WEBVTT - Ep. 20: From the Earth - Civilization, Humans, and Whitetails 0:00:05.400 --> 0:00:10.640 The principal elements that compose us and that compose soils 0:00:10.680 --> 0:00:15.600 are effectively the same elements. I really think this is 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:19.520 the best tool we have to improve our planet soil health. 0:00:19.560 --> 0:00:23.680 Soil health. On this episode of the Bear Grease podcast, 0:00:23.840 --> 0:00:27.639 we're going to the very footing of natural systems and 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:32.479 human existence. Empires have risen and fallen because of it, 0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:36.440 and the equalizing grasp of the topic at hand is 0:00:36.479 --> 0:00:40.519 inescapable from both the wealthy and the impoverished people of 0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:44.720 the Earth. Will be discussing the bewildering complexity of the 0:00:44.880 --> 0:00:49.320 soil in our connection to it. Will nerd out with 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:54.560 my old soil Sides professor Dr David Miller, exploring soil uniqueness. 0:00:54.760 --> 0:00:57.600 Will also talk with Dr Grant Woods and learn how 0:00:57.600 --> 0:01:02.520 he transformed a degradated cattle farm into a white tailed 0:01:02.560 --> 0:01:06.440 paradise through building soils. And we'll talk with an Arkansas 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:09.440 farmer who has been inspired to live close to the 0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:13.680 land because what he saw in the Middle East. Understanding 0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:17.960 soils will upgrade us as woodsman and will understand more 0:01:18.120 --> 0:01:22.920 about the heartbeat of wild places. I've got some questions 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:26.479 that need answered about the dirt. You're not gonna want 0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:29.399 to miss this one. Even though we have this advanced 0:01:29.440 --> 0:01:34.040 industrial society, the fragility of our soils is something that 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:36.920 we can never forget about and that we need to 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:48.800 continue to pay attention to. My name is Clay Nukelem 0:01:48.800 --> 0:01:52.240 and this is the bear Grease Podcast, where we'll explore 0:01:52.320 --> 0:01:57.040 things forgotten but relevant, search for insight and unlikely places, 0:01:57.240 --> 0:02:00.840 and where we'll tell the story of America who lived 0:02:00.880 --> 0:02:05.080 their lives close to the land. Presented by f h 0:02:05.280 --> 0:02:09.919 F Gear, American made, purpose built hunting and fishing gear 0:02:10.200 --> 0:02:20.959 that's designed to be as rugged as the places we explore. Guys, 0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:25.280 we've got an exclusive bear Grease discount code for f 0:02:25.639 --> 0:02:28.600 h F Gear that's fish Hunt Fight Gear. 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I want 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:18.680 to introduce you to a friend that we both know. 0:03:21.600 --> 0:03:25.679 That may sound oxymoronic, but I think you'll understand what 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:29.560 I mean. This friend has played a part in defining humanity. 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:34.040 No man has escaped its sculpting grip in the literal 0:03:34.160 --> 0:03:38.280 and physiological sense. Every great beast that has walked the 0:03:38.360 --> 0:03:41.760 planet has been swallowed by it, and the so called 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:45.640 great men of the Earth have amassed wealth from its bounty, 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:50.880 but also intimately met it in the end. Oddly, it's 0:03:50.920 --> 0:03:56.640 a persnickety bedfellow and easily offended, often distributing poverty in 0:03:56.720 --> 0:04:00.840 its anger. It's the great equalizer of man kind. No 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:05.440 amount of power excuses a man from its authority. Men 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:09.440 arise from it and return to it when the spark 0:04:09.520 --> 0:04:13.840 of life leaves their body. What I'm talking about is 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:19.880 the soil. I want to read for you some ancient text, 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:24.520 even removing any sense of its religious context. I'm astonished 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:28.320 by the scientific accuracy of the primitive writer as he 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:34.680 tries to interpret and understand his existence. Genesis to seven 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:39.120 through nine. Then the Lord God formed the man from 0:04:39.160 --> 0:04:43.279 the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of 0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:47.440 life into the man's nostrils, and the man became a 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:51.479 living being. Then the Lord God planted a garden in 0:04:51.920 --> 0:04:55.240 Eden in the east, and there he placed the man 0:04:55.480 --> 0:05:00.680 he had made. This text is extremely simple and complex. 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:03.839 At the same time, the knowledge of the chemistry of 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:07.200 soil and the makeup of the organic matter of human 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:10.120 flesh is kind of wild. I bet that we can 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:15.400 all agree that mankind's original and deeply innate connection to 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:19.280 the land is unique. We're the only species that practices 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:23.520 agriculture and manipulates natural systems to grow and produce food. 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:28.360 I want to read a short excerpt from Daniel Hillel's 0:05:28.480 --> 0:05:32.640 book titled Out of the Earth. You'll hear more about 0:05:32.760 --> 0:05:37.400 this book soon from my old soil science professor. These 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:42.719 are Hillel's words. Readers of the Bible and translation miss 0:05:42.880 --> 0:05:46.680 much of the imagery and poetry of the evocative verbal 0:05:46.720 --> 0:05:51.599 associations in the original Hebrew. The indissoluble link between man 0:05:51.640 --> 0:05:55.159 and the soil is manifest in the very name Adam, 0:05:55.200 --> 0:05:58.799 derived from a dama a Hebrew now and a feminine 0:05:58.800 --> 0:06:05.120 gender meaning earth or soil. Adam's name encapsulates man's origin 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:09.400 and destiny, his existence and livelihood derived from the soil 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:12.320 to which he has tethered throughout his life, into which 0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:16.200 he has faded to return at the end of his days. Likewise, 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:20.840 the name of Adam's mate, Hava rendered Eve in translation, 0:06:21.240 --> 0:06:25.360 literally means living in the words of the Bible, and 0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:28.520 the man called his wife Eve because she was the 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:33.800 mother of all living together. Therefore, Adam and Eve signify 0:06:34.120 --> 0:06:38.880 soil and life. The ancient Hebrew association of man with 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:42.400 soil is echoed in the Latin name for man, Homo, 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:46.679 derived from humus, the stuff of life in the soil. 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:51.600 This powerful metaphors suggests an early realization of a profound 0:06:51.640 --> 0:06:56.000 truth that humanity has since disregarded to its own detriment. 0:06:56.680 --> 0:07:01.680 Since the words humility and humble also derived from humus, 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:04.800 it's rather ironic that we should have assigned our species 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:11.280 so arrogant a name as Homo sapiens sapiens wise wise man. 0:07:12.080 --> 0:07:14.080 It occurs to me as I ponder our past and 0:07:14.200 --> 0:07:17.640 future relation to the Earth that we might consider changing 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:21.640 our name to a more modest Homo sapiens curans, the 0:07:21.760 --> 0:07:27.520 word curans denoting caretaking or caring, as in curator. Of course, 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:30.320 we must work to deserve the new name, even as 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:33.600 we have not deserved the old one end of quote. 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:38.520 First of all, I've got to say that my name 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:42.560 means from the earth. I've always felt like that was significant. 0:07:42.960 --> 0:07:46.000 Juju says. They almost named me cole, but in the 0:07:46.120 --> 0:07:50.240 last minute, audible, they named me a formal soil science. 0:07:50.360 --> 0:07:56.040 Now in college, I studied soils almost by accident. Sand, silt, 0:07:56.120 --> 0:08:00.320 and clay are the three architectural definers of all soil eils. 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:03.720 We're gonna meet my favorite professor in just a bit. 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:07.320 But the seed thoughts of the soils importance was put 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:10.360 in me by my grandfather, lew and Nwcom. He would 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:14.720 grin ear to ear and sarcastically proclaim that he was 0:08:14.760 --> 0:08:17.800 a farmer as he stood overlooking a small twenty by 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:20.840 twenty garden in his backyard. As a young boy. He 0:08:20.920 --> 0:08:24.200 talked to me about the process of soil composting as 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:27.720 he throw banana peels and watermelon rinds in his garden. 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:31.320 I'd be shocked if he realized how impacting those moments 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:33.839 were for me, because I don't think I gave many 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:38.960 visual cues of my interest. Later in college, as a 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:42.760 student in the soil science department, those early sensations of 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:51.280 fascinations stirred by this complexity in natural systems, came to fruition. Curiosity, 0:08:51.320 --> 0:08:54.320 I believe is a key part of the definition of 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:57.560 being a woodsman. Daniel Boone taught us what a woodsman 0:08:57.840 --> 0:09:00.920 was and that it is a noble idea entity. I 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:03.840 think we have the right to continue to add complexity 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:07.120 to the idea of being a woodsman. To understand the 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:11.320 flora of the woods, wild beast, untamed rivers, and the 0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:15.840 overarching ecology of wilderness, we have to possess a fundamental 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:21.080 understanding of where it all begins. Dr. David Miller was 0:09:21.120 --> 0:09:25.319 my advisor in college, and honestly I was a poor student. However, 0:09:25.520 --> 0:09:28.280 in his soil science class he had us read a 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:32.520 Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold, and secondly he had 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:34.679 us read a book called Out of the Earth by 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:39.880 Daniel Hillel, which discusses the importance of soil health on civilizations. 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:44.280 It was fascinating. Dr Miller's passion for soils and his 0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:47.640 engaging lecturing style stood out to me, and I never 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:51.239 forgot the basics of soil science. It had been fifteen 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:53.880 years since I had seen him in his office looked 0:09:53.920 --> 0:09:57.760 almost identical as it did in two thousand five, though 0:09:57.840 --> 0:10:00.080 his hair was a bit longer. It was actually a 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:04.200 way longer. I want you to meet Dr David Miller 0:10:04.440 --> 0:10:13.000 of the University of Arkansas and Daniel Hillel's book, the 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:15.400 book that you had me read twenty years ago. I'm 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:19.680 glad you. Hey, I was underlying stuff back then, I've noticed. 0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:24.000 But he talks about the rise and fall of civilizations 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:28.000 based upon how they treated their soils, which is bizarre. 0:10:28.120 --> 0:10:31.000 Like if you if you were to ask anybody and say, 0:10:31.480 --> 0:10:33.800 show me that what are the key factors of a 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:37.600 civilization success? I mean, they would name every single thing 0:10:37.760 --> 0:10:42.920 except soils. But it's fascinating to look back across history 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:46.920 and and look back across the footprints of humanity across 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:50.000 the globe and you see this. Can you talk to 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:52.720 me about that? Yeah, I mean a number one. I'm 0:10:52.960 --> 0:10:54.880 I'm impressed that you still have the book. It's a 0:10:54.920 --> 0:10:57.600 great little read, isn't it. It really is the wonder 0:10:57.640 --> 0:11:01.280 I didn't lose it and little dirty trucks well or 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:05.440 sell it for two dollars to buy a hamburger or something. Yeah, 0:11:05.559 --> 0:11:08.040 but yeah, Hillells book is is really good about that. 0:11:08.120 --> 0:11:12.480 He goes back and documents and he tries to warn 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:16.000 us not to oversimplify that. Of course, take the Roman Empire. 0:11:16.080 --> 0:11:17.840 You know, there's a lot of factors that went into 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:20.560 the decline of the Roman empature. It wasn't just so us. 0:11:20.640 --> 0:11:24.319 But he does point this out that the Romans, as 0:11:24.720 --> 0:11:28.680 technologically advanced as they were, they were actually sort of 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:31.680 stupid when it came to agriculture. You know, I mean, 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:36.559 the Italian uplands are not flat. There tends to be 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:39.520 a tremendous amount of slope to many of the soils 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:43.120 on the Italian peninsula, as hill Hill points out in 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:44.880 his book. And so the Romans go in there and 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:48.080 start clearing the native vegetation that cut down the trees, 0:11:48.679 --> 0:11:52.600 start planting crops. Originally I suspect it was wheat and 0:11:52.679 --> 0:11:59.240 other grains. Well, those kinds of crops are notoriously irrosive 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:01.880 when you try to grow them on slopes, because when 0:12:01.880 --> 0:12:04.640 you plant the seed it takes a long time for 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:06.800 the for the for the plants to emerge and to 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:10.600 close the canopy and protect the soil, and so they 0:12:10.640 --> 0:12:14.160 had massive amounts of erosion, according to Hillel. And I've 0:12:14.200 --> 0:12:16.880 never been to Italy, so I can't speak to this firsthand, 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:19.560 but you go to the Italian Peninsula these days and 0:12:19.559 --> 0:12:21.680 there's hardly any soil left on any of the hills. 0:12:22.679 --> 0:12:26.359 It's just a bunch of bare rocks. And the evidence 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:30.000 of massive amounts of erosion is still evident to this day. 0:12:31.000 --> 0:12:33.320 And so, according to Hillel, one of the things that 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:39.000 the Romans did not realize was that exposure of soil 0:12:39.280 --> 0:12:43.600 to rainfall after clearing of the native vegetation resulted in 0:12:43.800 --> 0:12:48.040 massive land degradation as a result of water erosion. Now 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:51.520 you would think wouldn't but the Romans would be able 0:12:51.520 --> 0:12:54.480 to figure that out a barely not. And they just 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:57.800 continue to do it until the soils were so eroded 0:12:58.280 --> 0:13:01.240 that they wouldn't even grow crops of wheat and barley 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:03.560 and so forth anymore, and they had to resort to 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:09.439 what uh permanent crops like olives and grapes, and so 0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:12.160 they switched over. And so where did they get their grain. 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:16.320 They started to import their grain from North Africa, Egypt, 0:13:16.360 --> 0:13:20.640 in particular their empire, and and this is one of 0:13:20.640 --> 0:13:23.480 the things that Will argues is that they were forced 0:13:23.520 --> 0:13:28.040 to expand their empire in order to acquire lands that 0:13:28.120 --> 0:13:31.760 were capable of producing sufficient quantities of food for their 0:13:31.760 --> 0:13:35.120 people because they had ruined their soils to the extent 0:13:35.400 --> 0:13:38.000 that they were no longer able to grow enough grain 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:42.640 to feed their own people. As one example of the 0:13:42.640 --> 0:13:45.880 inability of a civilization to take care of their soils, 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:51.200 so that decentralization caused them to spread and expand out 0:13:51.720 --> 0:13:55.480 and basically become I mean they were they were prosperous 0:13:55.480 --> 0:13:58.240 for a long time, but became vulnerable because of that. 0:13:58.360 --> 0:14:00.800 And so there, yeah, I mean that of growing their 0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:05.400 quote own grain, their importing grain from foreign countries. Another 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:10.400 good example was the Mesopotamians, who tended to salonize their 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:14.839 lands with inappropriate irrigation techniques. So this was even before 0:14:14.880 --> 0:14:17.920 the Romans. This is the Fertile Crescent and all that, right, 0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:22.040 some of the first civilizations in Babylonia, they irrigated so 0:14:22.120 --> 0:14:25.200 heavily that they rose their water table. When it reached 0:14:25.200 --> 0:14:29.240 the surface, it evaporated and deposited salt. It left what 0:14:29.320 --> 0:14:33.600 was in it left water leaves, but the salt stays. 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:39.360 They salonized their lands by improper irrigation. That particular example 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:43.240 would have been like the cradle of life Tigris and 0:14:43.240 --> 0:14:46.800 Euphrates rivers that are referred to in Genesis. And is 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:49.600 that in modern day Ira? That is correct? And the 0:14:49.720 --> 0:14:51.880 area that we're talking about here is down in that 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:56.040 southern town near Bosra. It's a southern town and the 0:14:56.120 --> 0:14:59.480 fields around north of bo are still water logged in 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:03.840 sale as a result of improper irrigation thousands of years ago. 0:15:04.680 --> 0:15:09.320 Is it clear that the soil usage is what has 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:13.200 what attributed that to becoming like almost desert like. Yes, 0:15:13.400 --> 0:15:17.280 they are, the archaeologist in particular, and I think hill 0:15:17.360 --> 0:15:20.680 El says are pretty convinced that's why that area is 0:15:20.720 --> 0:15:23.360 as desolate as it is now. And as a result 0:15:23.360 --> 0:15:27.080 of Babylonians continually moved north as they screwed up their 0:15:27.080 --> 0:15:33.240 soils with too much irrigation water and finally um civilization disappeared. 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:40.960 Terrell Spencer is my longtime friend and a thought leader 0:15:41.040 --> 0:15:45.040 in our region for pastured poultry and family farming. He's 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:47.920 always had a unique insight into the soil, and it 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:52.240 came from a unique place far from northwest Arkansas. I 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:56.160 want to learn about his operation, how he builds soils, 0:15:56.200 --> 0:15:59.640 and where he became inspired to be a farmer. And 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:04.800 me my friend Terrell Spencer, also a student of Dr Miller. 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:13.640 Terrell Spencer, also known as Spence to me for decades. 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:16.040 Tell me what you do. Tell me about your farm. Yeah, 0:16:16.080 --> 0:16:19.320 I'm a pasture poultry grower. I raised chickens out on 0:16:19.400 --> 0:16:21.680 pasture and then I have a process and plant that 0:16:21.720 --> 0:16:25.200 I partner with. We butcher them deliver them to customers 0:16:25.240 --> 0:16:29.280 across northwest Arkansas eastern Oklahoma. Um. I also am a 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:32.520 grass farmer. I cut hay and sell it. Just more 0:16:32.560 --> 0:16:35.720 than anything, man, I just I love working with nature. 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:39.040 So they're there are independent growers like you, and then 0:16:39.040 --> 0:16:42.160 there are people that grow chickens under contract with some 0:16:42.200 --> 0:16:46.000 of these bigger companies. Talk to me about the systems 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:50.800 that you have in place, and particularly how soil really 0:16:50.960 --> 0:16:54.120 is kind of a foundational part of it. I'm like 0:16:54.400 --> 0:16:57.800 one of the one per centers when it comes to 0:16:58.200 --> 0:17:02.800 just raising poultry, right is nine point something percenta pols. 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:07.960 You're one of the billionaires that other into that spectrum too. 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:11.480 If I could find a way to flip flop them, 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:15.240 we'd be doing pretty good now. Like most chicken growers 0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:17.880 are growers, they grow for someone else. They grow someone 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:21.920 else's birds. About in the eighties, poultry companies realized that 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:25.680 the least profitable part of the chicken industry was actually 0:17:26.000 --> 0:17:28.960 the risk of raising chickens in that and so they 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:31.879 kind of outsource that people that sign up for it. 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:33.760 You know, no one makes you do it, and it 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:37.159 works well for some folks and for some folks it doesn't. 0:17:37.400 --> 0:17:40.480 And we're just not in that system at all. We're 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:44.959 we're just independent. It's just right now. Myself, my boys, 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:48.879 my daughter, my wife across the creek farm. Talk to 0:17:48.920 --> 0:17:52.560 me about the sequence of moving these pins, Like, describe 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:57.159 past your poultry how it works. Yeah, it actually works 0:17:57.240 --> 0:18:00.879 really well. Chickens lay down manure, right like we we 0:18:00.960 --> 0:18:03.439 bring in feed and then they eat it and it 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:05.880 goes out the back end and about half of what 0:18:05.960 --> 0:18:08.960 they eat becomes chicken and the other half goes out 0:18:09.000 --> 0:18:11.040 the back end. If you went to your farm, you 0:18:11.040 --> 0:18:14.760 would see these mobile pins that you move every day, yeah, 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:17.640 or every every every couple of days. Yeah, so you're 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:20.080 getting two crops. You're getting hay, which round here is 0:18:20.320 --> 0:18:24.680 very valuable, but you're also getting chickens. But the catalyst 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:27.840 of it all is this soil. Yeah, because chicken new 0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:31.000 is going down in and then the grass comes up 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:35.160 very nutrient rich, grows fast, grows good. We don't spray. 0:18:35.359 --> 0:18:38.040 The edges of our fields are intentionally messy, which is 0:18:38.320 --> 0:18:42.359 hunters like I don't personally hunt. I love hunters because 0:18:42.400 --> 0:18:45.879 beer constantly grazing down stuff for other critters, you know, 0:18:46.240 --> 0:18:49.960 popping Kyle, tell me your true, unfiltered thoughts on raccoons, man, 0:18:50.440 --> 0:18:52.959 I think, let me start a sance for you. A 0:18:53.000 --> 0:18:58.640 good raccoon is a dead raccoon, or is is on 0:18:58.680 --> 0:19:01.880 someone's wall or a hat a good rat cane. And see, 0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:03.520 I don't even like the word rat can. I like 0:19:03.560 --> 0:19:08.440 the word trash panda. But and you know, a good 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:11.919 rat and that's why friends long lived the beast. But 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:18.520 not on your farm. Yes, Now that we understand the 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:21.840 process of soil inputs from the chickens and the subsequent 0:19:21.960 --> 0:19:25.879 grass harvest, I want to hear about where and how 0:19:26.359 --> 0:19:31.879 Harold decided to be a farmer. My first realization of 0:19:31.920 --> 0:19:36.679 the destructiveness of human beings, like just to the soil was. 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:39.639 I was in Iraq. My job was as a gunner, 0:19:39.680 --> 0:19:43.040 and we'd go in the U. S. Military in the U. S. Military, Yeah, 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:45.199 this was back in two thousand and four, and we 0:19:45.240 --> 0:19:48.919 would go down and escort convoys and stuff. That was 0:19:48.960 --> 0:19:50.640 one of the things we did. And we'd go down 0:19:50.640 --> 0:19:52.720 to quait bring them back up. I was in Baghdad 0:19:53.080 --> 0:19:56.480 and we would go through these areas that were like 0:19:56.920 --> 0:20:00.639 they had irrigation ditches, they had pumps, I had, you know, 0:20:01.000 --> 0:20:03.919 all this stuff for agriculture. And at the time, I 0:20:04.000 --> 0:20:06.640 kind of had my eye on some rice farmer's daughter 0:20:06.840 --> 0:20:09.800 in East Arkansas. So I knew like a good setup 0:20:09.840 --> 0:20:13.160 for going rice, right, and so I thought we'd head 0:20:13.200 --> 0:20:15.120 south and I would be like, they're gonna plant rice here, 0:20:15.160 --> 0:20:18.479 you know. And one day, not to digress, but she 0:20:18.560 --> 0:20:22.359 did become this woman became the rice Queen. Yeah yeah, 0:20:22.680 --> 0:20:26.159 Cross County or ice Queen. Okay, take us back to 0:20:27.280 --> 0:20:29.480 and so like we uh, one day we were heading 0:20:29.520 --> 0:20:33.080 down and the fleet all these fields were flooded. I'm okay, 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:35.320 they're gonna grow rice. And at the time I did 0:20:35.560 --> 0:20:38.320 zero about farming. I had been a punk rocker before 0:20:38.320 --> 0:20:42.000 I went into the the military, you know, no agricultural background. 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:45.080 And then over time we'd passed it again and it 0:20:45.160 --> 0:20:48.000 was all white. I don't know what's going on here. 0:20:48.400 --> 0:20:50.639 And then we came back, you know, like a couple 0:20:50.600 --> 0:20:52.960 of days later, and they were all these families filling 0:20:53.000 --> 0:20:55.920 bags of salt, and it just like what is going on? 0:20:56.160 --> 0:20:58.120 And then I got back. I went to the University 0:20:58.160 --> 0:21:00.760 of Arkansas and got a degree and to all science 0:21:01.200 --> 0:21:04.119 and and it just like blew my mind because this 0:21:04.200 --> 0:21:07.280 is the fertile Crescent, right, like we all learned that 0:21:07.400 --> 0:21:10.680 in school. And as I started thinking back and as 0:21:10.720 --> 0:21:14.320 I kind of went through pictures and like southern Iraq, man, 0:21:14.440 --> 0:21:16.520 that was like where they think the Garden of Eden was, 0:21:16.680 --> 0:21:19.919 you know, like and it's just a waste land. And 0:21:19.960 --> 0:21:25.160 it's all because humans, well intentioned humans, their actions like 0:21:25.560 --> 0:21:30.760 just destroyed the foundation of life in that area, you know. 0:21:30.920 --> 0:21:34.199 And it's crazy even looking at like here in the US, 0:21:34.280 --> 0:21:36.159 we've been here kicking around for like a hundred and 0:21:36.200 --> 0:21:40.040 fifty years doing agriculture and we're seeing the same problems, 0:21:41.080 --> 0:21:43.240 you know. And I guess what I'm passionate about is 0:21:43.320 --> 0:21:47.200 just like not leaving that mess for someone else to 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:49.920 leave it better than I found it. Especially coming back 0:21:49.960 --> 0:21:52.639 from the war. It was like when I realized what 0:21:52.800 --> 0:21:56.040 through farming you could be creative instead of destructive. Man, 0:21:56.080 --> 0:21:59.800 I was hooked, and that's why I raised chickens an pasture. 0:22:02.640 --> 0:22:05.280 I want to jump back to Dr Miller. I think 0:22:05.280 --> 0:22:07.159 we need to go back and try to understand the 0:22:07.200 --> 0:22:12.640 fundamental aspects of soil. Welcome to Dr Miller's Soil Science 0:22:12.720 --> 0:22:20.200 class one oh one. Here's Dr Miller. Dr Miller talked 0:22:20.200 --> 0:22:24.240 to me about how soils, this thin layer on the 0:22:24.280 --> 0:22:27.960 outer crust of the Earth is so essential to not 0:22:28.040 --> 0:22:31.440 just human life, but every part of life, because it's 0:22:31.480 --> 0:22:33.960 kind of bizarre when you think about this big rock 0:22:34.359 --> 0:22:37.879 floating around the star and this, you know, whatever the 0:22:38.000 --> 0:22:42.600 volume of the Earth is, it's massive, and this this outer, tiny, 0:22:42.640 --> 0:22:45.959 tiny fraction of that volume of the crust of the 0:22:45.960 --> 0:22:52.720 Earth is this brilliant, intricate wild thing called dirt, which 0:22:52.800 --> 0:22:56.440 is what humans disdain in so many ways. But to 0:22:56.560 --> 0:22:59.280 talk to me about about the uniqueness of that, you know, 0:22:59.560 --> 0:23:01.280 it is there saying it's a good point that you 0:23:01.320 --> 0:23:05.240 bring up to. By volume, the Earth is a minuscule 0:23:05.320 --> 0:23:08.879 fraction soil right, because as most of us know, it 0:23:09.000 --> 0:23:12.399 can range from oh gosh, six inches thick too. I 0:23:12.440 --> 0:23:15.320 don't know. Down near the equator there are probably soils 0:23:15.320 --> 0:23:18.120 that are fifty or sixty feet thick, but in general 0:23:18.160 --> 0:23:22.359 two to three four five ft thick is all soil is, 0:23:22.760 --> 0:23:25.760 and it has unique properties. It's more than just crushed 0:23:25.840 --> 0:23:28.160 up rock. A lot of people say, well, dirt's just 0:23:28.560 --> 0:23:31.159 you can take rock and crushed up and you have dirt. Well, no, 0:23:31.320 --> 0:23:33.959 you can't. Crushed up rock is not soil. It's crushed 0:23:34.040 --> 0:23:38.320 up rock. You need to undergo what we think. What 0:23:38.440 --> 0:23:42.040 we scientist is what we saw a scientists called petagenesis, 0:23:42.040 --> 0:23:46.080 which is the process by which this stuff called parent material, 0:23:46.600 --> 0:23:49.520 which can be rock, or it can be sediment, or 0:23:49.560 --> 0:23:52.520 it can be plant tissues for that matter, petogenesis is 0:23:52.520 --> 0:23:55.240 the process by which that materially is converted into this 0:23:55.320 --> 0:23:58.680 special stuff that we call soil. And yes, it does 0:23:58.800 --> 0:24:03.000 have minerals in it, but it also has organic materials 0:24:03.000 --> 0:24:07.000 in it. And then incredibly importantly, it has lots of pores, 0:24:07.480 --> 0:24:09.920 and pores is where the water is held, and then 0:24:09.920 --> 0:24:12.360 of course they're the other thing that's special about soils 0:24:12.480 --> 0:24:15.600 is the fact that it's so biologically active, it's got 0:24:15.600 --> 0:24:18.320 some much stuff living in it. So I mean there's 0:24:18.480 --> 0:24:21.359 this combination of factors I think that leads to the 0:24:21.440 --> 0:24:25.639 uniqueness of soils. Its composition. Clearly, it's chemical composition. It 0:24:25.680 --> 0:24:29.520 has a very interesting and unique chemical composition, sand, silt 0:24:29.560 --> 0:24:34.840 and clay, poor size distributions, biological activity, and then this 0:24:35.000 --> 0:24:40.280 organic fraction is incredibly interesting. Those features combined to make 0:24:40.359 --> 0:24:44.240 soil unique in its ability to support plant life. But 0:24:44.320 --> 0:24:47.320 then there's these other things that soils do that are remarkable. 0:24:47.320 --> 0:24:49.640 And most people when they think of soils, they think 0:24:49.720 --> 0:24:52.560 of soils support plant life, and that is true, but 0:24:52.640 --> 0:24:56.560 they also help control the composition of the atmosphere through 0:24:56.560 --> 0:25:01.000 what through their CEO to production and or sequestration. Methane 0:25:01.119 --> 0:25:05.160 is produced by soils, Nitrous oxide is produced by soils. 0:25:05.200 --> 0:25:09.600 So soils through their production and consumption of gases, helped 0:25:09.680 --> 0:25:14.439 regulate the composition of the atmosphere, which these days with people, 0:25:15.000 --> 0:25:18.640 you know, talking about global warming, that's an important thing 0:25:18.640 --> 0:25:22.080 that soils do. Hop out um the ability of soils 0:25:22.119 --> 0:25:27.000 to hold and purify water. Every drop of rainfall pretty 0:25:27.080 --> 0:25:31.240 much interacts with soil and the quality of the soils 0:25:31.280 --> 0:25:35.920 then tends to impact the quality of the water. Where 0:25:35.920 --> 0:25:38.640 would we be without soils to hold water? We would 0:25:38.680 --> 0:25:42.120 have massive floods. We would have no mechanism by which 0:25:42.280 --> 0:25:45.919 store water for plants to take up. Later on, I 0:25:45.960 --> 0:25:49.760 asked Dr Miller about the composition of soils as compared 0:25:49.800 --> 0:25:52.840