Gabe Brown – Brown’s Ranch in North Dakota

Interview by Jesse Frost on the No-Till Growers Podcast On May 4, 2020, Jesse Frost had a farmer to farmer conversation with Gabe Brown on Regenerative Agriculture.

In the current emergency, that is caused by climate change and the Corona Virus pandemic, a movement among farmers brings inspiration and hope to those who are looking for healthy food and techniques of farming without chemicals.

Instead of adding to carbon dioxide pollution by industrial farming and animal raising techniques, farmers like Gabe Brown and Jesse Frost are exploring ways of actually bringing carbon dioxide down from the air and back into the soil.

Every year the Food and Agriculture Organization in the United Nations is celebrating World Soil Day on December 5. In 2020 their message is especially urgent: Soil erosion must be stopped ‘to save our future’, says the agriculture agency. Approximately 75 billion tons of topsoil are lost each year from global agriculture production.

In this context No Till agriculture has become an inspiration. It is a method practiced in most indigenous cultures and was re-introduced to industrial societies in the 1940s. In 1990, approximately 6% of the farmland in America was being farmed using no till practices. By 2016 the percentage had risen to 35%.

Thanks for the recording to Jesse Frost and his No-Till Market Garden Podcast. In addition to off grid farming Jesse practices cooking and journalism, contributing to The Atlantic, Modern Farmer, and Civil Eats.

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