78 results for tag: rock dust

Restoring Forests to Avoid Catastrophe: Remineralization is crucial

Recently screens across the globe wracked viewers with destruction-torn images of the Amazon Rainforest on fire. It’s no secret that our forests are in trouble. Over-development and slash-and-burn agriculture practices clear areas that were once forested, and acidic rain, invasive disease, and pollution contribute to the declining health of remaining trees. The first response to forest destruction is the obvious: plant more trees. Some organizations sponsor tree planting events where locals can help plant hundreds of trees in a matter of days, and cities across the globe are addressing environmental and urban challenges by creating more green ...

Review of Eelco Rohling’s The Climate Question

The Climate Question: Natural Cycles, Human Impact, Future Outlook, 2019, Eelco Rohling, Oxford University Press, 162 p., reviewed by Tom Goreau, August 10, 2019   This slim volume is the best possible source for those who wish to understand how much humans and natural forces have changed the climate in the past and present, and what realistic options we have for nature-based solutions to prevent runaway climate change. Unlike other books about climate change, this one is firmly based in an understanding of the global carbon cycle and the changes it has undergone in the past. The book is very tightly focused on the facts, and entirely ...

RTE’s New Research Database Director Spreads Word about Remineralization at Australia-Brazil Conference

Above: Multidisciplinary team of researchers at the Australia-Brazil Alumni Conference. The 4th Australia-Brazil Alumni Conference was held in São Caetano do Sul, at the Instituto Mauá de Tecnologia, from May 17th - 18th. Aiming to engage former scholarship recipients from Australian and Brazilian government programs, the two-day conference brought together a multidisciplinary team of researchers and students to explore ways to strengthen the scientific bonds among the two countries, stimulating international cooperation. From biologists to lawyers, participants had the opportunity to give a presentation in the TED Talk format and show others ...

New Research Examines Rock Dust’s Impact on Nitrogen Cycle

The nitrogen cycle is perhaps one of the least understood and most complicated of nature’s cycles, especially when basalt is added to the system, according to Rock Dust Local founder Tom Vanacore. He adds, this makes it a topic worthy of further investigation. Vanacore notes scientists in the U.S. Midwest have observed changing nitrous oxide levels when NPK and basalt were spread across conventional farms, indicating rock dust does interact with the nitrogen cycle. “They looked at water and saw an increase in nitrate concentrations in the bio-water. This is out in Illinois where there is black dirt and they’ve been farming conventionally for ...

Cannabis to the Rescue: Flowering Herb Offers Effective, Economic Means of Capturing CO2

Equinox Farm's Ted Dobson showing the soil where cannabis will be grown.   Cannabis may very well be the ‘drug of choice’ in terms of organically sequestering atmospheric carbon dioxide through agricultural production, aided by the highly-effective, natural solution that is rock dust remineralization. “I’ve been fascinated with remineralizing for decades,” says Ted Dobson, general manager and farmer-in-chief at Equinox Farm near Berkshire Hills, Massachusetts. With the help of some rock dust, the New England horticulturalist sees cannabis farming as producing a rich commodity that also puts excess CO2 in its proper place ...

Soil Remineralization Shapes Yields and Elevates Food Nutrition: An Interview with Philipp Swoboda

Philipp Swoboda grew up with a forest bordering his family’s hillside home in Austria, which he believes contributed greatly to his early love of nature. Throughout his upbringing, being in and around nature was essentially the norm. Although he lived on the outskirts of an urban area, Philipp recalls his passion for exploring the forest and seeing wildlife in its natural habitat. Fast forward a couple decades and Philipp’s passion for nature continued with his obtaining a Bachelor’s Degree in environmental system science, course-heavy in geography, and then earning a Master’s Degree in sustainable development — an international program ...

Life from Rock: EcoStone Changing the Landscape of Farming

Guido A. López Cárdenas with a crop of table grapes in Spain grown with EcoStone. (Disponible en español.) EcoStone is a mineral fertilizer that not only meets the strictest criteria of organic agriculture, but also promises to significantly boost crop productivity and nutrient density to feed a growing population’s growing appetite. With 92 natural elements that return key nutrients to the soil, EcoStone composition rapidly dissolves in water for fast soil enrichment. Further, the rock dust fertilizer contains a magnetic field, which helps with small pest control. By contrast, more conventional industrial methods of crop interve...

A Visit to André Leu’s Regenerative Organic Fruit Farm in Queensland

Methods for regenerating soil carbon and fertility have been developed for every soil and climate. I recently visited André Leu's organic fruit farm in Queensland, Australia. I was accompanied by a Toronto documentary film crew funded by the Canadian government.

The Ecoagro Revolution in Mexico

Bernardo Castro Medina at the ECOAGRO expo in 2012. Diagram shows progressive loss of soils through erosion and remineralization as a solution.

The Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation – Advancing remineralization into the mainstream

Responding to climate change is one of the most complicated and one of the most long-term projects humanity has ever undertaken. If we're going to manage this challenge, it's going to involve new policies, new laws, and new ways of behaving. We have to think not of ourselves (that in itself is a challenge for human beings); we have to think of future generations. Oliver Morton, The Economist   The grand challenge A new paradigm for research has taken shape in a ground-breaking effort to mitigate climate change, and remineralization is the focus of this unique new approach. The Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation was founded ...