Importantly, the author emphasizes that such regeneration is not only possible, it’s within reach for farms of any size and in any climate. I had entered the giveaway because I just moved onto a large piece of property and have begun planting various crops, and for my own application wanted to know more about farming practices and soil health. But there are some barriers to adaptation.
Any science mentioned is at the third-grade level. An eye-opening transition comes early on, after Montgomery finishes with his Great Plains tour, riding in a monstrous tractor high over the plains, “feeling like I’d entered the command center of a two-seater prairie starship.” A memory stick is entered and “I followed our progress on a bank of readouts,” using GPS and various data about inputs, later correlated with yields. This is a very readable non-fiction book given to me by a community gardener/farmer, and I'm passing it on to an environmental economics student. Instead of actual data, there are lengthy anecdotes about people who agree with this basic philosophy. This could include food crops like corn, wheat, and soy along with cover crops that bolster soil fertility and serve as livestock fodder, textile fibers like cotton, hemp, and flax (linen) for clothing, and canola, sunflower, and other quick-growing biomass crops for oils and fuel (biodiesel). Clear-eyed discussion of the case for improving soil health.
Resilience.org asked me to review this book, probably because I did a multibook review five years ago in which I … [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.
One question that came up was whether no-till methods would work with organic agriculture; many no-till farmers rely on herbicide for weed control, though those using careful crop rotation and cover crops may use much less.
Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Select the department you want to search in, Reviewed in the United States on August 8, 2018. When farmers restore fertility to the land naturally, this helps feed the world, cool the planet, reduce pollution, and return profitability to family farms. Piqued by his own ignorance on these matters, he’s egged on even more so by the people who’ve figured out—or think they’ve figured out—such things as what is in the center of the Earth. These two volumes provide a good understanding of this massive problem, and how farmers, Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2019. 5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book for its purpose Reviewed in the United States on August 8, 2018 This is not an academic study (although there are numerous references to many academic studies) in the book. Disabling it will result in some disabled or missing features.
When I finished the book I not only had practices I could implement, but I also felt compelled to get more involved in advancing our farming practices!
Top subscription boxes – right to your door, Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life, See all details for Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life, © 1996-2020, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.
When all aspects of regenerative agriculture - no till, cover cropping and heavy mulching, and growing a greater diversity of crops - are practiced, all kinds of farms benefit.
There - that's the entire book. no tillage, integration of cover crops, and diverse rotations of crops -- can achieve multiple objectives.
Tilling is evil because it leads to erosion, cover crops are good because they add organic matter.
I won an ARC of this book in a goodreads drawing. If the basic ingredients for industrial production are biodegradable, then societal waste products—food scraps, biosolids, clothing, and consumer goods—can all get composted and returned to the fields as fertilizer. While I already knew most of the information in this book, Montgomery's book is the first I have read to focus on soil as the direct resource we rely so much upon and the politics behind it. It does great educational work about global warming and the post petroleum world. All Rights Reserved. They are two-way streets through which carefully negotiated and orchestrated exchanges occur.
It is more for the farmer than the gardener but the philosophy of soil renewal is also a gardener's subject. Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2017. After reading this book, I now have two garden tillers for sale, and am converting everything I do in the vegetable gardening arena to raised beds, no-till, cover crops, and rotations! Other than those speed bumps, this was a quick and enjoyable book that I kept with me so I could read snippets while waiting for my car to be inspected or a quick break at Starbucks. These two volumes provide a good understanding of this massive problem, and how farmers, Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2019. influencers in the know since 1933. I've been interested in gardening for a few years now. Bottom line—it saves farmers money.
& Crop insurance is another problem, as it apparently is limited to conventional systems. © 2017 – The Macrobiotic Association | Designed, built and managed by. The author clearly lines out the connecting pieces of the how, what and why of the issue.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. His farm is thriving under this system.
Well researched, this book hammers home the same points through a number of different examples. BOOK REVIEW. But it depends on abundant organic matter in soil, and minimal disturbance. Yet while people of good will march by the many thousands for clean air or clean water, no one marches about the ongoing loss and impending disappearance of a resource (sustainably fertile soil) as important to higher forms of life on earth as are clean air and drinkable water. NATURE
[Take it one step further and imagine the potential to restructure our agricultural system around crop rotations to produce the four F’s of food, fiber, fuel, and fodder. ), Reviewed in the United States on June 18, 2017. In addition, the chapter set in Ghana could have been more culturally sensitive. That urgency is entwined in the changes in global weather cycles. Bryson (I'm a Stranger Here Myself, 1999, etc. But we need not repeat this history on a global scale. Here people are working tiny holdings, mostly using hoes and machetes—and sometimes sharpened sticks. Growing a Revolution: bringing our soil back to life. Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2019. 5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring tale of a growing revolution in agriculture. Conservative agriculture is not just a theory.
Together we can get people to adopt "Regenerative" agriculture and gardening practice. [King was intrigued with the way Shantung farmers sowed cottonseeds on the ground surface ten to fifteen days before the wheat was harvested. Everyone wins, not just those who can afford to go organic. Book 9 of 52: Growing a Revolution: Bringing our Soil back to Life by David R. Montgomery.
Building a world of resilient communities, Building resilient food and farming systems, Farms – the new frontline for restoring biodiversity, Building Bioregional Food Systems Post-COVID 19: The Northeast Healthy Soil Network & the power of regional food system reform consortium work, Building regional autonomies for a small farm future, Now is the time to re-think everything about how food businesses work, Nature’s store of wisdom: The value of open-pollinated seeds.
Mary Wildfire lives on the Hickory Ridge Land Trust in West Virginia with her husband Don. Every one of the farmers Montgomery visits uses his farm for demonstration purposes.
This could easily be the answer to building up our soil to produce more with less...include animal waste and one can boost production even higher. I have gardened all my life. Top subscription boxes – right to your door, Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life, See all details for Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life, © 1996-2020, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.
Estimates of what percentage of greenhouse gas emissions could be offset if all the world’s cropland and rangelands moved to these practices range from five percent to all of it. Tilling is evil because it leads to erosion, cover crops are good because they add organic matter.