Understanding Soil Health | Healthy Soil - Healthy Planet Part 1
Understanding Soil Health | Healthy Soil - Healthy Planet Part 1
In part one of our series on “Healthy Soil - Healthy Planet” we’ll be exploring some of the many benefits that regenerating our soils can have on the rest of the planet and on us humans!
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The way we interact with the living skin of the earth is fundamental to the health of our world and everything that lives here. Modern farming techniques, deforestation and the use of chemicals have degraded soils all over the world to the extent that the survival of our own species and that of many others is now under threat.
Fortunately, farmers and scientists have been exploring alternative methods over the last 4 decades and today, the Regenerative Movement offers solutions to many of the biggest problems facing humanity, such as ecosystem collapse, soil erosion, pollution and climate change.
We now have proven methods that can deliver measurable results, reversing the damage done by previous generations, while offering farmers a viable alternative.
Panelists: Dan Kittredge, Dr. Stephan Van Vliet, Didi Pershouse, Dr. Elaine Ingham
Host: Dr. Adam Cobb
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The Soil Food Web School’s mission is to empower individuals and organizations to regenerate the soils in their communities. The Soil Food Web Approach can dramatically accelerate soil regeneration projects by focusing on the soil biome. This can boost the productivity of farms, provide super-nutritious foods, protect and purify waterways, and reduce the effects of Climate Change. No background in farming or biology is required for our Foundation Courses. Classes are online \u0026 self-paced, and students are supported by highly-trained Soil Food Web School mentors.
Over the last four decades, Dr. Elaine Ingham has advanced our knowledge of the Soil Food Web. An internationally-recognized leader in soil microbiology, Dr. Ingham has collaborated with other scientists and with farmers around the world to further our understanding of how soil organisms work together and with plants. Dr. Ingham is an author of the USDA’s Soil Biology Primer and a founder of the Soil Food Web School.
00:00 Healthy Soil Healthy Planet Intro
11:34 Soil Health is Like Human Health
14:46 Soil Organic Matter is Key
19:11 Organisms in the Soil Food Web
33:25 Soil Health Benefits for Farmers, Ranchers, and Growers
43:04 Didi Pershouse
50:57 The Soil Sponge
01:00:25 Plants Regulate The Climate
01:08:39 The Benefits to Human Health
01:29:52 Q\u0026A
#SoilHealth #HealthySoil #SoilFoodWeb
Content
26.15 -> Hello, everybody.
26.952 -> Thanks for joining us.
27.924 -> Today we'll be going through one of our Webinar
32.27 -> series events, Healthy Soil for a Healthy Planet.
35.582 -> This is the first 1st
36.432 -> Webinar of understanding soil health.
39.216 -> I see some folks are Loading in already to join us.
44.67 -> Let's go to the next slide there, Brian.
48.33 -> So just to give you an orientation to some of
51.684 -> our webinar guidelines, you're all going to be muted for
56.664 -> the duration of the webinar so that the panelists can
59.544 -> interact with each other without any kind of sound glitches.
63.93 -> We do invite you to enter your questions for the panelists
67.49 -> in the Q, amp a section of the Zoom links.
72.35 -> And so we'll get a little bit more into
75.084 -> exactly where that is in a couple of minutes.
78.588 -> And I see that people are already filling
80.534 -> in per our usual question that in chat,
84.182 -> you would tell us where you're joining from.
86.568 -> I'm seeing places like Brazil and
89.544 -> Puget Sound and Switzerland coming up.
92.232 -> So this is exciting for us to have
94.68 -> people joining from all over the world.
97.89 -> Feel free to converse with other attendees in the chat.
100.97 -> And remember that you can ask your questions of
105.516 -> the panelists directly in the Q and A section.
108.75 -> It looks like we've already
109.872 -> got hundreds of participants.
112.682 -> That's great.
114.03 -> Can we go to the next slide, please, Brian?
117.51 -> So, again, just to let you know how the
120.624 -> rundown of today's Webinar will work, we're going to
124.068 -> make some introductions here for a few minutes.
127.812 -> We'll get to all of our panelists
129.877 -> today, and then I'll give you some
134.19 -> working definitions of soil health that Dr.
136.68 -> Ingham and I have chatted about, as well as
139.752 -> defining some of the benefits to farmers if they'll
143.498 -> restore their soil health and manage that properly.
146.846 -> And then we have DD here to give us
150.636 -> some of the information about benefits to the planet.
154.89 -> Soil health can extend out to having a
157.728 -> lot of environmental benefits, and she'll cover those.
161.376 -> And then we also have Dan and Stephen
164.45 -> here to talk about benefits to human health.
167.73 -> We'll follow that with a Q
169.524 -> and A session for 45 minutes.
171.348 -> So a total time of just under 2 hours today.
176.53 -> Let's go to the next slide, please.
178.18 -> All right, so we're going to go
179.956 -> around the Horn here and let the
181.696 -> panelists introduce themselves, starting with Dr.
184.408 -> Elaine Inham.
190.91 -> Oh, Elaine, you're muted.
195.23 -> Okay.
195.92 -> Yeah, that was a surprise. Okay. I'm Dr.
198.56 -> Elaine Ingham, and I lead the Soil Food Web school.
204.212 -> Most of you probably know many of
207.176 -> my publications in the scientific literature.
210.05 -> Well over 80, 85 papers.
217.59 -> I love it.
219.15 -> This is what happens when you get to
220.644 -> be 80 years old or 70 years old.
222.588 -> Jeez can't even get the numbers right.
224.724 -> So publications in the scientific literature, we've done a
230.364 -> lot of work, and much of it's been published.
234.146 -> But here at the school, we're continuing to do
237.672 -> research, and we will be writing that data into
243.396 -> the manuals and into the information that people learn
247.272 -> when they come to get the education here in
251.136 -> the foundation courses, learning how to use a microscope,
255.17 -> becoming a laboratory, that you do samples for other
260.351 -> people, or you become a consultant where you're doing
265.05 -> interpretations of what that biology is or should be
269.844 -> for maximum health in your field.
278.83 -> Thanks so much, Elaine. I'm Dr. Adam Cobb.
282.558 -> Again, I'll be sort of running the MC portion
286.602 -> of today or being the host of the Webinar.
289.75 -> I joined the Sole sub school just about seven months ago
293.32 -> now, and I do a lot of work in the background
296.934 -> as a content creator and also some of the work in
301.096 -> the foreground as a science communicator here at the school.
304.27 -> So that's just a little bit about me.
305.992 -> And then we'll have Dee Dee, who's with Land
309.352 -> and Leadership Initiative, explain a little bit more of
312.292 -> her background and Dede you're muted as well.
319.69 -> I am the author of two books.
321.75 -> One is called The Ecology of Care,
324.208 -> Medicine, Agriculture, Money, and the Quiet Power
327.268 -> of Human and Microbial Communities.
330.19 -> And the second book is called
331.66 -> Understanding Soil Health and Watershed Function.
334.396 -> And that is a free [email protected].
338.83 -> And I teach a lot online, including
342.714 -> through the Soil Food Web School.
344.776 -> And one of the most exciting in which
349.832 -> we have really deep discussions and design for
355.16 -> regenerative projects, not so much the nuts and
359.444 -> bolts of how to make healthy soil.
361.522 -> That's Elaine's job, but more thinking about the entire
366.92 -> system, thinking about the economic system, the education system,
371.768 -> social systems, and how we need to work with
374.984 -> those to get everything going in the right direction.
377.566 -> The other project is the Under Pradesh
379.522 -> Community Managed Natural Farming Initiative in India
382.582 -> that is engaging close to 800,000 farmers
386.062 -> in one state and regenerating healthy soil.
388.714 -> And I'll show a little mini video, if
390.176 -> we have time about that at the end.
392.75 -> Over to you, Dan.
397.47 -> Hi. Glad to be here.
399.744 -> My name is Dan Kitrich.
400.706 -> I'm the founder and executive
402.626 -> director of the Biofuel Association.
404.33 -> We're about more than ten years old now, nonprofit
408.45 -> focusing on increasing quality in the food supply.
410.762 -> And by quality, we mean flavor, aroma, nutritive value,
414.072 -> health giving attribute, which we are fairly certain connects
417.506 -> to soil health and plant health and human health
419.472 -> and farm viability and all kinds of cultural health.
424.11 -> We've been working for the past five years on a
426.468 -> research project to sort of define those nutrient variations in
430.344 -> food, to connect them to a really broad and thoughtful
435.71 -> open source data framework, to management practices and so health
439.95 -> and as well as to build an instrumentation so people
443.304 -> can assess that nutrient variation.
445.322 -> We think that there's a strong connection, like
448.176 -> I said, between nutritional value of food and
450.804 -> soil health, environmental health and human health.
453.048 -> And so we think that's a spot where a lot
456.264 -> of people can engage who aren't necessarily growing themselves.
459.084 -> So I'll be talking a little bit about our work
462.144 -> here today and very excited to introduce Stefan, our partner
467.186 -> in our beef project, for that work to this community.
470.844 -> They can really be impressed with what he's doing.
476.53 -> Oh, sorry.
477.436 -> Yeah, I was just about to say.
478.396 -> And speaking of that, Stefan, we'd
479.598 -> like you to introduce yourself, please. Great. Yes. Hi.
482.824 -> My name is Dr. Stefan Vampet.
484.734 -> I'm a nutrition scientist with metabolism
487.758 -> expertise in the center for Human
489.352 -> Nutrition Studies at Ud Stage University.
492.67 -> I earned my PhD in Kinesiology community health
495.064 -> as an Asset Fellow and received training at
499 -> the Washington University School of Medicine and the
500.848 -> Duke University School of Medicine.
502.87 -> I'm particularly interested in linking agricultural
506.034 -> production and soil health, plant animal
508.794 -> health to human health.
510.34 -> So a lot of our work is performed
512.298 -> at the Nexus of agriculture and human health.
514.99 -> We're collaborating with farmers, ecologists, agricultural
518.274 -> scientists to study these critical linkages
521.178 -> between the nutrient density of our
522.796 -> food production and human health.
524.524 -> And that is, in a nutshell, what we'll do.
527.392 -> And we'll present on our Beef Nutrient Acid
530.694 -> project with Dan Kitrich and Bio Nutrient Institute.
536.05 -> Thank you so much.
536.92 -> And last but not least, we have Brian VAG here, who's
541.458 -> one of our consultants at the Soul Food Web School.
544.144 -> And Brian, would you give it an
546.004 -> audience, a little information about yourself? Sure.
548.308 -> I'm Brian Vague.
549.414 -> I own a company called Sprouting
550.806 -> Soil based out of Oregon.
551.982 -> And as Adam mentioned, I am a soil food Web
554.44 -> consultant and also a mentor for the Soul Food School.
557.932 -> And really, my role is to help transition predominantly
562.254 -> agriculture, but other growing systems like landscaping and golf
564.846 -> courses and parks and things like that.
566.656 -> But helping those folks in those growing systems
569.394 -> transition from either conventional organic into growing with
572.956 -> biology, I'd say in the last two years
578.276 -> at least, is really accelerated.
580.498 -> There's a lot of challenges that farmers are facing
582.934 -> and we have a lot of answers for them.
585.212 -> So it's a good time to be in
587.264 -> the Soviet consulting business, that's for sure.
592.23 -> That sounds great.
593.568 -> Now, if we could go to the next slide
596.15 -> here, we're going to do a quick poll which
600.264 -> will pop up for all of our participants.
607.27 -> Yes.
607.768 -> We're just going to ask that you let us know
610.756 -> if you're visiting us here today as a farmer, grower
614.094 -> or AG professional, as an environmental advocate, or if you
617.116 -> consider yourself both the above or neither of the above.
621.43 -> So we already see that there
622.756 -> are some answers coming in.
627.37 -> Looks like we have a fair mix of folks.
640.97 -> You can take us to the
641.936 -> next slide as well, please, Brian.
651.39 -> All right.
652.392 -> And then this is just one more reminder that we're asking
656.028 -> you to add your questions to the Q and A a
660.264 -> tab so that in our Q and A session at the
664.104 -> end, after we've done the presentations, we'll be able to pull
668.304 -> those over and answer your questions for you.
672.81 -> Alright, let's get started.
675.39 -> As I mentioned, the first part of the
678.45 -> Webinar today is going to really be about
680.532 -> defining soil health as well as explaining some
684.264 -> of the benefits to farmers and growers.
686.462 -> And that's going to be a bit
687.996 -> of a team effort between Dr.
689.652 -> Elaine and myself.
694.03 -> So as I was asked to come join the Webinar today
698.392 -> by the team, I really took some time to survey the
701.284 -> literature and ask a lot of my friends who are working
705.208 -> across academia and government what they define soil health as.
710.416 -> And in my opinion, there's not one true,
714.148 -> great, perfect definition for soil health out there.
717.79 -> Most often we see something to the effect of the
721.276 -> ability of soil to act as a living ecosystem and
724.672 -> supply the nutrient needs of plants and animals and humans.
729.43 -> So I actually wanted to go a little bit more into
733.192 -> a metaphor today and set the stage for our discussion.
737.67 -> So I like to think of the human
741.04 -> body and human health, which is something that
743.056 -> we're all intimately familiar with and the ways
747.172 -> in which soil health is like human health.
750.49 -> The first way is we are really holistic beings
754.722 -> that even though you can look at the human
757.78 -> body and consider different organs and different functions within
761.74 -> the human body, it's a whole well being, not
765.952 -> just somebody hanging on by a thread as technically
769.95 -> alive, but truly thriving is about a holistic connection
774.474 -> and health across the entire human body.
779.05 -> Now with .2 here, just like with the
782.404 -> human body, soil has these different diagnosable indicators.
786.858 -> So if you go to the doctor, they're going
789.088 -> to check your blood pressure, your pulse, your breathing.
792.858 -> Those are indicators of health.
794.896 -> And we can start to see now if something's not
798.652 -> quite aligning with the normal range that tells your doctor
802.41 -> that they need to do some diagnosis to dig down
804.94 -> and find the root of the problem.
808.15 -> But we all know that modern medicine
810.318 -> can sometimes just mask the symptoms of
813.784 -> what people are facing when they're unwell.
815.97 -> And in the same way, we'll talk about how
818.764 -> many of the agricultural practices that are used in
822.184 -> industry are just masking symptoms that are happening when
825.964 -> the soil system is not fully healthy.
828.546 -> And so the final point I'd like to
831.544 -> make is about the microorganisms, because this is
835.324 -> similar between soil health and human health as
838.564 -> well, that we're finding more every day.
841.528 -> There's more literature being published about how important
844.372 -> the human microbiome is to our health.
847.63 -> I actually was reading a paper recently that
851.53 -> tracked population aging populations and found that there
855.304 -> was a connection between the microorganisms in their
859.264 -> gut and their sense of loneliness. Right.
862.792 -> So if you need a boost to your mental well
865.972 -> being, your microorganisms may play a role in that.
869.752 -> And really, microorganisms are the key to soil health.
874.168 -> If we'll go into this in a little more
877.012 -> detail as we move along, if you could take
880.984 -> us to the next slide there, Brian, please.
885.53 -> So one of the key indicators that we do want
888.476 -> to make sure to talk about is soil organic matter.
892.4 -> And I mean, as a scientist, I'm not supposed to
896.084 -> use the word magic, but if there's a magical component
900.154 -> of soil, to me, it's the soil organic matter.
903.572 -> And that's partially because it serves as a food
907.592 -> source for bacteria and fungi and bacteria and fungi.
912.37 -> Consuming organic matter, as well as minerals in the
915.824 -> soil and taking them into their bodies is one
919.496 -> of the basic functions of the soil food web.
922.352 -> Of course, those nutrients are released as
926.288 -> the bacteria and fungi are consumed by
929.75 -> organisms across the soil food web.
933.35 -> So it's an important food source for
936.704 -> the base of the food web.
939.35 -> Soil organic matter also can play a
942.056 -> very direct role in improving chemical, physical,
945.238 -> and other biological processes in the soil.
949.07 -> So let me give you an example.
950.504 -> There of chemical greater organic matter content in the soil
956.35 -> tends to keep the PH of the soil more stable.
960.154 -> It's a very basic chemical indicator that's
964.546 -> almost always tested by soil testing labs.
967.57 -> And we see sometimes we use the word a buffer that
972.704 -> a lot of solar organic matter can keep that PH from
978.032 -> moving too high or too low right through seasonal changes.
983.27 -> Additionally, there are physical characteristics of the soil,
987.322 -> such as, for lack of a better word,
989.612 -> the fluffiness of the soil, the tilt.
992.57 -> You can pick it up with your hands and
994.316 -> you can get scoops of it with your hands.
996.476 -> And more organic matter tends to create better
1000.208 -> physical characteristics in the soil, like that.
1003.37 -> And then in addition to the food source
1007.362 -> for bacteria and fungi, that would be a
1009.004 -> part of the biological processes in soil.
1012.73 -> Soil organic matter tends to improve things like
1017.572 -> the infiltration of water and air into the
1020.284 -> soil system and tends to provide habitats for
1026.548 -> different organisms to connect with.
1032.77 -> Organisms that are predators actually hunting
1035.993 -> in soil aggregates near organic chunks
1039.126 -> of organic matter in the soil.
1041.046 -> And so it has a wide range of effects
1045.041 -> on positive effects on biological processes in the soil.
1049.87 -> Dr.
1050.32 -> Elaine and I talked about this just
1051.796 -> the other day in our foundation courses.
1054.942 -> She mentions that you really want at least
1058.096 -> 3% soil organic matter just to serve that
1061.912 -> basic function of food for your microorganisms.
1065.094 -> But really, you could go up to 100%.
1067.864 -> So organic matter plants grow very well.
1070.96 -> And if you could have a deep garden bed
1074.824 -> that went 2 meters deep and it was just
1077.092 -> full of compost, your plants could theoretically grow very
1081.592 -> well in that if the compost was biocomplete and
1085.276 -> the organisms and other components were there.
1088.66 -> So organic matter is just one of the key indicators.
1092.394 -> It's like a heartbeat or a
1094.636 -> blood pressure reading for the soil.
1098.71 -> Take us to the next slide, please.
1102.55 -> So I'm going to ask Dr.
1105.172 -> Elaine to speak on this in just a moment, but I wanted
1108.16 -> to ask this question so that we can all think through.
1112.648 -> If you were actually to ask yourself the question from
1116.752 -> looking out at a field that you pass in your
1119.752 -> car and you said, is that soil dying or thriving?
1124.242 -> Is that soil degrading, or is it
1127.732 -> improving the soil health over time?
1130.444 -> It's really the soil food web that's
1132.486 -> going to give us the answer.
1134.47 -> So we'll go to the next slide and have Dr.
1136.78 -> Elaine explain a little bit about the soil food web.
1144.83 -> All right.
1145.976 -> So when we look at the soil food web, this
1150.128 -> is the web that we talk about all the time
1153.44 -> in the position of different organisms in this food web.
1159.11 -> It's a web because it's not
1161.684 -> a single straight line through.
1163.856 -> We always think of above ground as it's
1168.53 -> Bunny rabbits are eaten by Foxes, are eaten
1171.502 -> by whatever the next bigger predator.
1174.622 -> And that's the food web.
1177.152 -> Well, yeah, the straight chain.
1180.694 -> The food chain is where you only have one
1185.03 -> group of organisms occupying each stage in that successional
1190.414 -> system or food chain, when in fact, when we
1195.644 -> look at soil and above ground, it's a web
1199.94 -> that we should be talking about.
1201.764 -> So sunlight energy has to be fixed, and
1204.824 -> that process occurs through photosynthesis, just as Adam
1210.322 -> said, we don't tend to like to use
1215.588 -> that term magical when we're scientists.
1219.454 -> But if you want to talk about a magical
1224.69 -> occurrence going on all the time, it's the process
1228.632 -> of taking sunlight energy and being able to store
1232.556 -> it through the process of photosynthesis.
1235.97 -> So fixing carbon, taking a carbon dioxide molecule from
1242.144 -> the atmosphere and removing the hydrogens and the air
1249.656 -> oxygen and getting the carbon chain started.
1253.472 -> It's that connection between the first carbon chain
1257.134 -> and the second one and the third one,
1259.148 -> the fourth carbon dioxide, the fifth carbon dioxide
1263.93 -> holding that energy in that bond.
1266.794 -> And now we have energy that can be used
1270.2 -> through the whole rest of this food web.
1273.59 -> Well, think about your plant.
1275.398 -> It's now got the energy that
1276.884 -> it needs to run everything.
1279.23 -> But in order to stay alive, you have to be
1283.484 -> able to pull all the other nutrients into your body.
1288.224 -> And the cells of grasses are not that
1290.744 -> different from cells of fungi or cells of
1292.916 -> microartipods or cells of human beings.
1296.362 -> We all require more or less
1299.324 -> the same amount of nutrients.
1302.99 -> And where is your plant going to get that?
1305.468 -> And I always have to know the mechanism.
1308.038 -> It doesn't work.
1309.68 -> I'm just going to put my plant in the
1312.116 -> soil and it's going to magically start growing.
1316.43 -> Well, why do some plants not grow?
1318.95 -> You have to understand the mechanisms going on in
1322.856 -> your soil if you can't if you can't figure
1325.952 -> out the mechanisms by which the plants are getting
1329.612 -> the nutrients or getting protection or holding water in
1335.156 -> the soil, fixing compaction problems.
1339.716 -> If you can't figure out how to do that
1343.148 -> work, who is it in here that does all
1346.976 -> of the particular jobs, you're not going to be
1349.964 -> successful, you have to know what you're doing.
1352.952 -> You have to know what these organisms are present in
1357.536 -> order to do the jobs they're supposed to perform.
1361.49 -> And so that's kind of been my
1363.98 -> career is putting all of this together.
1367.49 -> So energy from the above ground part of the plant,
1370.894 -> but the plant has to get nitrogen and phosphorus and
1373.808 -> sulfur, magnesium and calcium and sodium and potassium and iron
1376.942 -> and zinc and some water and some oxygen.
1380.93 -> And so your plant is putting that root system down
1384.2 -> into the soil in order to get those nutrients.
1387.502 -> But those nutrients are tied up in plant
1392.038 -> not available forms in the sand, the clay.
1397.55 -> If you look at rocks, pebbles, apparent
1400.462 -> material boulders, things like that, those are
1404.444 -> all the precursors to sandstone clay.
1407.122 -> Well, how do you break down the
1410.24 -> big boulders, the pebbles, the rocks?
1412.594 -> How do you break that down into something that a
1416.12 -> bacterium or a fungus could approach and pull the nutrients
1420.71 -> out of the silica bilayer in the sandstone clay?
1426.29 -> How do you convert parent
1427.808 -> material into sandselton clay?
1430.042 -> Well, most people would say, oh, it's
1432.166 -> weathering, it's freeze, wet, dry cycles.
1435.55 -> And those are insignificant amounts of breakdown of
1441.272 -> the rocks, of the boulders into something into
1444.956 -> San Hilton clay, because what does the greatest
1449.938 -> amount of breakdown of those inorganic nutrients not
1455.396 -> available nutrients are the bacteria and the fungi.
1460.234 -> So right away we're looking at bacteria.
1463.726 -> I hope you can all see my pointer.
1466.61 -> The fungi are right above it in
1468.824 -> that second trophic level, if you will.
1473.69 -> So the plant is actually putting out
1477.872 -> sugars, proteins and carbohydrates, high carbon containing
1483.622 -> materials and using that as food to
1487.316 -> get the bacteria and fungi growing.
1489.95 -> The plant will actually put out a specific exudate when
1495.908 -> it needs calcium or when it needs potassium or when
1498.872 -> it needs a message to the bacteria and the fungi
1502.762 -> here that those bacteria and fungi better start growing.
1507.154 -> Here's some food to get you growing, but
1510.128 -> make the enzymes to pull those nutrients that
1514.544 -> the plant requires from a plant unavailable source,
1519.646 -> such as in soil organic matter.
1523.25 -> Most of the nutrients and soil organic
1526.246 -> matter are not available to your plant.
1529.294 -> Your plant can't take them up, sandstone
1532.342 -> clay, plant can't take up those nutrients.
1536.026 -> You've got to have the fungi and the bacteria doing
1539.66 -> the next step of using their enzymes to pull those
1543.596 -> nutrients from the organic matter, pulling that out and storing
1549.442 -> those nutrients in the bacteria and fungi.
1552.83 -> And where do most of the bacteria
1554.266 -> and fungi grow in your soil?
1556.57 -> Well, right around the source of their food,
1559.43 -> right in the root system of your plants.
1562.49 -> These organisms will also be carried above ground to
1565.376 -> protect the above ground parts of your plants.
1567.802 -> And so there's another whole set of information
1571.88 -> that we have to know and understand.
1574.088 -> So bacteria and fungi are holding these nutrients in
1577.844 -> their bodies, but they're in plant not available forms.
1581.41 -> They're organic matter, but they're
1584.302 -> not available to the plants.
1585.922 -> So the next step has to happen.
1588.77 -> The bacteria have to be eaten by
1590.732 -> the protozoa or by bacterial feeding nematodes.
1594.046 -> The fungi have to be eaten by microarchs or
1598.448 -> fungal feeding nematodes, so that when these organisms consume
1605.458 -> their prey, the concentration of nutrients inside the fungi
1610.702 -> or inside the bacteria is so much greater, so
1615.248 -> much more than their predators require, that these predators
1622.09 -> are going to either spit out or poop. Here we go.
1625.52 -> Here's the poop loop.
1629.79 -> The poop that they produce is exactly the form
1634.752 -> of nutrients that your plants can take up.
1638.85 -> And so as the bacteria and fungi are eaten
1641.366 -> by their predators, the nutrients for your plants are
1644.724 -> released right there next to the root system.
1648.024 -> No need for diffusion to be
1650.196 -> pulling things from feet away.
1655.45 -> An operating soil food web is going to deliver
1660.054 -> those nutrients to the surface of the roofs.
1663.666 -> It's kind of like the pizza delivery guy.
1667.33 -> When you want a pizza, you call up the pizza house and
1670.876 -> you say, I want to cheese pizza with pepperoni on it.
1674.53 -> And the root at the other end says, okay, we're
1680.226 -> going to send out the delivery guy to pick up
1686.26 -> those nutrients, make those nutrients available in the shop, okay?
1691.828 -> We've got to make those
1693.208 -> things into plant available nutrients.
1695.958 -> And then here comes the pizza delivery boy
1698.98 -> comes back and delivers the pizza right there
1703.228 -> at the surface of that root system.
1706.03 -> So this whole system operating together to be
1710.908 -> able to feed your plant at the time.
1715.87 -> And I always think of it as these processes
1718.542 -> are going on every second of every day through
1722.884 -> the whole growing season for your plants, making available
1728.332 -> to the plant precisely what it needs, because the
1732.052 -> plant can tell the bacterium fungi what it needs
1735.172 -> and the enzymes they're supposed to make.
1738.052 -> And so if you are destroying your fungi,
1741.198 -> if you're destroying the beneficial bacteria and fungi,
1743.922 -> nematodes, microartipods, protozoa, your plants going to be
1747.964 -> in a lot of pain.
1750.784 -> You're not going to be able to get
1752.44 -> all the nutrients into that plant that it
1757.972 -> requires to prevent diseases from attacking it.
1761.044 -> The immune system in a plant is very dependent
1764.874 -> on the nutrients that the plant is getting.
1767.428 -> Well, human beings are exactly the same.
1769.708 -> If you're not getting the nutrients that are needed to
1774.07 -> attack and consume all the bad guys getting breathed in,
1778.468 -> or that you might be eating on your food surfaces,
1782.71 -> if you don't have the nutrients to build your immune
1786.294 -> system, you're going to be very susceptible.
1789.67 -> So as human beings, so like plants, or is it plants?
1795.774 -> So are the human beings.
1797.658 -> We're shared systems because Mother Nature found systems
1802.554 -> that work, and then she repeats them over
1805.192 -> and over and over again in various places.
1809.238 -> So when we're looking at that food web, protozoa,
1813.378 -> bacterial feeders, nematodes that are bacterial feeders, nematodes that
1817.348 -> are fungal feeders, micro arthropods, you can understand their
1823.54 -> need, why they have to be there.
1825.424 -> But why do we need higher level predators?
1828.49 -> Because if something wasn't controlling the arthropods, the nematodes,
1833.406 -> the protozoa, and preventing their numbers from getting too
1838.012 -> concentrated, which means that they would overeat and wipe
1843.114 -> out most of the fungi, bacteria and your plant
1846.594 -> wouldn't get the nutrients that it requires as rapidly
1850.674 -> as it needs them.
1852.196 -> So something's got to maintain the balance.
1855.67 -> And so protozoa microarchupods, the predatory nematodes,
1861.006 -> the nematodes that eat these other guys.
1864.28 -> Yes, there are cannibals in the soil
1867.67 -> because these nematodes eat those nematodes.
1870.582 -> Well, what keeps these macro
1873.294 -> arthropods and the predatory nematodes?
1876.738 -> What keeps them in check?
1878.428 -> Well, you have to have the next layer in
1880.456 -> the food web, and the next and the next.
1882.73 -> So who's at the top of the food chain?
1884.958 -> The top of the food web, more correctly, right.
1888.55 -> It's human beings.
1890.046 -> We're here to make certain that this
1892.144 -> is all functioning the way it should.
1894.61 -> And instead, what we've been doing is destroying
1898.002 -> all of these organisms in the soil with
1900.736 -> the toxic chemicals that we use, inorganic fertilizers,
1903.99 -> they all kill these organisms.
1906.714 -> Too high a concentration.
1909.31 -> The levels of inorganic fertilizers we're putting
1912.7 -> out is killing all of this biology.
1915.174 -> And then you can't get the root systems
1918.354 -> grow down deep into the soil because it
1920.764 -> is the microorganisms that produce the aggregates.
1925.09 -> Without the bacteria, without the fungi, without the higher
1928.756 -> level guys here building Airways and passageways, and even
1932.452 -> these guys building Airways and passageways, we wouldn't be
1938.224 -> able to get oxygen down into the soil.
1940.518 -> Water wouldn't infiltrate, you would have erosion.
1943.71 -> Most of your soil will be washed away into
1945.94 -> the Rivers and Lakes and streams in the oceans.
1948.246 -> Wait a minute.
1949.278 -> That's exactly what we've done.
1951.73 -> Well, thank you so much for bringing that part up, Elaine,
1955.206 -> because I want to move us forward on the slide just
1959.764 -> for the sake of time here, because we've got to get
1962.644 -> to all of those benefits that are that are coming up.
1966.028 -> And just one example that you brought up
1968.404 -> that's so critical is the way that fungi
1970.89 -> can help us build that soil structure directly.
1974.766 -> And I've put in just a little plug for Merlin
1978.714 -> Sheldrake as well here in his book, because we recently
1983.01 -> had him at our soil summit in a panel, and
1987.184 -> it was a lot of fun to see.
1989.26 -> We called it the mycology mind meld, just
1992.092 -> to go over all the benefits of this
1994.156 -> one group of microorganisms in the soil.
1997.51 -> But let me progress the slide here again and mention
2002.91 -> the range of benefits starting just with again that idea
2006.636 -> of wellness, that we have a holistic soil ecosystem and
2011.412 -> that improving the entire ecosystem is our goal.
2014.75 -> It's why we work on restoring anything
2019.068 -> that's missing from the soil food web. As Dr.
2021.36 -> Elaine's has explained, each organism has a purpose, and it
2025.476 -> would be complete folly of us to assume that none
2030.926 -> of them is needed in the soil ecosystem.
2033.71 -> So working with nature is a good investment,
2036.842 -> having our growers and our gardeners, our farmers
2041.246 -> and ranchers, our land managers make the investment
2046.01 -> to get anything that's missing from the soil
2048.014 -> food web right back into there.
2051.389 -> This is the way that we
2052.524 -> have a healthy, functioning, complete ecosystem.
2056.73 -> So to dive into a more specific example, Brian, if you take
2060.192 -> us forward onto the next slide, what we see a lot of
2065.123 -> times is that every day food producers are waking up and thinking,
2070.224 -> what do I have to fight and kill today?
2072.996 -> What pest, what weed, what insect?
2075.757 -> What other problem am I going to have to tackle today?
2078.659 -> And in reality, these agrochemicals that are
2082.464 -> being employed so often to solve these
2084.84 -> problems are just creating more problems. As Dr.
2088.02 -> Elaine mentioned, they're wiping something out of the
2091.452 -> soil food web so that the system becomes
2093.71 -> unbalanced and incapable of maintaining its own processes.
2099.218 -> So when we focus on soil health and when
2102.216 -> we put the soil food web at the center,
2104.67 -> we can eliminate the use of these harmful substances
2109.47 -> and actually see that pests, weeds, insects, and other
2113.88 -> problems diminish over time as we transition that land.
2118.47 -> And Brian, if you take us forward to
2120.144 -> the second example, everybody cares about yield.
2125.61 -> And in fact, anybody who's involved in an agricultural
2133.218 -> business, they have to consider their production, their profits,
2138.31 -> but longer term, not just every year making enough
2142.72 -> yield to keep the farm going, but longer term,
2145.482 -> this new idea is arising everywhere in the agricultural
2149.202 -> sector of resilience the ability of these systems to
2152.584 -> recover from stress, whether that's periodic drought and extreme
2157.542 -> weather events and so stabilizing the production on the
2162.496 -> farm is one of the things that we can
2163.996 -> do without harmful chemicals if we have a complete
2167.284 -> soil food web.
2169.03 -> And our next example or benefit is that we can
2174.136 -> improve those profit margins, as I mentioned, but not just
2178.156 -> in the last maybe 5000 years of human history.
2182.176 -> It's been sort of a game of
2183.544 -> saying, increase the yields, increase the yields.
2185.922 -> This is what most of the
2187.804 -> agronomists out there are researching.
2190.194 -> But today I'm really excited that
2192.184 -> we'll hear about food quality.
2194.47 -> That's a huge function in terms of increasing that nutrient
2198.042 -> density of food, so that the societal costs of poor
2202.122 -> human health are tackled by the very food we eat.
2205.732 -> The food can be the medicine, and that's because
2208.636 -> these roots on our crops will grow deeper.
2211.602 -> They'll get more access through the sole food web
2214 -> organisms to nutrients so that they can collect those
2218.332 -> nutrients into the food products that we consume.
2223.15 -> And the next slide talks about the soil sponge,
2227.214 -> which is a huge part of what Dee Dee
2229.626 -> talks about as well, that as we build that
2231.64 -> structure, our irrigation requirements can be reduced.
2236.274 -> And as Dr.
2236.98 -> Elaine mentioned, we can see less of a
2240.616 -> problem with erosion over time because that water
2244.228 -> that falls into our food system, soils will
2247.672 -> actually percolate into the soil.
2249.906 -> It will infiltrate and go to those deeper layers.
2253.27 -> Nourishing the life deeper and deeper into the
2256.756 -> soil instead of running off the field and
2259.372 -> taking a bunch of eroded soil with it.
2264.43 -> And so this will lead us to our final example
2267.232 -> here, which is that will protect and build community life.
2271.6 -> And I mean that two ways.
2273.796 -> The life of the community of the soil
2275.862 -> food web will be protected with soil health
2279.25 -> improvements, but also human community that we can
2283.624 -> have these thriving microorganisms and through the services
2287.44 -> that they provide to plants and the food,
2290.248 -> ultimately the quality of the food that's produced.
2293.274 -> We eventually arrive at healthy humans.
2296.65 -> As Dr.
2297.64 -> Lane said, we could think of ourselves as top of the
2301.156 -> food web, but also I think of how the food web
2306.244 -> is this miracle that gives so much to us.
2309.568 -> And we should be grateful for that miracle.
2313.63 -> So if you'll take us to the next slide there, Brian,
2317.83 -> we're going to talk a little bit about the special.
2321.25 -> We're calling it the Springboard offer, where anybody who
2325.912 -> is interested in taking our foundation courses can get
2329.284 -> a huge discount, which we guarantee will be the
2333.436 -> lowest price available for this package of courses in
2338.53 -> 2022, representing a total saving of 47%.
2343.216 -> We actually have a video that we're going to show
2346.564 -> just a brief three minute video about this offer.
2356.93 -> Spring is in the air, and there's never
2358.772 -> been a better time to launch your career
2360.922 -> in soil regeneration than right now.
2363.656 -> With the Springboard Plus offer, you can register for
2366.644 -> the Soil Food Web Foundation courses for just $2,900,
2370.616 -> and you'll get two free bonus courses, saving an
2373.616 -> incredible $2,600 or 47% off the regular fee price.
2379.25 -> This is guaranteed to be the lowest
2381.094 -> price through the rest of the year.
2383.81 -> Whether you're a farmer, rancher, market gardener, or just someone
2387.92 -> who's passionate about the planet, looking for a way to
2390.584 -> make a big impact, this could be for you.
2393.608 -> Here's what some of our students are saying
2395.6 -> about the Soil Food Web training program.
2398.75 -> I find that this information hasn't been taught to me,
2401.564 -> and I had to get off my high horse.
2403.354 -> And even though I have a PhD,
2404.782 -> I feel like I'm totally under trained.
2407.63 -> I feel like I'm learning more with this
2409.808 -> program that I have with in person classes.
2412.474 -> In the past, I've taken classes on microbiology before,
2415.436 -> but this course really makes a difference in the
2417.524 -> way that a story is put together that unveils
2420.886 -> the relationships between plants and all those beneficial organisms
2424.162 -> that we just cannot see without a microscope.
2426.61 -> If you're looking for something that does a
2428.876 -> deep dive into soil biology, this is it.
2433.568 -> It is just an incredible knowledge base, and it's really
2438.44 -> relevant to what's going on right now in the world.
2441.308 -> Without it, the only way I could have gained this
2443.852 -> knowledge would have been by dropping my life and going
2446.48 -> to graduate school, and that just wasn't realistic for me.
2449.852 -> But Soil Food Web has made it possible for
2452.144 -> me to build a meaningful career in land restoration.
2455.81 -> I was really nervous.
2457.45 -> I was going to put quite a bit of money
2459.152 -> down and not get that bang for my buck.
2461.626 -> But once I actually got into the SP classes,
2464.878 -> I was incredibly impressed with how professional they are
2468.62 -> and actually the level of education you receive.
2471.154 -> This is the career path I've been looking for
2473.756 -> in the biological community, and I was having trouble
2475.954 -> finding remember with the Springboard Plus offer, you're not
2480.224 -> only getting the foundation courses for two $900, but
2483.524 -> you're also getting these two free bonus courses.
2486.598 -> The Introduction to Permaculture is an 18
2488.842 -> lecture course that covers a wide array
2490.714 -> of Permaculture principles and themes delivered by
2493.292 -> Graham Bell, Chair of Permaculture Scotland and
2495.944 -> longest serving Permaculture teacher in the UK.
2498.67 -> With 31 years experience teaching on six continents,
2502.37 -> Permaculture is a regenerative design approach that can
2505.244 -> be applied to just about anything from water
2507.62 -> management, growing systems, dwellings and much more.
2511.67 -> The Soil Sponge Regeneration Workshop is delivered
2514.666 -> by educator and author Dee Dee Purcells.
2517.222 -> This five session course is all about regenerating the
2520.256 -> soil sponge for flood, drought and wildfire resilience.
2523.942 -> It builds on the successes of innovative land managers
2527.014 -> around the world who are saving huge sums and
2529.316 -> damages from extreme weather events and crop diseases while
2532.784 -> restoring the dignity and profitability of farming.
2536.27 -> Deedee teaches participatory workshops both in person
2539.444 -> and online, helping to show the nested
2541.534 -> relationships between soil health, human health, water
2544.712 -> cycles and climate resiliency.
2547.31 -> Sign up for these amazing courses
2549.31 -> and join the Soil Revolution today.
2557.49 -> Spring is in the air and there's never okay,
2561.972 -> so we're going to actually switch gears a little
2565.032 -> bit here and hear from Dee Dee about the
2567.924 -> benefits to our planet of healthy soils.
2571.346 -> And she's got her own slide deck,
2573.542 -> so we'll turn that over to her. Great.
2578.49 -> That was exciting to listen to and it's fun
2582.612 -> to read all what's going on in the chat.
2585.206 -> Those who are being distracted by the chat, you can open
2587.76 -> it up and it'll be a box and then you can
2589.452 -> drag it off to the side because I know sometimes you
2593.988 -> can't see a slide when it's going there.
2596.49 -> So I am from the Land and Leadership Initiative.
2600.95 -> And as you just saw, I'm also really excited to
2603.456 -> be teaching a course alongside the Soil Food Web School.
2607.29 -> And I saw a question in there somewhere about
2609.816 -> how is the Soil Food Web School building community?
2612.132 -> And one of the ways I do that
2613.464 -> is through this live session course where we
2616.896 -> do a lots and lots of breakout discussions.
2618.962 -> So you'll get to know people from all around
2621 -> the world, and that's fun for me as well.
2630.79 -> So you've already Typed some into the chat
2633.126 -> about where you are, but put that in
2635.524 -> again, along with what are you worried about?
2639.088 -> What effects are you already seeing
2641.512 -> of climate change and environmental degradation?
2650.63 -> So go ahead and put that right into the chat.
2652.882 -> Just whatever you are seeing.
2657.23 -> I know in Vermont, we had horrendous flooding,
2661.49 -> lost hundreds of miles of roads and bridges.
2665.314 -> I'm seeing pests erosion, increased drought, fire,
2671.45 -> freaky weather, impacts on human health, missing
2674.974 -> food in the future, algae balloons, extreme
2677.782 -> weather events, birds dying.
2680.302 -> I can't even read this. It's going so fast.
2682.328 -> High winds, much less rain.
2684.598 -> Storms yield drop, erosion, desertification.
2696.73 -> And then how about the social
2698.428 -> effects, social effects of environmental degradation.
2704.45 -> Yeah.
2705.284 -> In terms of biodiversity. Right.
2707.456 -> Bees I saw in there, insects, abandoned pastures.
2714.23 -> I know there's a lot of people having to move
2718.25 -> because there's not enough food and water in their area.
2722.108 -> And then, of course, we
2722.996 -> get into conflicts over resources.
2728.01 -> Okay.
2728.892 -> So I'm going to keep going.
2731.976 -> But note all of these things that are going
2735.66 -> on, including depression, that I just saw flashbuy there.
2745.15 -> Sorry.
2745.6 -> My controls are covering my slides. Let's see.
2749.47 -> So the question I want to get at here today is
2752.968 -> how many of our troubles can be helped by this?
2756.796 -> What is this funny thing on the screen here?
2760.15 -> This is a soil aggregate.
2761.634 -> You heard Elaine make reference to it.
2763.708 -> This is sand, silt and clay, little broken
2766.302 -> down rocks held together by biological slimes and
2770.764 -> glues and the little threads of life, the
2775.252 -> fungal hyphae, plant root hairs, et cetera.
2778.278 -> So it's like sticky and also tied
2780.738 -> together little bundles of tiny rock particles.
2783.858 -> And as you can see, it makes space.
2788.95 -> So what would be just a pile of sand,
2792.534 -> silt and clay suddenly has structure to it.
2798.55 -> And I, as an educator developing curriculum,
2803.71 -> this was something I came up with.
2805.168 -> Now people around the world are using this
2807.004 -> as a teaching tool, but it's a really
2810.19 -> visual, quick way of getting across degraded soil
2814.866 -> or unhealthy soil versus healthy soil.
2817.734 -> And it's a comparison between flour and bread.
2826.85 -> If you think about unhealthy soil is
2829.424 -> just individual particles of sand, salt and
2832.196 -> clay that are not held together.
2834.95 -> It's like a pile of flour on the ground.
2837.826 -> And if you pick this plate up before we rain
2842.566 -> on it, if you picked it up in blue on
2844.016 -> it, those soil particles would go all over the place.
2849.776 -> Right.
2850.148 -> And so that's one thing is that there
2852.524 -> is no soil structural integrity to wind.
2856.61 -> And we see that on the land.
2860.69 -> But what happens if you rain on degraded soil or
2864.596 -> an unhealthy soil or soil that I would say that
2867.164 -> does not have the structure and function of a sponge.
2870.77 -> So we can do this experiment, make a few holes in the
2873.716 -> bottom of a cup, pour the water on that degraded soil.
2877.654 -> And of course, you can do this out
2879.032 -> on the land as well with soil itself.
2881.81 -> But what are you seeing?
2883.088 -> Start to see erosion, mudslides, flooding.
2888.89 -> And anyone who has done any baking knows that
2891.164 -> if you were to dig your finger down there,
2893.348 -> all that water is making something sticky on the
2896.264 -> top, but it's completely dry underneath.
2899.398 -> There's no water getting down to the plant roots.
2902.374 -> There's no water getting down
2903.704 -> to refill Springs or groundwater.
2906.25 -> But you are having flooding.
2908.11 -> So this is why flooding and drought are
2910.172 -> actually two sides of the same issue.
2915.57 -> And for more reasons than that, because actually
2918.432 -> when we have water that gets down to
2920.556 -> the plant roots, the plants can then photosynthesize
2923.642 -> and transpire, which is like sweating.
2925.922 -> And that's how the water cycle gets going
2928.452 -> on land and kick starts the rain cycle.
2931.71 -> So what is the difference?
2933.99 -> How do you take flour and turn it into bread?
2936.47 -> Well, you add biology, and that's
2938.966 -> what we're here about today.
2940.416 -> So biology takes those little individual
2942.852 -> particles and sticks them together into
2945.36 -> something that has a different structure.
2948.038 -> It has holes in, it has pore spaces, and
2952.992 -> the sticky stuck together parts are called soil aggregates.
2958.17 -> First of all, if you blew on this bread,
2960.566 -> you wouldn't have anything going into the air.
2963.552 -> But if you rain on
2964.764 -> it, something really magical happens.
2967.368 -> I guess that's our word for the day,
2970.47 -> because here at this point on the other
2972.864 -> plate, everything was already falling apart. Right.
2978.15 -> But what's happening here is it's going
2980.508 -> sinking in, percolating down, and it's refilling
2985.874 -> all of those the groundwater and the
2987.924 -> Springs and the streams, it's getting cleaned.
2992.954 -> As it's going through there, the plant
2996.806 -> roots are happy drinking it up.
2999.36 -> It's protected from evaporation.
3003.35 -> There's no erosion happening.
3005.63 -> There's no flood happening.
3007.484 -> Because on a real landscape, what you're seeing seeping
3010.342 -> out down below is that clean, abundant water that's
3014.254 -> refilling the Springs underground, that's refilling the groundwater, that's
3018.514 -> there for plant roots, that's there for all the
3020.816 -> life underground, that needs that air and water that
3024.404 -> those poor spaces make possible.
3029.43 -> Okay, we're talking about definitions of soil health.
3035.512 -> One way that I like to think about soil
3038.286 -> health is that it can be determined by the
3040.492 -> structural and functional integrity of the soil.
3044.23 -> And that's what I call a soil sponge.
3048.73 -> So the soil sponge, it's just a little
3052.78 -> review with some different ways of looking at
3054.712 -> it and a little more information.
3057.67 -> It keeps soil particles intact in water events.
3061.05 -> And you can do this experiment.
3062.502 -> You can take a little screen or an onion bag
3065.01 -> or something and take some soil that you think is
3067.912 -> maybe not so healthy and some soil that has that
3070.792 -> nice like bread like or cake like structure and very
3075.1 -> gently immerse it in a cup of water.
3077.392 -> It doesn't have to be a fancy tube like this.
3079.792 -> It could be just any sort of a clear jar.
3084.43 -> And you'll see that those slimes and glues,
3087.594 -> those little threads keep that healthy soil together.
3091.336 -> Even if you leave it there for hours, that water is
3094.336 -> going to stay clean and clear on the right, whereas the
3097.288 -> unhealthy cell just explodes and fills in the water.
3101.428 -> You'll see this in Rivers after a rain, after a rain,
3104.682 -> does the river run clear or is it Brown and muddy?
3109.39 -> So a really key piece of of this, the
3113.572 -> structural integrity of healthy soil, is that it is
3117.868 -> filtering anything that's going through it's, holding it together.
3123.292 -> It's also biologically breaking down anything that
3127.132 -> shouldn't be in the water system.
3130.03 -> And it is capturing things that might go
3134.08 -> into ponds and Rivers and Lakes, et cetera.
3137.07 -> And what we know is that when there is too much
3140.08 -> manure or too much fertilizer used, we get these dead zones.
3144.594 -> I don't know those of you who have flown recently.
3147.774 -> When you look down over an agricultural
3150.942 -> landscape, the ponds and Lakes are often
3153.496 -> bright green or bright turquoise.
3156.07 -> It's kind of pretty from the air,
3157.732 -> but it's really not a good thing.
3159.7 -> Those algal blooms in ponds and Lakes and
3164.092 -> in small streams, those are toxic to fish.
3168.366 -> They are toxic to humans.
3171.07 -> They are causing things like ALS and Parkinson's and
3174.904 -> Alzheimer's and also very acute illness, like if your
3177.904 -> dog swims in a Lake that is bright green
3180.484 -> with that kind of toxic algae.
3182.334 -> Not all algae are toxic, but particular ones,
3186.67 -> they can die very quickly from that.
3191.47 -> And we're also seeing those algal blooms and those
3195.652 -> dead zones moving out into the ocean from where
3198.112 -> big Rivers empty out into the ocean when the
3201.136 -> big Rivers have had unhealthy soil and a lot
3204.556 -> of fertilizer use along the edges.
3207.55 -> So Rivers that go through big agricultural
3210.822 -> areas that are not practicing soil health.
3213.85 -> But if we practice soil health principles, you'll find that
3220.63 -> the Rivers and streams and everything gets cleaner and people
3224.08 -> will be healthier long term as well as, of course,
3226.768 -> all of the life that lives in those waterways.
3231.198 -> So all of the fish, all of the insects,
3233.502 -> all of the animals that drink from that.
3239.21 -> Okay, so then that's the water.
3241.268 -> But what about air?
3243.392 -> As we said, if you pick up that plate
3245.326 -> of flower and blow on it, that soil is
3247.196 -> going to blow all across the landscape.
3250.462 -> And airborne soil is a huge problem.
3254.51 -> One of the things is that it lands on snow fields,
3259.906 -> like on glaciers on top of mountains, which darkens the snow
3263.77 -> and means that the sun can melt the snow much faster.
3269.09 -> And what you get is a very quick melt.
3271.774 -> And you don't get that long seasonal stream flow down
3275.588 -> into the valleys where people are typically trying to grow
3278.288 -> food or need their Wells and Rivers running.
3283.55 -> So that airborne soil is very problematic in
3286.976 -> terms of climate change in that way.
3290.93 -> But the other thing with airborne soil is
3296.012 -> that it causes lots of respiratory problems for
3299.792 -> humans and animals and everything that lives.
3302.87 -> And it also can carry the chemicals
3306.094 -> that are used in farming and antibiotic
3308.974 -> resistant bacteria from feedlots, et cetera.
3316.85 -> We really don't want that soil to go in
3318.536 -> the air and the soil sponge keeps the soil
3321.19 -> particles intact even when the wind blows.
3324.238 -> And having plant cover on top of
3326.576 -> the soil is part of that intactness.
3329.074 -> But it's the soil itself
3330.8 -> that has that structural integrity.
3334.79 -> So the other thing is that there
3336.104 -> is more space underground there's less compaction.
3340.018 -> So it's easier for plant roots to grow and for fungi
3343.102 -> to explore, which helps to improve the nutrient integrity of the
3347.204 -> plants and improves the health of all of life. Right.
3349.952 -> Because plants photosynthesize and they make themselves and
3355.076 -> then they make food for all of life,
3357.128 -> both above ground and below ground.
3360.83 -> They're kick starting the food web.
3363.416 -> So everything that's alive is either eating a plant
3366.646 -> or eating something that ate a plant or eating
3368.734 -> something that ate something that ate a plant.
3370.69 -> And some of that is the plant matter that
3372.416 -> we see the roots and leaves and etcetera.
3376.174 -> And flowers and berries.
3377.962 -> But some of that is the soil as the exudates that
3380.756 -> go out underground to feed things that we may not even
3383.864 -> be able to see, like those mycorrhizal fungi that you can
3386.864 -> now see here, because this is a microscopic picture taken by
3390.584 -> our friend Phil Lee, who is in Australia.
3395.39 -> That space underground also makes it possible for there
3398.972 -> to be soil moisture there even during a drought.
3403.414 -> And also it's like a big insulation.
3406.93 -> So if you think about insulation in the walls to
3410.084 -> keep a house cool and also to keep the house
3413.6 -> warm, it's the same thing with the soil.
3415.942 -> When there is those void spaces, those pores
3419.638 -> and that fluffiness of that soil sponge, it
3422.744 -> helps to regulate the ground temperature.
3427.35 -> That's easier for plants and
3429.144 -> also for the life underground.
3431.162 -> So all of that together makes better habitat. Right.
3434.124 -> You get air, water, food, and a regulated
3437.138 -> climate for all of the diverse life underground.
3444.07 -> And my favorite part of all of this
3446.992 -> is about it's soaking up rain and filtering
3449.154 -> that water, which reduces flood risk.
3451.65 -> It reduces the drought risk.
3453.798 -> It refills groundwater Wells and Springs,
3456.858 -> and it stores water underground for
3459.172 -> plant growth, for photosynthesis and transpiration.
3463.27 -> And therefore, it kickstarts the water cycle, the carbon
3467.106 -> cycle, and all of climate regulation on land.
3470.056 -> And we'll talk about that in a minute.
3471.534 -> But how having water for plants regulates the climate.
3476.83 -> But I just wanted to take note of this
3478.972 -> picture for a moment, because this is something called,
3483.97 -> oh, I'm forgetting what it's called a rainfall simulator.
3487.914 -> And in the United States, the soil health team
3492.136 -> of our US Department of Agriculture has been going
3496 -> around and showing this to farmers as a way
3500.356 -> of helping them understand the benefits of soil health.
3503.14 -> So these are five pans that
3506.83 -> they are like a cookie cutter.
3508.554 -> They're open on the bottom, so you press them
3510.952 -> down and get a soil sample that is intact.
3514.09 -> And then there's a little screen on the
3515.656 -> bottom so the soil doesn't fall out.
3519.01 -> And then they have like a shower head that goes
3521.62 -> across the top that rains on all of this.
3525.028 -> So we've put about three or four inches of
3527.524 -> rain on three or four inches of soil here.
3530.152 -> So quite a lot of rain for that small amount of soil.
3534.37 -> These five soil samples are all from the same farm.
3538.75 -> They are all the same soil type.
3541.876 -> So same ratio of sand, silt and clay.
3544.95 -> You may have heard that a soil's ability to absorb
3548.478 -> water is determined by the ratio of sand particles, silt
3553.818 -> particles, and clay particles by the particle size.
3557.332 -> Because, you know, if you're at the beach and you
3559.156 -> pour water onto the sand, it sinks in really quickly.
3564.31 -> If you poured it onto clay, it would sink in slowly.
3567.27 -> But in fact, any type of soil, any
3570.892 -> ratio of sand, tilt and clay can be
3572.752 -> improved by using soil health principles.
3576.354 -> And if you look at the jars underneath on
3579.184 -> the far right, those jars in the back, no
3583.264 -> water has gotten down three inches into the soil.
3586.734 -> It's all run off, and it's taken all that soil with it.
3590.35 -> Whereas if you look on the far left, where
3592.852 -> all the soil health principles are being used, where
3595.684 -> there's not, the soil is not being disturbed, there's
3599.334 -> living roots and plants, there's diversity, et cetera.
3605.11 -> And not using biocides and not using fertilizers, you see all
3609.592 -> the water has sunk in and nothing has run off.
3614.05 -> I love this example.
3615.244 -> Ddi, I just wanted, as you would ask, to let you
3617.656 -> know that you've got about three or four minutes left.
3620.128 -> Okay.
3620.644 -> I've actually got a timer going myself, too. Thank you.
3625.09 -> So let's just talk quickly about how plants regulate
3628.782 -> the climate, because it's not just plants themselves, it's
3632.322 -> plants that have their feet in a sponge.
3635.298 -> So if plants can transpire water
3641.59 -> and they can photosynthesize, that's how
3644.392 -> the climate basically gets regulated.
3646.95 -> And it's a beneficial cycle because plants grow
3652.72 -> the sponge and plants benefit from the sponge.
3656.262 -> So it's a very symbiotic relationship.
3658.57 -> So the first one that you've probably heard
3660.244 -> about is that plant growth or photosynthesis takes
3665.116 -> atmospheric carbon CO2, same carbon we're worried about
3668.692 -> with climate change and turns it into themselves,
3672.43 -> but through that, into all of other life
3675.556 -> and lights residues like soil organic matter.
3679.252 -> So we can think of that as like living the dead
3683.334 -> and the very dead, and it's all full of carbon.
3687.01 -> So drawing down carbon into living systems is
3690.592 -> one way that plants regulate the climate.
3694.99 -> And just remember, we need a greenhouse.
3697.518 -> We need a greenhouse effect.
3698.944 -> Keep us warm enough and cool enough.
3701.59 -> Without it, we'd be in trouble.
3702.942 -> We just have a little too much.
3706.27 -> The second thing is that plants help shade the ground,
3710.466 -> so it prevents heat from reaching the ground, and it
3712.912 -> reduces the air temperature by reducing how much of that
3716.524 -> heat is re raddiating back into the ground.
3719.01 -> You can imagine if you were standing on the
3721.096 -> right side of this fence versus on the left,
3724.156 -> your feet would be hotter, and probably the air
3726.856 -> above that bare soil would be hotter as well.
3729.97 -> But the third one that's really exciting
3732.51 -> is transpiration, which is like plant sweating.
3735.522 -> They take that water up through their
3737.452 -> feet, a little different than us.
3741.19 -> And as they're growing, they sweat it out so
3745.696 -> that water evaporates from the plants and changes from
3749.2 -> liquid water into a gas into water vapor.
3754.014 -> And in doing that, it takes something called sensible heat, which
3758.224 -> is the heat we can feel, and it turns it into
3761.068 -> latent heat, which is no longer warming the air.
3769.39 -> I remember and Sophie is here today, standing under tents
3773.55 -> in India that there were no plants, that it was
3777.64 -> hotter in the shade than it was going, standing out
3780.604 -> in the full sun among those beautiful tall cover crops.
3784.53 -> That was where I really started to get this.
3788.29 -> So two of the scientists I work with,
3790.384 -> Walter Yana and John Norman, have figured out
3793.18 -> that transpiration alone, in theory, could actually reverse
3799.674 -> the global warming we've already experienced.
3802.278 -> So if we could have 25% more photosynthesis
3807.282 -> and transpiration on agricultural land, that could, in
3810.784 -> theory, reverse global warming, that's already happened.
3813.472 -> That's amazing.
3814.432 -> And that's something we could
3815.524 -> do probably in one season.
3820.57 -> Okay, so three goals here.
3823.96 -> One is to increase photosynthesis by
3826.204 -> 25% on AG land that's worldwide.
3830.83 -> We can do this with more plant
3832.446 -> density, so less bare ground, more diversity,
3835.53 -> so more complex leaf structures, more height,
3839.634 -> not over, grazing, undergrazing, overcutting.
3842.298 -> And of course, we're not even talking about lawns
3844.374 -> here, but lawn policies of how long people are
3847.636 -> allowed to have their lawns is important.
3849.556 -> Or by increasing the length
3851.622 -> of the green growing season.
3853.266 -> So delaying the harvest or tillage, having more perennials,
3858.73 -> using plants that know how to work in current
3861.448 -> conditions and having more soil sponge structure and function
3865.312 -> will lengthen that goal two, feed and protect the
3869.176 -> soil sponge, keep it covered, reduce or eliminate stresses,
3873.45 -> and reduce or eliminate fertilizers and biocides.
3877.27 -> Goal three, invite all the workers to
3880.156 -> the farm table and don't kill them.
3882.124 -> So as Elaine said, there's this huge web of
3884.464 -> stuff going on both underground and above ground.
3887.682 -> That all makes this whole thing work.
3890.59 -> So provide food for everyone, habitat for
3893.644 -> everyone, good working conditions, and balance nature
3897.63 -> with nature rather than pesticides.
3901.21 -> So those are those three goals.
3902.79 -> We can actually do this.
3904.264 -> We can make all of these
3905.992 -> things that we're worried about.
3907.456 -> We can address them through
3909.4 -> healthy soil, healthy landscapes.
3912.67 -> So I wanted Sammy, if we have two minutes, I
3916.936 -> would love to just bring up that video of how
3920.932 -> this is being put into action in India.
3923.71 -> And while we're waiting for
3924.856 -> that, I'll just invite people.
3926.5 -> If you want to download the free manual
3928.758 -> understanding Soil health and watershed function, you can
3932.2 -> find that at Land and Leadership.org.
3934.302 -> I think it's under resources.
3936.49 -> And if you're interested in joining
3939.126 -> the land and leadership development community.
3941.092 -> You can read about it there or send me an
3943.864 -> email and I will tell you more about it.
3949.97 -> I can share it if you don't have it.
3952.85 -> My PowerPoint closed down so I'm having
3954.992 -> to restart if you have it available.
3957.23 -> Here we go.
3960.47 -> There's my timer.
3961.366 -> But I think are we okay with me?
3962.684 -> Just going to this is two minutes or less here.
3966.95 -> Go for it. Dd, of course. Totally important. Yes.
3972.59 -> This is in underproduce India.
3974.566 -> This is this amazing project that the
3978.74 -> women self help economic groups are really
3983.828 -> spearheading of getting hundreds of thousands of
3988.964 -> farmers to adopt natural farming practices.
3992.39 -> And they are working with the United
3996.188 -> Nations Food and Agriculture Organization Farmer Field
3999.788 -> School program which helps farmers to work
4004.12 -> together to do research together.
4006.664 -> But what I wanted to show you here is just
4010.828 -> imagine when we talk about 25% more food on agricultural
4016.29 -> land and we talk about all those effects of building
4019.48 -> this fungi cooling, of feeding all of life.
4024.79 -> Those drone pictures you can see are just extraordinary of the
4033.352 -> green carpet in the middle of a big dry area.
4039.7 -> And what they started doing is something called
4042.832 -> pre monsoon dry seeding where they are growing
4048.37 -> crops before they even get the rain going.
4051.016 -> By understanding how the soil sponge works, how biostimulant
4056.37 -> can help wake up the soil food web underground,
4060.49 -> how using herbal insect repellents and farmers are not
4077.612 -> using any inputs from outside of the village.
4080.302 -> So there everything there is
4084.044 -> 25% more photosynthesis and transformation.
4094.15 -> Let me stop here so I can see you all for a moment.
4098.05 -> Anyway, I just find that incredibly inspiring.
4100.913 -> I'm really delighted to be working with that
4103.312 -> program to develop yet another training handbook on
4106.852 -> soil and water and the soil sponge.
4109.87 -> So I'm happy to talk more about
4112.06 -> that during the Q and A.
4113.536 -> Thanks everyone.
4115.09 -> Yes, thank you so much. Dee Dee.
4116.573 -> I want to go ahead and turn over to Dan
4118.626 -> and Stefan for part three, the benefits to human health.
4124.93 -> Alright, great.
4126.916 -> I think you can turn the slides off
4128.116 -> for a minute if you want at least.
4129.604 -> But my name is Dan Katrina.
4131.214 -> As I said earlier, the BFA has been
4134.703 -> doing what we call Principles of Biological Systems
4138.714 -> course, working with growers for the past ten
4140.752 -> years, helping them understand the foundational dynamics that
4144.388 -> are necessary for life to function.
4146.992 -> The whole food chain food web tool and foundational to
4153.136 -> it of course, is the microbes, the bottom of the
4155.836 -> food chain food web, the center of the food web.
4159.975 -> How should we?
4160.707 -> The center of the evolutionary biological pathway
4165.786 -> really is the microbes that evolve the
4167.356 -> plants and evolve the animals.
4170.99 -> Yeah.
4171.439 -> A deep respect for everything Elaine
4173.278 -> has been doing, I think.
4174.595 -> I'm not sure if people appreciate what she's been
4176.228 -> doing for how many years, but 40 years ago
4178.532 -> or so when she said maybe fungus in the
4181.988 -> soil, they're not all bad and people said no,
4187.43 -> and now people know about this stuff, right?
4189.392 -> I mean, she's really been a leader in this total space.
4194.21 -> Indeed, everything you're doing with the soil structure and
4198.584 -> sponge and Ondra people should view that video.
4202.58 -> It's really so impressive what's being done in
4206.408 -> the global community with these principles and sites,
4209.422 -> we think here in North America.
4212.45 -> Not everyone's here obviously in North America, but
4215.15 -> we really are on the cutting edge.
4217.714 -> But we have a lot to learn
4219.86 -> from other parts of the world.
4221.06 -> So, yeah, it's great.
4224.27 -> My part the VFA's part formally, we're an
4227.156 -> organization, a nonprofit focusing on food quality.
4229.52 -> And we're saying the point where we can
4232.964 -> actually have some really compound effect is if
4234.884 -> we choose the food we eat every day
4238.712 -> based on its inherent quality, we understand that
4241.016 -> it connects to sell help to system function,
4244.364 -> to farm viability, to environmental health, human health.
4248.768 -> Most people are driven by their foundational dynamics of
4254.084 -> life and their health and helping their children.
4256.388 -> I think for most people is actually
4258.332 -> more visceral than helping the environment.
4259.762 -> And so the question is for us, how can
4262.484 -> we engage the science, this understanding and money and
4267.116 -> power and the world as it currently exists?
4269.302 -> So we as an organization have been working
4271.592 -> for the past five years on this really
4274.472 -> more Proactive question of nutrient density.
4278.362 -> I think it's a term that people have heard it.
4280.064 -> We've started to popularize it around
4282.932 -> ten years ago or so.
4284.75 -> And the concept was that there's a
4286.136 -> variation in between levels and food.
4287.816 -> That's a foundational point.
4291.17 -> If you get a tomato off the shelf from the
4293.336 -> grocery store in January, if you're living in the Southern
4296.098 -> hemisphere or a tomato off the vine from the field
4300.248 -> in August, again, the Northern hemisphere, you know the variation.
4305.218 -> And that's your inbuilt nutrient sensing hardware,
4310.018 -> your nose and your tongue and your
4311.564 -> body telling you this is different.
4314.03 -> So what we've said is if we can
4316.124 -> help people choose the variation in food that
4320.024 -> they are eating, obviously help them grow it.
4323.216 -> But for those who aren't growing everything all the
4324.896 -> time with money, which actually is a power in
4327.536 -> the world, choose that much better for them.
4329.6 -> We're actually facilitating what's
4331.486 -> better for the environment?
4332.446 -> That's a really powerful vector because
4334.91 -> X number of billion hectares on
4336.788 -> the planet are managed through agriculture.
4338.686 -> And if we can inspire support growers through
4341.984 -> better economic viability by choosing what they're producing
4345.562 -> on top of all the other things that
4347.756 -> can really help speed the process up.
4349.232 -> So we started five years ago.
4352.388 -> While 2016 was a concept that we need to
4355.136 -> identify variation, we need to connect it to the
4357.356 -> management practices and we need to build the ability
4359.494 -> to sense, to test in real time.
4362.81 -> We've got a little reader that's basically
4365.3 -> as a prototype that functions for flushing
4367.414 -> light at things, wheat berries or zucchini
4370.702 -> squash or lettuce heads and getting readings.
4374.99 -> We started in 2017 at the lab,
4377.792 -> and we tested carrots and spinach.
4379.846 -> We looked at samples from grocery stores
4382.678 -> and farmers markets and farms across the
4385.556 -> US, organic and organic, et cetera.
4388.438 -> And we found variations.
4389.938 -> We were just looking at elements in a
4391.496 -> couple of compounds, things like copper and zinc
4393.346 -> and sulfur and phosphorus and antioxidants and polyphenols.
4397.078 -> And the variations were three to one to 15
4399.728 -> to one in minerals, which is massive, right.
4403.184 -> This leaf of spinach has money, as much iron
4406.294 -> in it as those 15 minutes of spinach.
4408.07 -> And then we looked at the compounds,
4409.486 -> the flavor, the health giving compounds, polyphenols,
4411.898 -> antioxidants is more like 75 to one.
4415.91 -> In 2019, we set up a second lab at
4419.684 -> Chico State, and we started looking at a few
4421.196 -> more crops and also looking at the soil and
4423.416 -> the management practices and documented the practice.
4426.17 -> Psilocyte fertility program, tillage inoculants seed, planting
4430.714 -> date, cover crops and the soil.
4434.554 -> So organic matter and minerals and biodiversity
4437.542 -> and overlay that on nutrient levels.
4441.514 -> In 2020, we had another lab in
4443.096 -> France, up to over 20 crops.
4445.97 -> And we basically showed some really nice
4448.928 -> connections between management practices, soil health metrics
4453.166 -> like soil carbon and nutrient levels.
4455.23 -> So I'm going to use the small time I have
4457.796 -> remaining to just run through a couple of slides on
4459.824 -> that and then hand it over to Stephan.
4461.722 -> We have done basically this variation thing
4464.696 -> for roots, leaves, fruits and grains.
4466.81 -> And now we're looking to define between density,
4470.074 -> to be able to say this is better,
4471.728 -> this is decent, this is not so good.
4473.72 -> So, yeah, move it forward here, I think.
4479.18 -> Just forward on that. Yeah.
4481.292 -> And keep going.
4482.87 -> So this is basically looking at tillage as one
4485.072 -> practice, light tillage is less than six inches, heavy.
4490.162 -> Tillage is more than six.
4491.54 -> And this is the effect of
4492.752 -> change on wheat in organic matter.
4497.432 -> Based on tillage, obviously, this is average farm size
4503.22 -> was 3000 acres, two continents, 13 US days.
4508.224 -> I think moving forward, yeah, proceed forward.
4516.73 -> So this is the connection between
4518.08 -> tillage and nutrient levels decreases.
4523.15 -> 2030, 40, 50, 60, 70%.
4529.01 -> When you engage in that process of destroying the
4531.116 -> soil, functionally, what you expect is a decrease in
4534.776 -> the nutrient levels in the food itself.
4537.47 -> This is just one crop out of more than 20.
4541.652 -> We've done, but on scale and sample size, et cetera.
4548.642 -> Okay, keep going.
4553.09 -> This is the nutrient variations as
4556.66 -> defined by percent of US RDA.
4558.906 -> So how much calcium do you need per day?
4561.328 -> Per serving?
4562.578 -> How much do you get per serving of wheat?
4564.978 -> How much do you get per serving of oats?
4566.214 -> If you had bread or you had oatmeal, we'll look
4572.564 -> at potassium on wheat there in the middle, cake.
4578.09 -> One serving of wheat, one slice of bread might give you
4581.204 -> 5% of your potassium needs to a day or 22%.
4586.49 -> Magnesium, basically nothing.
4588.656 -> Or 30% people know about magnesium.
4590.326 -> Deficiencies drop down to the bottom
4593.408 -> for zinc, basically nothing or 34%.
4598.136 -> How many people planet wide suffer
4601.294 -> from stunting, UN serious dynamics here.
4608.15 -> This is the variation we found.
4610.004 -> The variation we found in crops that exist is very
4613.472 -> significant from an official standpoint over there on Oats.
4617.05 -> Same thing.
4619.49 -> These are just grains.
4620.47 -> We did roots, leaves and fruits as well.
4622.97 -> Proceed forward.
4628.23 -> So this is a slide on wheat.
4632.13 -> Just one more step forward.
4635.25 -> So those red dots are growers that
4638.256 -> were working together on more biological management.
4641.018 -> This is the global sample and
4642.924 -> the green dots is everybody else.
4649.99 -> It's a meta system, right?
4651.952 -> Biological systems have multiple factors.
4653.622 -> So we can't just draw direct connections.
4656.022 -> But we can see management practices, soil carbon.
4659.802 -> We can see manager practices nutrient levels.
4664.626 -> We can see manager practices nutrient levels.
4668.95 -> It really looks like it's not so much about
4671.452 -> the variety you're using or the geography you're in.
4674.692 -> It's really about how you work with the
4676.276 -> land that affects what's in the food.
4679.09 -> So I'll stop there.
4680.8 -> I think maybe that's about ten minutes.
4683.02 -> But hand off to step on.
4684.556 -> We have looked at these variations
4686.442 -> on roots, leaves, fruits and grains.
4688.758 -> I'll put in some links in the chat after
4690.424 -> I get done speaking about where links are.
4692.284 -> You can see what we've been doing.
4694.63 -> Right now, we're working on nutrient density, which is
4697.672 -> not just top to bottom calcium, top to bottom
4701.98 -> polyphenols, but better, decent, not so good.
4706.36 -> And we're starting with beef because it's the crop
4708.762 -> with the largest market value on the planet and
4711.544 -> affects the largest amount of land on the planet.
4713.874 -> And if we can understand a way to provide
4716.08 -> consumers the ability to actually choose the burger, the
4719.104 -> steak, whatever it is that you buy, because people
4721.072 -> do buy beef based on quality, that should have
4724.504 -> profound effects on the landscape is forever.
4726.702 -> So I'll stop there.
4730.73 -> Yeah.
4731.132 -> Thank you so much.
4732.38 -> Dan and I will try to keep it brief.
4735.106 -> So we have plenty of time for Q and A.
4738.29 -> But I'd like to talk to you about
4739.424 -> the beef nutrient density project that we're doing.
4743.45 -> Oftentimes we hear the connection between soil
4745.522 -> health, plant health, animal health, human health.
4749.03 -> There's not a lot of systems research out
4750.644 -> there to suggest that that is the case,
4752.624 -> even though it intuitively makes sense.
4754.808 -> So we're doing a bit of density project.
4757.364 -> The goal is to collect samples from 250
4761.96 -> farmers over the next couple of years.
4764.45 -> Please advance the next slide in beef.
4769.91 -> We are doing this in grassfed and
4771.416 -> grainfed systems and linking that to cause
4773.432 -> of factors of management, soil health.
4775.352 -> And for sheet quality.
4776.684 -> There's like a tremendous variation between
4779.048 -> more rotational grazing and continuous grazing.
4781.342 -> We know it's the case for soil health.
4782.792 -> So it would be expected the
4784.796 -> case for nutrient density, too.
4786.404 -> And not all feedlot systems are created equal either
4789.704 -> is what we're finding in our data so far.
4791.972 -> And what really makes our analysis unique
4794.47 -> is that we do deep metabolic profiling.
4797.002 -> So not just looking at fats making
4799.592 -> three fatty acids, which is common.
4801.128 -> But we look at a more holistic approach
4803.182 -> because foods contain hundreds to thousands of nutrients
4806.746 -> and compounds that can impact our health.
4809.528 -> And we're linking health along that continuum.
4811.93 -> And please advance the slides.
4815.39 -> So just to talk about the data so far, if
4818.384 -> you're a consumer and you pick up a package of
4820.676 -> beef, you see a handful of nutrients appearing.
4823.21 -> It's about 13 nutrients, protein, fats and
4826.424 -> a handful of vitamins and minerals.
4829.07 -> A lot of our knowledge on how production impacts
4832.85 -> these small amounts of nutrients is obviously very powerful.
4841.454 -> But we need to take a moralistic approach because
4843.54 -> the food matrix contains hundreds or thousands of bioactive
4846.722 -> compounds that have not been at the forefront.
4849.386 -> But they do impact our health.
4851.16 -> So we profile for a much larger number of nutrients.
4853.622 -> If you look at the table on the right, this was
4857.484 -> a comparison of grass fat and grainfed beef from 18 samples.
4863.85 -> And we identified 568 compounds using our
4867.984 -> food metabolomics approaches, which is much more
4870.144 -> than has previously been done.
4872.208 -> And oftentimes we hear about the
4874.584 -> difference in maybe three fatty acids.
4875.918 -> But you can see here, 65%
4879.168 -> of these biochemicals were different.
4881.928 -> So illustrating that the difference goes far
4884.412 -> beyond the mega three fatty acids.
4885.938 -> And certainly not all these compounds that
4888.276 -> we measure are nutrients because we also
4891.72 -> get insight into animal health.
4893.76 -> But as you can see, there are substantial differences
4897.146 -> in RGB larger than I had even anticipated.
4899.966 -> And these differences are also arguably not
4902.484 -> known with the consumer at the moment.
4904.284 -> So if we advance the slide, then we
4908.952 -> can see this is markers of animal health.
4911.64 -> So I'm originally trained as a human nutrition scientist
4915.134 -> and we do these studies on humans, too.
4917.22 -> We take small pieces of muscle through muscle biopsy.
4921.27 -> And we've profiled that before we've done
4923.112 -> this in individuals with metabolic syndrome.
4925.514 -> We have done this in endurance strain of athletes.
4928.058 -> But we've also profiled meat
4929.486 -> samples, muscle of animals.
4930.95 -> And what is quite striking there is that the
4934.716 -> animals that have pasture raised and move around a
4939.348 -> lot and eat phytochemically rich forged their mitochondria, which
4945.624 -> is the energy or the life of cells.
4948.398 -> And these biochemicals, you can see
4950.22 -> citrate, succinate, fumarate, Malate, those are
4953.484 -> all intermediates in mitochondria.
4955.706 -> So mitochondria, they produce the energy
4958.788 -> or the life of ourselves.
4960.098 -> And we see that life is higher in grass fed samples.
4964.994 -> So about one and a half to two
4968.304 -> fold higher in the grain means higher.
4970.272 -> It was higher in the grassfed samples then
4973.956 -> uric acid is a major interstellar antioxidant.
4977.21 -> And higher levels indicate improved
4979.574 -> antioxidant status in the animal.
4981.422 -> And there's about 100 more metabolites that all
4986.34 -> point to the same direction, suggesting that the
4989.4 -> pasteurized animals display more of an athletic phenotype
4993.566 -> not unlike you would see in humans.
4996.194 -> After all, cattle and humans were both mammals.
4999.59 -> And the differences in that regard are
5002.492 -> striking compared to when you compare healthy
5005.158 -> phenotypes in humans and animals.
5007.354 -> So let's move on to nutrient density.
5010.85 -> Nutrient density can be defined as we are
5014.972 -> specifically looking at phytochemicals, which are plant secondary
5018.418 -> compounds, antioxidants that are picked up from the
5020.876 -> forge and incorporated into the meat.
5024.65 -> A lot of these have antiinflammatory effects.
5027.034 -> Antimicrobial effects.
5028.966 -> Various studies suggest that at least in the lab,
5033.068 -> they can have anti cancer and anti diabetic effects.
5035.998 -> We also look at vitamins and
5037.256 -> minerals and of course, fatty acids.
5039.766 -> So if we jump into that for the last few slides.
5045.35 -> So phytochemicals phytochemicals are
5048.956 -> produced by plants.
5050.69 -> When animals raise these phytochemicals, this plant compounds, as
5054.416 -> you can see on the top left, they are
5057.74 -> metabolized to a whole variety of different compounds.
5061.342 -> And these compounds are compounds with
5064.34 -> potential antiinflammatory and antioxidant effects.
5067.594 -> The figure on the right, you can see
5069.152 -> phytochemical metabolism, and I've highlighted a few here.
5072.476 -> But what you can see here is that these
5074.972 -> phytochemicals are consistently higher in the grass fed animals,
5078.898 -> which is the direct result of dam grazing, a
5081.932 -> wide variety and the diversity of plants.
5087.27 -> So if we move on to the next
5088.704 -> slide, we see the same thing happening in
5092.784 -> these vitamin metabolites, which also have a relationship
5095.508 -> to improve soil health and improve plant health.
5100.23 -> If we look at vitamin B three, niacin, which is
5103.284 -> the main form of vitamin B three in foods.
5105.194 -> This was nine fold higher in the grass
5107.546 -> fed beef, which is directly related to the
5110.004 -> forage and presumably also soil health.
5115.33 -> Niacin and nicotinamide are both vitamin B
5118.804 -> three, but niacin is the most abundant
5120.99 -> form in food found in nature.
5122.922 -> That was nine fold higher in the grass fed
5124.794 -> animals, whereas nicotinamide, the supplemental or synthetic form, was
5129.28 -> about twice as high in the grain fed animals,
5131.358 -> which is likely due to the fact that this
5133.684 -> is commonly used in finishing reactions.
5137.47 -> Choline, another essential nutrients,
5140.838 -> one, two fold higher.
5142.18 -> And Alpha, tacophro and ascorbate vitamin C were also
5145.288 -> found to be higher in the grass fed animals.
5149.05 -> Coffeels, of vitamin E precursor, is best known
5151.218 -> for the antioxidant effects, and they are again
5153.388 -> directly related to consuming phytochemically rich forage.
5156.906 -> So we are seeing this relationship between more
5160.57 -> phytochemically rich plants and more nutrient dense beef.
5164.07 -> So if we go to the final slide and
5167.596 -> I just want to highlight this because we often
5169.768 -> hear about Omega three fatty acids and the Omega
5172.518 -> three fatty acids that would be EPA and DHA.
5178.09 -> They are enriched in grass fed beef.
5180.642 -> But what we are seeing in our data and I
5183.256 -> think this is not well known with the consumer at
5185.776 -> the moment, is that within the saturated fatty acids, often
5189.724 -> thought to be bad for our health, we actually see
5192.94 -> that within the saturated fatty acids, it's a broad category.
5198.354 -> There are maybe ten to
5200.692 -> 20 different saturated fatty acids.
5202.914 -> And these longer change saturated fatty acids that
5205.288 -> are actually associated in population based studies with
5208.324 -> a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease again become
5211.36 -> enriched in the grass fed piece because of
5215.29 -> the forages that they consume.
5217.122 -> So again, not all saturated
5219.834 -> fat is created equal either.
5221.26 -> And so we see these multiple patterns of
5223.144 -> bearing where if we feed the animal more
5226.624 -> diverse and phytochemical rich forage we see their
5229.432 -> health improving and their nutrients improving.
5232.81 -> With that, I want to say is that that doesn't
5235.314 -> per say mean that grainfed beef is therefore unhealthy.
5238.81 -> But as compared to grainfed beef, grass
5241.434 -> fed beef does have additional benefits.
5244.63 -> But there are also nuances.
5246.174 -> And I must say this is that when we've done studies
5250.122 -> when the higher amount of father or forge is fat in
5253.384 -> feedlot systems, we see that then the grainfed beef or the
5257.296 -> feedlot beef also recovers some of that nutrient density.
5261.03 -> So it is certainly not black and white
5263.848 -> or simplified narrative that this is good or
5266.116 -> bad, but the data is what it is.
5269.29 -> Final Slide So within the beef nutrient
5274.618 -> density project, this is our working hypothesis.
5277.222 -> If we raise animals on more plant diverse
5279.958 -> species, we see higher nutrient density of meat
5283.57 -> compared to monocultures or overgrazing with the lowest
5286.642 -> amounts of fountain feedback meat at the moment.
5290.228 -> But the goal of this work is to figure out
5292.664 -> this variation and link it back to cauliflower factors, because
5295.604 -> grassfed beef isn't grassfed beef isn't grassfed beef, grain fed
5299.038 -> beef isn't grainfed beef isn't grainfed beef.
5301.066 -> And the goal is to improve back
5302.708 -> best practices amongst each of these systems.
5305.698 -> And with that, I'd like to end my part of
5309.008 -> the presentation and looking forward to the Q and A.
5313.73 -> Finally, though, how can this benefit
5315.574 -> us or producers and consumers?
5318.418 -> Well, we can highlight the best practices,
5322.43 -> so inform management practices inform consumers about
5325.844 -> the potential healthiness of meat, so marketing
5327.994 -> death potentially to consumers when we know
5330.404 -> more about the nutrient density.
5332.086 -> And obviously the bigger picture is as we try
5336.476 -> to nourish a growing population, do so sustainably, we
5340.544 -> must think also of environmental economic factors.
5342.694 -> Now I want to highlight the
5343.676 -> ICC report that came out recently.
5346.918 -> Yes, the report calls for moving towards
5350.57 -> more plantbased patterns and increasing plantbased foods.
5354.394 -> But the report also stressed the use of
5356.984 -> agricultural livestock production systems, which means rotational grading,
5361.03 -> integrated carbon livestock systems, Silva pastoralism, which are
5364.976 -> the practices that we are investigating and are
5367.772 -> finding that they indeed produce more healthier soils,
5371.89 -> healthier animals, and potentially also healthier humans, which
5375.884 -> will be studied as part of randomized control
5377.72 -> trials we do in the next few years.
5379.664 -> Thank you so much.
5382.31 -> Thank you so much, Stefan and Dan.
5385.01 -> And it's such a great point that you
5386.924 -> made there about the value of properly managed
5392.638 -> rotational grazing systems, where we've seen so much
5396.212 -> soil health benefit in the long run.
5398.96 -> In fact, I know a few ways that
5400.616 -> I've ever read about to more rapidly recover
5403.79 -> soil health than to use perennial pasture systems.
5409.07 -> To do so, we are going to move into our Q
5412.076 -> and A session, and we are running a little behind today.
5414.512 -> So in order to get the webinar finished in time and
5418.58 -> make sure that the panelists are able to go to their
5420.884 -> next event, we have about 30 minutes instead of 45.
5425.15 -> But let's pull up our first Q and A.
5428.9 -> Our first question.
5440.37 -> I'm sorry there.
5441.588 -> We seem to be having a
5442.548 -> little bit of a technical glitch.
5445.05 -> Will you take that away for us? Sure.
5447.18 -> I'll read out the first question, and I'll try to get
5449.088 -> them into a slide form so the participants can see it.
5452.172 -> So the first question is from Diane, and
5454.224 -> Diane asks, I'm disheartened at people's apathy towards
5457.068 -> land regeneration as a tool to combat climate
5460.322 -> change or towards climate change itself.
5463.068 -> What has been your most successful approach to
5465.384 -> influencing the average person on these topics?
5468.75 -> All right.
5469.224 -> Balance would say you I'll just say really quickly,
5475.29 -> our hypothesis is that if people care about themselves
5478.896 -> and their families and that connects to the land,
5482.352 -> then that's a really powerful vector.
5490.81 -> It's really key to get everybody moving
5494.176 -> towards the things that they all want.
5498.95 -> So any time that we start using language
5502.37 -> sort of fighting language or turning around and
5506.09 -> fighting against what we don't want is getting
5510.992 -> people into arguing about what that is.
5513.74 -> Whereas it's much easier to say we all want
5517.508 -> regulated temperatures, whether we think that an ice age
5520.772 -> is coming where we think that climate change is
5522.584 -> coming, we all want clean air, we all want
5524.732 -> clean water, we all want enough food, we all
5527.276 -> want protection from floods, whatever they're being caused by.
5531.17 -> I found that soil health offers really an opportunity
5535.55 -> to bring people together and to move everybody along.
5538.97 -> Similarly, not talking about like, who are
5541.004 -> good farmers or bad farmers, but just
5543.452 -> like having everybody move forward together.
5550.41 -> I'll just add, my opinion is that the knowledge
5553.094 -> is power, both knowledge from the consumer standpoint.
5555.902 -> So the more we can educate folks on the
5557.628 -> importance of soil health and soil biology and how
5559.968 -> that relates to human health is fantastic.
5562.118 -> But that's also informing the producers, the people
5565.092 -> that are actually doing the growing or the
5567.588 -> raising of animals and so forth, and making
5569.472 -> sure that they have the education and knowledge.
5572.85 -> Unfortunately, I think our University systems are lacking
5574.994 -> that sense, but are starting to catch up.
5577.428 -> And I think as this really starts to progress
5581.57 -> forward, I think we'll see a big momentum shift
5583.922 -> both from the producers and consumers as well.
5587.49 -> Oh, Brian, I can really back up what you just
5589.656 -> said about our University system, which I'm proud of, the
5592.956 -> land grant system myself, but I've done quite a bit
5598.98 -> of talking to peers about the ingrained paradigms for the
5603.384 -> industrial kind of system of agriculture.
5606.698 -> And I'm actually here in Greece currently at a
5609.204 -> conference where when I presented about that, I had
5612.504 -> a number of young faculty members across the landgrant
5615.734 -> system come and have conversation with me afterwards about
5619.464 -> how ready they are for that shift to occur.
5622.55 -> And agroecology is being talked about by
5625.692 -> young LAN grant professors, tenure track professors,
5629.13 -> regenerative agriculture is being talked about.
5631.668 -> And I think that's an exciting step, especially actually,
5637.65 -> in many cases, the social scientists who work in
5640.692 -> community development that have seen the values of these
5644.412 -> kinds of systems and their research is starting to
5648.096 -> reach more and more people.
5650.07 -> So, yeah, great.
5651.048 -> Thanks for bringing that point up.
5653.016 -> And to add to that minority career
5655.694 -> researcher myself at a land grant University.
5658.946 -> But it's also a matter of just doing it
5661.392 -> right if you get to do the research.
5663.864 -> And we obviously let the chips fall where they
5668.124 -> may and let the data show what it shows.
5670.344 -> But, yeah, it's just also a matter of
5672.72 -> just taking the plunge and doing it.
5674.124 -> And I think the younger generation
5675.554 -> absolutely is moving towards that.
5678.72 -> And, yeah, it will become more
5680.544 -> important as the future wears on.
5682.152 -> So I think the time is also
5683.292 -> right to start investigating these things now.
5687.31 -> Great.
5687.952 -> Dd Elaine, anything else you guys want to
5689.416 -> add before we move to the next question?
5692.77 -> Cd said no.
5693.832 -> And, Elaine, I will just say that
5696.4 -> bread and flour thing is so easy.
5698.74 -> I've done it in kindergarten classrooms.
5700.506 -> I've done it on Wall Street.
5701.694 -> I've done it at the UN.
5703.27 -> Everybody gets it.
5708.35 -> Agreed.
5708.934 -> Elaine, any closing comments on that question?
5710.972 -> No, I'm fine.
5714.11 -> The other people have spoken for me. Go for it.
5716.66 -> It got well covered. Yes. All right.
5719.756 -> Let me go ahead and share out the next question.
5725.87 -> So the next question was from Sonya. And this is for Dr.
5729.512 -> Ben Bailey.
5731.15 -> Are you aware of anyone doing research
5733.184 -> on the links between soil health, gut
5735.082 -> microbiome health, and mental health?
5738.11 -> Thank you so much for.
5739.34 -> Yes, that's a good question.
5741.212 -> I mean, certainly this work is starting, but
5745.31 -> the systems research is becoming increasingly more important.
5748.556 -> Right.
5748.784 -> So I have a background in new nutrition in
5750.836 -> medical school, cultural schools, let alone soil health.
5764.35 -> It takes it's really hard to answer that
5767.752 -> question because we are almost assuming that there's
5771.426 -> a single value for soil health.
5775.21 -> And that's not true.
5777.112 -> If you're trying to grow brassicas, if that's the
5780.916 -> crop that you want, you're going to have to
5783.844 -> have a soil food web that provides for it,
5788.152 -> that does the right nutrient cycling.
5793.47 -> The exudates coming out of the brassica,
5795.522 -> it's going to be very different.
5796.816 -> It wants a different ratio of
5798.316 -> fungi bacteria in the soil.
5800.178 -> It's going to make certain that it maintains
5803.118 -> that ratio by the exudate that it's producing.
5806.53 -> Well, what if you want to eat is
5810.856 -> carrots or corn or blueberries or apples?
5817.99 -> The biology in the soil needs
5819.892 -> to be very, very different.
5822.13 -> The ratios of fungi, bacteria,
5824.202 -> and therefore the predators.
5826.57 -> As we go into different biomes, we have
5829.048 -> completely different species that we're dealing with.
5833.86 -> So it's not that easy to define soil health
5839.128 -> because it's relative to the stage of succession.
5843.91 -> That's what you have to you've got to have that
5847.39 -> comparison chart in order to make certain that the broccoli
5852.258 -> is going to be the best it can be and
5854.548 -> have the most nutrition, or the corn is going to
5857.056 -> have all the nutrition it needs or the apples are
5860.404 -> going to have all that it needs.
5865.03 -> I'll just say that two things.
5868.48 -> One is that in the first third of my book, The
5871.864 -> Ecology of Care, that is a lot of what the topic
5875.202 -> of that particular part of the book is about.
5878.05 -> And the other thing is that Glyphosate or Roundup
5884.562 -> was patented both as an herbicide and as a
5889.312 -> broad spectrum anti microbial or antibiotic by Monsanto.
5896.83 -> And the reason it works as both of
5899.224 -> those is because it interrupts something called the
5901.216 -> Shikimate pathway that exists in plants and in
5905.056 -> bacteria, but not in animals or insects.
5910.002 -> However, what we know is that our gut microbiome and
5915.496 -> our skin microbiome and our uterine microbiome and all the
5919.276 -> microbiomes that exist in our body, even in our blood,
5923.95 -> for all animals, it regulates our entire system.
5929.272 -> It produces our brain chemicals, it produces regulates
5934.134 -> our digestion, it regulates immunity, et cetera.
5937.41 -> So if we take something, if we use something in agriculture
5942.19 -> or even on our lawns, that is an herbicide, that's also
5946.3 -> a broad spectrum antimicrobial, and it's now in our water and
5950.452 -> in our air and in our food, not just for us,
5955.324 -> but for all of life, we're disrupting that microbial animal symbiosis,
5962.89 -> and we're deeply disrupting one of the most basic things that
5967.852 -> makes us who we are.
5970.21 -> We are moving bubble from microbes.
5975.31 -> That's how our whole body works.
5979.43 -> So that's a very direct link between soil
5983.194 -> health practices that eliminate that particular herbicide.
5988.75 -> And we know that all the other biocides, basically
5994.37 -> all the other pesticides, I don't think their pests
5997.474 -> exist, but all the other biocides are killing off
6002.68 -> something that is part of our whole ecosystem. Right.
6005.512 -> So fungicides, we have fungi and yeast, etc.
6009.222 -> And that live in us, too.
6011.89 -> So that's one direct link.
6014.092 -> And then there's a lot of research about that.
6016.576 -> People who grow up on farms or around
6018.58 -> soil, et cetera, children who grew up playing
6022.806 -> in relatively healthy dirt have healthier microbiomes.
6028.59 -> And we know that taking
6032.05 -> dewormers decrease our immunity.
6037.39 -> So worms in the body perform a role.
6040.314 -> They help our immune system
6041.428 -> from overreacting to things.
6046.25 -> Yeah, there are a lot of links that may not
6048.548 -> people often think, oh, it's just about eating soil.
6051.83 -> It's not quite that direct, but there's a lot of links.
6055.19 -> So The Ecology of Care gets into all of them.
6060.11 -> Okay. Thank you, palace.
6062.086 -> I think we can move on to the next question.
6064.61 -> The next question is going to be from Tanya.
6069.874 -> What is the best replacement for chemical fertilizers
6072.778 -> NPK that we could use right now?
6075.104 -> Maintaining crop yields and improving soil
6077.254 -> without drastically altering farm practices.
6081.05 -> Well, the best replacement for the chemical fertilizers is
6085.136 -> a well made compost that has all of the
6089.3 -> different organism groups that your plant might require.
6094.066 -> We have started to develop a kind
6098.936 -> of a rating scale for that compost.
6102.694 -> We have to have a minimum of this number of bacteria
6106.342 -> and fungi and protozoan nematodes, this kind of diversity present in
6111.032 -> those groups to know that it's going to be able to
6116.81 -> deal with all of the needs of your plants.
6120.29 -> So you've got to have a minimum value of
6123.104 -> these organisms in your system, and then you've got
6126.056 -> to balance your fungal, the bacterial biomass ratio.
6128.722 -> And it's really pretty easy.
6130.79 -> You put the appropriate foods in
6132.812 -> along with the properly made compost.
6135.382 -> It has to be aerobic.
6136.846 -> That's a really important aspect.
6140.45 -> You cannot let it become anaerobic
6142.942 -> because the anaerobic conditions are where
6146.936 -> the disease causing organisms thrive.
6149.93 -> So starting to grow your own compost or buy
6155.972 -> it from somebody locally that has looked at the
6162.89 -> minimum levels for a biologically complete compost.
6167.386 -> That would be my suggestion on the way to go.
6169.808 -> And that means you can delete all of
6172.964 -> that inorganic fertilizer right from the very beginning.
6175.786 -> I don't know how many of you have noticed,
6177.754 -> but inorganic fertilizers have increased in cost by something
6181.688 -> like I was told earlier this morning, 800% increase
6187.642 -> in inorganic fertilizers, where all our farmers are going
6190.808 -> to find the money to pay for those inorganic
6195.154 -> fertilizers to go out.
6196.532 -> We need to be making compost for these folks.
6198.742 -> We need to be helping them out
6200.48 -> by giving them an organic alternative way
6204.692 -> of putting fertilizer back in their soil.
6211.13 -> I'm so glad that you have brought that up, Elaine, because
6214.052 -> it gives me the chance to thank you publicly, as I've
6217.126 -> done a couple of times, for bringing this knowledge to me
6220.976 -> at a point in my career when I was desperately looking
6223.748 -> for such a strong point of leverage.
6226.43 -> If you look back at the papers I was
6228.572 -> writing as an academic two or three years ago
6231.164 -> when I was still a postdoctoral researcher, I was
6234.17 -> trying to find a way to replace inorganic fertilizers
6239.158 -> because I saw how devastating they were environmentally in
6242.936 -> the world, ecologically to the soil system.
6246.32 -> And so with mycorrhizal fungi, with biochar,
6250.786 -> with worm compost, I was toying around
6252.872 -> with all these different little mixtures of
6255.932 -> things, 50% the normal rate of nitrogen.
6258.862 -> Can we get by with that and looking for the efficiency.
6261.85 -> And then seven months ago, when I joined Soul Food
6264.164 -> Web School and took the foundation courses, I said, this
6268.352 -> is what I've been looking for for a decade, and
6272.15 -> it's been awesome to see the way that we had
6276.224 -> farmers on here like Adam York, who have done this
6278.744 -> on a massive scale, and that it's really the foil
6282.778 -> to that entrenched paradigm from the industrial system that says
6287.036 -> you have to have agrochemicals, you have to have agrochemicals.
6293.09 -> I wish every farmer in the world.
6294.644 -> If I could send out one message.
6297.296 -> If you reach for a chemical, think to yourself, how could
6301.604 -> this be the last time any chemical on your shelf?
6305.122 -> How could this be the last time? I need this?
6307.376 -> And I fully believe that it's the
6310.184 -> soil food web and the other principles
6312.646 -> of regenerative agriculture, Agricos system management that
6315.884 -> can help them abandon those chemicals forever.
6319.67 -> Yeah, I'm glad you keen on
6321.176 -> the last statement there around management.
6323.71 -> As Lane mentioned, getting that sofa re established
6327.106 -> back in the soil is really important.
6328.208 -> We use compost liquid amendments like teas and
6330.356 -> extracts and so forth to do that.
6332.51 -> But the other important thing is the farmers have
6334.736 -> a significant role in the practices that they do.
6337.124 -> Telling is a good example is a management
6338.794 -> practice that you need to find an alternative
6340.51 -> for because you're really going to be interrupting
6342.658 -> those microorganisms in the soil.
6345.59 -> I tended to go through this exercise
6347.026 -> with one of my clients, which is
6348.704 -> let's look at your management practice, identify.
6350.926 -> Are they harming soil biology, are they
6353.504 -> neutral to it or are they beneficial?
6355.378 -> And what we really try to do is prioritize
6357.382 -> any of those harmful practices to the soil microbiome.
6360.91 -> How can we find alternatives to those management practices
6363.178 -> to move it into a neutral or beneficial?
6365.938 -> And then once you do all the harmfuls and
6367.904 -> move into the neutrals until you were able to
6370.112 -> change the mantra practices that the farmer uses to
6373.016 -> help support that microbiome in the soil.
6377.45 -> It's really kind of an educational process you
6379.256 -> have to go through with your clients as
6380.696 -> well, with the farmers, the producers.
6385.01 -> Anyone else want to add onto this question
6386.744 -> before we move to the next one? No.
6389.63 -> Okay, let's move to the next question.
6393.41 -> Next question is going to be from Jesse,
6396.766 -> and Jesse asks we have a problem of
6398.864 -> heavy metals and avocados, specifically cadmium.
6402.034 -> Can we manage this problem with
6403.424 -> a life and a soil approach?
6406.91 -> Yeah, sure we can.
6409.19 -> What we've got to do is tie up that
6411.812 -> cadmium that is present in your soil and put
6415.976 -> it into a not plant available form.
6419.51 -> So it would be working with compost.
6424.21 -> So we get the organisms back into your soil that
6427.46 -> will put that cadmium back into a biologically viable place.
6432.53 -> Your plant requires some cadmium, but not a lot.
6436.85 -> So we don't want to be removing all of the cadmium
6440.41 -> from the soil, but we have to get it down below
6443.45 -> a level that is not going to be available to your
6448.532 -> plant or it's actually physically removed from the system.
6454.268 -> And so we'd have to sit down and chat and
6457.364 -> talk with you about what the easiest way is to
6463.088 -> get things put back into the get the cadmium and
6465.656 -> put back into the structure of the organic matter.
6473.79 -> I have nothing else to add to anybody else.
6478.45 -> Pretty distinct answer here, Lane.
6481.39 -> I didn't know I had it in me all right.
6486.584 -> Let's go and move on to the next question.
6489.17 -> Next question is from Tracy.
6491.038 -> Tracy's, question is, what do you think of using mycorrhiza
6494.134 -> powder to help boost fungi in my case and metal
6496.918 -> restorations, but could apply to other projects as well?
6502.73 -> I take this one. Oh, yeah.
6504.596 -> I think it's right up your alley there, Adam. Yeah.
6507.26 -> I've done research into mycorrhizal inoculants,
6509.89 -> commercially available mycorrhizal inoculants, and I'm
6512.446 -> very, very skeptical of the claims.
6515.81 -> In many cases, we found no living mycorrhiza.
6518.878 -> Some researchers have done work and they
6520.268 -> have not even found mycorrhizal DNA in
6522.776 -> the product sold as mycorrhizal fungi.
6525.13 -> And we turned those products in, some of them that we
6528.704 -> assessed into a sole testing lab and found they had very
6532.568 -> high amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus in them from some kind
6535.856 -> of other carriers, say fish meal or something.
6538.604 -> And so instead of getting a locally adapted viable
6543.67 -> mycorrhizal strain that would partner with your plants, where
6547.424 -> you've paired the soil that you have with the
6550.436 -> mycorrhizae that have evolved in that soil, you actually
6554.84 -> could be disrupting the relationship. Right.
6557.24 -> By putting heavy amounts of something like phosphorus onto the
6560.864 -> plant early in its growing cycle so that the plant
6564.454 -> doesn't signal, hey, I need some mycorrhizae here.
6569.03 -> I'm looking for some help getting a little zinc or
6571.484 -> getting a little water out of the soil system.
6575.804 -> Instead, it's shutting down that communication,
6579.118 -> that chemical dialogue, when you have
6581.72 -> high rates of something like phosphorus.
6583.642 -> So it's just a very unregulated market.
6587.99 -> And I've used this metaphor
6590.014 -> before, maybe on another webinar.
6591.61 -> But if your goal is to say, oh, we
6596.004 -> want to increase something in the Serengeti, let's put
6599.724 -> out millions of poodles in the Serengeti.
6602.198 -> Well, you'd have a bunch of poodles in the Serengeti for
6605.388 -> like a week, and then they would all get eaten.
6608.114 -> And if you put out these non local
6610.716 -> mycorrhizae, one of the things that could happen
6613.704 -> is that they could die out.
6615.384 -> Another thing that could happen is that
6617.544 -> they could become invasive in that system. Right.
6620.412 -> We just don't know the longterm effects.
6624.17 -> And sometimes I see where one region is
6629.352 -> producing mycorrhizal inoculant as a commercial product.
6633.288 -> Stay in the Pacific Northwest, where I live,
6636.156 -> and farmers are using that in Oklahoma.
6638.75 -> Farmers are using that in Florida.
6640.514 -> Farmers are using that in Connecticut.
6642.662 -> And I'm like that's probably not the same
6645.816 -> kinds of mycorrhizae that should be in those
6648.06 -> places, especially not in terms of their genetics.
6651.638 -> So I'd very much like to
6654.93 -> turn people away from that idea.
6658.11 -> That's why we like to make the compost that we're
6662.114 -> going to use locally so that all the starting material
6666.398 -> comes in with the Indigenous sets of organisms.
6670.49 -> We make sure the conditions in that composting
6674.078 -> process are going to select the beneficials and
6678.144 -> against the diseases and pests and problems.
6682.11 -> So it's not that difficult to get these
6686.772 -> organisms back into your soil if you are
6690.324 -> paying attention to making proper compost.
6695.67 -> Yeah, I love that example of
6699.09 -> putting a poodle at mental image.
6705.37 -> That's another thing.
6707.29 -> Just like with probiotics.
6709.638 -> I mean, as soon as someone figures out that there's
6711.774 -> something that could be patented and sold, it will happen.
6716.776 -> And most people don't think, like,
6719.356 -> where can I get this?
6721.99 -> Where would this be happening naturally, in
6724.924 -> my food system or in my land?
6726.604 -> So we just always have to keep an eye
6728.874 -> out for that extractive paradigm that creeps in everywhere
6733.074 -> because everybody's kind of societies are capitalism kind of
6739.384 -> an end stage, so everybody needs money and everyone's
6745.566 -> trying to figure out how to make things work.
6748.57 -> But I think there are better ways.
6750.97 -> Well, there's a whole movement about going local and this
6754.252 -> really particularly applies to the work that we do.
6756.472 -> As Lane mentioned, Indigenous microorganisms.
6758.826 -> And Adam, you mention as well, the Indigenous microorganisms
6761.934 -> would have evolved over the eons in that particular
6766.48 -> bioclimate to be able to thrive for the plants
6768.546 -> that are growing in the systems.
6769.602 -> And I think there is going to be a
6772.684 -> lot of movement towards creating these hubs of making
6776.728 -> compost on farm compost and making liquid amendments that
6781.768 -> are going to be servicing the local area.
6783.64 -> That's really where I think this is
6785.188 -> moving towards in the agricultural space.
6788.95 -> Okay.
6789.544 -> Any other comments before we move
6791.056 -> on to the next question?
6794.17 -> All right, I love this next question.
6798.19 -> This question is for Rebecca.
6799.878 -> If we can make that sort of impact
6801.414 -> in one season, what is stopping us?
6803.536 -> Why is this not happening?
6804.748 -> What is the big blockers we have right now?
6808.63 -> What say you, panelists?
6812.81 -> Don't get me started.
6819.57 -> You go to grower meetings and give a
6823.392 -> presentation of all of the benefits that could
6826.164 -> come from getting the right sets of microorganisms.
6831.686 -> And the first thing you hear when you're
6834.99 -> at the coffee break is, that woman's crazy.
6837.708 -> She just doesn't know what she's talking about.
6840.084 -> If actually, if what she was talking about
6843.06 -> actually worked, then we'd already be doing it.
6847.71 -> And it's just an aggravating thing that at least
6852.912 -> we're having a lot of success because people are
6857.544 -> actually following directions now and getting their compost made
6861.792 -> properly so that they have only the beneficial present.
6866.88 -> And you're aiming things for the specific plants
6871.394 -> that you're growing, so you're optimizing your soil
6875.486 -> for that crop in that place.
6880.17 -> So I think the chemical companies
6882.504 -> are still a huge problem.
6884.868 -> This is something I see all the time.
6888.45 -> A grower, some producer, they typically have a lot
6892.284 -> of different ways they would consider trusted advisors.
6894.182 -> This comes from the University, the
6895.596 -> extensions, their PCAs, their fertilizer salesman.
6898.334 -> I mean, the list goes on and on.
6900.42 -> And when the farmer knows, hey, look, I
6902.724 -> can see the right on the wall.
6904.71 -> I'm going into negative territory.
6906.734 -> This is something I have to make a change to my farm.
6909.074 -> The people that are supporting them sometimes
6910.668 -> are very resistant to that change.
6912.204 -> And so they're hearing a lot of different voices.
6914.222 -> And so for a lot of these producers, they want to
6916.068 -> kind of dip their toe into it, which that's okay.
6920.496 -> I'll take a farmer that's willing to do a trial, and
6923.484 -> I'll tell them, give me your worst block, give me the
6926.424 -> worst performing area that you've got, and let's go ahead and
6929.256 -> tackle that and try to make those changes.
6931.65 -> And so they can see first hand how these
6934.584 -> systems can work and what it's going to take
6936.132 -> to actually do this kind of work.
6938.604 -> And then that starts to make the changes.
6941.25 -> And then I also see that once farmers become
6943.752 -> successful, their neighbors start to pay attention, the resistance
6947.27 -> comes less, and it starts that momentum shift.
6951.81 -> So it's just going to take, I think,
6954.804 -> having a number of those farmers being pioneers
6957.074 -> going out there making those changes, everybody else
6960.396 -> is going to start to pay attention.
6962.19 -> And then we'll see that ball rolling, and that's really
6964.704 -> kind of what's happening right now in the field.
6966.444 -> I'm seeing a lot of, hey, I'm a
6968.796 -> neighbor of so and so or I've talked
6970.272 -> to this farmer, and he's had some success.
6972.888 -> Tell me more.
6974.1 -> And that's where I think the
6975.516 -> big change is going to make.
6976.404 -> And then once we get that, then I think it'd be
6978.588 -> a much quicker adoption of these practices, and we'll be able
6981.756 -> to convert a lot more land a lot faster.
6985.29 -> One of the things that I hear a lot in
6987.216 -> the United States is what people call the coffee shop
6991.248 -> conversation, where kind of like what Elaine was describing.
6994.826 -> But for farmers, they've made a change.
6997.488 -> They've planted maybe a diverse cover crop.
6999.602 -> So there's all these things there
7000.656 -> that aren't corn or soy.
7002.398 -> And they go into the coffee shop
7003.908 -> and everybody starts talking about them very
7006.44 -> rudely and saying, oh, look at that.
7010.088 -> They're so messy.
7011.542 -> And what do they think they're doing?
7012.8 -> Who do they think they are?
7014.75 -> And especially in small rural communities,
7017.65 -> those relationships are really important.
7020.21 -> And so figuring out ways for me, I think one
7023.756 -> of the key things that has made this work in
7026.744 -> India and that is working in other places is people
7030.56 -> who have figured out how to have a long term
7032.758 -> learning network, a long term learning community of people who
7036.776 -> can support each other, are interested in listening to each
7039.776 -> other and can define their own questions and figure out
7043.844 -> ways to research them.
7045.44 -> That's what the farmer field school approach is, which
7048.416 -> isn't used much in the US but is used
7050.492 -> in many other parts of the world.
7052.49 -> And holistic management support groups do
7055.724 -> that at Land and Leadership.
7057.37 -> We're working on long term communities of learning.
7064.85 -> Part of what that does is it breaks us out of
7067.952 -> that paradigm of relying on experts, as if somebody over here
7073.892 -> who's not working with your firm knows more than you do
7079.184 -> about your farm or about your area or your context.
7083.51 -> So I think a lot of this is
7085.424 -> about building strong relationships between people so that
7089.84 -> they feel more supported in their innovation.
7094.198 -> They know that if something doesn't work out,
7097.436 -> they have people to talk to about it.
7100.43 -> Oh, I'm so glad you brought that up.
7101.924 -> Did it's like something I love as well
7104.432 -> to see those farmer to farmer sharing situations?
7109.25 -> Stefan, I don't want to get you in
7110.756 -> trouble, but I'm so curious if you've presented
7113.314 -> your research to traditional animal science professors at
7118.124 -> Langreen institutions and what their reaction was.
7122.75 -> Yeah, no, we have presented that.
7125.72 -> And I get a comment such as like, thank you
7132.356 -> for challenging the status quo or presenting this information.
7136.172 -> Right.
7136.808 -> But I think people are open for the idea and
7141.17 -> certainly these nature based solutions that field is growing.
7146.398 -> Right.
7147.2 -> And we're also not per se saying it's not realistic.
7152.098 -> Right.
7152.9 -> To say, well, we're going to stop
7156.788 -> finishing feed lots and things like that. Right.
7159.032 -> So we are just a way of
7161.264 -> bringing it in a diplomatic way.
7162.92 -> So I think people are open for it.
7165.104 -> But, yeah, changing the status quo is
7167.972 -> always going to be baby steps.
7169.57 -> But I see many farmers making the transition because
7177.08 -> it's beneficial for them because they cut back their
7179.444 -> input costs with like 30, 40, $50,000 a year.
7182.768 -> So maybe they're not producing more, but they're
7185.278 -> producing a similar amount, but they cut back
7188.18 -> their cost so much and as a result,
7190.1 -> they improve profitability and quality of life.
7193.67 -> I think we absolutely need to support small to mid
7197.456 -> skilled farmers, and that is what we're focusing on.
7199.712 -> But that doesn't mean we cannot have the
7202.724 -> big sort of industrial food system either.
7205.424 -> I think there's a combination of both.
7206.96 -> So it's finding sort of a
7209.78 -> middle ground in that, I think.
7213.05 -> Oh, thanks so much for sharing that.
7214.604 -> Yeah, that's kind of the thing I've been talking about a
7217.748 -> lot lately is the messy middle between a lot of what's
7220.774 -> out there and the fact that we don't necessarily want to
7224.384 -> set it up as a fight between sides.
7226.582 -> But we want to say that not that the truth
7230.026 -> is always an average of two extremes, but that there
7233.744 -> is kind of like a mosaic that we can pull
7236.948 -> and put together from some different things.
7239.048 -> And it's not going to work the same
7240.572 -> way everywhere, especially in terms of different countries
7244.078 -> and the food systems that they have.
7246.77 -> But, yeah, thanks so much for fighting
7248.494 -> that fight in the landgrant system.
7251.09 -> I still am doing some publishing, but that
7254.924 -> guy got a little tired of Edwin. Yeah.
7260.87 -> So I think, Brian, we're probably going to have
7262.964 -> to shut things down here just because we're overtime.
7265.978 -> But we wanted to put up our marketing
7270.694 -> promo one last time here and then thank
7274.472 -> the panelists for their time today.
7276.716 -> It's been really great.
7277.928 -> I've learned so much from all of you,
7280.652 -> and I'm really looking forward to attending the
7284.504 -> next webinar, which will be on April 14.
7289.07 -> You Can See That We Have A Series Set Up Here. And So.
7292.508 -> Yeah, But I Just Echo The Comments Coming
7295.592 -> Through On Chat That I'm Glad People Are
7297.452 -> Finding It's So Inspiring To Hear From These
7300.512 -> Voices Across The Sort Of Alternative Agricultural Spectrum.
7307.054 -> And It's So Great To Hear The Soul Food Web School.
7311.204 -> We Can Bring People Together To Share These Advances.
7318.93 -> All Right.
7319.5 -> Was Anybody, Like Heart Heavy To Share?
7322.692 -> One Last Thing.
7324.21 -> I Have One Last Thing To
7325.356 -> Share About Your Question, Adam.
7327.038 -> I Think Talking About The Land Grant, The Power Is
7330.216 -> With The Farmers And The Community And The Consumers.
7332.894 -> If they Change, We Will Change, Too, As Land Grants.
7336.854 -> Right.
7338.01 -> We Are Focusing On That Instead.
7340.59 -> Oh, thank You So Much For that.
7341.904 -> That Makes Me Feel Optimistic.
7343.442 -> And I Still Am Maintaining So Many Relationships Along Across
7347.844 -> University Systems, And I Can't Wait To Be Part Of
7351.744 -> Helping It Change A Little Bit Of Different Attitude, I
7356.976 -> Think, From Younger Folks Because Over The Last 15 Years
7361.86 -> Started To See A Shift In The People That Are
7365.724 -> Being Hired By Land Grant Universities.
7369.338 -> So There Has Been More Willingness To Look At Studies
7374.978 -> That Have Been Done That Don't Line Up With The
7382.056 -> Way We Were In The 1970s And Sixties, For Example.
7385.83 -> So The Freeze Is Starting To Melt And We're
7391.994 -> Getting More People Into Grand Universities That Will Pay
7396.996 -> Attention That They'll At Least Do Studies.
7399.99 -> They're Willing To Add The
7402.588 -> Important Material Into Their Lectures.
7405.842 -> So Change Is Happening.
7408.336 -> It's Been A Long Time.
7410.28 -> A Bruin.
7415.75 -> Awesome.
7416.248 -> Well, let's Sign Off Here So That
7418.744 -> People Can Get About Their Daily Activities.
7421.59 -> But I Just Wanted To Thank
7422.644 -> All The Panelists One More Time.
7423.952 -> And I Know Dan Had To
7424.936 -> Leave Already For Personal Reason.
7429.19 -> It's Great To Be Here And Really Fun, Even
7433.252 -> If A Bit Distracting To Read The Chat.
7435.042 -> There's Just So Many Great Comments And Questions.
7441.85 -> We Are Building The Community Right Here And Looking Forward
7446.152 -> To Meeting Some Of You In The Next Course.
7449.23 -> And I Want To Thank All Of The Support
7451.876 -> People Who Behind The Scenes, Have Made It Possible
7456.376 -> For US To Put On These Kinds Of Webinars.
7460.578 -> So Sammy And Alex And Heather And Luke
7464.874 -> And Everybody Back There, Please Take Our Gratitude
7472.398 -> For The Effort You Put In.
7475.69 -> Absolutely. I Agree.
7477.73 -> Our Essential Workers And David And Nephew.
7483.13 -> Awesome.
7483.58 -> We'll See You All Next Time. Bye, Everybody. Ciao.
7487.434 -> Don't Forget To Click That Like Button, Subscribe
7489.93 -> To Our Channel And Ring The Notification Bell
7492.414 -> To Stay Updated With All Our New videos.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7slM-rdtSsQ