Fungi and the Future of Farming | Farming with Fungi Part 2

We took a deep dive into mycorrhizal fungi because they are a perfect example of how a better future for agriculture can be realized through plant and microbial relationships.
✅ We have two more live webinars in our Farming with Fungi Webinar Series, register for FREE today: 👉www.sfw.one/fungi-future
Due to beneficial interactions with plants, mycorrhizal fungi can improve yields, crop health, and soil food web resilience. Unfortunately, industrial farming practices, such as tillage and overfertilization, disrupt numerous soil functions, diminishing the abundance and diversity of mycorrhizal fungi in the majority of cultivated soils. So, we need to understand how to set the stage for regeneration of plant-mycorrhizal symbiotic partnerships to rebuild soil health.
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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.
About our Speakers:
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.
Renald Flores is Founder and CEO of FLOR.ès.SENS SYSTEMS. Renald came from a background in finance and is now dedicated to Regenerative Agriculture. He is working on multiple soil regeneration projects in three European countries and he is currently working on a Ph.D. on the Application of Microbiology to the Soil.
In this webinar, Renald will present a Case Study on a project in Sweden, where he treated 8 crops and saw an average increase in yields of 72%.
Dr. Adam Cobb's passion for agriculture emerged during his several months of volunteer work on organic farms in New Zealand. His time in graduate school cultivated a broad vision for the restoration of living soils, as well as the power of research and community engagement to address global food production challenges. He joined the Soil Food Web School in 2021, following his dream to help regenerate soils, improve human nutrition, and heal our planet.
Dr. Carla Portugal is a Consultant Training Program Instructor and researcher, at the Soil Food Web School. Since she can remember, Carla was attracted to all life forms but the small and microscopic ones always had a special place in her heart. Carla has a keen interest in the connections between soil microorganisms and how nutrient cycling affects the nutritional value of plants.
Brian came from a background in IT and now runs a successful consultancy (Sprouting Soil) in California.
#fungi #farming #soilfoodweb #soilregeneration
00:00:00 Introduction
00:07:25 Adam Cobb's presentation, Fungi and the Future of Farming
00:50:30 About April's SpringBoard+ Offer
00:55:06 Q&A Session
02:00:15 Closing - What's left in April Webinar Series

[@soilfoodwebschool]

Learn about our April SpringBoard+ Offer: promo.soilfoodweb.com/apr23c-springboard/

[@RAPETERS]

Dr. COBB IS THE BEST!

[@eviebee4]

What an incredible lecture from Adam! Bringing togheter so many areas of thought. Truly inspiring and beautiful!

[@sanjivanivlog736]

Nice shearing ❤❤

[@garybrohard3144]

I like Carlas head nods to agree with what you are saying. It is is validation to what you are saying. Do not doubt yourself.

[@EverythingCannabisTV]

missed the live online version going to watch this part 2 and part 3 on youtube and take notes. thanks for posting this it is so awesome of yall

[@natalielobartolo1234]

ADAM!!!! LOVE your storytelling, energy, enthusiasm, passion, knowledge, approach and perspectives. Awesome.

[@garybrohard3144]

Dr. Elaine , it’s not your brain goes on hold. It’s that you have so much going on in there it’s hard to stay on track. At least that is the way with me. I just wish I could stay on track to figure out how to get out of working two jobs to make ends meet and get more into this. I am trying to make it work in my own food forest, but I would love to help others find this way. I am trying one person at a time with what I have learned and experienced. Keep up the good work everyone.

[@soilfoodwebschool]

@Gary Brohard To learn more about our course offerings, please let us know about your goals and interests so that we can help you find the course(s) that will work best for you.

[@garybrohard3144]

Adam, I love your energy!

[@lalah3372]

I love the philosophy. It is refreshing to hear it along with science and experience. I’m not getting bored of it - I want more!

[@toddlajiness]

Imagine the good this could do if it could used in suburbia on our lawns instead of just my 12x20 vegetable garden.

[@abdelkaderbouebdellah6842]

Great talk Dr. Adam, thanks to the team.

[@garybrohard3144]

I like Carlas advice about students, but i picked up some good information about using your own soil to help inoculate your own compost.

[@henrykuyvenhoven2542]

Just wanted to say thank you.

[@stevenrogers8001]

I have been a regenerative organic farmer since 1989. What I like the most about regenerative is that it is a continuum. All growers are welcomed under the tent whether cert OG or conventional. The goal is to make incremental changes to your production practices that result in measurable improvements in soil health; therefore, improving crop health and increasing net profit/acre. Not chasing yields, but maintaining yields while lowering input costs. The warring between OG vs conventional, till vs no-till, is not productive. What moves us forward is collaboration and finding the best practices from every style. Then combining those for optimum soil health for a given crop in a given area.

[@matthewsmith995]

Could you Add your references used to the description please. I can't read them clearly. Great work people, thank you.

[@matthewsmith995]

Wait, I increased the quality. its fine

[@garybrohard3144]

What I love is when I am scooping up my compost form tea or to place out on top of my growing areas is the amount of worms in each scoop. To me it shows I am doing something right.

[@EverythingCannabisTV]

Jeremy from Build a Soil also mentions living soil in a small pot (like 5 gallon) is very difficult, because you have to water often to keep the biology alive, and you can see root burn in a smaller pot when you let the soil dry out, so Jeremy recommends to use living biologicals in pots like 50-200 gallons. I have seen people using automated irrigation to help water soil regularly to avoid drying out.

[@jameshunt2905]

The perspective in which I heard Jeff G.’s question landed in the context of market gardening. Can the progression planting approach of market gardening engage at the level being spoken of here relative to understory plantings being in place, or are we talking of roots being left in the soil, then attending to planting progression over that? Its understood that this approach of understory planting would be significantly beneficial although there are ramifications in the market garden endeavor... yes?

[@cannaflex420]

Thanks for the video can't wait for the next one already

[@viking722nj]

Excellent job, Adam, and beautifully communicated!

[@guardiangrains1689]

Great information and Q and A session. We are speaking the same language. Let nature do the work for us and bring out and support the Native Indiginouse MicroOrganisms🤩. 🤔Now lets bake our own pizza❤

[@garybrohard3144]

You talk about the wild types. Does that equate to weeds/native plants as well. I read a book about weeds being guardians of the soil. It makes since to me on top of the fungi.

[@garybrohard3144]

So much information. Hard to process.

[@garybrohard3144]

You talk about about succession, what if you have blue berries close to fruit trees close to annuals, close to perennials etc. in a small one acre food forest plot. Do I have to incorporate multiple practices?

[@garybrohard3144]

I so wish I could afford a good microscope. I use a municipal leaf compost plus my own to cover my Alabama red clay as a plant medium to plant into. I add local forest soil and found mushrooms into my compost. I do see some mychorizal and mushrooms in my beds, but do not know to fungi to bacterial measurements.

[@garybrohard3144]

Do you have to have a mother tree to keep the am fungi to continue and thrive?

[@garybrohard3144]

You talked about the perennial plant understory. What is the distance or amount of perennials per bed 4 x 6 foot bed to achieve this?

[@garybrohard3144]

Is it breeding or just going back to the way it was and suppose to be?

[@igorharhaji3917]

Is it possible to inoculate soli with Ecto Mycorrhizae buy it self if the land is 3-4 kilometers away from forest ecosystem? Can winds bring those spores?

[@zacklee-of3te]

As I understand yes and the connection is from underground that goes an unknown distance but has been recorded dozens of miles from one plant to another

[@zacklee-of3te]

You can also try and inoculate by taking the dirt and mixing into yours

[@armandswart7857]

Question: How would I go about farming potatoes/garlic/peanuts/ any root type crops without tillage or very labor intensive actions? Thank you for this content. It is extremely interesting.

[@Urkuwayku]

We farm in the Highland Andes, where potato is ubiquitous. With roots and tubers, the objective is not zero tillage but limited tillage. That said, we’ve found a lot of traditional farmers that plant into sod mats, a practice known as “wacho rozado” - part of a potato-pasture system. Plots are small (less than 1 ha) and cultivated by hand. Farmers use lest fertilizer and have fewer pest problems when grown in sod mats. I am not sure if any off this is relevant to your context, but such experiences begin to provide fresh ideas of how regen ideas may be incorporated into your farming. Best wishes!

[@zacklee-of3te]

Funny as I just started doing no till on my second year and what I do is only top dress. I never fertilizer under the potatoes or mix the soil just top dress layers of amendments. I notice my yields increase each harvest and I don’t top with dirt as it grows.

[@mchllbe]

Oh please fix the sound and video. There's a 1 or 2 minute delay between the two thanks!

[@soilfoodwebschool]

Thanks for pointing out the audio issue on the webinar. Do you have an idea of what time in the webinar the issue happens?

[@mchllbe]

@@soilfoodwebschool close to the beginning

[@JbowlizzleKC]

I found this presentation eye opening. Hope this feedback is taken objectively. I think Renald's tropes are ironic. He is dismissive of scientific collusion or conspiracy and claims is not happening but having been involved in the scientific community on many issues I find his rational to dismiss reality is ironic, myopic, and naïve. He brings up points that if looked into more deeply would establish the facts of these conspiracies and biases and he rather proved out partially the fact of it. His points on biases and evidences demonstrate flaws in his reasoning, one would have to eliminate the reality that these biases are driven by the funding sources. I always ask, who is funding these scientific journals. It's laughable that a regulatory agency can be so wrong on everything and yet put themselves up as a leader in this field (i.e. USDA scientists). For example, claiming that lucky charms are more healthy than chicken egg's is the latest of science run amuck. There are clear narratives being peddled and he's bought into these. Dismissing peoples concerns only leads to establishing a lack of credibility, I think he would do well to not push narratives but stick to his really good research and findings. Otherwise it appears from many folks that there's a bit of cognitive dissonance in what his statements are and what he's saying. My family is several generations farmers that practiced genetic diversity in their planting and building soil before there was a science being developed around this. For centuries before there was Permaculture and Regenerative agriculture we had high producing farms with multiple revenue / crops and genetic manipulation. It wasn't until modern farming that this changed and the policies driven by the USDA influenced negatively the quality of crops and yields. This was all driven by big business funding of so called "Research" that drove the policy making virtually bankrupting many small farms and enriching large corporate farm interests. We've watched as this has crumbled around the country and it isn't getting better. If he were to dig into the collusion between governments and policy making of big business they have not had our interests at heart. He's tip toeing around the issue. Regenerative agriculture should be described as a reemergence of many of the past farming best practices. I think it's nice to confirm the reasons why the past was more successful based on science but again that's a bit of confirmation bias as well. I don't think we fully know but our observations and tests can provide some statistically significance factors that help us see we're moving in the right direction. Keep up the good work.

[@robclower9606]

I think you meant Adam, not Renald, but I agree with much of what you said.

[@connorcasey4432]

Imagine the good you could do without charging thousands of dollars for this knowledge...

[@soilfoodwebschool]

@Connor Casey Thank you for your comment. We are a for profit school with a mission to empower people to regenerate the soils in their communities. Our educational programs comprise a mix of online lectures and 1-on-1 mentoring, designed to help people to develop their skills so they can rapidly regenerate the soil biome, as we see this as being fundamental to the survival of life on earth and to ensuring food security for all. We collaborate with, and support, other organizations. One example is Tiyeni.org for whom we helped raise over $100k in 2021 and 2022. Tiyeni have trained over 17,000 farmers in Malawi, Africa, to use regenerative practices, thereby increasing their yields by an average of 146% in year 1. This is life-changing for many of these farmers. The school has also invested in research projects to find other ways in which soil biology can be improved, such as seed coating, working with a global seed company on this in 2023, and will continue this research. And as our knowledge advances, we are constantly updating our course content. We are working towards broadening the educational content provided by the school, to include lots of other, useful information for farmers, ranchers and growers, designed to help them transition fully to regenerative agriculture in whatever setting they may be. I hope this insight into what the Soil Food Web School is about will go some way towards alleviating your concerns. Please feel free to reach out to our team with any questions here: [e-mail]

[@yerneedsry]

That guy sounds like a girl, when I finally seen who was talking...

[@squarecompass4582]

he probably is.