Bread from Stones by Julius Hensel– Book Review
Bread from Stones
“Our most optimistic expectations are no less than the realization of an old dream: ‘What will fertilizing with stone dust accomplish? It will turn stones into bread, make barren regions fruitful, and feed the hungry.’”
--Ward Chesworth and coauthors, quoting Julius Hensel [1]
Producing healthy, nutritious foods starts with creating fertile soils to support proper food growth. Dr. Alexis Carrel, a Nobel Prize winner, commented in 1912 that “minerals in the soil [...] control the metabolism of cells in plant, animal, ...
Collaboration in the Caribbean – One Island’s Volcanic Ash Could Enrich Another Island’s Soil
Student and teacher John Mussington examining eggplant fruits to determine growth differences between plants grown in soil mixed with Monserrat volcanic ash vs the control.
A review of Chapter 19 from Geotherapy: Innovative Methods of Soil Fertility Restoration, Carbon Sequestration, and Reversing CO2 Increase.
In the Caribbean, two islands face economic and agricultural challenges due to their unique geology. Montserrat suffered a major eruption of the Soufrière Hills volcano in 1995, which covered much of the island in ash and rendered the land ...
The Big Blue — Seawater Concentrate for Abundant Agriculture
This is a review of chapter 27 from our book Geotherapy: Innovative Methods of Soil Fertility Restoration, Carbon Sequestration, and Reversing CO2 Increase. Available from CRC Press and Amazon.
Close your eyes and think about the oceans: the ethereal blue light shimmering through seawater, the breaking waves kissing the shore, the colorful fishes swimming around reefs.
Those deep blue areas not only provide breathtaking beauty; they also provide the resources that all life on earth depends on. About 71% of the Earth’s surface is covered by the water of the ...
The Tour Guide — Guiding us from the sea to the soil
This is a review of chapter 28 from our book Geotherapy: Innovative Methods of Soil Fertility Restoration, Carbon Sequestration, and Reversing CO2 Increase. Available from CRC Press and Amazon.
Like many other energetic and communicative college students, young Ioan Hossu combined his keen interest in nature and culture into a part time career as a tour guide in Romania. At that time, he probably never imagined that one day he and his company would be another type of “tour guide,” guiding society to an even more eco-friendly world with superior foods.
Several ...
The Ethics of Climate Change: Geoengineering and Geotherapy
Geoengineering strategies, from the extreme to the sustainable. Photo by University of Leeds
Climate change is an unprecedented human-made disaster that raises unprecedented questions about what we humans should do. The status quo is not a viable option, but there are several different ways we could approach the problem of climate change. One style of approach, known as geotherapy, identifies the root cause of the problem as a failure to understand the balances that naturally keep the climate stable, or that kept it stable before the industrial revolution. Industry ...
Bill Holmberg’s profound impact on those who knew him (1928 – 2016)
Bill Holmberg with intern Laura Brenner Kimes at an ACORE event
We were incredibly privileged to have Bill Holmberg on our board of directors from the very beginning in 1995 until his passing on September 8, 2016. Bill was a major advocate and pioneer for renewable energy in Washington, D.C. In honor of Bill’s extraordinary career and contribution from war hero to environmental advocate, we would like to share reflections from those who knew and worked with him.
From former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle:
I have known Bill Holmberg ever since I came to ...
Book Review – Rocks for Crops
In the book Rocks for Crops, agrogeology is defined as the “study of geological processes that influence the distribution and formation of soils and the application of geological materials in farming and forestry systems as means of maintaining and enhancing soil productivity for increased social, economic and environmental benefits,” or as Professor Peter Van Straaten aptly puts it: geology in the service of agriculture.
Professor van Straaten has been one of the leading figures in agrogeology for more than 30 years. He has carried out numerous geological studies ...
Agrogeology: Geology in the Service of Agriculture
Prof. William Fyfe: Photo from the Earth Science Department of University of Western Ontario.
Farmers have long recognized the importance of soil health in delivering bountiful harvests and nutritious food. A healthy soil hosts a diverse community of microorganisms and provides an array of nutrients; it requires aeration and sufficient water supply for plants.[2] Yet soils around the world are increasingly degraded by poor land management and industrial agriculture. Fortunately, solutions to this problem can be found in agrogeology.
Agrogeology is “geology ...
Agroecology: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Sustainable Agriculture
Driving across the nation, one is frequently greeted with monotonous farmlands growing only one or two types of crops. This landscape is the product of industrial agriculture: large-scale, external input-reliant production systems favoring human-imposed control over nature. In the past few decades this type of production has taken over much of the agriculture in the United States and is also a common mode of production in many other parts of the world. It has been implicated as the driving factor of a plethora of social and environmental problems, such as eutrophication ...
Soil: The Foundation of Mineral Nutrition and Optimal Health
The FAO recently published a great infographic in the link between soil health-plant health-human health, the basis of mineral nutrition. Animal scientists and veterinarians have known this for years and I have been studying the importance of soil mineral nutrition for almost 2 decades.
In 2004, I was fortunate to spend time with Dr. Joel Wallach, a veterinarian and naturopathic doctor when he was lecturing in Australia. This meeting brought to life the intricate link between soil health-plant health-human health. I was able to interview him at that time and ...
