77 results for tag: remineralization

Rock Dust as a Sustainable Amendment in Northwestern European Agriculture

Glacial deposit in Greenland Introduction The EU is the world’s leading exporter of agri-food, supplying 20% of world food and drink (Matthews, 2021; EEA, 2020). In 2020, more than 40% of Europe’s acreage was used for agriculture. 61% of this agricultural area was operated by high to medium intensity farms in terms of fertilizer and pesticide cost. The considerable growth in crop and livestock has caused environmental impacts that call for sustainable solutions. Northwestern Europe There are several initiatives currently focused on sustainable agricultural practices in Northwestern Europe. The European Commission has announced several ...

Rock Dust to the Rescue for Brazil During Europe’s Geopolitical Crisis

A soy plantation in western Bahia, Brazil. Image by Fernanda Ligabue/Greenpeace. As the invasion of Ukraine by Russia threatens to cut off fertilizer shipments, forcing Brazil to search for new fertilizer suppliers, further expansion of rock dust application in the South American country offers a solution, according to Remineralize the Earth executive director Joanna Campe. Joanna Campe speaking at the II Congresso Rochagem in Brazil. “Rock dust is the cornerstone of a sustainable and profitable future,” Campe pointed out in response to the tragic circumstances. The geopolitical reality will encourage Brazil to look for alternative ...

Study Captures Data to Turn Midwestern Farms into Carbon Sinks

(Left to right) Prof. Daniel Maxbauer, Jaren Yambing, and Ella Milliken Carleton College geologists join a growing wave of research into the carbon-trapping power of pulverized rock in America's agricultural fields No one could have predicted the severe heatwave that would swelter Ella Milliken and Jaren Yambing's first week of baseline field testing in June 2021—except maybe climate scientists. It was the longest heatwave to occur so early in a Minnesotan summer.  Under a blazing June sun, the Carleton College research assistants walked among rows of knee-high corn saplings in 90-degree weather. Flagging the corners of 12 half-acre plots, they ...

Powering Food Sovereignty with Microbes: The Nature Farming Convergence

. Key takeaways from the 2021 International Nature Farming Convergence What does a jungle that produces vegetables with rock dust and a weed-laden garden have in common? They both host a vast world of microbes that can save humanity from itself. With the secret to food sovereignty lying right underneath our feet, agriculturalists need to get out of the clouds of technology and back into the dirt to unearth its potential. In the past 20 years, the agricultural industry has created a rich and costly market of garden tech meant to fix any problem encountered in the field. Too many aphids? Get a pesticide drone. Yield not high enough? Use genetic ...

IV Congresso Brasileiro de Rochagem: Highlights from the Presentations in Portuguese

(Clockwise from top right) Dr. Magda Bergmann, Prof. Suzi Huff Theodoro, and Dr. Antonio N. Zamunér Filho. “I was converted,” confessed agronomist Antônio Bizão. Listening to Bizão’s skepticism of stonemeal was the highlight of the IV Congresso Brasileiro de Rochagem (which translates to “IV Brazilian Congress of Stonemeal”). Bizão talked of his intention, years ago, to denounce professionals who defended the use of silicate rocks for agriculture, before conducting experiments himself and obtaining replicable positive results. We were listening to a stonemeal Saul of Tarsus and the moment allowed me a glimpse of a community of farmers ...

IV Congresso Brasileiro de Rochagem: Highlights from the Presentations in English

Since September 2009 Brazil has held a conference on rochagem (rock dust) every 3 years. The Brazilian Conference on Rochagem highlights Brazil’s role as a leader in scientific research and policy creation around the use of rock dust as a sustainable fertilizer. The Congress creates a forum for researchers, the general public and private interests to discuss the scientific advances, effective policies and future rock dust potential. Past conferences have steadily advanced the importance of rock dust as a fertilizer to enhance food security and promote environmental health in Brazil. Despite pandemic difficulties, the IV Congresso Brasileiro de ...

Tomatoes, Orchards, and Forests: Studying Reforestation and Remineralization in China

Carbon reduction in China For China, carbon-reduction efforts remain rooted in reforestation and afforestation efforts, as the country keeps planting trees through to 2025.[4] In addition to these efforts, researchers in the People’s Republic have turned their attention increasingly towards enhanced weathering and rock dust application, studying reforestation and remineralization. China has decades of experience with major tree planting projects, for example, in 1978 initiating the so-called “Great Green Wall” project (official name: the Three-North Shelter Forest Program), whose goal is to plant 2,800 miles of tree-based wind breaking forest ...

Make Climate Goals Attainable: Remineralize croplands

A truck spreading rock dust on a field. Photo by Ilsa Kantola, University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana Paris Climate Agreement metrics are just out of reach As of July 2021, the top 10 fossil carbon emitting nations are failing to meet their 2030 green-house gas (GHG) reduction goals, as pledged under the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement defines a hard warming limit to 2°C, but current status quo climate initiatives – even if met – will lead to a global warming of 2.6 - 3.1°C. Heating of this magnitude could set forth a cascade of irreversible effects. The Earth, and the communities it supports, are in crisis.  To make climate goals ...

The Threat of Thawing Permafrost: Further impetus to remineralize the Earth

Photo by Sergey Dolya, sergeydolya.livejournal.com A subterranean threat  A new study, published by a team of geologists at the University of Bonn, has presented scientists with a new worry: thawing permafrost. In the past year, the Taymyr Peninsula in Northern Siberia recorded its hottest summer to date. From May 2020 to March 2021, arctic temperatures rose a whopping 6°C above the typical 1967-2000 baseline. While this rising temperature alone is cause for concern, the deeper issue lies below the Earth’s surface. The Taymyr Peninsula is coated with an impermeable layer of permafrost about 700m thick – approximately the length of six ...

Peter Jackson on Natural Farming, Ecological Resilience, and the Magic of Minerals and Microbes

Over a span of nearly two decades, self-taught natural farmer Peter Jackson has transformed a plot of rural Washington land into a thriving, bountiful forest garden.  When his family first arrived on the land nearly twenty years ago, it contained only a few food-bearing plants: old heirloom apple trees, sickly pear trees, and Chinese plum trees with cherry-sized fruits. Today, the property is home to approximately three hundred fruit and nut trees, as well as assorted berry bushes, and Jackson isn’t finished yet. “I’m trying to get up to about 500 trees on the four and a half acres,” he says. In addition to his farming work, Jackson is the ...