For the Love of Soil: Strategies to Regenerate Our Food Production Systems

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The author is inspirational, humble, very fair minded and leads us in a sensible discussion of the critical issues at hand (really... soil and food growing spells humanities survival!) Unlike some books discussing the issues with big agriculture and the food production systems, it wasn’t just a whinge and takedown of the “bad guys”. Rather, a well referenced yet entertaining guide of what we CAN do, with encouraging stories of people who are already doing this to great effect. Loved it. For years many of us involved in regenerative agriculture have been touting the soil health - plant health - animal health – human health connection but no one has tied them all together like Nicole does in “For the love of Soil”! " Gabe Brown, Browns Ranch, Nourished by Nature. " Within the below transcript the bolded text is Hilda Labrada Gore and the regular text is Nicole Masters. I got into commercial viniculture and got interested in the microbiology of what I was creating and how to create different types of blends of whim castings for an avocado producer compared to a strawberry producer compared to pasture. I didn’t even know I had a name like that agro-ecology was a thing. Maybe like ten years into my career and I was reading some research papers. I was like, “That’s me. I didn’t know I had a title.” It evolved into what I was passionate about. When I left school, I had no idea what I wanted to do. Certainly, I didn’t know it was going to involve soil but once I discovered soil, I never got a doubt. As you can see, you can relate that to the human aspect, animal health, or greenhouse gas emissions. It’s incredibly exciting.

For years many of us involved in regenerative agriculture have been touting the soil health – plant health – animal health – human health connection but no one has tied them all together like Nicole does in “For the love of Soil”! Gabe Brown, Browns Ranch, USA That is exciting. I’ve heard of the brix meter that measures the amount of minerals and such in the soil itself. Explain how these new meters are going to work that consumers may be able to use. When you mentioned greenhouse gas emissions, I couldn’t help but start thinking about climate change and people thinking they need to eat less meat or go vegan to heal the planet. What do you think of all that, Nicole? No, if you look and think a lot of the big agri companies are also your big pharmaceutical companies. Bayer, for instance. They are peddling the same stuff. No, so I had a foggy brain. I had memory problems. I was tired all the time. I had been a competitive long-distance runner and I was good. I had a whole lot of medals and stuff. I went from being athletic to nothing. I did not want to partake in sports. I went off the rails in my own life. I was no longer interested in partaking. Everyone thought, “That’s normal teenage behavior,” but it wasn’t.That is a good word of encouragement because sometimes when we have these conversations we’re like, “Everything is falling apart. We’re killing ourselves.” I liked that you ended your book on a hopeful note and I’d like to end this show on a hopeful note. I want you to answer the question. If the audience could do one thing to improve their health or maybe even the soil health, what would you recommend that they do, Nicole? William Gibson once said that "the future is here - it is just not evenly distributed." "Nicole modestly claims that the information in the book is not new thinking, but her resynthesis of the lessons she has learned and refined in collaboration with regenerative land-managers is new, and it is powerful." Says Abe Collins, cofounder of LandStream and founder of Collins Grazing. "She lucidly shares lessons learned from the deep-topsoil futures she and her farming and ranching partners manage for and achieve." Masters questions why the top minerals “es­tablished” for soil health (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) do not include calcium. Accord­ing to her, we’ve been hoodwinked. Calcium plays an essential role in soil health. Without dumbing down the soil science (and it’s full of references for people who want more..) Nicole explains in clearly understandable ways how soil works and what we can do to stop harmful practices and grow better.

Using quotes from well known authors and creative thinkers to set the stage for each chapter she cleverly builds the imagery so it can be seen with the minds eye as clear as if you were looking at it in person. Some concepts required stopping to think or research further but overall, so well written was this book it left me wanting more knowledge and more of Nicole’s writing style. No. That was the interesting thing. My life has been dedicated to how we get chemicals out of the environment and out of the food chain. I had this poisoning that was in my body and I had no idea. It ties into my thinking around the value of intuition and how the subconscious knows a lot more than what our main conscious brain does. My body knew that I had been poisoned. I just didn’t know. The first chapter had me hooked. Nicole shared her own story about Paraquot poisoning in her teens and how it affected her health and her journey into ultimately becoming an Agro-ecologist, educator and systems thinker. She not only tells her story but weaves it beautifully into the topic of this book. She speaks of chemicals, genetics, epigenetics and more telling the story of human reliance and exposure to these things. She encourages each and every one of us to listen to our bodies, nature and our intuition to build a rich and insightful life. In so doing she builds the reason for having written the book and her love of nature and soil. The case studies, science and examples presented a compelling testament to the global, rapidly growing soil health movement. “These food producers are taking actions to imitate natural systems more closely,” says Masters. “... they are rewarded with more efficient nutrient, carbon, and water cycles; improved plant and animal health, nutrient density, reduced stress, and ultimately, profitability.” Deep inside, with all that you were going through, you knew it was something else. Paraquat is an herbicide. I’m guessing it’s like a Roundup or something. Is that right?This is fascinating, even though it is complex. I like how you’re breaking it down for us. I want to ask, you wrote the book For the Love of Soil . Who was your target audience for that book? Our global agricultural production systems are frequently at war with ecosystem health and Mother Nature. In this book, Nicole is declaring peace with nature and provides us with the science and guidelines to join the regenerative agriculture movement while increasing profits.” (Terry McCosker of Resource Consulting Services in Australia) No matter if you are at the beginning of your regenerative journey or further down the road, Nicole Masters’ ‘For the Love of Soil’ will open your eyes and heart to fascinating new world below your feet. Ok, so I'm struggling with how to rate this book. As a regenerative farmer myself, and an organic farming consultant with 25 years experience, I want to love this book because any helpful attempt to further the regenerative ag movement is worth 5 stars! Books like this are so badly needed, now more than ever! But, this book has it's share of problems. If I'm comparing it to other regenerative ag books that received a 5 star rating, this one would probably get a 3. But I want to be generous and give it a 4. Here are the problems.

Although Masters uses scientific methods to determine her proposed course of action, she convinces the reader that the best device to determine soil health is the lowly shovel; She does not leave home without it. A shovel lets you visualize the color and the soil aggregates, smell the aroma, count the earthworms, and even discern if legumes are fixing nitrogen. Add a refractometer and determine the brix of your plants...and your weeds. Why would you care about the weeds? "Make sure you are not farming/or ranching for weeds!" If the weeds score higher than your crop, think about how you will accommodate your crop rather than your weeds. For years, many of us involved in regenerative agriculture have been touting the soil health - plant health - animal health - human health connection but no one has tied them all together like Nicole does in For the Love of Soil !" (Gabe Brown, Browns Ranch, Nourished by Nature) Thank you for joining us, Nicole. You’ve had some valuable insights and I’m grateful for your time. William Gibson once said that "the future is here - it is just not evenly distributed. Nicole modestly claims that the information in the book is not new thinking, but her resynthesis of the lessons she has learned and refined in collaboration with regenerative land-managers is new, and it is powerful. She lucidly shares lessons learned from the deep topsoil futures she and her farming and ranching partners manage for and achieve. The case studies, science, and examples presented a compelling testament to the global, rapidly growing soil health movement." (Abe Collins, cofounder of LandStream and founder of Collins Grazing) If I’m hearing you correctly, for fifteen years, you didn’t know what was the cause of your problem.

Customer reviews

Unusually, she charts her work with these businesses over time: we don't just get the waving of the magic wand, we get to see what happened after. I thought that this longer-term view (both good and bad) was inspiring and added to the book. Eden, thank you for your testimonial. I loved hearing your story. Each of you is welcome to write a Letter to the Editor that we might include in an upcoming journal. You can also rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts so that we might read a shout-out of yours as well. Thanks so much for reading. Stay well. Y hasta pronto. She tells her personal story of how an herbicide jeopardized her health, though she did not know it at first. She goes over why monocrops are a problem (even organic monocrops), the correlation between chemical companies and pharmaceutical companies, and how personal testing meters are being developed to help us better assess the quality of our food and the health of the soil. In the end, she offers ideas to diversify and regenerate both the land, and our guts, for improved health. If all the consumers turned around tomorrow and said, “That’s it. I’m only buying regenerative foods.” Those big companies scrambled to make sure that was happening. We’re seeing that happen on a pretty big scale now. You see General Mills, Danone, Ben & Jerry’s, and all these kinds of Patagonia. These kinds of companies that provide food and fiber and now, engage with the regenerative story.