of their roots to feed microbes in the soil in exchange for those microbes, particularly fungi, giving back things like zinc or copper or iron mined from the soil. It's literally an underground economy but where both partners benefit from the exchanges, and conventional agricultural practices disturb those relationships. We're not talking so much about the major nutrient composition of foods as much as the micronutrients. Plants have different gene pathways where if they're grown in very nitrogen-rich environments, they shut down their exudate production. So they stop feeding their microbial partners. Their microbial partners aren't on the job to give them the mineral micronutrients that they need and that turn out to be very important for our health, too, when we eat them. Plants also make what are known as phytochemicals in response greatly to environmental stimuli, some of which are microbes in the soil. And so the communities of life around their roots are actually key partners in terms of making things that we don't often consider nutrients in the nutritional sciences, but they're important for maintaining human health, things like antioxidants, anti-inflammatories. Those are examples of the functions phytochemicals can serve in our bodies, and our farming practices have disrupted them. How much they have disrupted them? There are studies that show differences on the orders of 50 to 100%, others that are more like 20%. Most of the studies and the testing that we did as well make it look like it's more like around 20%-ish. It's modest but very real differences in these compounds that the medical sciences have shown are fairly beneficial to promoting human health in our diets.   So can I assume from what you're saying that there's research now showing that if you use better soil practices a la regenerative agriculture, that the nutrient quality improves?   Yes, it's a nontrivial difference. And the other difference, even bigger, is looking at the ratio of the composition of fats in meat and dairy in terms of the omega-6 and omega-3 fats. To make a very simple generalization, omega-6 fats in our bodies are instrumental in initiating inflammation whereas omega-3 fats are instrumental in quelling or reducing inflammation. It turns out that what we get in terms of the fat composition in our meat and dairy products very much depends on what the cows ate that produce that meat and dairy. Cows that grazed leafy green plants, actually grazing out in a pasture, they eat a lot of omega-3s because that's what's in the leaves of plants because omega-3s are central to photosynthesis. Omega-6s are a very rich in seed sources. They serve different purposes in seeds. Cattle that are on a feed lot diet of seed-derived feeds are rich in omega-6s, and our diet has gone from having just a few more omega-6s than omega-3s in our diet 100 years ago. Now we're awash in omega-6s from that change in our meat and dairy and also the addition of seed oils to processed foods. That trade we write about in the book that translates through, we think, to essentially how so many of us are dealing with chronic maladies that are rooted in chronic inflammation.   Another way to really move this along might be for consumers to begin requesting products that are grown in such a way, and so I'm wondering about your opinion on whether a poll from consumers might help here. Do you think there could come a time when that would be the case?   I absolutely do, in fact. I just noticed in Anne and my own buying habits. So we started doing this research and learning what it was we did along the way, our buying habits have changed. So we're buying 100% grass fed meat and dairy when we can. We've tried to connect with farmers whose practices we really like in terms of the produce we can buy at farmer's markets here in Seattle where we live. Now the average consumer faces a challenge today in terms of what's labeled as what in a grocery store, but it's our hope that people will start thinking more about these connections, start asking questions, ask the produce manager at your store, "What are the farms doing that you're getting the produce from?" I could definitely see a world in the not too distant future where consumers may be armed with the ability to know what the analyses of different batches of produce coming in.   And I wonder if the first movement here might not be from institutions, that a school system or a hospital or the procurement part of a city or county government, if they made purchasing decisions based on nutrient quality and, of course, the practices used to grow the food could make a big difference.   I think that is a tremendous idea that I think could be very impactful, and I think you're right, that that could be where you might see some of the biggest pieces of movement. There is also been some corporations that have been interested in trying to move towards adopting and advertising that they have adopted regenerative sourcing in some of their ingredients. I really see three areas that need attention in terms of advancing regenerative agriculture. Consumer demand is one, as we have been discussing. The inherent farmers' incentives in terms of economics that we discussed earlier is another. The third is in terms of rethinking our agricultural subsidies and policies to actually reward farmers who are rebuilding the health and fertility of their land. Those who are reinvesting in the future of America, quite literally, instead of continuing to subsidize conventional practices that frankly degrade the fertility of the land and the ability of future generations to feed themselves. If we could get all three of those areas lined up working towards the same goal of making what we call regenerative agriculture today the conventional agriculture of tomorrow, that could literally change the world in the coming decades. It's not going to happen fast, but I think it's something that could be done over the course of two or three decades at a time when we really need the change.   Well, especially if the right research got done at the right time. For example, I could imagine going back to school systems. Let's say that a school system changes its buying practices and ends up buying more nutrient-dense foods and then proves that there are beneficial outcomes for the kids, like better performance in school and more attention and things like that. Then you could see a lot of adopters coming pretty quickly.   Yes, I would love to see a lot more research along those lines done. We tried to connect the dots in "What Your Food Ate" from soil health to crop health to animal health to human health, but there's a lot of space between those dots and a lot of work that needs to be done, but it's a very promising area and a new way to think about those connections.   Could we talk about livestock for another minute? You mentioned this earlier, and it sounds like there's a lot of promise using these techniques for livestock production. Most people think of plant production here, but livestock are really important as context as well. Are there places where livestock and plant-based agriculture are interacting with each other in this context?   Yes, some of the farmers I visited were reintegrating animal husbandry into their cropping operations and having their cattle graze off their cover crops and then manure their fields. I came from a position where I had long thought of cattle in particular as harmful to the land through gully formation and erosion from overgrazing. The farmers that I visited who have used cattle to rebuild the fertility of their soils were really grazing in a very different manner, in a different style that enhanced the fertility of their land as a result of reintegrating them. I think one of the big inadvertent mistakes of 20th century agriculture was essentially separating animal husbandry from cropping and encouraging farmers to specialize in one or the other. Now we have the perverse situation where we grow a whole lot of corn using practices that degrade the fertility of the land to feed cattle and feed lots who then are full of omega-6s that degrade our health when we eat them. It makes no sense in terms of large-scale agricultural policy unless you are thinking with the mid-20th century mindset of maximizing efficiency and industrializing and separating those corners of agriculture. What we inadvertently did is we broke some of the biological and ecological connections that helped keep the land fertile and that were result of the integration of animal husbandry and cropping practices. That's another example, I think, of the value of potentially reintegrating some elements of ancient wisdom with modern science to think about doing things a little differently.   Let me end with this question, and I want to see if I'm reading you right. It sounds like if you look at the world's situation with dirt agriculture, it is a pretty dire picture, getting worse quickly, and it could go really badly if nothing is done, but it also sounds like you're very optimistic. There is a lot we know about what can be done, a lot of it is being done, and the signs for the future are positive. Am I reading that right?   I am optimistic about this. I struggle with how much of that optimism is a choice rather than a logical extension of what I know. But I think we know enough now about techniques that can rebuild fertility of the land and restore it that it's feasible to see a path forward where we could do that at scale with very positive results that could also put a lot of carbon back in the world's agricultural soils, which would have ancillary climate benefits. It's not going to solve the climate problem. That's a fossil fuel issue primarily, but it could help. Back when I wrote "Dirt" in 2007, I think it was, there was hardly anybody talking about soil health and the long-term importance of reinvesting in the world's agricultural soils to rebuild their fertility, and now almost every farming conference I go to or get invited to speak at, that's one of the big topics of discussion among farmers. And there's now discussion at policy level in terms of the new Farm Bill that climate activists are interested in. There's a lot of very broad, I think, public support and interest coalescing around the idea that one of the smartest things we could do for the future of our own species and for the health of the planet is to reinvest in the health and the fertility of our agricultural soils.   Bio   David R. Montgomery is a Professor of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington. He studies the evolution of topography and the influence of geomorphological processes on ecological systems and human societies. He received his B.S. in geology at Stanford University (1984) and his Ph.D. in geomorphology from UC Berkeley (1991). Current research includes field projects in the Philippines, eastern Tibet, and the Pacific Northwest of North America. In 2008 Montgomery received a MacArthur Fellowship. His books, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations, King of Fish, and The Rocks Don't Lie have all won the Washington State Book Award in General Nonfiction. Montgomery's Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life, was a finalist for the PEN/E.O. Wilson award for Literary Science Writing. His latest work with W. W. Norton, What Your Food Ate: How to Heal Our Land and Reclaim our Health, published in 2022.  

For this episode I have the pleasure of talking with two of my favorite authors on soil and our utter dependence on it, Anne Biklé and David R. Montgomery   David R. Montgomery is a MacArthur Fellow and professor of geomorphology at the University of Washington.  He is an internationally recognized geologist who studies the effects of geological processes on ecological systems and human societies.  His work has been featured in documentary films, network and cable news, TV, and radio including NOVA, PBS NewsHour, Fox and Friends, and All Things Considered.    Anne Biklé is a science writer and public speaker focusing on the connections between people, plants, food, health, and the environment.  She has been known to coax garden plants into rambunctious growth and nurse them back from the edge of death with her regenerative gardening practices.  Her work has appeared in digital and print magazines, newspapers, and radio and her gardening practices have been featured in independent and documentary films.    Anne and David are married and live in Seattle, WA.  Their work includes What Your Food Ate: How to Heal Our Land and Reclaim Our Health, and a trilogy of books about soil health, microbiomes, and farming—Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations, The Hidden Half of Nature, and Growing a Revolution.   These books are not only about soil but about agriculture, our food system, human health and survival and the climate… and, perhaps shockingly, they provide ample evidence for a way forward that provides solutions to the problems we face in all of these areas… dare I say they provide hope? And, even more importantly, he says sarcastically, they provide ample evidence for how to farm grapes in a better way to make more delicious wine. www.Dig2Grow.com  Sponsor: https://www.centralaswine.com/

What is soil health, and how do we measure it? What is regenerative agriculture, and why is the label organic confusing and not particularly useful? In this episode of the podcast Lars talks to David Montgomery, a professor of geology at University of Washington, who has in the last fifteen years written a number of books and articles about soil health, food production and agriculture. As he tells it himself, his journey through the world of regenerative agriculture and soil health has turned him from being a pessimist into a staunch optimist, and we're pretty sure that this comes through in the episode.  David also has a new book coming out this summer, written with his wife Anne Biklé: What your food ate: How to heal our land and reclaim our health, which we talk about in this episode. The book is already available for preorder. (https://wwnorton.co.uk/books/9781324004530-what-your-food-ate)  Books and articles:  David Montgomery (2007) Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations, University of California Press David Montgomery (2007), «Soil erosion and agricultural sustainability», PNAS, August 14, 2007, vol. 104  no. 33, ss.13268 –13272, https://www.pnas.org/content/104/33/13268 David Montgomery & Anne Biklé (2016), The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health, W.W. Norton David Montgomery (2017), Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life, W.W. Norton David Montgomery & Anne Biklé, (2021) «Soil Health and Nutrient Density: Beyond Organic vs. Conventional Farming», Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 04 November 2021, https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2021.699147/full David R. Montgomery, Anne Biklé, Ray Archuleta, Paul Brown, Jazmin Jordan (2022), «Soil health and nutrient density: preliminary comparison of regenerative and conventional farming», PeerJ, 27.jan 2022 David's recommendations: Charles Darwin (1881), The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms, with Observations on their Habits, John Murray Gabe Brown (2018), Dirt to Soil: One Family's Journey into Regenerative Agriculture, Chelsea Green Publishing ---------------------------- Our logo is by Sveinung Sudbø, see his works on originalkopi.com The music is by Arne Kjelsrud Mathisen, see the facebook page Nygrenda Vev og Dur for more info.  ----------------------------  Thank you for listening. You can contact us on our facebook page or by email: larsogpaal[at]gmail.com There is no better way for the podcast to gain new interested listener than by you sharing it with friends, so if you find what we do interesting and useful, please consider doing just that. The podcast is still most in Norwegian, but we have a lot of episodes coming out in English.  Our blogs: https://paljabekk.com/ https://larssandaker.blogspot.com/ Alt godt, hilsen Lars og Pål

Welcome to The Soil Collective! In this episode we lay the groundwork for what this podcast is all about.  We dig into Kristyn, Logan, and Nicole's unique but similar journeys into holistic healing and getting back to the soil. We define regenerative agriculture as well as regenerative healthcare (hint: it's definitely not gene therapies or stem cell treatments like google may have you think).   Next, we talk about how conventional modern agriculture is destroying our soils with an arsenal of war-like machinery and chemicals put into play during the 1950's Green Revolution (which wasn't actually so “green”). It turns out that the soil degradation we're seeing today is shockingly similar to the soil destruction that catalyzed the collapse of many great civilizations.  Then, we dive into SOLUTIONS, exploring the 5 core pillars of regenerative agriculture. Amazingly, the core principles of regenerating human health follow the exact same roadmap, culminating in a return to living with natural cycles, eating wholesome real food, and healing our bodies outside of the mainstream medical paradigm. We hope this well help form a foundational understanding of what we're tackling and the abundance of hope we have for healing ourselves and the Earth! We end with some simple actionable items to dig in to regenerating your health today. Happy New Year! Mentioned in this episode: ‘Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations' by David Montgomery (book) ‘Farmers of Forty Centuries' by F.H. King (book) Dr. Elaine Ingham of Soil Food Web: https://www.soilfoodweb.com/about/ (https://www.soilfoodweb.com/about/)  Kiss the Ground https://kisstheground.mykajabi.com/kiss-the-ground-s-soil-advocate-training (Soil Advocacy Training) Submit your questions and follow us: https://www.instagram.com/thesoilcollective_/ (@thesoilcollective_) on Instagram Email us at info@thesoilcollective.us Thanks for listening!

In this episode, Jeff Ishee and Eric Bendfeldt talk with Chris Lawrence, State Cropland Agronomist with Virginia Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS). Chris discusses how the soil works for all of us and the importance of taking care of and respecting it by following the four principles of soil health. Virginia NRCS and Chris Lawrence first started the Virginia Soil Health Coalition in 2013 to increase communication and promote consistency around soil health. You can find more information about Virginia NRCS and soil health in Virginia at the NRCS website. And don't forget to check out the two books recommended in today's episode: Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations by David Montgomery and The Worst Hard Times by Timothy Egan.

#027:  How many civilizations have collapsed due to extractive agricultural practices and soil degradation and how close is ours to reaching the same fate? Author and geologist David Montgomery talks us through the ultimate costs of taking our soils for granted and the difficulty of reversing course with modern technology. Author and geologist David Montgomery is a professor of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington. He has written the books Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations and Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life, and along with his partner, Anne Biklé, he co-authored the book The Hidden Half of Nature and is currently working on You Are What Your Food Ate. David and Anne also run the website Dig2Grow and are both members of the Real Organic Project Advisory Board.To watch a video version of this podcast please visit:https://www.realorganicproject.org/david-montgomery-clever-modern-technology-vs-ancient-soil-wisdom-episode-twenty-sevenThe Real Organic Podcast is hosted by Dave Chapman and Linley Dixon, engineered by Brandon StCyr, and edited and produced by Jenny Prince.The Real Organic Project is a farmer-led movement working towards certifying 1,000 farms across the United States this year. Our add-on food label distinguishes soil-grown fruits and vegetables from hydroponically-raised produce. It also identifies pasture-raised meat, milk, and eggs as compared to products harvested from animals in horrific confinement (CAFOs - confined animal feeding operations).To find a Real Organic farm near you, please visit:https://www.realorganicproject.org/farmsWe believe that the organic standards, with their focus on soil health, biodiversity, and animal welfare were written as they should be. But the current lack of enforcement of those standards is jeopardizing small farms that follow the law. The lack of enforcement is also jeopardizing the overall health of the customers who support the organic movement; customers who are not getting what they pay for at market but are still paying a premium price. The lack of enforcement is jeopardizing the very cycles (water, air, nutrients) that Earth relies upon to provide us all with a place to live, by pushing extractive, chemical agriculture to the forefront.If you like what you hear and are feeling inspired, we would love for you to join our movement by becoming one of our 1,000  Real Fans!https://www.realorganicproject.org/1000-real-fans/To read our weekly newsletter (which might just be the most forwarded newsletter on the internet!) and get firsthand news about what's happening with organic food, farming and policy, please subscribe here:https://www.realorganicproject.org/email/

In this episode the discussion of Chapters 1-4 of Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations continues with a different group of folks. If you're interested in joining the book club head over to r/betterworldbookclub on reddit for more info or reach out to me directly. Music "Rojava" and "After the Revolution" by David Rovics --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lucas-pompey/message

I've recently started an online book club called the Better World Book Club (where we are trying to build an image of the better world we all want to create together). If you'd like to join to you can find it on reddit at r/betterworldbookclub and you'll see the other links and info. For this first episode it's just me and Simon discussing chapters 1-4 of Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations by David R. Montgomery. Music is 1848 and After the Revolution by David Rovics. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lucas-pompey/message

David Montgomery, PhD. - Growing A Revolution - Sept 10, 2019, Interviewers, Seth Itzkan & Karl Thidemann, Soil4Climate Inc. - David R. Montgomery is a professor of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle. His books include Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations, Growing A Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life and The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health, a collaboration with Anne Biklé.

In this episode, John interviews David Montgomery, Professor of Geomorphology at the University of Washington. John and David discuss soil regeneration at length, pulling from David’s experience developing new topsoil in dead, stony ground and his deep dive into the science behind it. David came to the field of regenerative agriculture from a unique position. As a geologist studying erosion, he became curious about agricultural impacts on soils.   When David set out to write his first book, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations, he imagined it would tie the subject of landscape formation over millennia to how soil erosion affected ancient civilizations. He ended up writing about the history of farming, because that's where soil erosion and degradation connects back to human societies. Spending more than a decade looking at how agriculture has influenced soil loss resulted in an epiphany that led him to see regenerative agriculture as the solution to historically degenerative agricultural problems. In this thought-provoking interview, John and David discuss: How conventional farming practices have contributed to mining the soil, and how this impacts the future of global societies. David’s observations of rebuilding soil at scale and the science behind it The 3 principles of successful soil regeneration: Minimal ground disturbance Keep the surface covered Grow diverse crop rotations How the key to rapid restoration of soil fertility is about kick-starting the biology Why David is an unrepentant optimist on the issue of reversing soil degradation, something he didn’t think would happen when he wrote the book on erosion. John and David explore the soil-life effects of glyphosate as an antibiotic and mineral chelator, and conjecture as to it’s human health impacts. There is a fascinating glimpse of a South African farm that doubles as a cheetah rehabilitation area, that may spur new ideas on meshing agriculture with wildlife conservation. David shares about his two musical projects as well. https://www.bandmix.com/bigdirt/   David is the author of two books: Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations  2007 Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life  2017.   David’s recommended reading list from the episode: Dirt to Soil by Gabe Brown Organic No-Till Farming by Jeff Moyer The Third Plate by Dan Barber   The Community Impact Partner for this episode is Jerry Hatfield, director of the National Lab for Agriculture and the Environment at the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service. The ARS seeks partners to participate in on-farm research to further our collective knowledge about best farming practices. Please consider getting involved with this important work as a citizen-scientist, and look forward to a future podcast interview with Jerry soon! Website: www.ars.usda.gov/nlae Email: jerry.hatfield@ars.usda.gov Phone: (5l5) 294-5723   Support For This Show This show is brought to you by AEA, helping professional growers make more money using regenerative agriculture since 2006. If you grow on a large scale and are looking to increase crop revenue and quality, email hello@advancingecoag.com or call 800-495-6603 extension 344 to be connected with a dedicated AEA crop consultant.   Sign Up For Email Updates To be alerted via email when new episodes are released, and get special updates about John speaking, teaching, and podcast LIVE recordings, be sure to sign up for The Regenerative Agriculture Podcast email list.   Feedback & Booking Please send your feedback, requests for topics or guests, or booking request have a Podcast episode recorded LIVE at your event to production@regenerativeagriculturepodcast.com Email John directly at John@regenerativeagriculturepodcast.com   Credits This episode was recorded by John Kempf and David Montgomery,  and produced by Nathan Harman, Robin Kitowski, and Anna Kempf.

My guest this week is David Montgomery. David studied geology at Stanford University before earning his Ph.D. in geomorphology at UC Berkeley. He teaches at the University of Washington where he studies the evolution of topography and how geological processes shape landscapes and influence ecological systems. He loved maps as a kid and now writes about the relationship of people to their environment and other things that interest him. In 2008 he was named a MacArthur Fellow. He lives with his wife Anne in Seattle, Washington. He’s written multiple books but the ones most interesting to gardeners are Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations, The Hidden Half of Nature, and Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soils Back to Life. https://www.kisorganics.com/pages/cannabis-cultivation-and-science-podcast-episode-25

Dr. David R. Montgomery is a professor of geomorphology in the department of Earth & Space Sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle. In this episode David shares a bit of his story, and we delve into the details of building healthy soil, and how it's connected to our own health. He does a great job of communicating the science, and explaining these details. I had a great time interviewing him.Thanks to everyone who supports us in some way shape or form. We always love hearing how you're living a probiotic life. Links Website: dig2grow.comTwitter: @dig2growFacebook: dig2growbooks SHOW NOTES Geomorphology- study of topography- soil erosion- works on the here and now of geography- looks at sustainability, long term perspective  Geology & the Human Element- David wanted to learn about the world- took geology, “competing against [their] lack of knowledge”- saw how ecosystems & farming impact soil erosion- wrote a book about how religious thought & geological science have historically affected each other- wrote a book with his wife about how microbial life influences health of plants, people, farms  Formative Influences- spent lots of time playing outside as a kid- his wife Anne (a biologist) had a similar experience  Humans Have a Lot to Learn- when it comes to modern impact on natural age, humans are in the driver's seat- we are still figuring out the blueprint of how this earth works   Soil & Geology- takes lots of micronutrients to grow a healthy plant- the vast majority of these come from the ground- need to get rocks broken down and their minerals released into the soil- this is mostly done by microbes- soil is a grand recycling system, that takes organic material and returns it to the ground to feed new life- earth is the only planet we know of currently where this is the case  Soil Around the World- discussion of specific places in the world, where availability of different mineral elements has greatly impacted the botanical world- most soils around the world have the basic sets of minerals needed for plant growth, but they are often locked up in the soil unreleased- it's possible to add the nutrients needed to the soil- we need to bring the biology back to the soil  The Soil & Our Gut- aha! moment while writing The Hidden Half of Nature”- striking similarities between soil system and human gut- inflammation is a very important part of immune function, goes to fix problems- we don't want to be constantly in inflammation- what you are feeding your microbes has a direct impact on your immune system function- we need to eat fibre for our gut function, to feed our microbes- what we eat and how we treat the soil really does matter- probiotics are the microbes; prebiotics are what we feed the microbes  Restoration of Farmland- discussion of restoring farmland- 3 principles in common shared by farms where soil was restored quickly- 1) no-till or minimum-till farming- 2) keep the land covered with cover crops to act as green manure- 3) plant a diversity of crops- these all promote the growth of beneficial microbial life- these are all against modern conventional agriculture- the places that used the conservation agriculture made the land even better than nature had it in the first place- the future of biodiversity is tied to the future of agriculture- on all markers, these regenerative farming techniques are a win  Final Thoughts- American indigenous agriculture: they were practising crop diversity on their planting- all of the people David & wife Anne interviewed shared a common desire to rebuild the land's fertility, as the foundation of our civilisation- past civilisations stopped their soil to their societies' detriment- if we can change these practices in our current century, that would alter the arc of history, and we need to get it right this time- David's books: 1) Growing A Revolution: Bring Our Soil Back To Life; 2) The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health; 3) Dirt: The Erosion of Civilisations- books available wherever books are sold  Links Website: dig2grow.comTwitter: @dig2growFacebook: dig2growbooks

It's Christmas time! The guys exchange Diplomacy related presents, talk variants in development, the Kaner & Amby Book Club and the Colonial 1885 variant. Intro The guys introduce the Osbourne Hotel in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley and their drinks  (0 mins 05 secs) Amby explains the last podcast was late due to work business and then going on holiday. The guys then discuss their planned holidays including Amby's trip late 2018 to North America (2 mins 50 secs) Kaner discusses how the mobile interface is now starting to get rolled out to webDip. Amby talks about the different nature of the forums across vDip webDip and playDip (7 mins 20 secs) Kaner also talks about zultar's prize giveaway for Christmas at webDip (9 mins 10 secs) Amby and Kaner give an update on the new variants in development, starting with the massive 50 player Divided States variant (11 mins) Amby then shows Kaner the beta test game of Punic Wars over at the Diplomail Lab he's playing. The guys then discuss their thoughts on the variant (14 mins 30 secs) Then its onto the early work being done on the Reconquista variant where the Spanish attempt to reconquer the Muslim territories of the Iberian Peninsula. This is being worked on by CCR and Benjamin Hester. Kaner compares the Variant Bank crappy map to the latest map currently in development. They then discuss the mathematics of balance in variants (19 mins 55 secs) Then its onto Napoleonic 1 vs 1 (France against the Sixth Coalition - Britain, Austria, Prussia, Russia & Sweden), the Ottomans weren't involved but will be on the map with standing neutral armies. Amby announces he's actually developing this variant after a long break from variant development using the great work done originally by Firehawk. Amby says he hasn't worked out yet whether it should be based on players choosing the units to build, or whether he sets the units and their location (27 min 50 secs) Amby then says he's exploring the coding aspects of what is needed to create the variant Sengoku: Ninjas vs Samurai (36 mins 55 secs) Around the Grounds The guys on to discuss how players are approaching things with whether to build clippers or frigates in Pirates. Amby discusses what's been happening so far in this anonymous game called "Pirate's Life". He flags there seems to be some technical glitch with some moves (40 mins) Then its back to more alcohol talk about making wine and brewing beer and how expensive alcohol is getting in Australia (44 mins) Kaner then talks around a variant concept originating a long while ago from Oli about a Randomly generated map (48 mins) Amby reflects on the mess on the Pirates map where many players are moving in relatively small territories, often making it hard to read. He then makes some excuses why he won't be changing it though (50 mins) Amby then discusses the now finished 1066 game he played against Oli and Tadar es Darden, won by Tadar. Amby flags how the game could have gone either way but experienced technical problems in trying to convey the message to extend the turn. Kaner makes a suggestion which Amby should've done (52 mins) Kaner then discusses his WWIV game that has now started and asks abut the strategy of holding back builds (55 mins 30 secs) Kaner then talks about his camping plans (1 hour 5 mins 30 secs) Variant review: Colonial 1885 The guys discuss Amby's recent drawn 1885 game. He played this anon WTA game as Italy and did well enough to be part of the draw. He talks about his allies throughout the game and his approach to get to the end game (1 hr 6 mins 30 secs) Amby then goes onto discuss the variant itself and his thoughts about it, particularly how Britain can do very well in this variant although he was eliminated in this game (1 hr 12 mins 20 secs) Amby gives Kaner a history lesson about German New Guinea (1 hr 15 mins) Christmas, Kaner & Amby's Book Club and other Dip stuff Amby is taking on the role of tournament director for a 9 player 1066 tournament (1 hr 19 mins) The guys exchange Diplomacy related Christmas presents including many evil laughs from Kaner (1 hr 22 mins 30 secs) Amby brings up the Year in Review - by playing a little game with Kaner on who are the top 10 countries downloading the podcast. Warning: bad accent attempts and a very surprising number 10! (1 hr 30 mins) The guys then discuss the books they've read this year that have a Diplomacy connection. Kaner suggests "Borders: A Very Short Introduction" and "The Origins of Political Order". Amby discusses "Theodore Rex",  "Musashi" and "Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations". He goes onto to say he plans to read "Guns, Germs & Steel" next year. Kaner recommends "Collapse" by the same author (Jarred Diamond). They also mention "Sapiens" and "Cro-Magnon" (1 hr 37 mins) All this stone age discussion gets the guys thinking about the possibility of a Stone Age variant (1 hr 51 mins) Venue: Osbourne Hotel, Brisbane Drinks of choice: Kaner - Boston Lager "presumably from Boston" according to Kaner Amby - Some Young Punks "Naked on Rollerskates" Shiraz Matro from the Clare Valley, South Australia and The Stag "St Hubert's" Shiraz from the Yarra Valley, Victoria   Don't forget to give the podcast a great rating on iTunes or Stitcher, it'll help get the message out about Diplomacy. And thanks as always to Dan Philip for his rockin' intro to the Diplomacy Games podcast.

David Montgomery is a MacArthur Fellowship “Genius” Grant recipient and prominent geologist, but his education never trained him to explore the rich biology within soil itself.  Luckily his wife Anne Bikle is a brilliant biologist. Together they have expanded their collective knowledge to learn that there is an entire ecosystem of microbes living just beneath the surface.  As discussed in his book “Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations”, significant data exists to indicate that societies that do not take care of their soil are destined to doom.  In his latest book “Growing a Revolution” he teaches us how to bring our soil back to life by combining ancient wisdom with modern science and techniques.

In this epispode, Professor Myanna Dellinger interviews David R. Montgomery, a MacArthur Fellow and professor of geomorphology at the University of Washington. He is author of The Hidden Half of Nature and Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations, as well as other award-winning popular science books. He lives in Seattle with his wife, author and biologist Anne Biklé, and Loki, their guide-dog dropout. What if there was a relatively simple, cost-effective way to help feed the world, reduce pollution, pull carbon from the atmosphere, protect biodiversity, and make farmers money to boot?  Through fieldwork spanning three decades and six continents, renowned geologist David R. Montgomery discovers that the answer is right beneath our feet. GROWING A REVOLUTION: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life [W. W. Norton & Company; May 9, 2017] is a spellbinding journey to uncover the blueprint for a regenerative agriculture that builds soil health and leaves both farmers and the environment better off. It is a book that Kirkus Reviews states is, “An optimistic look at how regenerate farming can revive the world’s soil, increasing food production, boosting cost effectiveness, and slowing climate change.” In his quest to reveal the solutions beneath our feet, Montgomery introduces us to innovative farmers who practice regenerative agriculture. Montgomery shows that restoring fertility to the land is not an either-or choice between modern technology and time-tested traditions. Ending with a call for action beyond the fields, Growing a Revolution is an inspiring addition to the bookshelf of anyone seriously concerned with the future of food and farming, our relationship with nature, and the fate of civilization and the planet.

Deconstructing Dinner has recently been reflecting on the model of agriculture itself as the primary source through which most people on earth access their food. From our exploration of ethnobiology to recent topics on permaculture, it's clear that there are other models available, which, for some people are a substitute for agriculture, and for others, complementary practices. But what within that dependence on agriculture are we all dependent upon? Multinational corporations? The chain grocery store? Perhaps the microwave!? Well behind those dependencies, which are precarious at best, is a more deeply rooted dependence... soil - a dependence of which its once-deep roots have demonstrated over time to have become progressively shallower as 'modern' agricultural practices deplete soil depth and nutrients. On this broadcast, Deconstructing Dinner features voices of researchers who have explored the evolution of agriculture and soil alongside civilization.   Voices David Montgomery, professor, Earth & Space Sciences, University of Washington (Seattle, WA) - David is the author of the 2008 book "Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations" (UC Press). The book explores the idea that we are and have long been using up Earth's soil. Once bare of protective vegetation and exposed to wind and rain, cultivated soils erode bit by bit, slowly enough to be ignored in a single lifetime but fast enough over centuries to limit the lifespan of civilizations. At the University of Washingotn, David studies the evolution of topography and the influence of geomorphological processes on ecological systems and human societies. He received his B.S. in geology at Stanford University (1984) and his Ph.D. in geomorphology from UC Berkeley (1991). David was hosted at Oregon State University in July 2009 by PAGES and was later interviewed by Tom Allen of KBCS. Ronald Wright, author, A Short History of Progress, (Salt Spring Island, BC) - Ronald Wright is a novelist, historian, and essayist, and has won prizes in all three genres, and is published in ten languages. Ronald was the 2004 Massey Lecturer - a presitigious annual public event in Canada, for which he presented A Short History of Progress. One of his more recent works is "What is America: A Short History of the New World Order". He was born in England, educated at Cambridge, and now lives in British Columbia, Canada.