Erin Wiedmer’s Post

Fabulous discussion by Prof Goulson. I eagerly await his posts. Neonics are banned in Europe but still used in many parts of the world as seed insecticide coatings. The trouble is they are systemic and contaminate the pollen and thus puddles and soils surrounding these plants. Dr Poulson discusses how using Spot On with Fipronil (acts like a neonic) on your pet may be contaminating your living area and yr environment. It’s well worth a listen.

We can still fix this…It comes down to soil health. Soil is the driver that acts as the source of many things: for vegetation, for clean water, clean air and light, regular rains. If you want to unhook from synthetic agriculture, please reach out - Woodland Grow. That’s why we are here. https://lnkd.in/emVAMm28

This is a message of empowerment - read to the end and you will understand why. I was asked today if I thought all the pollution in the Gulf of Mexico will affect hurricane development. Dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) is released by phytoplankton. This metabolite is naturally transformed into dimethyl sulphide (DMS) which is critical to the global sulphur cycle and actually reduces the amount of ground solar radiation. As pollution increases, and we can see on photos that it has increased a great deal in the Gulf due to the aftermath of both hurricanes, the phytoplankton numbers fall, which in turn decreases as the amount of DMS produced. DMS act as a cloud condensation nucleus (CCN). This means water will freeze at a warmer-than-normal temperature resulting in more local, regular & lighter rains. If water vapour stays in the atmosphere longer, it creates drought locally, & more extreme outcomes elsewhere. Equally, I think deforestation in Brazil plays a huge role because it results in a reversal of the pressure over the newly denuded land. (Forests create low pressure zones because of the energy required for water to change phase from liquid to gas in evapotranspiration: interestingly they also contribute biological CCN like the bacteria, Pseudomonas syringae, which do the same thing as DMS in creating light, regular, low level rains). Low pressure zones pull air in from high pressure zones, and therefore they mitigate the strength of the winds/hurricanes. We're doing this to ourselves due to our ignorance in natural systems. But that leads to the good news: How do we reverse it? 1. Stop burning carbon - Soot is hydrophobic so acts as the opposite of CCN; 2. Stop deforestation and spraying of synthetic fertilizers and biocides; 3. Stop pollution from entering water courses; 4. Plant trees and switch Ag and Horticulture to non-polluting fertilisers and substrates. All these things, points 1-4, are connected through the soil. Soil health is the main lever we can push to drive change. That's why soil is my main focus. Synthetic fertilizers use massive amounts of Fossil gas (a carbon) in their makeup and production; they then kill the microbiology within the soils; When synthetic N is applied, it kills the fungi as mentioned, and then most of the N runs off with the topsoil instead of being held by the fungal mycelium . This topsoil, loaded with N, P, chemicals like PFAS and microplastics, disappears into the water courses causing anoxia which kills the good microorganisms like the phytoplankton in the waters. Without topsoil, it's tremendously difficult to replant forests. It all comes down to how we behave - not an act of God or something beyond our control. This should be empowering, because it is within our ability to make significant changes without suffering! We just need to do it (and by the way #UKgovt, your silly support of carbon capture technologies is about the craziest waste of money I have ever seen). #Soil #Savesoil

What we at Woodland Grow have been saying for a long time: organic fertilisers store more carbon in soils! (Nb: they have to be the RIGHT organisms eg from COWS! - not biodigestate or bioamendments!)

This isn’t a story about earthworms or hens: it’s a story about pesticide contamination. “The EU plans to stop the use of the harmful PFAS in many industries but not their inclusion in pesticides because these fall under separate EU regulations”. Worms are often fed green waste thus they may well accumulate PFAS. At some point, legislators need to understand that when they allow this contamination to continue, they are hurting themselves and their own families along with the rest of us. Woodland Grow https://lnkd.in/egWD6ei2

More evidence that Australia is moving in exactly the wrong direction. Crop Life has completely captured the government pushing/supporting such projects. Cows should be pasture-raised. Properly. To rebuild soil. Cows should not be eating GMOfoods grown in monocrops. More monocrops mean more soil destruction, water eutrophication, drought, flood and reef destruction. Is Australia’s government asleep at the wheel?

Epigenetics govern what genes are turned on and off. GMOs play with these without understanding the consequences. Maybe time is nigh to re-examine their safety record? Funny what happens when one speaks to Bayer et al about the epigenetic effects: complete silence.