David Montgomery: Clever Modern Technology vs Ancient Soil Wisdom

#027:  How many civilizations have collapsed due to extractive agricultural practices and soil degradation and how close is ours to reaching the same fate? Author and geologist David Montgomery talks us through the ultimate costs of taking our soils for granted and the difficulty of reversing course with modern technology. 

Author and geologist David Montgomery is a professor of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington. He has written the books Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations and Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life, and along with his partner, Anne Biklé, he co-authored the book The Hidden Half of Nature and is currently working on You Are What Your Food Ate. David and Anne also run the website Dig2Grow and are both members of the Real Organic Project Advisory Board.

To watch a video version of this podcast please visit:
https://www.realorganicproject.org/david-montgomery-clever-modern-technology-vs-ancient-soil-wisdom-episode-twenty-seven

The Real Organic Podcast is hosted by Dave Chapman and Linley Dixon, engineered by Brandon StCyr, and edited and produced by Jenny Prince.

The Real Organic Project is a farmer-led movement working towards certifying 1,000 farms across the United States this year. Our add-on food label distinguishes soil-grown fruits and vegetables from hydroponically-raised produce. It also identifies pasture-raised meat, milk, and eggs as compared to products harvested from animals in horrific confinement (CAFOs - confined animal feeding operations).

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We believe that the organic standards, with their focus on soil health, biodiversity, and animal welfare were written as they should be. But the current lack of enforcement of those standards is jeopardizing small farms that follow the law. The lack of enforcement is also jeopardizing the overall health of the customers who support the organic movement; customers who are not getting what they pay for at market but are still paying a premium price. The lack of enforcement is jeopardizing the very cycles (water, air, nutrients) that Earth relies upon to provide us all with a place to live, by pushing extractive, chemical agriculture to the forefront.

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