Keeping Soils Healthy Through the Winter

Podcast Transcript Are You Tending Your Soil Microbes as Winter Approaches? As the days are getting shorter and the weather’s getting colder, it’s tempting to put your farm or garden soil on the back burner, so to speak, and start thinking about: how to store all the produce you just harvested who to invite over … Read more

Online Conference Connects Soil Health to Your Health

[button color=”green” size=”big” link=”http://agrihealthculture.com” ]ConferencePage[/button] Good Nutrition Begins On Farms and In Gardens.  Hipocrates once recognized food as the best medicine.  Of course, it goes without saying that only good food is good medicine. Food that is rich in functional vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals can support healthy body weights, combat cancer, promote sleep, and ensure … Read more

Biostimulants Boost Plant Growth in Brackish Water

Brackish Water is Toxic To Crop Plants About 97% of the fresh water on the earth is considered too brackish (too salty) for most agricultural use.  Desalination, or purification, is of course possible.  Mechanical desalination processes are widely known. But making desalination cost effective and environmentally friendly can be challenging. The National Acadamies tell us … Read more

Food Security Begins with a Mindset

  Few of us stop to think about food security (access to enough safe, nutritious food to live a healthy life) as the driving force behind a thriving economy.  Yet leaders throughout history have recognized that food shortages spell disaster for any nation.  In today’s rapidly expanding global population, food security is key to prosperity.  … Read more

Considering Nopales for Arid Land Specialty Crops

Nopales, or Prickly Pear cactus, include numerous species of the genus Opuntia which thrive in poor soils and arid lands. These cacti can be grown and harvested for their tunas, or fruit, and for their pads.  They thrive in deeper, well drained soils, and can tolerate pH levels as high as 7.8.   California researchers have investigated … Read more

Can Global Warming Reduce Nutrition?

  According to a recent report in Science Advances (summarized in the Vox) increased atmospheric CO2, a key feature in global warming, can result in reduced crop nutrition.  They demonstrated this effect using rice, a staple crop that feeds much of the world.  This would seem threatening, since poor crop nutrition impacts food webs all the way from … Read more