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I don't know if you've come across this video on HN before, but I discovered it here and it was an eye-opener for me. It's a guy called Gabe Brown who transform

I don't know if you've come across this video on HN before, but I discovered it here and it was an eye-opener for me. It's a guy called Gabe Brown who transformed his farm into one that needed no fertilizer by using no-till and rotation. One of the most compelling things is that he's no tree-hugger (he even has an uncomplimentary comparison with the soil from an organic farm) - his focus is squarely on profit, which goes up when you're not forking out huge amounts of money on chemicals. I thought I'd give it five minutes, then 2.5 hours later I realised I'd watched the whole thing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUmIdq0D6-A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUmIdq0D6-A

brendoelfrendo 5y ago
There's a podcast called "How To Save A Planet" that did an episode on this that I found rather enlightening: https://gimletmedia.com/shows/howtosaveaplanet/76hmbge/soil-the-dirty-climate-solution https://gimletmedia.com/shows/howtosaveaplanet/76hmbge/soil-... They focus on two farmers, one a small-scale farmer in NY who started with the vision of a sustainable farm, and a commodity farmer in Minnesota who was looking for ways to improve yield. The Minnesota couple are, like your example, not at all "tree-huggers;" they're just people who want to survive. And what they found is that they can get more crops, for less money, while also limiting their exposure to potentially harmful fertilizers and pesticides. They see a lot of resistance from their neighbors, because conventional farm knowledge is so ingrained in their culture. Running a farm is tricky, and experimenting can be the difference between profit and losing your shirt. There's just not much will to risk losing the land that's been in a family for generations on a quest to find a better way.
AlanSE 5y ago
I saw this on Netflix Kiss the Ground. Feel like I'm missing something. State universities all over the nation have agricultural programs. Are they teaching stuff like cover crops? In other words, does this guy align with the conventional experts, or is he fringe, or does the industry have a schism?
- tastyfreeze 5y ago
  He started as fringe out of necessity. He and a few others are now the leaders of a paradigm shift. Gabe Brown has shown that it is immensely profitable to ditch costly chemical inputs and manage a farm as an ecosystem. He wasn't the first to return to farming this way. But, he has done a lot to spread it around. Ag extensions mostly recommend the high input farming methods. What Gabe Brown practices is more than just cover crops.

brendoelfrendo 5y ago

There's a podcast called "How To Save A Planet" that did an episode on this that I found rather enlightening: https://gimletmedia.com/shows/howtosaveaplanet/76hmbge/soil-the-dirty-climate-solution https://gimletmedia.com/shows/howtosaveaplanet/76hmbge/soil-... They focus on two farmers, one a small-scale farmer in NY who started with the vision of a sustainable farm, and a commodity farmer in Minnesota who was looking for ways to improve yield. The Minnesota couple are, like your example, not at all "tree-huggers;" they're just people who want to survive. And what they found is that they can get more crops, for less money, while also limiting their exposure to potentially harmful fertilizers and pesticides. They see a lot of resistance from their neighbors, because conventional farm knowledge is so ingrained in their culture. Running a farm is tricky, and experimenting can be the difference between profit and losing your shirt. There's just not much will to risk losing the land that's been in a family for generations on a quest to find a better way.

AlanSE 5y ago

I saw this on Netflix Kiss the Ground. Feel like I'm missing something. State universities all over the nation have agricultural programs. Are they teaching stuff like cover crops? In other words, does this guy align with the conventional experts, or is he fringe, or does the industry have a schism?

tastyfreeze 5y ago
He started as fringe out of necessity. He and a few others are now the leaders of a paradigm shift. Gabe Brown has shown that it is immensely profitable to ditch costly chemical inputs and manage a farm as an ecosystem. He wasn't the first to return to farming this way. But, he has done a lot to spread it around. Ag extensions mostly recommend the high input farming methods. What Gabe Brown practices is more than just cover crops.