Gabe Brown
Soil health pioneer and farmer, Gabe Brown, did not set out to write a book on no-till, regenerative agriculture.
However, that was the end product of his research into a new farming method that he says “would bring back life to his farm, rather than taking away from it”.
A series of weather-related crop disasters put the Brown family farm on the brink of financial ruin, so Brown took what he says was a “bold” decision to cut costs by omitting the use of most pesticides, insecticides and synthetic fertilisers.
This was the catalyst that led him to experiment with regenerative agriculture, a method of farming that undid the damage of conventional agricultural practices.
He switched to no-till planting, started planting diverse cover crop mixes and changed his grazing practices.
In doing so, the farmer and now author transformed a degraded farm ecosystem into one full of life, starting with the soil and working his way up, one plant and one animal at a time.
The Brown’s Ranch model, developed over two decades of experimentation and refinement, focuses on regenerating resources by continuously enhancing the living biology in the soil.
Using these principles, Brown’s Ranch has grown several inches of new topsoil in only twenty years.
The 5,000-acre ranch “profitably” produces a wide variety of cash crops and cover crops as well as grass-finished beef and lamb, pastured laying hens and pastured pork, all marketed directly to consumers.
The author said:
“The future is regenerative, no-till, organic farming and Dirt to Soil is the perennial bestseller to start you on that journey for the betterment of the food we consume and the state of our shared planet.”
The book explores sustainable agriculture, conservation of the environment, soil science, sedimentology, animal husbandry, agricultural science, food & society and organic farming.
One reviewer described the 240-page publication as “the regenerative farming movements’s holy text”.
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