Follow Land Core
Incentivizing healthy soils through sensible policy
Healthy soil is a win-win for everyone, but converting from conventional to regenerative agriculture is a process that needs to be incentivized. Land Core is an organization that’s doing just that. Their mission is to advance soil health policies and programs that create value for farmers, businesses and communities. We talk to founders Aria McLauchlan and Harley Cross.
Show Notes
0’28 how did Land Core get started
3’04 how have soils gotten so unhealthy and what are the costs
6’30 60 years of topsoil left
8’19 what are the incentives to build healthier soils now, how could they be better
12’19 what is the NRCS
14’30 healthy soil mitigates against soil and drought both
15’46 crop insurance … food lost and farms destroyed
17’00 roots of industrial agriculture
19’20 healthy soil and carbon sequestration and climate change mitigation
22’49 how does regenerative agriculture challenge unhealthy and inhumane animal agriculture
26’34 animal-crop integration
29’05 breaking away from the idea of giving specific practices to farmers
29’20 incentivizing farmers’ creativity and ingenuity
30’18 taking soil improvement to a large scale
32’39 soil health and risk mitigation
33’00 how much of our land is regenerative, organic, conventional
33’59 what are farmers asking for
34’53 incentives preferable to regulation
36’09 are politicians understanding all this
37’13 is anyone pushing back
38’21 bi-partisan potential of soil health issues
38’58 soil health leasing programs
40’32 risk assessment and soil health
44’10 relationship between healthy soil and rural communities
46’15 investing in communities
47’25 how can people get involved
More Episodes
Episode 106 – Planetary regeneration on a community scale
Soil microbiologist David Johnson has been collaborating with pecan farmer Josh Bowman to cultivate healthy soil that retains water and produces a more abundant—and more profitable—harvest. Josh in turn works with other growers to help them improve their operations.
Episode 105 – Growing pecans in the desert? Yes—with regenerative ag practices
Soil microbiologist David Johnson has been collaborating with pecan farmer Josh Bowman to cultivate healthy soil that retains water and produces a more abundant—and more profitable—harvest. Josh in turn works with other growers to help them improve their operations.
Episode 104 – Got goat? The Vanguard Ranch does, and it’s ready to eat
Renard Turner and his wife are agrarian entrepreneurs who produce local, sustainable, regenerative food at their Virginia goat farm–and they provide a model for future farmers and homesteaders.
Episode 103 – Tribal food renaissance
Latashia Redhouse helps Native American food producers get their products out into the world—and supports their traditional and regenerative agriculture practices.
Episode 102 – From despair to care: a high mountain view of our ailing earth
Author Bill deBuys reflects on what people are doing to land, water, and climate from high in the Himalayas, in his new book, The Trail to Kanjiroba, and how we can begin letting go of despair and do our part for the earth’s restoration.
Episode 101 – Stepping back from the abyss: James Rebanks’ return from industrial to traditional farming
Farmer James Rebanks comes from a thousand-year old farming tradition—which was almost destroyed in one generation. He tells the story of how he worked out how “improvement” was wreaking havoc on the soil, food, and wildife—and how he’s rebuilding his farm to be long-term sustainable.
Episode 100 – Restoring the global water cycle
With the best of intentions and technological innovation, we have broken the world’s water cycle. Now, says water expert Sandra Postel, we need to work with nature in order to restore it—if we want to survive, thrive, and, well, eat.
Episode 99 – How—and why—to be good to your microbes
Dr. Emeran Mayer connects the human and soil microbiomes—both stretched to their limits and beyond by today’s diet, lifestyle, and industrial practices. And he tells us how we can eat and grow food in a way that heals the body, the economy, and the planet.
Episode 98 – Lush and Abundant Biodiversity—in a Desert City
Reese Baker has a vision for greening urban landscapes—and he wants to make Santa Fe an example of how to do it, by catching rainwater from roofs, streets, and parking lots, and channeling it into gardens, trees, and soil.
Episode 97 – The deep history of apples
Orchardist Gordon Tooley knows apple trees–and has been cultivating rare and heirloom varieties for three decades. But for him it’s as much about the landscape and lifestyle as about the product. We talk about living slowly, observing closely, and promoting healthy land, water, wildlife, and human communities.
Episode 96 – Pests, pathogens, and porcupines: thwarting the marauding hordes in an apple orchard
New England is lush and green—and all kinds of creatures want to eat a farmer’s crops. Apple grower and cider maker Steve Wood talks about Integrated Pest Management and its challenges.
Episode 95 – Rockweed: underwater forest or industrial commodity?
Seaweed has always been used for food, fertilizer, and medicine. But now, off the coast of Maine, over-harvesting threatens rockweed and the many species that depend on it.
Episode 94 – Designing systems that improve as they age
Jesse Smith‘s work aims for the opposite of planned obsolescence—the goals at Jalama Canyon Ranch are resilience and perennial productivity, through restoration of ecosystems and a truly regenerative vision of agriculture.
Episode 93 – Into the Pasture: Grassfed Goes Mainstream
Getting certified for grassfed meat can be challenging–but the American Grassfed Association supports producers in regenerative practices that are good for the earth, the farmer, and the eater.
Episode 92 – Busting myths about beef
Nicolette Hahn Niman was an environmental lawyer and vegetarian when she married a rancher—so she has a unique and broad-based perspective on agriculture. We discuss the new edition of her book, Defending Beef: The Ecological and Nutritional Case for Meat.
Episode 91 – Transforming the American Prairie, one strip at a time
Native Americans used fire and other methods to cultivate food on the prairie. In the 20th century it was plowed under for endless rows of monocrops. Omar de Kok-Mercado is part of a team that is working to make prairie land ecologically–and economically–sustainable.