Dave Montgomery - Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations

Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre. Author David Montgomery has discovered that the three-foot-deep skin of our planet is slowly being eroded away, with potentially devastating results. In this engaging lecture, Montgomery draws from his book 'Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations' to trace the role of soil use and abuse in the history of societies, and discuss how the rise of organic and no-till farming bring hope for a new agricultural revolution.

[@katjordan3733]

I own 5 acres in Kentucky, I have alpacas, horses and poultry. I found this video very educational, after reading a couple of Montgomery's books, I've started looking for solutions. I'll do my best to restore my soil, but this is going to be an uphill battle, even after 24 years out of production, 13 years as pasture, the soil barely has a layer of topsoil on it.

[@lequitasch]

Check out the "Lunatic Farmer".

[@barkingsheep5224]

Sounds like maybe you need some help from permaculture Reddit! Hope you find this comment and it guides you to some solutions!

[@leelindsay5618]

Check out Gabe Brown and Ray Archuleta so you can do more with your acres.

[@hyena8873]

With as maby animals as you have I definitely think starting with compost tea to regulary treat your soil will help. Organic matter takes you a long way in healing your soil.

[@frederickbowdler8169]

Increase density of stocking livestock but don't overdo this and leave a bit of land fallow .Then possibly plant some trees and hedges.

[@NOMAD-qp3dd]

Hmm, he gives great lectures, watched a few now and all of them are jam packed with info and a wonderful delivery. 👏👏👏

[@reterrgr]

Fascinating lecture, indeed, strategic resources are fresh air, clean water and fertile soil, not oil

[@wendyscott8425]

Fascinating that the last symbol Dr. Montgomery used was a heart. Some of the world's religious writings talk about planting the seeds of divine wisdom in the pure soil of the heart, and "In the garden of thy heart, plant naught but the rose of love." Soil, therefore, is considered the heart of our planet's life, and like the heart, its true mysteries are hidden away. We can't see the soil microbiome, but it is there and working as hard as it can to keep life growing in it. Fantastic lecture. I've changed how I've been taking care of my garden since learning about all these things. And my roses are going nuts!

[@stevefitt9538]

I read the book, "Topsoil and Civilization" in college around 1970. It said much the same. Since then Neo-liberal economics has taken over economic thought. It rejects the idea that we need to worry about nature, i.e. things like soil erosion. That is still the dominant thinking. So, we moved away from the right thinking. In the past the problem was war, nations had to keep the population growing to fight off invaders, to do the invading yourselves. I'm a believer in Modern Monetary Theory, that says that the Gov. that issues its own currency is not like a family or corporation that uses the currency. The main difference is that such Gov. should not save, they should deficit spend to replace cash being lost to a trade deficit or people saving (like buying Gov. bonds). This gives Gov. more money to work with to solve problems. OTOH, I'm a doomer who believes that it is likely that we have sailed past to point in adding CO2 to the air at which tipping points are already putting us (more likely than not) on a downward fall to a collapse of our civilization. We need a massive immediate change in our behavior to have a chance to save civilization, aka rationing. The dark age will last 100K to 1M years until nature removes enough CO2 from the air. Humanity will likely no last 100K years.

[@7cupsofcoffee]

His book is amazing, a personal favorite, and absolutely jammed with knowledge. His perspective it a new paradigm which needs to get more attention in the public realm.

[@xxnotmuchxx]

This issue needs to be talk more by people.

[@tobiasrobinson4381]

The book is very good too. It's the one I wish I had written.

[@eddieleong6490]

Excellent. I read the book and am watching this video. I will be working on soil improvements during the construction of a large tourism project in Tunisia.

[@cracklypete]

Eddie Leong I have been a soil builder for my 1/2 acre that had been scraped by the developer before we bought our house a while back. I got into “permaculture “ and started learning about forest edge, carbon capture, and bio building soil life. Great place for you to get lost.

[@maxsmith695]

soil does not disappear it just gets relocated.

[@ethantastic]

you had me at 1:30, and then i bought the book

[@AgendaGotschOficial]

This book was a great inspiration for us. We have the privilege of documenting a fantastic example of what the book means. Agroforestry systems that produce soil as a surplus of food production. It can be watched on our page.

[@LanceWinslow]

All of these theories and speculation make a lot of sense with unlimited examples in the present period on smaller scales - common sense, observable, makes sense, Occam's Razor survives. So, my speculation of Dave Montgomery's lecture and theory would be the same. Great lecture, evidence, and research. Thank you. We can now put forth these findings to help calibrate Mathematic soil erosion models and simulations..

[@mhikl4484]

A site I chanced upon about the depletion of our sands was quite unsettling. I don't remember how I found it or where it is. But it claims our easy to get sands are depleted, sands on remote islands have been scrapped or dug bare and now the oceans are being dredged; all for our high rise buildings, roads etc. Certainly makes one think about sand with a little more respect. Namaste and care, mhikl

[@doloressverko9887]

Mhi kl The discussion of pure sand is simple. Pure sand is great because there is no cost to filtering it and any pure substance is aesthetically useful. This, however, is a separate conversation than the depletion of carbon from sandy soil. BTW, sandy soil is great and necessary for certain plants, such as carrots and citrus.

[@kurtklingbeil6900]

Sand suitable for concrete is a subset of available sand The correct size and shape of the grains and absence of silt are all important There is already a Global shortage of suitable sand ... past Peak Sand

[@maxsmith695]

And that is not a worry at all. Sand can be replenished.

[@annegreenfield7256]

great speaker!

[@ethantastic]

also, its incredible how concentrated his speaking is; im pretty sure he memorized it. which is incredible.

[@nuriaquella]

I think he has been working on this for years and is very passionate about it, so he could talk for hours about it... Probably he had to make an effort to condense content and summarize.

[@maxsmith695]

I see him as far more of a Catholic basher and bible debunker.

[@BruceHuebner18]

"guess what we have a surplus of in most cities? Organic material and labor." One of a bunch of nice punch lines

[@maxsmith695]

Not funny.

[@bacilluscereus1299]

Looks like the NATO Russia war shall give an opportunity to put his suggestion into practice.

[@doloressverko9887]

Do not use roundup, because it doesn’t only kill weeds, it kills decomposers that help restore carbon levels.

[@bacilluscereus1299]

It is scary how much people in my part of the world use that stuff. I read that the 'no-dig' movt pushes that stuff.

[@doloressverko9887]

@@bacilluscereus1299 the no-dig movement is a different matter, altogether. That is agnostic to how you mono-crop or control weeds. “No dig” is based on principle that ploughing disrupts layers of soil, releasing trapped Carbon and Nitrogen, primarily. The more gas-related organic compounds you have, the more inter species transport of elements you have, and the more carbon and nitrogen you have.

[@leelindsay5618]

This talk is profound, and while he does go into solutions, the youtube channel Understanding Ag goes into more depth on solutions for small to large scale farming. Soil principles can even make a difference in potted plants and in your yard or garden.

[@Akenaten1]

Empires never ever last !! Do they?!

[@charronfamilyconnect]

I guess NPK fertilizers are not sustainable enough to keep the soil fertile long -term even though in the short-term crop yields are alot higher than with tradtional methods? Am I right?

[@ecorevurbanfarms5366]

Yes you are correct in saying that. Im a qualified agricultural scientist so i know!

[@segom0]

you are right although your wording is a bit off npk fertalizers are not sustainable at all because they are created from fossil fuels for one. also it is a common misconception that npk fertalized crop yeilds are higher. it has been proven that many natural and organic methods can produce the same and in some cases more yield than modern npk fertalized crops. there are many factors to it. including crop covers and the fact that npk is not the only nutrients needed for plants to grow.

[@doloressverko9887]

Sean Mahoney To your point, there are minerals that help plants, such as silicon, that we can not scientifically explain why it increases yield or quality. The NPK theory is over a 100 years old. The new theories estimate that about 40 discrete nutrients play a role in plant health.

[@evelyncruise453]

Wild

[@davidw8668]

"Fertiliser prices will go through the roof within the next century". Here we are 11 years later ...

[@akribischerbeobachter7756]

why does he state that organic agriculture is sustainable when the picture at @36:29 shows that "sustainable" agriculture erodes soil 4 times faster then it is formed?

[@danielgregg2530]

"Peak oil", my ear. (Note how old this talk is. Fracking has re-invented the whole oil world since then).

[@AmitZinmanVideo]

destroying communities and polluting water sources around the world.

[@danielgregg2530]

@@AmitZinmanVideo Peak oil is a dead issue (assuming it was ever a valid issue in the first place).

[@AmitZinmanVideo]

@@danielgregg2530 As long as we are willing to rape the Earth and destroy our habitats, sure, there is no problem.

[@bacilluscereus1299]

What is the price point @ which this terribly destructive cracking becomes profitable❓

[@zooblestyx]

I think we need to hurry up and invent the CHON extruder.

[@EVtripper]

I am a soil scientist. Yes, don't call it "Dirt". Agriculture is the act of keeping plants and soil in a stage of primary succession aka the first step after a landslide or forest clearing. #annuals

[@garyjohnson2182]

I totally agree with Dr. Mongomery, , only ill go further and say that people such as him should be running things, and economics, needs to be flexible focusing on long term not short term gains, the current system of capitalism as it currently exists seem more interested in transferring land, wealth and power to the top one percent, is a horrible way of running things, forcing farmers to run their farms maximizing crop yields year and profits etc..simply wrong. The solutions are out there but we have the wrong people putting short term profit first. However since power us never never given up without as they put it compensated for their loss, i would say you have been robbing the land and people fir centuries it past time to change by giving the land and power back to those who care about the future. Thank you David for a great lecture on “Dirt”... very informiy educational... 😀✌️

[@kurtklingbeil6900]

[@maxsmith695]

Does he believe in Jesus Christ? LMAO.

[@Holdem17]

Just like organic material and bacteria can rebuild our soil, they can do the same for crude oil. Since this video was published, we know we aren't near peak oil at all.

[@MichaelWilliams-ph4ri]

It is not erosion that is the problem. That is chump change. The ag land that is still there is dead. It must have microorganisms to be healthy and plowing kills it. Regenerative ag is useful in restoring it.

[@allisonkincheloe7416]

Dirt!!! Let us say DIRT!!!!

[@barnsweb52]

See "Unstoppable Global Warming - every 1500 years." The chart looks too close to ignore. Times of global cooling reduce food production - obviously. This was VERY interesting though....

[@tonyb8660]

how about addressing the obvious rip off of that Harvard Lecture, which, conveniently has no comments.

[@canadiankewldude]

In that Harvard Lecture all saw was a slithering snake, fork tongue and all.

[@suheilpinto9969]

them disabling the comments section really pissed me off. its people like him ,these, liberal religious give fodder to these creationist imbeciles.

[@maxsmith695]

@@canadiankewldude - Agree. All I saw was a Catholic basher and bible debunker.

[@maxsmith695]

Agreed. Bashing Catholic saints, the bible, Noah flood as regional little drama.

[@davidbruce5524]

The world would be better off if the cities were forced to feed themselves, growing their own food.. Less time for the inhabitants to come up with authoritarian, dystopian ideas

[@goldassayer93555]

the speaker is falling into the Malthusian argument. Thomas Malthus made the plausible argument in 1790 the population was increasing faster than farming could produce food so humanity was going to starve to death in the future. Malthus has been wrong for 220 years because he did not take into consideration human ingenuity. people invented tractors and ran the tractors with wood, then with coal then with gasoline or diesel. People discovered chemistry and tested soils for what was missing and added Nitrogen, phosphorus and potash to improve productivity. People developed biology and began to breed food producing plants to produce larger edible portions of fruit or seeds etc. You only have to work out a cost effective method of building soil on farms so the farmer can make a profit while producing his crops and it will be used to solve this problem.

[@pomegranate6221]

"faster than nature"

[@cameron9643]

All of these problems pare in comparison to what liberalism has done.

[@quantumfloyd10]

Lost me around 42:00 when he starts talking about how we can rebuild soils. Permaculture and agroforestry are the realistic ways to rebuild soil. Not hauling around banana peels and leaves.. He is spot on with the problems but not the solutions.

[@rovidius2006]

Lets look at the problems we don't have , pull the emergency alarm so the trains stops and everyone is shaken , old soil gets to the bottom as the new one is created in a ever spinning cycle , high mountains get eroded while new ones emerge from the depth of the earth ,earth will never be as flat as needed .

[@bacilluscereus1299]

One wonders if you actually listened to anything beyond 42:00. It is errible to see a closed mind.

[@hawkdriver0171]

Very good lecture, definitely a thumbs up, however, the notion that CO2 is a pollutant is simply false. I keep my Greenhouse at 1200 ppm CO2 as do many commercial Greenhouse operators. The plants thrive and this is well documented. Also well documented is a plants significantly reduced consumption/need for water. This reduced aspiration of water allows more water to make its way into streams and ground water reservoirs, win-win for everyone including the stream/river creatures.

[@doloressverko9887]

Hawkdriver 01 so, let’s get this straight, please provide a link or bibliography to any study that 1) provides evidence that a CO2 increase reduces the need for irrigation; or 2) rising temperatures reduce need for water. I am curious to learn about this new soil science suggestion.

[@kurtklingbeil6900]

To confuse "plant food" CO2 with "pollution" CO2 which significantly affects atmospheric thermodynamics is a grave error. That very argument is a common polemic among Denialists. "CO2 is not pollution because it is "plant food" and therefore could not possibly be involved in GW" That statement is a highly concentrated multi-faceted logical-fallacy. An additional factor, even at the current elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration is the junk-food-ification of food crops as nutrients are displaced by carbs in the plant biochemistry. Presumably in greenhouse growing where all of the input parameters can be highly manipulated to drive production into and past optimization regimes this could be counterracted - or simply ignored as collateral effect of no consequence www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/09/13/food-nutrients-carbon-dioxide-000511 www.scienceabc.com/nature/climate-change-making-food-junk.html

[@maxsmith695]

Professors are talkers, not doers.

[@maxsmith695]

@@kurtklingbeil6900 - GW is a myth on so many levels it is hard to decide where to begin. Lets begin with the thinking we live on a spinning ball. Ok. That ball is allegedly 25,000 miles in circumference. Got it. Now let's measure some of that curve. The formula for the curvature needs no explanation for those who passed 10th grade geometry. Begin with 2 cities Toledo and Buffalo. 241 miles apart. They anchor the east and west side of Lake Erie. 241 miles equal a 38,000 foot drop going from west to east, based on the curvature formula. Is Buffalo 38,000 feet below Toledo? No, they are each 600 FEET above Sea Level. So where is this curvature? LMAO There is none, because earth is flat. But I am surely willing to listen to the brainiacs who think water on a big big big ball will HUG that ball. Go for it, Professor. If the scientific community want to promote the ball earth myth, and the earth is spinning at 1,000 mph myth, and the earth is rotating around the sun myth, then it is surely going to sign on to the myth the earth is warming.

[@kurtklingbeil6900]

A greenhouse is an artificial environment in which the growth parameters and forced and optimized in which case CO2 can become a limiting factor. To extrapolate from "The particular crops I grow in my particular greenhouse appear to grow bigger and use less water" to "Therefore it is practically a crime against the plant kingdom to allow them to suffer in CO2 deprivation - we must immediately raise global CO2 concentrations to 1200ppm, heck1500ppm" is the kind of simplistic reductionism which is narrow myopic narcissistic and dangerous Look up the nutritional decline of food crops grown in current increased-ambient conditions Look up the junkfoodification of crops which are literallly packing on the carbs and thereby displacing the normal nutrient mineral incorporation into their cell structures. Similar to over-fertilizing causing tall spindly growth which then adversely affects flowering and fruit/seed formation. That arrogant hubris of our tonedeaf eco-cidal dis-equality compassionless dominator cult-ure which purports to "improve" on nature is seriously problematic

[@danielgregg2530]

Deforestation of Southern Iraq?

[@stevehl8914]

Joaquin Phoenix is way smarter these days whoa

[@ianmaclean1655]

Hydroponics.

[@gekkobear1650]

What's the actual land footprint of hydroponics when you account for all the resources that go into building and maintaining those systems? It's much higher than soil based growing. And there is no viable way to feed the world with hp. You can grow leafy greens and tomatoes. Not cereal grains, legumes, fruit, nuts nevermind meat

[@mikecarson101]

God created everything in 6 days.

[@hosoiarchives4858]

Seed drills lol just use wood chips. Google back to Eden garden film, problem solved

[@hosoiarchives4858]

Way too complicated. Just use a wood chip mulch, no problems

[@maxsmith695]

I agree with the conclusions that there is plenty of proof the earth and all its creation was created at the same time. This would agree wit the bible.

[@canadiankewldude]

God bless you and yours Max.

[@maxsmith695]

@@canadiankewldude - Thank you. Canadians are great people, smart and then some !

[@mariocasarez3896]

Max, grow up and get educated by reading scientific books with facts, not mythology.

[@maxsmith695]

@@mariocasarez3896 dismissed.

[@Nucc3]

I find David Montgomery very uninformed

[@YawnGod]

Do you? I think you should compost yourself.