Dirt Fights Climate Change Guaranteed

01Dec09

The UK’s Soil Association just put out a report 5 days before Copenhagen that farming’s biggest thing is in fighting climate change — putting carbon back into the soil and earth. Organic, chemical free farms have dirt that has 20-28% more carbon (the lego brick of all life) than your burned out non-organic, chemical fried farm. If the whole world turned to organic farming, you could cut greenhouse gas emissions (not to mention air pollution or acid rain) by 11%.

Filed under: Agriculture, climate change, climate chaos, Composting, Environment, Food, Food Sovereignty, Global/World, Organic Agriculture, Society, Soil, Soil Management, sustainability, technology, Urban Agriculture, vermicomposting   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: biochar, carbon, climate change, COP15, copenhagen, dirt, greenhouse gas emissions, Soil Management

Black Gold Bankruptcy: 4 Things to Beware Of

27Apr09

Wrecking good soil is like wrecking the foundations of your house. It’s costly and it’s dangerous (not to mention the possibility of having the roof collapse on your head). The destruction of healthy, nutritious soil costs US agriculture $20 billion a year [1]. Topsoil (the stuff you get when you jab your hand into the first 6 inches of dirt) is vanishing faster than you can say, “Duh” in a third of the world’s food growing land.[1]

Filed under: Agriculture, Composting, Environment, Food Sovereignty, Soil, Soil Management   |  1 Comment
Tags: Agriculture, chemical, Compost, conventional, crisis, environmental, erosion, organic, Soil Management, tillage, topsoil, waste

Peas in the Garden, Bones in the Soil

22Apr09

Anne Raver poetically describes soil and growing peas in Maryland and Sunny discusses how soil is a unique story that can be quite ‘telling’.

Filed under: Gardening, Soil, Urban Agriculture, Vegetables and Fruit   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: fertility, Gardening, peas, planting, Soil, Soil Management

For 3 Years, Every Bite Organic

13Dec08

In a fascinating experiment — on himself — Dr. Alan Greene, a pediatrician and author in Danville, Calif., decided to find out. For the last three years, Dr. Greene has eaten nothing but organic foods, whether he’s cooking at home, dining out or snacking on the road.

Filed under: Agriculture, Organic Agriculture, Society, Soil   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: Agriculture, biota, community, development, nature, nurture, organic, organisms, relationships, Science, Soil, sustainability, sustainable

BLASTED: Study on Organics vs. Conventional

09Nov08

A previous study on the health benefits between organic and your usual supermarket produce may have got it all wrong! They found no different – the problem was that they did the test on soil that was previously organically managed which would have made both conventional or organic crops about the same!

Filed under: Environment, Organic Agriculture, research, Science, Soil   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: Agriculture, comparison, conventional, design, Food, industrial, method, methodology, organic, production, research

Wireless Soil Sensors Designed To Improve Farming

27Oct08

Kumar is leading an Iowa State University research team that’s developing transceivers and sensors designed to collect and send data about soil moisture within a field. Eventually the researchers are hoping the sensors will also collect data about soil temperature and nutrient content.

Filed under: Organic Agriculture, research, Science, Soil   |  1 Comment
Tags: Agriculture, content, Iowa, moisture, nutrient, OACC, research, Science, sensor, Soil, state, technology, temperature, university