Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life

Soil may be the least sexy resource upon which civilization depends, yet soil erosion and degradation have plagued societies in the past and pose challenges for feeding the future. Growing a Revolution relates visits to farmers around the world at the heart of a brewing soil health revolution that cuts through standard debates about conventional and organic farming.

In this March 2022 session of the National Center for Appropriate Technology’s second Soil Health Innovations Conference keynote speaker David Montgomery of the University of Washington and Dig2Grow discusses farms in both the industrialized and developing world improving soil health through the adoption of three transformational farming practices—ditching the plow or minimizing soil disturbance, planting cover crops, and growing diverse crop rotations—offered a profitable way to rebuild the fertility of the soil and thereby reduce dependence on fossil fuels and agrochemicals.

Combining ancient wisdom with modern science, these regenerative practices can be good for farmers and the environment, translating into farms that use less water, generate less pollution, lower carbon emissions—and stash carbon underground.

This video is produced by the National Center for Appropriate Technology through the ATTRA Sustainable Agriculture program, under a cooperative agreement with USDA Rural Development. ATTRA.NCAT.ORG