Tag Archives: regenerative agriculture

Episode 286. The Once & Future World

This is The ChangeUnderground for the 7th of February 2022.

I’m your host, Jon Moore

Decarbonise the Air, Recarbonise the Soil!

As this pod enters its seventh year, I can see some patterns from the last six.

The big one is the continued decline in honeybee populations and mass deaths following spraying events. I’ve added a photo to the show notes on the website: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode286/ showing which foods would drop from the supply chain, as we say these days, if our pollinators went missing. “Went missing”, if we killed them off through our own inability to respond to reality. 

And the bee question is a microcosm of our planet. Continue reading →

Episode 283. Organic, Biodynamic or Permaculture?

This is The ChangeUnderground for the 20th of December 2021.

I’m your host, Jon Moore

Decarbonise the Air, Recarbonise the Soil!

Bit of a back to first principles episode this week. I think we can take as read that if you’re listening to this podcast the chemical route to food production is a no go. This can leave a bewildering mass of other choices.

From the generic “Organic” to the semi propriety biodynamic and permaculture. We can, of course, toss in regenerative agriculture too.

So, as I say, let’s go back to first principles.

What are we attempting to do? Why are we doing it? Then finally, how?  Continue reading →

Episode 274. Facing the Critics

 

This is The ChangeUnderground for the 18th of October 2021.

I’m your host, Jon Moore

Decarbonise the Air, Recarbonise the Soil!

Meat is Bad, Okay?

As we covered back in episode 272: Methane, the arguments against the continuation of certain agricultural practices may be based in opinions rather than a critical analysis of the science. And if we get it wrong, we could be driving towards a hell on earth. And that destination is not in my satnav. What a quaint word, satnav. I’ve never used one and maps, Apple or Google does what those horrendously expensive toys used to do. They have gone the way of the pager, the fax and the typewriter. Are we to stand by and watch the cow, the sheep and all the other ruminants follow them into the dustbin of history? Continue reading →

Episode 176. The 2019 RegenEarth Online Conference: Backyard Regen

This is the World Organic News for the week ending the 8th of July 2019.

Jon Moore reporting!

Decarbonise the air, recarbonise the soil!

So, this climate change thing, what’s to be done?

In the white English speaking world, of which I am a part, this whole climate change thing has become politicised. This is something I can’t quite understand and yet seems perfectly obvious.

Can’t understand: The evidence seems quite clear. I’m not particularly interested in the consensus of scientists argument. You could’ve used the same argument for an earth centred solar system and you’d have been wrong. No I’ve been convinced by the evidence, both empirical and on the ground, so to speak. I’ve spoken before of the farmer who’s cutting silage ten weeks before his father used to 30 years ago. I’ve spoken also of the grape growers moving from the southern parts of the Australian mainland to the most southern state of Tasmania because they are unable to achieve the wines they want with shorter growing seasons and warmer harvest times. They have records running over a century which remained within fairly tight extremes until the 1970s when those temperature records all started heading into higher and therefore warmer territory. Continue reading →

Episode 172. Why Regeneration?

This is the World Organic News for the week ending the 10th of June 2019.

Jon Moore reporting!

Decarbonise the air, recarbonise the soil!

Today we’re going to discuss regeneration in particular regeneration of the soil and ecosystems. Over the last 50 to 75 years, basically since the second world war we’ve gone through a period of destruction. In effect a faustian bargain in which we gave up 1% of our topsoil every year in return for production returns.

We did this by using chemicals: chemical fertilizers, chemical pesticides and herbicides and fungicides and to some extent, it worked. There were lots of famines and people starving in the 1970s. A lot of the techniques developed with chemical inputs saved many people, kept them alive. But the cost! That bill is coming due and we need to pay for it now. If we wait the cost will be so much higher. Continue reading →

Episode 171. Regen in the Field & Teaching the Future.

This is the World Organic News for the week ending the 3rd of June 2019.

Jon Moore reporting!

Decarbonise the air, recarbonise the soil!

Our first piece comes from the website Inc.com entitled: ‘The Biggest Little Farm’: How One Couple Gave Up Everything to Live the Entrepreneurial Dream.

Quote:

In The Biggest Little Farm, filmmaker-entrepreneur John Chester captures the improbable story of how he and his wife Molly built a 200-acre farm with a singular goal: achieving the highest level of biodiversity possible. A fascinating case study in regenerative agriculture–a type of organic farming that continuously enriches soil and can help reduce climate change by sequestering carbon–the story of Apricot Lane Farms is also an inside look at the highs and extreme lows of putting everything on the line to chase after an ambitious entrepreneurial dream. Continue reading →

Episode 170. Hunter Gathers, Organic Workloads and a Change Worth Making

This is the World Organic News for the week ending the 27th of May 2019.

Jon Moore reporting!

Decarbonise the air, recarbonise the soil!

The project I spoke about last week is coming along nicely and I’ll have lots more to tell you soon.

Today I need to dive back into my personal history. Fear not, I won’t be over sharing. 

Hunter Gatherers

Whilst at university I studied archaeology. This discipline only deals with humans so no dinosaurs just humans. The greater part of human existence was spent by us in the gentle arts of the fisher-hunter-gatherer. Now this was sold to me as lifestyle not worth the effort during my school days. You know the story. Civilisation arose in the Fertile Crescent, China and Mesoamerica and slowly at first but then with increasing rapidity, the bright lights of civilisation were brought to the whole world. What caused me to question this assumption, apart from the Mongols but that’s another podcast, was the interface of two opposing food systems.  Continue reading →