Gabe Brown: Keys To Building a Healthy Soil
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN readers share it as a persuasive, first-hand account of regenerative agriculture, citing its claims about soil organic matter, yields and reduced fertilizer use.
What it is
Farmer Gabe Brown talks about how he rebuilt the soil on his ranch using no-till farming, cover crops, and grazing animals. The talk was recorded at a sustainable agriculture symposium in Idaho in 2014.
Recommended by 5 HN commenters across 6 different months, 2015 to 2023.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec clarkmoody · 2020-10 · on “No-till no-herbicide farming system in trial since 1981”
This talk introduced me to the no-till, soil health farming paradigm: [this video] TL;DR: focus on soil health and diversify your crops. His results are stunning.
Recommends briantakita · 2015-03 · on “Destroy the soil and we all starve”
Thank you for your anecdotal account. Many petroleum farmers suffer from soil runoff. There is also desertification. Also, there is inefficient usage of water draining the acquirers. Note that California monoculture petrol farmers are largely responsible for using nearly 80% of California's water usage. There's also habitat loss for insects & other organisms. There's also pollution of water from the excess nitrogen. There's also the poisoning of the people who eat chemical agriculture foods. Note the obesity epidemic & it's relation to the disruption of gut bacteria. Herbicides & Fungicides disrupt biological processes in humans. You mention "scare tactics". The problem is temporarily mitiga
Recommends briantakita · 2015-07 · on “The Plan to Feed the World by Hacking Photosynthesis”
I can't criticize your approach, since I'm not a farmer. I respect what you do & the work that it takes to run a farm. I can only point out what I've seen & what inspires me. re: Amonia > A typical modern ammonia-producing plant first converts natural gas (i.e., methane) or LPG (liquefied petroleum gases such as propane and butane) or petroleum naphtha into gaseous hydrogen. [LINK] This requires the importation or local extraction of fossil fuels. Given that the United States is now utilizing fracking to extract natural gas, this causes pollution within the aquifers as well as reducing the integrity of the surface strata. A natural approach of fertilization is animal poop from grazing & poly
Recommends goda90 · 2021-04 · on “Soil bacteria could improve crop yields, via fungi”
I found this presentation[0] by a farmer talking about growing soil to be super interesting. He touches on promoting beneficial fungi as one part of it. He claims that with all the relatively easy techniques he, and other like minded farmers do, that they get high calories per acre than some conventional farmers. [0] [this video]
Recommends droopyEyelids · 2021-08 · on “Peru is reviving a pre-Incan technology for water”
I saw an interesting farmer presentation on YouTube[1] the other day where he eventually starts talking about how cover crops have improved his land's ability to absorb and retain water. He even includes photos contrasting his neighbor's monoculture fields with his during rain storms. [this video]
Recommends tharkun__ · 2022-01 · on “Farmers facing fertiliser sticker shock may cut use”
Someone posted this link in some other discussion where he came up. I found it fascinating and what you mention as well as much of what your sibling posters do is in there: [this video] I don't know what kind of crowd that "Sustainable Agriculture's annual symposium" pulls but I found the number of people in the audience quite small unfortunately.
Cites briantakita · 2015-03 · on “Destroy the soil and we all starve”
> What was that you were saying about "does not work"? Things that do not work: the overuse of till farming, soil erosion, drought, loss of habitat of wildlife, water pollution, inefficient water usage, desertification, famine, uneven food distribution, the reduction of nutrients in food, the obesity epidemic of the consumers of monoculture petrol agriculture, methane pollution from concentrated livestock, to name a few... Note that the graph you present is a myopic & reductionistic lens on the system's performance. It is also based on the evolution of the tradition of monoculture till farming, which can work (in an unoptimal way) in forgiving (even rainfall through the year) climates, but d
Cites briantakita · 2015-04 · on “Legacy of Agent Orange”
> If you're referring to that interview then keep in mind that it was just a crappy "journalist" trying to make a show out of what was supposed to be an interview on a topic completely not related to Monsanto. Well, it's supposed to be "safe". Why didn't he drink it? And the interview was originally about Golden Rice. > Also, I'm not particularly convinced that the insane amount of stuff farmers dump on their crops is really better than replacing all of it with just one pesticide. Actually, in a functioning ecosystem, no pesticides are needed. Insects & other microorganisms are natural parts of the food web. [LINK] [this video]