Retrospective on Growing Solutions
Episode 32, in which five panelists discuss the potential of regenerative agriculture and biological models to help address climate change.
Will the revolution be televised, or will it be farmed?
By Christine Grillo Subscribe to Host Notes
Six years ago, during peak pandemic, CLF released Growing Solutions, a 42-minute documentary that showcases farmers, ranchers, and educators across the country tackling challenges in farming. From seed savers in Maine to New Mexicans using a acequias to address water scarcity, the film highlights how to use farming not only to weather climate change, but how to be part of the solution.
In this episode, five panelists talk about their involvement in being part of the solution. One of them is the film’s director, Leo Horrigan. The others include an heirloom grain grower in California, a soil ecologist in Kansas, a biologist in Washington State, and her husband, a geomorphologist. With Tom Philpott moderating, they discuss regenerative agriculture, carbon cycling, terraforming, land tenure and land leasing, perennial crops, and more.
The thing that excites everyone in the room is the estimate—which is a conservative estimate, by the way—that soil could offset 15% of carbon emissions. And that soil is a dynamic ecological system with ebbs and flows, inputs and outputs. At one point, the geomorphologist, David Montgomery, asks, “How much carbon could we put into the soils, how fast, and for how long?” No one really knows what the upper limit is.
A conversation about soil will inevitably lead to a conversation about microbes, which definitely happens in this panel. A conversation about microbes will lead to a conversation about microbial carcasses, or “necro mass.” The biologist in the group, Anne Biklé, leads the way in talking about why it is so important to think about biology when doing farming.
The panelists talk about the fifth agricultural revolution, or the transition toward regenerative practices, that so many people are waiting for. Or perhaps it’s already underway. Leo comes right out and says it: The revolution is starting on the farm. Not with the scientists, but with the farmers who are innovating toward a better future.
In Host Notes, the voices behind Unconfined podcast deliver additional context to supplement our interviews. Their views do not necessarily reflect those of the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future or the Johns Hopkins University.