Memo 1

12 February 2025

What I did:

This week, I attended the PASA Conference from February 5-7. Many of the sessions that I selected to go to were those that I could link to my independent study. During this week, I also continued reading Healing Grounds. To my pleasant surprise, many themes in the book came up in the sessions that I was going to at PASA. I also read two articles: “Regenerative agriculture sequesters carbon—But that’s not the only benefit and shouldn’t be the only goal” and “Regenerative agriculture needs a reckoning.” I had planned on doing another reading for this week, however, I decided that I had enough content for this week between PASA, reading Healing Grounds, and reading two articles.

 

What I learned:

 

PASA and Healing Grounds

One of the sessions I went to at PASA was titled “A Deep Dive Into Soil Biology.” Having living plants in soil for as many months out of the year as possible is critical to maintain the microbial community. Microbes rely on living roots to survive whilst plants rely on microbes to obtain nutrients necessary for survival. Roots, fungi, and bacteria have a strong symbiotic relationship. From the moment seeds germinate, they establish connections with fungi in the soil. If fertilizer is present, seeds germinate in an “artificial environment” and do not feel the need to send out root exudates to attract fungi and bacteria. Therefore, fertilizer should be applied in a sidedress so that seeds must first establish themselves with a microbial network before tapping into the readily-available nutrients. Tips of growing roots send out sugary exudates to attract nutrient-containing bacteria which “swim” along root hairs. (Bacteria require a moist soil environment in order to move about; therefore, keeping soils moist is critical to maintaining a healthy microbial community.) The root tips then encompass the bacteria, extract the nutrients, and expel them back into the soil. In Healing Grounds, I learned that arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi associate with most terrestrial plants (80% major food crops) and help with resistance to drought, pest, disease, soil aggregation, nutrient cycling. (Carlisle 94) The aforementioned statement from Healing Grounds was reiterated in this session and elaborated upon in more detail. Mycorrhizal fungi grow into most crop roots, extending the root network so plants can access more nutrients and water resources. The only crops which are not compatible with the mycorrhizal fungi are those belonging to the Brassica and Amaranthaceae families, explaining the 80% statistic that I had previously read. In order for the “underground herd” of bacteria and fungi to survive, soils must be kept moist and cool (between 85-90 fahrenheit). Practices such as mulching and cover cropping contribute to maintaining this environment when cash crops are not planted.

In one of the plenary talks, “Soil Organic Carbon” I learned that plant root inputs (sugary exudates) build soil 5-30x faster than aboveground organic material. This point further emphasizes the role that cover crops play in contributing to building soils. While mulching and composting are beneficial, living roots can contribute significantly to building soil deep within the surface. 

In another talk, “Too Much of A Good Thing: Compost, Nutrients, and Watershed Health,” I learned that many farms have excess phosphorus from compost applications. Having an excess of certain nutrients in soils can contribute to eutrophication from runoff during high rainfall events. Additionally, excess of one nutrient in soil can inhibit plants’ absorption of other key nutrients. High quality compost with the right ratio of nutrients for a given field is critical to know before utilizing it. This contradicts the notion that compost is always good. This was a powerful takeaway given that Lafayette has recently started utilizing dining waste as compost on the farm, boasting of the circular food loop. Just as soil can be tested for its nutrient profile, compost can be tested. If compost is not good quality, it is better to use leaf mulch and granulated fertilizer to ensure excess of one nutrient is not degrading soil health.

 

Key takeaways to apply to LaFarm:

• Keep living roots in field as long as possible
• Keep soils moist and cool continuously
• Test compost for nutrient profile
• Do not plant seeds directly into fertilizer; apply fertilizer on side so that plant roots must establish before they can access it

 

Readings

“Regenerative agriculture sequesters carbon—But that’s not the only benefit and shouldn’t be the only goal”

Regenerative agriculture requires adaptation to what exists naturally in a system and utilizes minimal outside resources to allow a system to be regenerative, in other words, self-sustaining. Carbon sequestration can be an indicator for farmers that they are doing something right but is not the end goal of regenerative agriculture. Regenerative agriculture is all about symbiotic relationships, between people, animals, plants, microorganisms, and the land; there are no shortcuts to “achieving” regenerative agriculture. 

 

“Regenerative agriculture needs a reckoning”

Regenerative agriculture is not just about changing the practices used on a farm or the end result of the farm’s produce or soil. Regenerative agriculture necessitates that all people be included and the systems that support conventional mechanized agriculture are dismantled because they are based on a foundation of land dispossession and racism. Without changing the foundation that conventional agriculture rests on, the ecological and environmental crisis that proponents of the mainstream regenerative agriculture movement are focused on remediating will not be solved. Exploitation and violence towards the land is directly linked to discrimination and exclusion of certain groups of people. One cannot begin to solve our ecological crisis without beginning to solve our social crisis. Regenerative agriculture is known to focus on biodiversity of plants and microorganisms, but it must also focus on diversity of people and a diversity of knowledge. Indigenous knowledge, from the beginning of settler colonialism, has been excluded and ignored. Indigenous people native to this land had experience developed over generations that allowed them to live in balance with the land. European settlers ignored and rejected the lifestyles of the Indigenous people they encountered, superimposed their practices from another continent on foreign land. There is not a lack of knowledge of how we can live in balance with the land, we have just been ignorant of it, willfully by those intent to maintain extreme power and wealth, unwillfully by those subject to the system that tries to keep them blind to the truth. There are solutions, there have been, we have just decided to live with the problems that we started for hundreds of years because at least they are our problems and we want the solutions to be our solutions. Regenerative agriculture will require humility.

 

What I am doing next:

After an intense week of sessions at the PASA conference, I will be reading a few articles about regenerative agriculture and continuing Healing Grounds. There will be less content that I am consuming this week which will allow me time to ponder what I have read and listened to up to this point. I would like to solidify where I will get funding for the soil tests that I want to do. Additionally, I intend to reach out to Ryan Snyder to follow up about the land I requested for my study.