1) Past civilizations have failed due to soil degradation from lack of protection, leading to loss of productive land, impoverished populations, and declining food and water quality. 2) Healthy soil with high organic matter is Earth's largest potential carbon sink but many agricultural soils are currently carbon sources; regenerating soils through cover crops and plant diversity can repair the carbon cycle through biosequestration. 3) Maintaining year-round green cover, encouraging soil microbes through compost and minimizing chemicals, and increasing plant diversity will rebuild soil carbon and nutrients, improving water quality and climate change mitigation while increasing food production.

1. FUTURE FARMING
The Power of Working Lands in a New Episteme

2. BROKEN CYCLES
EVERY FAILED CIVILIZATION FAILED TO PROTECT ITS SOIL
• The most meaningful indicator for the health of the land is whether soil is
being formed, or is being lost ~Dr. Christine Jones
• Loss of productive land
• Impoverishment of entire populations
• Declines in nutrient dense food
• Ever increasing inputs of synthetic fertilizers and all pesticides
• Declines in and Disappearance of stable, functioning watersheds

3. THE ANSWER: LIGHT TO LIFE
‘There can be no life without soil and no soil without life;
they have evolved together’
~Charles E. Kellogg,
USDAYearbook of Agriculture, 1938

4. SOILS AND CLIMATE
• SOIL is Earth’s largest potential CARBON SINK, but many if not most
agricultural soils are, at present, a CARBON SOURCE
• We can repair the Carbon Cycle through active biosequestration of CO2
• Yearlong green
• Humic compounds, formed by plant-microbe relationships, are STABLE forms
of Carbon and not only sequester the gas, they also increase water holding
capacity, nutrient availability, and much, much more.

5. SOILS AND CLIMATE

6. SOILS AND WATER
HIGH
SOIL
CARBON
IMPROVED WATER
INFILTRATION
RECHARGE OF
TRANSMISSIVE
AQUIFERS
PERENNIAL BASE
FLOW

7. SOILS AND NUTRIENTS
Diverse,
perennial
cover
More
Carbon
Healthy,
Diverse Soil
Microbes
MORE OF ALL NUTRIENTS AND
MICRONUTRIENTS ESSENTIAL FOR
PLANT,ANIMAL AND HUMAN
HEALTH!!!!!!

8. WHAT TO DO?
1. GREEN PLANTS ALLYEAR LONG (THE MORE DIVERSETHE BETTER!)
2. PRACTICESTHAT ENCOURAGE MICROORGANISMS, RATHERTHAN
ELIMINATETHEM
3. DIVERSIFY, DIVERSIFY, DIVERSIFY!!!!!
MORE LIFE + MORE LIFE = 𝑴𝑶𝑹𝑬 𝑳𝑰𝑭𝑬 𝟒

9. 1. GREEN PLANTS ~ YEARLONG
• Every year photosynthesis draws down billions of tons of CO2, representing
THE MOST POWERFUL TOOL WE HAVE TO RESTORE SOIL FUNCTION
AND REDUCE GREENHOUSE GASES TO AFFECT CLIMATE CHANGE.
• Every green plant can be a Carbon pump, but to sequester Carbon it must
be stably fixed in the deeper strata of the soil bank.
• Two factors drive Biosequestration via photosynthesis:
• Photosynthetic Capacity
• Photosynthetic Rate

11. 2. MICROBES ~ LOVE THEM LIKE YOUR
LIFE DEPENDS ON IT
• Building Compost (can be done on-farm) can replenish healthy microorganisms
and this can be applied directly to help re-establish populations on depleted
soils.
• Using compost teas can also stimulate life in the soil and facilitate growing back
diverse populations.
• Reducing, with the goal of eliminating, synthetic fertilizers and all ‘cides’ is
critical to maintaining the free-living populations of critical microorganisms
that have the potential to build the productivity of landscapes.
• AND JUSTTO BEAT THIS ONE TO DEATH: DIVERSIFY!!!!

12. DIVERSITY: IT’S NOT JUST FOR
CORPORATE AMERICA
• Plants foster unique relationships
• Monocultures are neither more profitable, nor more productive than
multiculture, especially over the long term
• The highly productive agricultural land world wide is largely where savannah-
type grassland ecosystems evolved and were almost unparalleled in efficiency,
productivity, and resiliency outside of the tropical rainforest systems.

13. AND LASTLY, YOU, DEAR LISTENER

14. WASN’T THERE SOMETHING ABOUT
WINE?
• It’s your money.
• It’s your body.
• It’s your future.
• It’s your children’s
future.
• EXERCISEYOUR
POWER

15. QUESTIONS?