Todays conversation (and the book he just wrote) is for anyone who eats. This much loved, story-telling fat pig farmer shares in very human terms why caring about soil is caring for the future of humanity. And we feel sure that by end you too will be tapping a dance in support of our single greatest foundation for life. He takes a complex topic and makes us all want to fight for it from wherever we are, balconies, veggie patches, community gardens, small acreage or large scale farms. From gut biome and mental health to food production and climate change his words will remind us why humility is needed when it comes to dealing with the ecosystem which feeds us.
Episode Summary
- Is soil science impenetrable? He wanted to make it accessible.
- Overcoming the identity crisis of soil via storytelling to activate imagination
- “ If we just think about soil as the stuff that gets between me and mashed potato then it will never get the attention it really deserves
- We have to make everyone care - and get as excited about it as the foundation
- The farming movement which is as interested in what happens below the soil as above
- 98% of all our calories come from topsoil
- Australia's agricultural land has lost half of its topsoil in the last 200years
- Topsoil feeds us and we need to arrest the loss and cherish the change
- Why finding soil builders is more helpful than feeling fear
- It takes about 1000 years for nature to create 1cm of topsoil so we need to find a way to make it faster
- Finding those who are growing topsoil faster, learning from them and leap frogging
- Super big brained soil scientists combined with ancient wisdom is demystifying and reassuring
- The super power of solidarity and sharing
- Being comfortable with your “work in progress” as temporary custodians
- We are only one very small part of a long time scale
- Home gardener super heroes not to be underestimated
- Every bit of soil matters; pot plants, lawn, vegie garden, community gardens
- Small domestic gardens feed 1 billion people globally. 70% of food grown in the world is grown in domestic environments
- Most of where we live is former food growing land but can we reignite it for food production again
- Bringing our children up to value soil and farming while being engaged in a world that is interesting to them.
- Honest insights into parenthood as a farmer
- How to bring a relentlessly stimulated culture on a slow and gentle journey
- The 'Old Friends and hygiene' hypothesis'
- Embracing a world which is dominated from bacteria - accepting we are PART of it and healthier when entrenched in it.
- The interconnectedness of how we exist in the world
- We haven't been humble enough to recognise that the thing which feeds us properly needs to be allowed to do its thing properly.
- The miracle of watching seeds grow.
- Nature’s on our side but we have to give it a chance.
- Caring about soil is caring about the future of humanity. We really all need to care about its fate and currently we don't.
- Fat Pig Farm
- Soil
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