Digging Deep on Soil Health - The Ag Podcast

Human life heavily depends on a thin layer of topsoil. It grows food, retains water, and sequesters carbon. However, topsoil degradation is compromising the resilience of our soil against flooding, droughts, and pests, as well as destabilizing our food security. Many farmers have played, and continue to play, an important role in maintaining and increasing the health of our soil, but the urgency for farmers to implement and document soil-smart practices is growing across the value chain and amongst the general public.

In this episode, host Crystal Mackay digs deep with Cedric MacLeod, Farmer and the Executive Director of Canadian Forage and Grassland Association, and Tim Wray, Cattle Rancher at Wray Ranch, about why soil health is so important, how farmers can farm with the soil in mind, and the opportunity that stakeholders across the agri-food value chain have to support farmers in this work.

French transcript of this episode is available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_...

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
02:30 The importance of soil health
06:45 Intensively managed rotational grazing
09:05 Barriers to implementing soil health practices
14:03 Regenerative ag versus extractive finance
15:05 Financial incentives and support programs
17:30 Alignment of the stakeholder community
19:49 Advice for farmers and ranchers
22:08 Conclusion

Links:

Video: Carbon Farming 101    • Carbon Farming 101  
Sustainable Food and Agriculture (FAO): https://www.fao.org/sustainability/ne...
World Soil Day information and activities (FAO): https://www.fao.org/world-soil-day/en/
Report: Critical Ground: Why Soil is Essential to Canada's Economic, Environmental, Human, and Social Health (Senate of Canada): https://sencanada.ca/en/info-page/par...
Report: Efficient nitrogen and fertilizer management (Smart Prosperity Institute): https://institute.smartprosperity.ca/...
Blog: Innovating Canada’s business risk management programs for climate resilient outcomes (Smart Prosperity Institute): https://institute.smartprosperity.ca/...

Credits:

Host: Crystal Mackay   / crystal-mackay-683b26a  

Producers: Meredith Martin   / meredithmartin   and
Cara Stern   / carastern  

Production coordinator: Rebecca Babcock   / rebecca-babcock  

Music: Dustin Stern http://dustinspace.com

The Ag Podcast is produced by Generate Canada https://generatecanada.ca/ with support from Co-operators https://www.cooperators.ca/en/insuran... and the Smart Prosperity Institute https://institute.smartprosperity.ca/

Questions or Comments? Reach out to us at [email protected]