009, Dr. Frederick Kirschenmann: Behaving As Though We Are Part of Nature

Soul Soil: Where Agriculture and Spirit Intersect with Brooke Kornegay

We are coming to the end of an era that uses fossil calories to power our food production. It's going to take more than technology, more than math and science, to see us out of this predicament; it's going to take collaboration, creativity, and imagination. Born on a North Dakota farm during the Great Depression and in the grips of the worst drought in U.S. history, Fred Kirschenmann has spent most of his life working to change how we farm, as well as our relationship to the land. For more than four decades, Fred has been a champion of agricultural resilience, an articulate advocate for soil health and a pioneer of organic farming. Fred currently serves as President of the Board for the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture. A long time national and international leader in sustainable agriculture, Fred is a Distinguished Fellow at the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University at Iowa State University and a professor in the Department of Religion and Philosophy. He also continues to manage his family’s 1,800-acre certified-organic farm in south-central North Dakota. His work has helped transform what was once obscure and marginal work—resilient, sustainable agriculture focused on the health and restoration of the soil—into an international movement.

Historically, civilizations that anticipated change and prepared accordingly were the ones that survived, while those who ignored all the signs eventually collapsed....what kind will we be?

In this episode...

• Fred's father stressed the importance of taking care of the land and how that shaped Fred's values

• How his path took him into Philosophy and Religion, academia, and back to the land--this time on the organic path

• Rudolf Steiner's influence on his philosophy of spirituality and agriculture

• For Fred, spirituality and agriculture has a lot to do with microbes!

• Putting agriculture in historical context

• Farmers who switch from conventional agriculture to regenerative agriculture have a larger profit margin and find that the old model of "get big or get out" no longer makes financial sense

• Justus von Liebig's influence on input-intensive agriculture and being

• A soil-building philosophy (using the principles of nature)

• Perennializing our food crops

• The soil microbe-gut microbe connection; the effects of foods grown in living soil on human health

• Challenges of proposing huge changes to the aging farming community, and challenges of land prices for young farmers who want to practice regenerative agriculture

• Those civilizations who anticipated changes and made preparations are the ones that survived

• It's going to take more than a steady diet of STEM courses (science, technology, engineering, and math) to solve the coming food crisis...it is going to take imagination, creativity, and collaboration.

• The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently estimated that we have 11 years to make major changes in the way we operate before climate change becomes catastrophic

Resources

• Growing a Revolution by David Montgomery

• Dirt to Soil by Gabe Brown

• Journey of the Universe by Brian Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker

• The Land Institute (Wes Jackson)

• Farmacology by Daphne Miller

• Cultivating an Ecological Consciousness by Dr. Frederick Kirschenmann