“Drylands account for 41.3 percent of the world’s land-mass, including 44 percent of land under cultivation. Each year upward of twelve million… — Judith D. Schwartz Copy Share Image
“By planting annuals and plowing and clearing so that the soil is open to the elements for much of the year, we’re… — Judith D. Schwartz Copy Share Image
“Healthy soil is contingent on the actions of the animals that live on the land; livestock could be made to act upon… — Judith D. Schwartz Health Copy Share Image
“By itself, stopping emissions is insufficient. That carbon has to go someplace. As the Soil Carbon Coalition argues, it might as well… — Judith D. Schwartz Climate Copy Share Image
“Since about 1850, twice as much atmospheric carbon dioxide has derived from farming practices as from the burning of fossil fuels (the… — Judith D. Schwartz Copy Share Image
“if you have low crop diversity, you will run into problems and require inputs, which means more technology. In the meantime, nature’s… — Judith D. Schwartz Farmers Copy Share Image
“In Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations, geomorphologist David Montgomery offers numerous cautionary tales of kingdoms, cultures, and empires that squandered their soil… — Judith D. Schwartz Copy Share Image
“Bare ground sets in motion a different set of circumstances: moisture loss, less food for microbes, and therefore less microbial activity, which… — Judith D. Schwartz Copy Share Image
“seeds engineered so that the plant produces sterile seeds or no seeds at all. Farmers are then forced to purchase new seeds… — Judith D. Schwartz Copy Share Image
“Broadacre farming, which removes existing ground cover so that crops are sown on cleared fields, damages soil structure, interrupts fungal and microbial… — Judith D. Schwartz Farming Copy Share Image
“from the soil’s or soil dweller’s perspective, chemical additives are not such a great thing. With zai, the organic matter in the… — Judith D. Schwartz Copy Share Image
“Nature is complex, functioning at a level beyond our perception. If basic degenerative diseases go down, the demands for pharmaceuticals are lower.… — Judith D. Schwartz Nature Copy Share Image
“Every field that’s turned into a parking lot or industrial park means more water siphoned off into gutters and culverts and less… — Judith D. Schwartz Rain Copy Share Image
“we learn that the way to deal with our carbon dioxide problem is through technology (low-carbon energy sources; whiz-bang contraptions to capture… — Judith D. Schwartz Carbon dioxide Copy Share Image
“the Soil Carbon Challenge measures carbon levels over ten years. Someone at a university, completing a PhD or seeking publication, has incentives… — Judith D. Schwartz Climate Copy Share Image
“Consider that farmers are sued when genetically manipulated seeds they don’t even want sprout on their soil. (The pretext: This is “patent… — Judith D. Schwartz Copy Share Image
“more leaves mean more photosynthesis. Robust leaves also mean more roots, which means more carbon streaming into the soil. Which means, at… — Judith D. Schwartz Photosynthesis Copy Share Image
“Globally, each year some seventy-five billion tons of soil is lost. That would cover about thirty-eight thousand square miles of arable land,… — Judith D. Schwartz Copy Share Image
“The EPA continues to classify Roundup as low-toxicity, despite numerous studies that have linked glyphosate itself or inert ingredients in Roundup to… — Judith D. Schwartz Birth defects Copy Share Image
“we probably know of less than 1 percent of soil biology. “A recent study found that there are more than 1.6 million… — Judith D. Schwartz Bacteria Copy Share Image
“Across the board, levels of key mineral nutrients—zinc, calcium, manganese, iron, copper—in our food crops have declined by an average of 50… — Judith D. Schwartz Crops Copy Share Image
“It turns out that accelerated topsoil formation is doable, with the tools required as modest as livestock, hole digging, organic amendments, and… — Judith D. Schwartz Topsoil Copy Share Image
“proverb from the Sanskrit Vedic Scriptures of around 1500 bce: “Upon this handful of soil our survival depends. Husband it and it… — Judith D. Schwartz Nature of man Copy Share Image
“It’s become a truism that future wars will be fought not over oil, but over water. According to the journal Nature, four-fifths… — Judith D. Schwartz Cybersecurity Copy Share Image
“This leads to drought and runoff, which then causes erosion and floods. However, this situation can be reversed by managing land in… — Judith D. Schwartz Erosion Copy Share Image
“The stark fact that appears now, and which wrote itself across the Roman Empire, is that debt and taxation increase as the… — Judith D. Schwartz Copy Share Image
“In 2010 Grasslands, LLC, was launched as a “triple bottom line” enterprise with the conjoint goals of creating a high-quality product (well-nourished… — Judith D. Schwartz Bottom line Copy Share Image
“Allan Savory has said that floods and droughts are man-made. At first glance this seems a bold, even brazen statement. But here’s… — Judith D. Schwartz Floods Copy Share Image
“Science has never succeeded by burying the manifestations of unintended consequences. It has succeeded when we recognize them and deal with those… — Judith D. Schwartz Belief Copy Share Image
“I’d read and heard so much about the model; it was my reporting on Holistic Management that drew my attention to soil… — Judith D. Schwartz Copy Share Image
“using Holistic Management (with cattle, sheep, goats, horses) or other restorative models (agroforestry, pasture cropping, natural sequence farming), and those islands of… — Judith D. Schwartz Environment Copy Share Image
“Here the goals of improving land and making a profit would not be mutually exclusive: Holistic Planned Grazing requires a lot of… — Judith D. Schwartz Agriculture Copy Share Image
“grasslands, grazing mammals, and pack-hunting predators evolved together. So if domestic herbivores can be managed such that their behavior mimics that of… — Judith D. Schwartz Grasslands Copy Share Image
