78 results for tag: rock dust

Huplaso Grows: Natural Mineralizer from New Brunswick Quarry Making Inroads Across Canada, World

(Updated May 7, 2023) Jean-Paul Dubé The Huplaso quarry in Bathurst, New Brunswick, contains a rock that is rich in more than 57 minerals (macro, micro and trace elements) and is ideal for soil remineralization and organic plant growth. “It increases about 27% the health of the plant,” said Stéphane Losier, business development director. He added that the product, made from ultramafic basalt-type volcanic rock dust, improves yields by more than 35%, balances pH and increases soil paramagnetism levels.  According to Jean-Paul Dubé, Huplaso’s North American sales manager, paramagnetism produces a potentially beneficial ...

Remineralization Pioneer David Yarrow on Transforming Soils to Transform Ourselves

There’s no doubt that the industrialization of agriculture has changed the world we live in. With the advent of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, ‘agribusiness’ is a commercial enterprise seeking to do what most businesses do — maximize profit. But soil isn’t a static input, a sterile medium,  or an endless reservoir from which crops will always sprout. In fact, treating soil in this way is a fast-track to depleting it. Continuing down this path is not sustainable, and it’s becoming clearer that we must rethink the way this system works, and move forward in a regenerative, holistic way.  One of the pioneers of this ...

UNDO Matters: UK carbon removal company taking remineralization mainstream

The story of UNDO Carbon Removal began as the story of the Future Forest Company, says Jim Mann, cofounder and chief executive officer of both, with the former using enhanced weathering and the latter taking the reforestation route to ecological restoration in the United Kingdom. And so, UNDO spun out from Future Forest in mid-2022. Jim Mann, cofounder and CEO of UNDO “We were trying to move quickly with in-house rock weathering, trying to scale fast. Reforestation and ecological restoration are relatively slow processes. You might spend a year planning and then two years getting the appropriate permissions and signoffs from government ...

Crash Course on Enhanced Rock Weathering for Carbon Removal

Rock dust delivered to agricultural fields for a terrestrial enhanced weathering field trial (photo courtesy of Lithos). Click photos to enlarge. Melting iceberg, Greenland (credits: NASA/Saskia Madlener). According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), without significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, the global temperature will increase by 3 to 4 degrees Celsius by the year 2100. This could have catastrophic consequences for human society. We are already living with the effects of the 1.1-degree increase that has occurred since the industrial revolution began around 1760. Major heat waves, wildfires, floods, and ...

Teaching Bold New Methods: Arina Duvenhage and the Garden of Eden Garden School

Mineral malnutrition is a serious global issue affecting hundreds of millions of people. It is estimated that worldwide, 60% of people are deficient in iron, 30% are deficient in zinc, and approximately 15% are deficient in selenium. Calcium, magnesium, and copper deficiencies are also common in both developed and developing nations. These nutritional deficits result in widespread healthcare problems and diminish the quality of life and community resilience. Arina teaching at the Garden of Eden Garden School How do we fight global mineral malnutrition? The answer is one farm at a time. As experts such as Arina Duvenhage of the Garden of Eden ...

OpenAir CDR on Enhanced Rock Weathering: Scaling up climate solutions globally

Dirk Praessler, CEO of Carbon Drawdown Initiative One of the biggest challenges we face today is climate change. Scientists have long-since warned of the inevitable effects of a warming planet, yet despite this urgency, today’s economy continues to run primarily on fossil fuels. Decarbonization – the active capture and storage of CO2 from the atmosphere – is one possible solution. However, as Dirk Paessler, founder and CEO of Carbon Drawdown Initiative explained in a recent “Open Air This is CDR” episode, Decarbonization is “pointless without 90% emissions reduction.” We need to decarbonize the economy while simultaneously pulling ...

Rockmin Composts Provides Local Solutions to the Global Soil Crisis

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations:  Soils are fundamental to life on Earth but human pressures on soil resources are reaching critical limits. Careful soil management is one essential element of sustainable agriculture and also provides a valuable lever for climate regulation and a pathway for safeguarding ecosystem services and biodiversity Chris Cameron and his daughter Catriona Dale  In other words, soil degradation is one of humanity's greatest threats. Fortunately, there are experts like the father-daughter team behind Rockmin Composts who are on a mission to do something about it. The ...

Rock dust can remediate harmful nickel contamination

Researcher from EMBRAPA in Brazil checking on plots testing effects of nickel in soils. Nickel contamination impacts our crops By the year 2050, we need to grow 56% more food to feed the projected global population while simultaneously preserving our forests instead of turning them into fields for agriculture. The World Resources Institute has identified five solutions to this problem, one of which is to increase the production capabilities of our existing farmland (Ranganathan et al. 2018). This could be difficult due to nickel, which causes problems in soils around the world. Although nickel occurs naturally in soil, when it is above benefi...

Getting Real: Munson’s New Book Calls For A ‘Positive Solution To Climate Change’

Remineralizing the planet increases soils’ ability to produce flora capable of absorbing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide, thus combating global climate change without resorting to the elimination of hydrocarbons from the energy mix — that is a central theme from David Munson’s Get Real: A Positive Solution to Climate Change.  In his new book, this entrepreneur and inventor also calls for more biochar production and implementation of holistic and regenerative agricultural practices en masse, along with somewhat unorthodox methods for spreading crushed rock dust to all corners of the world. Further, he invites readers to ...

RevivaSoil Test Run: UK Farmer Trials Remineralization Against Synthetic Fertilizer

From Left to Right: Andy Carp from Agrimagined, Geologist; Mark Mitchelmore, Technical Manager of Breedon Quarries Ltd; David Lomas, Dairy Farmer; Prof. Suzi Huff Theodoro; Andrew Ollier, Mixed Farmer; Bryan Ollier of Agrimagined, Agricultural Engineer; John Morris, Organic Farmer The right hand potato plant was treated with RevivaSoil only and the left hand plant with synthetic fertilisers only. (Click to enlarge) In England, Pickmere-area farmer Andrew Ollier has been running trials of experimental potato varieties alongside a separate trial with RevivaSoil rock dust supplied by Agrimagined Ltd. on potatoes to compare with his normal usage of ...