High School Student Brings Regenerative Agriculture to His Local Community
Logan Saenz, Mrs. Spencer, and community volunteers tend the Pembroke Park Agro-Eco Orchard.
Logan Li Saenz, a senior at City of Pembroke Pines Charter High School in Hollywood, Florida, is passionate about many topics. He aspires to attend a college or university “up North” to study a mixture of physics, chemistry, and social justice issues dealing with student access to scientific education and challenging research opportunities. These issues hit close to home, as he is from a Hispanic family of Nicaraguan and Colombian descent. He has made a conscious effort to ...
MIT’s New En-ROADS Simulator Gives Insight on the Impact of Remineralization on Climate
Dr. John Sterman presenting the En-ROADS Simulator.
Rock weathering removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and remineralizing the soil with silicate rock dust can speed this process up, but just how much of an impact can enhanced rock weathering have on global climate change?
To better understand the magnitude of the impact that remineralization could have on global climate change, we can turn to the En-ROADS simulator, developed by Climate Interactive, Ventana Systems, and MIT Sloan1. En-ROADS allows users to test scenarios that include changes in taxes, ...
Hurricane Pummels Equinox Farm, but Remineralized Cannabis ‘Orchard’ Resurges
Hurricane Isaias brought 60-mile-an-hour winds to the Berkshires that toppled trees around Equinox Farm in Sheffield, Massachusetts, beating down much of this year’s outdoor cannabis crop in the process.
Fortunately, says Ted Dobson, general manager and farmer-in-chief, cannabis is vigorous, like growing an “annual orchard,” and soon after seeing the devastation of Mother Nature’s wrath, he was back at work, having trellised 3,300 plants less than three weeks after the storm. The crop is recovering nicely.
“The average plant size is six feet tall, and ...
Rock Dust Crop Dusting: Pulverized Rock Makes for Effective Pesticide
As long as there has been agriculture, there have been insects, mites, and other creatures eager to share in the bounty. Pests remain an enduring problem for agriculture. Increasingly, communities are seeing even pesticides designed to deter or eliminate pesky insects become a liability as essential pollinator populations decline, unwanted toxins infiltrate crops—endangering farmers and consumers—and insects develop resistance to traditional deterrents and poisons. One possible solution: rocks.
Crushed rocks, to be precise. Seeding mineral-poor soils with pulveri...
Barbuda Limestone Soil Crop Growth Stimulated by Montserrat Volcanic Ash
Fig. 1 Principal John Mussington surveying the plants. The plot receiving the volcanic ash on the left, and the control plot on the right.
Introduction
Soil fertility depends on the geological history of the minerals in it, climate, and their management. Oceanic islands are either limestone or volcanic, the only exception being the high granite islands in the Seychelles, an ancient small continental fragment. Most limestone islands, including all atolls, are low and flat and are much drier than the high wet volcanic islands. Volcanic islands are much more fertile, ...
Basalt Rock Dust Increases Carbon Capture Fourfold
A research team within the Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation has demonstrated basalt rock dust as a method of improving crop yield and sequestering carbon.
Remineralization’s Success in Brazil Draws Ire
At the moment there is a very strong clash within Embrapa, the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, which recently released a policy clarification memo saying that there was no proof of the effectiveness of the use of rock powders. The use of remineralizers is growing rapidly among medium and large farmers. The fact that more and more people are using remineralizers, including conventional farmers who produce thousands of hectares, has put the chemical fertilizer producers on alert. This is particularly true because Brazil is not included in the global elite who ...
Call for Papers for the IV Congresso Brasileiro de Rochagem
(Photo from the III Congresso Brasileiro de Rochagem in 2016 conference.)
Translated from Brazilian Portuguese. Original version available here.
The Event
The third millennium began with an unprecedented recognition of the importance of the use of natural resources. Environmental issues have gained in visibility and share importance along with economic issues. As a result, there is a greater concern with food security and socio-environmental and economic development, without losing sight of the preservation of biodiversity and the well-being of the human species.
In ...
Remineralize the Earth makes the ‘Platinum’ grade with GuideStar
Remineralize the Earth has received the GuideStar’s Platinum Seal of Transparency — their newest and highest level of recognition. The official description of this rating says, “This organization is a platinum-level GuideStar participant, demonstrating its commitment to transparency.” The prestigious honor demonstrates RTE’s commitment to measuring progress and results. Fewer than 3 percent of nonprofits achieve a GuideStar platinum rating.
Each year, millions of people, including individual donors, nonprofit leaders, grant makers, government officials and ...
Greg Watson to Deliver 39th Annual Schumacher Lecture
“One of the most important things humans can do as constructive passengers aboard Spaceship Earth is to help restore the health of our planet’s soils and climate."
--Greg Watson
An urgent question we must answer is: what effective action we can take in response to climate change? The 39th Annual Schumacher Lectures will work toward answering this question under the title and theme "Actionable Responses to Climate Change."
RTE Board Director Greg Watson (alongside the other Schumacher Lecturer, Sallie Calhoun) will bring his realistic--but optimisti...
