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The Dirt on Soil

book cover

Growing a Revolution: Excerpt

The promise of conservation agriculture to bring life back to the land and support biodiversity both above and belowground should appeal to environmentalists and farmers alike. For like it or not, a large part of nature will be what lives on farms, because we now use more than a third of the world’s ice-free land area for growing crops and raising animals.

June 22, 2022

oaks

Two Bur Oaks and a Crawdad

We must eat. But the land sacrifices so that we may live; the land ethic asks that we live in ways that show we are responsible citizens of the land community; and the law of reciprocity asks what we are giving back in return for that gift of life.

June 15, 2022

The Dirt on Soil field

Dirt to Soil: Excerpt

In the everyday work of my farm, most of the decisions I make, in one way or another, are driven by the goal of continuing to grow and protect soil.

June 8, 2022

fields

The Living Soil Handbook: Excerpt

In the 11 years I have been farming, all I can claim credit for is making the conditions right (and sometimes, admittedly, very wrong) for food and flowers to grow.

June 1, 2022

The Dirt on Soil 3

Home Soil

Soil is not dirt. It is not a pile of fine-ground rock and biological detritus. It is not even a home for mycelium and microorganisms, annelids and insects, roots and burrowing chordates. It is the sum of all those things living together.

May 25, 2022

buffalo

Healing Grounds: Excerpt

I needed to speak to people whose ancestors had experienced the slaughter of their bison herds, the enslavement of their entire family, the brutal exploitation of migratory farm work, or incarceration at the hands of their own government while their crops were left to rot.

May 18, 2022

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