Biomimicry: Emulating Nature & Improving Soil Function | Ray Archuleta

During Soil Regen Summit 2021: Hope for the Future, Ray Archuleta explained that regenerative cropping and grazing systems that emulate nature’s strategies (biomimicry) are healthier agro-ecosystems that self-heal, self-regulate and self-organize. He also explained how these healthy ecosystems can potentially eliminate the need for pesticides and man-made fertilizers.
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The Soil Food Web School’s mission is to empower individuals and organizations to regenerate the soils in their communities. The Soil Food Web Approach can dramatically accelerate soil regeneration projects by focussing on the soil biome. This can boost the productivity of farms, provide super-nutritious foods, protect and purify waterways, and reduce the effects of Climate Change. No background in farming or biology is required for our Foundation Courses. Classes are online & self-paced, and students are supported by highly-trained Soil Food Web School mentors.
Over the last four decades, Dr. Elaine Ingham has advanced our knowledge of the Soil Food Web. An internationally-recognized leader in soil microbiology, Dr. Ingham has collaborated with other scientists and with farmers around the world to further our understanding of how soil organisms work together and with plants. Dr. Ingham is an author of the USDA's Soil Biology Primer and a founder of the Soil Food Web School.
00:00 Ray Archuleta Introduction
02:34 3 Basic Concepts of Biomimicry
24:06 Jason Miller Case Study
43:03 Mimic Nature’s Grazing Patterns
50:39 Final Thoughts
#Biomimicry #SoilFunction #RayArchuleta

[@soilfoodwebschool]

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[@dogslobbergardens6606]

Oddly enough, it was learning about and working with hydroponics - and the myriad problems that always come with it - that helped me understand why "conventional" farming just doesn't work. That was back in the late 80s before I ever heard of no-till or the soil food web. I realized that the farmers going broke all around me were treating their land like a giant inert hydroponic medium. It may as well have been acres of nothing but perlite. Constantly pouring synthetic fertilizers on it and letting much of that just wash away. Constantly battling pH issues. Constantly having to pump water onto it. When there was more rain than they wanted, they just dug straight ditches to get it off their land as quickly as possible, creating even more erosion and runoff/pollution issues. Constantly trucking in expensive soil amendments from somewhere else. And they were constantly complaining that they kept spending more and more money to get the same yields while prices for their crops never seemed to keep up. It was always a year-to-year struggle for them and one bad year could destroy the entire operation. They all hated the government, but every year they'd demand more state and federal subsidies to keep them afloat. Now in April '22 it's still very much the same. The extension agents almost all still just tell farmers and gardeners, "You always have to buy X amount of lime and X amount of synthetic N every year, or you'll never have a chance." Sometimes I wonder if they get a commission from the Big Ag companies, because SO often all they do is tell everyone, "Just buy more STUFF and till it in." Farmers around me are in a panic yet again about fuel and fertilizer prices, and most of them honestly have no idea that there's any other way to farm. And they all still hate the government, and they're all still demanding that the goverment just bail them out somehow. It's very frustrating, to say the least. :/ But I am encouraged to see that more and more people every year are catching on to better ideas.

[@TheActiveLifeLived]

Awesome insight

[@renaissancewomanfarm9175]

It's an improvement. I listened to a talk from Gabe Brown some time ago and he said he does not allow ANY chemicals on his land. He doesn't talk about reduction but rather elimination. I have to admit in the one case study of the young farmer in Idaho , when he said that they tested silt run off because it would run into the Snake River. If the silt is going into that river eco system, than so are your chemicals, even if it is a reduced amount of chemical. I really think that Gabe Brown has it right.

[@indica_dogo868]

I love the idea of copying and learning how nature does it. Instead of arrogantly thinking we know more then nature and can tell it what to do.....

[@jimmyrichardson67]

Thanks Ray. My personal favourite comment is 37.49 understanding context “spiritual” we were CREATED to look after life on this earth there’s no spiritually in evolution Psalms 8: 6 You gave him dominion over the works of your hands; You have put everything under his feet:

[@longarmsupplies]

Another great lesson, Ray. You're a wonderful teacher.

[@ontherocksinthesoilmichael6739]

The Jason Miller story (case study) is really powerful!

[@indica_dogo868]

The roots leak out exudates AND takes in microbes as food. Plants are so amazing!

[@hunterhatheway3830]

Well actually the roots excrete sugars (exudates) which in turn feed the microbes that break the organic matter. It’s the excretions of the microbes that feed the plants

[@soilfoodwebschool]

They definitely are!

[@indica_dogo868]

@@hunterhatheway3830 Plants actually actively take in bacteria and fungus through root tips and feed on them. Rhizophagy cycle.

[@gmoac]

Another master class from mr. Archuleta. the passion, the energy,..thanks Ray!

[@soilfoodwebschool]

Thanks for watching! Please subscribe we have a bunch of videos coming out weekly!

[@mynjgarden]

Thank you for this presentation, Ray and Elaine. I love listening and learning about microbes and soil health. Let's capture the sun!

[@soilfoodwebschool]

Thanks for watching! Please subscribe we have a bunch of videos coming out weekly!

[@indica_dogo868]

I love the California buffer strip! 😂 I've seen buffer strips like that here in NM too 😂

[@hasanchoudhury5401]

thanks for awakening the world communities on these soli issues . regards.

[@manhhungphung6082]

Thank you very much. I'm also agriculture engineer. Although, I can't absorb everything you said, I feel my vision widen after listening to your speech.

[@soilfoodwebschool]

Thanks for watching! Please subscribe we have a bunch of videos coming out weekly!

[@tinkeringinthailand8147]

Old sunlight v New sunlight. Love it.

[@peterclark6290]

I'm looking for that talk by Dr. Elaine Ingham where a plot of heavy clay was turned productive in one hit, in which accusations of replacing the soil were made of the team. Does anyone have that link saved in their browser? Please...

[@soilfoodwebschool]

Thank you for the great question! Please contact us at [e-mail] so a member of our Science Team can get back to you.

[@peterclark6290]

Found it (time tagged) kzbin.info/www/bejne/rmOrZ2Oontmdl8k

[@dr.froghopper6711]

I live in that Upper Chihuahuan Desert. My property was raped annually by the previous owner. In an effort to eradicate goatheads stickers, he scraped the surface bare, ensuring that only goatheads would grow. I’m dumping as much shredded wood as I can onto the surface and then planting legumes in it. This fall, clover is going into the wood chips. Because so much is bare, I’m doing a chaos garden with 3 different clovers, sorghum, cowpeas, corn, melons, squash, gourds, turnips, daikon radish, native wildflowers and grasses and more. Sunflowers are in there too. I’m watering for now. Water and sunlight are my major inputs. Roots in the ground, biomass for the top, no till, no chemicals, no fertilizers. I know it’s not all native and that not everything will grow or even thrive. But I’m trying to rehabilitate a decade of severe misuse and abuse in the desert. I’m disabled and on a budget. But, god willing, I’m bringing my little chunk of desert back to life. I have excellent, but compacted, geology. All the biological goodies inside the geology decomposed, blew away or floated away years ago after being over grazed. I can grow more.

[@brennagarten317]

thanks, Ray. I liked this presentation a lot! I've watched 5 others of yours. The message is always great. This one seemed best.

[@soilfoodwebschool]

Thanks for watching! Please subscribe we have a bunch of videos coming out weekly!

[@RodHermann]

3:26 agreed... the beauty of one!

[@katleenceulemans]

Super fijne presentatie, bondig, duidelijk. Aanrader!!

[@bels2521]

Great video. I learned so much and have changes to implement. Thank you.

[@felipecordeiro5948]

I love notill way. The results are the best.

[@lillili77]

Fantastic presentation Ray

[@mikelmartin6364]

Thank you vry much Ray !

[@Addi32]

Thanx for this important knowledge love it!!

[@user-bp7iq4vo2i]

tank you Ray' for the inspiration. mango grower.

[@jamieyeomans3803]

Awesome, thank you

[@midwestreview6382]

To understand the power of life you need to understand the power of God he made us and an earth to support us

[@rojilander7212]

Thank you for a remarkable presentation ..Those cows looked so satiated in that garden of Eden..I wonder more about what we think of as local weeds may have a lot to offer..and they are not weeds.. Thank You

[@soilfoodwebschool]

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[@danielbrown1117]

As an orchard farmer, hazelnuts in Oregon. We harvest our crop by waiting for them to fall onto the ground. We are experimenting with cover crops. What are some ideas to manage the cover crop and cover crop residue to be able to harvest the crop? We are experimenting with cover down the row middles, but sprayed strips down the tree row to still be able to manage the harvest. What are your thoughts on this? Great video! Trying to learn all I can as I go down the regenerative ag rabbit hole.

[@peterclark6290]

1. Mow the cover (with grazing animals if you can) before the harvest period. Or both. 2. I have seen cheaper shade cloth used, cut and shaped. Placed on top of a cover crop the nuts won't bounce as much. When you mentioned spraying I almost didn't answer. What are you spraying for and what with? I've assumed a foliar spray. A well managed orchard, maintained as an ecosystem, with habitats for the pest predators, no bare earth, and a farmer's eye, pretty much looks after itself.

[@mischevious]

Coming at your question from a reforestation perspective with some practical experience, now exploring Agroforestry farm management practices in earnest. I’m focused on figuring out how to complete the ecosystem with I hope the most practical holistic approach. That being that nature had all this figured out already. But we’ve broken the mechanics of it all by killing off too much life and taking too much of everything for ourselves alone. So to restore systems to proper function we need to work with what wildlife still exists, draw it in, and use domesticated animals as proxy for the missing life forms to complete the system. Speaking directly to your question I’d think chickens would do a spectacular job of clearing go-to cover crops like buckwheat and peas, clovers and other legumes. Legumes also serve double duty by fixing nitrogen in your soil and both add tender organic matter that suppresses unwanted plants and breaks down rapidly, giving your soil biology fast nutritious food. Ask yourself what cover crops will add the elements your soil most needs. Then, what animals will eat that crop down- not only without harming your hazelnuts but, leaving them the only thing conveniently lying on the surface. Chickens? Goats will clear your orchard and prune your trees after harvest, not sure if they’ll eat the nuts, probably. But Double Bonus! One, the bodily fluids of all ruminants contain the enzymatic building blocks of life itself, the enzymes that break down plant cellulose and make it nutritionally available to the soil biology.- Those vast herds that stretched to the horizon were key to a properly functioning nitrogen cycle in all of Earth’s ecosystems. Two I hear that natural stimulation makes for a great harvest! When complete a system should be largely self managing and cost free outside of harvesting. Stick to perennial and deciduous crops, add flowers, and let the birds, bees, chickens, goats, pigs, spiders.. do the work!

[@danlefever6254]

Use a cover that dies or goes dormant at harvest. Have just a low growing grass (Champion fescue? or some local indigenous grass that is appropriate) that at harvest time that could be mowed real low so you can sweep nuts to a pickup row. Then notill replant winter annual, Forbes, covers grasses. Ask Mike Nestor ( in OR) of Advancing Eco Agriculture for help.

[@soilfoodwebschool]

Thank you for the great question! Please contact us at [e-mail] so a member of our Science Team can get back to you.

[@futtermanfarms6791]

"we scientists don't know how to do that" WOW yes. We need to change our own heart and spirit so that we can change how we see things and then change the way things are.

[@Allknowingkeith]

This is my 3rd season growing. Is it possible to be self sustaining with potting soil?

[@johac7637]

I am in Arizona, on a "Aluvian fan" as our Dept of AG. labels it. When a qt. jar test, it ALL settles down as very fine particles, on organics, caliche galore, Does anyone out there have experience of soil improvements, have applied alfalfa, tons of it, literally, and huge amounts of wood chips, now trying cover crops, after 3 years of mulching. Any ideas please.

[@iwenive3390]

Try green sand and obviously water is our main lacking ingredient

[@johac7637]

@@iwenive3390 I spend some of my summer's just a few miles from Grand Forks British Columbia where it is mined and bagged, even sent out on semi trucks. Where I at now is getting soil samples analyzing for mineral content, as well as tissue sampling from the stone fruit trees, and citrus. As a retired commercial stone fruit grower it was imperative to have "healthy fruit" as the packing shed called it, as for storage, being stone fruits, it very short shelf life as compared to apples, pears, that are stored taking the gasses out of cold storage. And people don't buy a apricot, peach, if the kids take a bite and toss it, just like I can't after picking one off a tree. So soil health. Soil fertility, Soil areation, Soil water retention, or drainage. I have dumped huge amounts of rock crusher dust, sand, ( unwashed) from a gravel operation, and am making progress. What I saw last year was a farmer 1/2 mile away putting 98 percent sulfuric acid in the flood irrigation it's a old timers way, but that seems a bit risky, so anyone reading this tell me your attempts. It all helps, I don't think it's a one size fit all.

[@dogslobbergardens6606]

@Jo Hac To have soil, you have to have sand, silt and clay. If all you have is acres of sand for instance, you're going to go broke trucking in organic material to dump on it, trying to create soil from scratch. If all you have is clay, you could go broke trucking in tons of sand or rock dust or whatever. Not to mention, think about that word "trucking" - it means burning a whole lot of fossil fuels every time you order some stuff from somewhere else. That's a problem. Continually BUYING stuff is not the answer. That's what "conventional" farmers do, and it's why they're always going broke. We all need to work with what we've got, not against it. In some cases we have to face that you can't drink whiskey from a bottle of wine. It may be that you're just trying to grow the wrong things for your area and conditions. Something to consider.

[@dogslobbergardens6606]

@@johac7637 Let me put it a different way... where I live in East TN it's just too cold to grow oranges and bananas. So I have two choices: I can either spend a LOT of money trucking in materials to build huge greenhouses and heat them, and grow oranges and bananas... or I can choose to grow things that already do just fine in this climate and avoid all that hassle and expense.

[@soilfoodwebschool]

Thank you for the great question! Please contact us at [e-mail] so a member of our Science Team can get back to you.

[@woutervandenbosch8161]

I love how you (Soil Food Web) teach us about our soil. I am trying to do it to my pots and raised beds 2. Could you maybe make a video about how to improve the soil or dirt in my containers and so called raised beds? I do not have a garden and only have pots and containers so for me it is very difficult to not use some stuff you tel not to. I'm living in a apartment complex on the first floor but due to that all I have is concrete and I try to make even that green but But how can I create a micro climate in that pot or container so it will become self sufficient? My neighbour used to trow her potting soil away every year because (as she said) it had no food in it anymore... To me that is totally Bull****. I mean it is full of biological materials what still can be composted or in the pot being used by plants as long as you use the right materials. That's where you come in SFW I am trying to put everything I use (biological) back in to my pots and beds but my results are not so good... So I was wondering, maybe you could make a video about this to help even more ppl. When I start a pot I put as much dead materials as I can or have on the bottom (to a certain point depending how big the pot is), then I put on the soil or perhaps dirt. And after that I plant my plant or seedling in to that. So in my view, that will desinagrate and will be food to my plant I grow on top of it but if I do not have the right mixture... And so on and on and on.... So back 2 my main question, could you make a video about soil in pots?

[@danlefever6254]

Add 25 % minimum perlite so the soil can respire. Then plant a mixed cover crop( a mix of vegetables could work, lettuce; spinach, chard or other chenopodia, cilantro or parsely, borage or parsley; arugula, mustard, radish, kale or other brassica; some oats or small sweet or ornamental corn/maize; rye grass or other grass, and small blooming sunflowers(Smile variety), and buckwheat, all for root exudes to feed soil, make glomulin and aggregate the soil. Let cover grow in pot the whole year.Also need to add to base organic materials, rock powders for the minerals that the microbiology will release to the plant. To supply Ca, Mg, P, K, Si, S, B. And add granular or liquid seaweed for micro nutrients and humates for structure, chelation, water holding, and stimulate fungal biology. Get biology innoculum from a nearby wild "prairie" area soil and fungal species from a forest soil. Or some really good garden soil Put a spoonful of molasses and a cup of coffee grounds to feed biology until the plants grow and make "liquid sun carbon" to feed them can harvest some vegetable and seed more. Good growing and eating! Dan Lefever, BioRational Resource, [e-mail]

[@woutervandenbosch8161]

@@danlefever6254 Hi Dan Lefever, Thank you for the reply. I loved that you were so fast to reply. I'm sorry, I was not able to do the same to you .I'm mentally and fiscally unable to. Some days are ok, some day's are not so I'm trying to do the best I can. Because of that I'm not capable to buy perlite or any thing like that. But I'm already using a sort of no digg in my pots and beds for years. Cutting the dried up rests of the plants in spring (so solitary bee's can use them to get true the winter) at the base and leaving every thing like the roots in the soil. Then cutting the above ground parts in to small pieces and giving them back to the soil they grew from. By putting them on top of that soil so they can degenerate and be taken back into the soil. If they are not blown away. I have tree's growing in a pot and I can not just take them out and un root them just to put something in but ok I'm willing to listen I'm not talking about crops because I have a health diet that prevents me to eat certain crops. I'm just talking about my dirt or maybe soil. I am putting coffee grounds on to my "dirt" and all the rests out of my kitchen. I grind my egg shells and bones so I can add them to my dirt (or soil). I even bury meat and chicken bones that are not compleatly eaten. Just to get the bones clean so I can grind them. I mean who eats cartilage... Nature can do that for us. Just bury them for a month or 6 and the bones are clean. Then you can grind them up to add to your siol. No nead to buy bone powder from the store. I bought worms last year. To start a worm farm and to (because I bought to much) add them in my pots and beds. They are doing their job perfectly but I think I can do more than that. So I'm trying but I just was hoping for some more advise in the form of a video to show the world. It's not just your farm or your garden. What can I do better or more? With kind regards, Wouter van den Bosch

[@soilfoodwebschool]

Thank you for the great question! Please contact us at [e-mail] so a member of our Science Team can get back to you.

[@woutervandenbosch8161]

@@soilfoodwebschool Thank you, I will do that.

[@billiverschoore2466]

@@soilfoodwebschool While you're at "doing better or more": maybe check out Dr Sebi's Alkaline Electric Cell Food diet. With a little time and love dedicated to purchase and preparation of what you offer your body, your health will improve (in my partner's case: vastly improved). For starters: non-hybridised seeds/veg; the life force ("let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food") has been bred out of them. And you don't need carbs from peas, beans or roots. Also protein is best for us in the form of amino acids; ingested protein must first be broken down by our bodies in order to provide the amino-acids for the body's own protein formation. Beware of modern wheats, corn and certainly soy (non-gmo-ed seeds are rare as hens' teeth)... 🌳 🕊 💚

[@jojozepofthejungle2655]

It's about time, we work with nature and not against it. I've always let the clover grow through my plants, duckweed, and some ground peas, that I just let die.

[@NefariousMinds]

So, if the environment effects the DNA, we may look very different if we were in a natural habitat. This is crazy awesome to think about! On another note, big props for linking true life concepts with the natural order of life in the soil!!! 🏆🏆🏆

[@joepeeer4830]

Ty

[@bluejay3945]

Finally some case studies that reinforce no till in actual practice. My big problem typically with Dr. Ingham and her cohorts is that they offer only big touchy feely concepts without practical applications. IMO Ingham focuses solely on oxidizing environments and totally dismisses the anaerobic processes especially the 100s of years of success in Korean farming using ferments and anaerobic microbes. It only makes sense that in drought conditions aerobic process are dominant but in saturated soils anaerobic processes are dominant and unless we improve the facultative microbes that are both aerobic and anaerobic the balance in the soil will never be achieved. Overly aerobic soil burns organic matter and iron and manganese are synthesized only in their reduced ionic state. The bottom line is that it is clear that having a balanced soil with high aerobic and anaerobic buffering capacity if the ideal.

[@NinjaRastaMon]

I like this guy

[@denniskemnitz1381]

Ray what magnification is used to see water bear on slide? And to see plant leaking liquid sun?

[@firdausmohammad5530]

Niceee

[@Lavender_Ave]

I've been wondering about the idea of weeds taking away nutrient. It just doesn't make sense because it sounds like plants fight with each other for food. It's just a strange idea, I thought. Also, I could see that small plants shade the ground and could be beneficial to reducing the heat, yet why most gardeners waste their time pucking the weeds. I have such thinking and questions even before I started gardening.

[@wildrangeringreen]

plants do compete somewhat for resources, but not to the extent that many have portrayed it. Farming, if you start to look at it from the perspective of the humans that started doing it 15,000 +/- years ago, and what they were capable of with their level of technology, you realize that the farmer's job is not to create an ecosystem, but to influence it through management. Observe what happens when animals heavily selectively graze an area, certain plants come to dominate an area, while more palatable species are suppressed without being killed entirely. By cutting "weeds" (plants that are not preferable in an area), you "selectively graze" them with a hoe or sickle, allowing the crops to dominate, while not losing the benefits of the other plants. Early farmers didn't have large, steel tillage tools (and the domestication of large draft animals to pull them is a relatively recent development (5,000 years +/-)), so you couldn't do what has been increasingly common for the last 300 years. Hoes were vegetation chopping tools, not soil chopping tools (try chopping soil with a sharp stone blade... it won't last long). The plow was nothing more than a sharp stick that you ripped a furrow in the soil to plant your seeds into (originally pulled by manpower). Look at the Milpa methodology in Oaxaca, Northern Guatemala, Chiapas, Yucatan, Campeche, and Tabasco (the homelands of the Mayan peoples): They use fire to prepare an area, and then plant annuals into the char and ash until perennials start to take over, and then they move on and allow the land to recover, utilizing the beneficial perennial plants that come into the area. At no point do you annihilate everything and only allow crop plants to exist, as it's a exercise in futility, since new "weeds" will emerge to take their place.

[@henricksgl2299]

How quickly should one be able to see microbes in soil as it thaws out from winter freezing under microscope

[@MrCheaterpipe]

You should always see microbes in your soil if you don't you have dirt

[@danlefever6254]

Exactly microbial life is there year round but population may go up and down( dormant) with the seasonal temperature extremes summer and winter. Very high biology fields often are bare from snow melt off snow when a conventionally managed one beside it is totally snow covered

[@soilfoodwebschool]

Thank you for the great question! Please contact us at [e-mail] so a member of our Science Team can get back to you.

[@xikano8573]

41:45 😨😨😨

[@AngelZLopez]

Would hydrogen peroxide sprayed on plants help them grow?

[@jackiegreen3444]

It’s not tilling that kills production. It is the love of money. Trying to get more than what is natural out of a crop. Not leaving fallow every 7th year.

[@xikano8573]

"Technology is not going to save us." -Ray Archuleta

[@glennmaillard5972]

Are water bears an arachnid? Putting anything into a category is can only ever be a blunt tool, for mine. Love these talks, but I also am now beginning to understand (I Think?) we romanticise a lot regards ‘life’. I think ‘ecology’ when I think ‘life’: the three ‘c’s’ for me, competition, cooperation and consuming. Still an oversimplification, but I think it is a less ‘romanticised’ oversimplification. Whenever I see ‘intelligent design’ I see a man made conceit of ‘God’' the intelligent designer himself. If the universe, if existence, is ‘designed’, it’s truly a messy designing, a wondrous, fascinating, inexplicable mess, but a mess nonetheless; at least to those of us who are genuinely curious about it and are deeply intrigued by every mystery and who instinctively know, perhaps?, that we will never answer any eternal question by making ‘God’ a man. ✅

[@patrickgerard1071]

Q

[@amokate1]

Dear Ray, Your presentation is great. The thing that is missing is the huge carbon footprint you make by animal farming and using these animals for food is the biggest harm to nature. These prairies should become forest in time.USA uses a majority of land for animal farming for eating them as food. Ideal food is plant based diet. Good luck.

[@The.Noodles.Nest.]

i dont agree