Soil trouble: a history of soil conservation challenges | Frank Uekotter | Nobel Conference

Dr. Frank Uekotter presenting at the 54th annual Nobel Conference (Living Soils: A Universe Underfoot) at Gustavus Adolphus College in 2018.

Uekotter is a Reader in Environmental Humanities, University of Birmingham.

Soils are multidimensional, but we study and manage them in ways that can be described as “fundamentalistic.” Uekotter explores what fundamentalist practices like monocropping say about us as humans.
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0:00 Introduction
1:21 Soil Trouble
10:18 Walter Lowdermilk: The Eleventh Commandment
12:03 A Recurring Theme: Soils and Civilization
15:47 Experts on the March
17:43 The Great Transformation of Global Agriculture
23:57 The Dust Bowl in the 1930s: Divergent Readings
30:31 Monoculture: More than a Plant Issue
34:36 Soil Conservation: Beyond the "Fundamentalisms"