My interest in food security commenced following the announcement by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO): "Only 60 Years of Agriculture Left if Soil Degradation Continues" (ref: Scientific American, Dec. 5, 2014). In 2015, I transitioned from exoplanet research to exploring how to sustain human life on Earth.
My quest to find out what if anything could be done about the looming collapse of agriculture led me on a journey through conventional agriculture, soil biology, desertification, animal grazing practices, climate change, and human health. I learned that in the last 30 years there has been an amazing revolution in our understanding of soil biology and nature's complexity. As part of this journey, I completed four courses given by one of the pioneers of this soil biology revolution, Dr. Elaine Ingham.
The field of regenerative agriculture emerged from these developments as a way to cooperate with nature to rebuild soil biology and sequester atmospheric carbon at the same time as we grow more nutritional food organically. Regenerative agriculture offers tremendous potential to deal with food security, global warming, and many chronic disease epidemics in a way that allows nature to do a lot of the work. As an educator, I have been helping to get this message out through university, school, and public interest group presentations. I have also produced a number of educational YouTube videos on the subject.
Here is the link to "The Magic of Soil" video (39 min).