Join us as we dive into the magical world of soil! We’ve become huge fans – did you know there are more microorganisms in a teaspoon of healthy soil than there are people on the Earth?
We explore what soil is, how it sustains life, and why it’s important for physical and mental health, and the climate. We draw on our own connections to soil, living in the country and city, and discuss what we can learn from soil about time, dormancy, patience, place, meaning, community, connection, communication, healing, complexity, and letting go.
We look at the threats to soil, and so to the world’s health at large, and signpost efforts to protect and restore soil, from the individual level, to farming, to policy.
Whether you’re new to this topic, or are an avid gardener or farmer, we hope you take something from the episode. To explore this and other subjects, join our Facebook group, 'Unfurling Podcast' or get in touch via our website.
References:
~1: Charles E. Kellogg, “USDA Yearbook of Agriculture”, 1938: “Essentially, all life depends upon the soil. There can be no life without soil and no soil without life; they have evolved together.”
~1: Chief Seattle, 1852: “We are part of the earth and it is part of us. What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of the earth.”
~2: Wendell Berry quote from “The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture”
~3: Definition of soil in Rainforest Alliance's “7 Fascinating Facts About Soil”
~7: Bedrock “weathering can take up to tens of thousands of years to form a mature soil”.
~7: “Soil and Soul: People versus Corporate Power” by Alastair McIntosh
~10: Info on soil microbiome, & soil antidepressants in Rainforest Alliance link above
~12: Soil carbon stocks, EEA
~13: The South West Peatland Project
~15: Soil degradation, Conscious Planet
~16: Soil Association
~16: Nature Friendly Farming Network
~17: Soils for the Future
~18: Conscious Planet
~18: Article on Conscious Planet in The CSR Journal
~20: Open Farm Sunday
~21: “Bloom” by Nicola Skinner
~28: “Let Them Eat Dirt: Saving Our Children from an Oversanitized World” by B. Brett Finlay & Marie-Claire Arrieta
~29: Aldo Leopold, “A Sand County Almanac”
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