Soil health, human health and the war for food vs. sugar monocultures in the US
We trace how the Great Plains still lives with Dust Bowl forces as Dr. Joshua Anderson links soil loss, monoculture, and rural decline to a culture that no longer asks if we are growing food. Caregiving for his father with MS shapes a vision to “restory” land and rebuild soil health through minimal disturbance, living roots, diversity, and cover.
Joshua T. Anderson is a writer and soil conservationist from rural North Dakota committed to flyways, foodways, and folkways. His featured article on the intersection of soil health and human health appears in the fall issue of Earth Island Journal, and his creative nonfiction essay on the dominance of the sugar industry in North Dakota’s Red River Valley appears in Open Space (the online journal of North American Review). His recent publications on regenerative agriculture and grassland conservation appear in Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices , Iowa Capital Dispatch, and North Dakota Monitor. He was recently an artist-in-residence at the Pine Meadow Ranch Center for Arts and Agriculture in Sisters, Oregon.
Dr. Anderson’s soil and water conservation efforts have been featured in newspapers throughout the Great Plains, including feature interviews about his podcast, prairie conservation through arts and education, and his work to protect his home watershed. He is the co-founder of the Flyway Institute, which brings artists to rural communities in support of conservation efforts throughout the North American flyways. His first narrative nonfiction book Soil Horizons will be published by Plainspoken Books.
In this episode:
- topsoil loss in North Dakota since the 1960s
- monoculture sugar and fuel displacing real food
- food deserts amid vast agricultural acres
- soil health principles and prairie ecology
- costs of inputs rising as organic matter falls
- cultural change and land consolidation pressures
- small diversified farms feeding communities
- language links: humus, humility, human
- excerpt reading from Rooted In Care
- forthcoming book Soil Horizons and its themes
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