Plastic is used on farms for crop cover, irrigation tubing, feed storage, and more. For example, film mulch — perforated plastic sheeting laid over fields for plants to grow through — suppresses weeds, improves water efficiency, and increases crop yields. But the proximity of these synthetic materials to soil and food may have frightening consequences for human and environmental health.
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Grouped masses of hyphae are called mycelium. They branch and grow through soil like tiny roots. Numerous mushrooms you see aboveground might all be the fruits of one individual fungus whose mass is primarily hidden beneath the surface. The largest single organism on the planet is a fungus in eastern Oregon, which was discovered in 1998, and sprawls for nearly 10 square kilometers.
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Concrete is the second most widely used substance on the planet, eclipsed only by water. If the cement industry were a country, taking in all stages of production, it would be the third largest carbon dioxide emitter in the world. It is responsible for nine percent of global industrial water withdrawal. And to make matters worse, 75 percent of water demand for concrete production occurs in water-stressed regions. Industrial expansion has replaced miles of arable soil, grasslands, forests, and other regions of ecological diversity with the brutal material — a process incredibly resource-intensive (if not impossible) to reverse.
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Lauren Serota and Colin Averill are the founders of Funga, a new organization harnessing forest fungal networks to address the biodiversity and climate crisis. Funga combines modern DNA sequencing and machine learning technology with breakthrough research on the forest microbiome to put the right native, biodiverse communities of mycorrhizal fungi in the right place. We chatted with Colin and Lauren to learn about what exactly that means, and why now is the perfect time to get funky with fungi.
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All living things contain carbon in some form, and it is the primary component of macromolecules, including proteins, lipids, nucleic acids, and carbohydrates.
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You’ve probably heard of the Dust Bowl — the environmental catastrophe that wreaked havoc on the Great Plains in the mid 1930’s. During that time, the U.S. experienced its hottest summers of the twentieth century, and millions of acres of formerly productive farmland dried up, leading to massive dust storms that threatened lives and caused ecosystem damage we’re still seeing the effects of today.
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Travis Krause is the CEO and Co-Founder of Grazing Lands, a regenerative agriculture business working to build a healthier and more sustainable ranching industry. We are so excited to partner with Grazing Lands as one of Farm’s first collaborators, and wanted you to get to know one of the bright minds making it happen. We sat down with Travis to talk about sustainable land management, his path as a lifelong rancher, and helping to create a decentralized regenerative economy for U.S. agriculture.
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At Zumwalt Acres, a regenerative farm in Central Illinois, a team of farmers, scientists, and environmental activists are trying out a new approach. Basalt, which is a calcium- and magnesium-rich silicate rock, has an alkalizing effect similar to lime and can be spread onto fields using the same infrastructure that corn and soybean farmers in the area already use for lime and fertilizers. But basalt also happens to have a very high carbon sequestration potential, meaning it can capture and store large volumes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Zumwalt Acres is one of just a few research sites currently conducting field trials with basalt, but early results indicate incredible possibilities for its role in global climate change mitigation.
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