Tagagriculture

This Tiny Country Feeds the World

African drought? “Water isn’t the fundamental problem. It’s poor soil,” he says. “The absence of nutrients can be offset by cultivating plants that act in symbiosis with certain bacteria to produce their own fertilizer.” The soaring cost of grain to feed animals? “Feed them grasshoppers instead,” he says. One hectare of land yields one metric ton of soy protein, a common livestock feed, a year. The same amount of land can produce 150 tons of insect protein.

From This Tiny Country Feeds the World, National Geographic.

 

Black Magic Soil

Fascinating ancient Amazon technique could reduce global warming by 12% …

Scientists Promote Benefits of Black Magic Soil | LiveScience:
Scientists say terra preta can do much more than a box of Miracle-Gro. The process of making it pulls carbon out of the atmosphere, and can reduce global warming.

“The knowledge we can gain from studying the Amazonian dark earths, found throughout the Amazon River region, not only teaches us how to restore degraded soils, triple crop yields and support a wide array of crops in regions with agriculturally poor soils, but also can lead to technologies to sequester carbon in soil and prevent critical changes in world climate,” said Johannes Lehmann, a biogeochemist at Cornell University.