This is a list of books, videos, articles, links, etc. that we believe are valuable and of interest. Please make use of them.
Future Soil: Excess carbon regenerating soils
There’s an old saying about soil ‘they’re not making any more of it’ – but some farmers are. They’re drawing on the excess carbon that’s warming the atmosphere and putting it in their soil – building fertility and holding precious water.
What’s wrong with our food system
I ran across this a few days ago and I nearly fell out of my chair. There may be hope yet. Watch this TedTalk for Kids as an 11-year-old gives us his take on industrialized food production, the state of our food industry and what he has learned as he has investigated for himself what is going on with food production.
Make this video go viral. Share it with everyone, especially your kids. They listen to each other.
Living Soil
Living Soil was produced by the Soil Health Institute. They have a wonderful website filled with technical as well as inspirational information about soil health, personal health and how the two are intimately linked.
Life in the Soil
Life in the Soil is a Japanese production and is one of the best resources to learn exactly how microscopic life works. It is filled with images and videos of the actual organisms that we talk about in healthy soil and provides a new level of understanding and appreciation of this diverse and intricate web of life that exists beneath our feet.
Back to Eden
Back to Eden is a documentary about Paul Gautschi and his system or sustainable organic gardening. It shows the way his techniques have encompassed his life to become an organic lifestyle. I hope it inspires you as it has inspired me since I first watched it and continue to return to it.
Farmer’s Footprint
Farmers’ Footprint is a video made by farmers and their families that documents, from the farming perspective, the impact of the past 70 years of farm practices on the land and the health of everyone who is involved in farming. If you eat, you are involved in farming so you should watch this video today.
The Secret Language of Trees
Your trees may be talking about you. Yes, plants communicate, not just trees. This TedTalks video is an excellent explanation with great visuals of how the mycorrhizal network in the soil facilitates not just the transfer of nutrient and water from the soil to plants, but connects plants together and allows them to actually communicate.
Know Your Farmer: JM Fortier
This interview is both inspiring and frightening in some ways. JM Fortier is a Canadian market gardener committed to true organic principles. Watch his interview and then read through the text. His vision for organic food networks is amazing but his outlook for the future of the whole organized and regulated Organic market is gloomy at best. This is a great piece that I think everyone, consumers and producers alike should view.
The Real Organic Project is a farmer-led movement created to distinguish soil-grown and pasture-raised products under USDA organic. In response to the lack of enforcement of some vital USDA Organic standards to protect soil health and animal welfare, organic farmers rallied together to fight to protect the integrity of the organic label.
A Forest Garden
Is it a forest or is it a garden. What if it is both. This short film from National Geographic documents the efforts of Martin Crawford, a UK Horticulturist, and gardener, who took a bare flat field and transformed it into a forest filled with 500 species of edible plants. The forest garden takes minimal maintenance and provides a wide array of edibles.
A Different Take on Gardening
In Austin, Texas a local gardener has a completely different viewpoint on gardening. His innovative ideas have produced some of the most radically different gardening concepts I have seen. Take a look at this video and see how Jay Carpenter uses technology, out of the box thinking, and basic gardening knowledge to create a one of a kind garden space.
