A journalist travels through the world of soil and new sustainable farming methods.

The story is an interesting read but the work moves between advocacy and reporting. I found myself quite irritated at many of the statements people make in these spaces without finessing the fine line between science, industrial research and ideologically based practice. I wish there was a parallel book to this that was written taking into account much more detailed field expertise and the exceptions to each statement made in the book. ( )

This book is published by Rodale Press and so I suspect that there is a little bias. Having said that I have worked with some of these people and worked with some of the people mentioned in this book.

I highly recommend this book for anybody interested in Agriculture and soil science. I can give a long critique of this book; however, it work become another book. The point that needs to be made over and over again is that big agri business runs the ARS research. There were scientist that were bucking the trend. I spent many years studying soils; however, in the end I was left hi and dry by the ARS - my employee for over 20 + years. ( )

I learned a lot about soil in this book. There are many interesting characters with their stories of how they learned to bring back good soil--soil with the ability to hold water and carbon so that crops can be produced more abundantly and at less cost. Fewer or no pesticides and fertilizers are needed, meaning less pollution. The raising of animals is covered and how grazing on the grasses in the correct way also builds good soil. This means better land, better life for the animals, and better meat at the end. The history of animals and their predators led to this insight of this method. Good soil requires an interaction of of diverse life, especially what goes on underground. Fascinating book. ( )

The book does not address terra preta (biochar) but it's not the only method to build carbon in soil. This book explains how we can sequester tremendous amounts of carbon while making our food supplies more resilient and resistant to extremes. We don't have to grow vast forests or even seed the oceans with iron.

Well worth reading. ( )

I learned a lot about soil in this book. There are many interesting characters with their stories of how they learned to bring back good soil--soil with the ability to hold water and carbon so that crops can be produced more abundantly and at less cost. Fewer or no pesticides and fertilizers are needed, meaning less pollution. The raising of animals is covered and how grazing on the grasses in the correct way also builds good soil. This means better land, better life for the animals, and better meat at the end. The history of animals and their predators led to this insight of this method. Good soil requires an interaction of of diverse life, especially what goes on underground. Fascinating book. ( )