Farming With Your Gut

Greg Patterson has been a Certified Crop Advisor for over 30 years, one of the first in Canada to earn the designation. He is founder and CEO of A&L Canada Laboratories and co-founder of A&L Biologicals. His argument is simple and a little uncomfortable: most of what growers apply to their soil never reaches the plant at all. The conversation traces fertility from Peruvian bird guano through the Haber-Bosch nitrogen era to what Greg calls the Evergreen Revolution, feeding the plant's own rhizosphere, its root-zone microbiome, so it can do more of the work itself. The payoff shows up in a real side by side comparison: one grower hit 300 bushels of corn an acre using under a pound of nitrogen per bushel, while his neighbor used more than double the nitrogen per bushel to grow half the corn. What's Inside Why only 15 percent of applied phosphorus and potassium actually reaches the plant in a given year, and what that means for how you should be thinking about placement The real difference between a 300 bushel corn crop grown on under a pound of nitrogen per bushel and a neighboring field that used more than double the nitrogen to grow half as much Why a bulk composite soil sample tells you almost nothing, and what site-specific, geo-referenced sampling actually reveals The Soil Health Index, scored zero to sixty, and what happens biologically once a field crosses 40 Why boron, magnesium, and calcium levels change how much nitrogen a crop actually needs The surprising link between balanced soil fertility, nutrient density in food, and human gut health, and why A&L Biologicals is researching both at once Connect with Greg: Website: https://www.alcanada.com/index Twitter: https://twitter.com/alcanadalabs Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ALcanadalabs Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alcanadalabsConnect with Growing the Future Website: growingthefuture.ca YouTube: Growing the Future Instagram: @growingthefuturepodcast LinkedIn: Growing the Future   If you want to be part of the Growing the Future community, make sure to say hi on social at: https://linktr.ee/Growingthefuturepodcast Register for the Convergence Conference at convergence.ag and stay updated by subscribing to the Growing the Future Podcast at growingthefuturepodcast.ca.