Show Notes
Humans have always been intertwined with the soil, but we have degraded over a third of Earth’s soils and now it’s impacting us all on an existential level. In Part 1, we trace our relationship with soil over millennia to understand how humanity impacts the living, breathing universe of soil hidden beneath our feet, and the role that we play in this ecosystem.
Featured talent in order of appearance:
Anne Biklé & David R. Montgomery Biologist/geologist & co-authors of Dirt: the erosion of civilisations, The Hidden Half of Nature & What Your Food Ate
Victor Steffensen Founder of Firesticks Alliance and author, Fire Country Right Country, Right Fire podcast Donate to Firesticks: support Indigenous communities to care for Country by strengthening their capacity to apply traditional knowledges
Charlie Massy Regenerative farmer & author, Call of the Reed Warbler
Alex McBratney Professor of Digital Agriculture & soil science, USYD AROURA Soil Think Tank
SOIL: Rewilding the Underground is created and hosted by Freya Mulvey, produced by Jess Hamilton, and mixed by Adam Connelly. Our theme song is Daisies by Cooee, a project by Kirli Saunders and Mark Chester Harding. Our podcast artwork is by Mark Chester Harding. We acknowledge and pay respect to the traditional custodians of Country across this continent for their care for lands, waterways and soils for millennia and ongoing.
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SOIL was made possible thanks to the generous support of everyone who donated to our crowdfunding campaign, our talent, and the many organisations, individuals and friends who have helped us along the way. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from SOIL: Rewilding the Underground
Bread. How did something so basic, so fundamental, get so complicated – and even start making us ill? This is the question that underpins ‘Cereal’, an investigative series from our friends at Farmerama Radio that uncovers the polarised world of bread, and its connection to seeds, soil, our health and food systems.
In honour of World Soil Day, we're sharing 5 things you can do to help soils:
Humans can’t create soils on our own, but we can create the conditions for life underground to flourish. In our final episode, we look at existing mechanisms to scale practices that support the restoration of degraded soils - like improving soil testing, research, carbon farming and natural capital frameworks. We feed chickens with kids and hear about government schemes to rewild daycares, and we speak to tech and data experts who are recording the sounds of the underground to restore soil health. Finally, we hear an important call to bring the natural world back into our songs, art and culture, to be guided by First Nations knowledge, and to connect with, restore and protect the life beneath our feet.
We cannot survive without the intricate network of life in soils that underlies 95% of the food humans consume. In this episode, we trace global food supply chains, visit an independent butcher and meet farmers and eaters doing things differently. We hear the challenges facing small food business and abattoirs in Australia to small-scale farmers in India, and learn of inspiring alternatives, like community supported agriculture (CSAs), holistic policy approaches, and education programs supporting the transition to nutritious and secure food systems.
We’ve already started to feel the brunt of anthropogenic climate change, and our relationship with soil may be crucial to our way through. In this episode, we’ll hear how soil stores carbon and fresh water, how it’s connected to droughts, dust storms and deserts, and why a dusty or concrete landscape is hotter than one covered in trees. We unpack the science behind the small water cycle and sensible heat coming off the land. And we’ll hear stories of farmers working together to rehydrate and regenerate the land, and others banding together to change policies and systems.