This week, we’re dipping into the archives back to 2005. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and YouTube was founded, and in 2005, John Slack also took the stage at our Eco-Ag conference and spoke about rocks.
But we are not really talking about rocks. We are talking about geology. And even more so, geology-micro biology, or as Slack puts it, “Bugs eating rocks.”
The basis of all this, and why it’s interesting to us and other eco-farmers: the industrial chemical revolution that occurred after World War II caused scientists, or geologists, or just rock fanatics, to pause in their research in regards to agriculture. Yet a few passionate folks, like John, continued. They avoided the noise of short cuts and pollution and learned how many living things manipulate rocks to get the nutrients they require.
John Slack does not call himself a geologist or a farmer. He calls himself a prospector. “We went out and looked for calcium,” he says in his talk. He talks about what he looks for when he walks the fields and digs his hands into the soil, to see what plants are reacting to those minerals.
John Slack is a fourth-generation miner who worked throughout northern Canada in the search of economic mineral deposits from 1979 through 1992. This entailed extensive stream sediment, soil geochemistry, geological mapping, compilations, mine development and mine management. This experience would result in employing these techniques in the evaluation of agricultural landscapes. In 1992 Slack left the mining industry and started farming on the family's 330-acre property, Golden Innisfree Farms, located in Erin Township, Ontario. The farm was a grass-based cow-calf operation. Today the farm comprises organic vegetable production and a grass-based sheep dairy. Slack and his father started to evaluate and experiment with agrominerals. Commonly referred to as rock powder and rock dust, this research resulted in developing the Spanish River Carbonatite Complex, a unique igneous (magmatic) calcium carbonate deposit. Slack commenced soil auditing services that resulted in introducing soil evaluation methodologies, commonly employed in mineral exploration, to farm clients.
We’re proud and happy to share that talk from 2005 with you this week. It’s still as relevant, and shrouded by short cuts and industrial chemical fertilizer and pesticide propaganda, as ever.
Tractor Time #57: Jesse Frost on No-Till Farming and Creating Living Soil
Tractor Time #56: Carey Gillam on the Monsanto Lawsuits
Tractor Time #55: Mark Bittman on 'Animal, Vegetable, Junk'
Tractor Time #54: The Fungi Underground (w/ Doug Bierend)
Tractor Time #53: Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps and Regenerative Supply Chains
Tractor Time Episode 52: The Business of Botanicals (w/ Ann Armbrecht)
Tractor Time Episode 51: Journalist Tom Philpott on Our Perilous Food System
Tractor Time Episode 50: Dr. Vandana Shiva on the Toxic Cartels
Tractor Time Episode 49: Chris Smaje on Our Peasant Farmer Future
Tractor Time Episode 48: Doug Fine, American Hemp Farmer
Tractor Time Episode 47: Rodale CEO Jeff Moyer Talks No-Till
Tractor Time Episode 46: Ken Roseboro on GMOs
Tractor Time Episode 45: Agroecologist Nicole Masters
Tractor Time Episode 44: In Defense of Okra (With Chris Smith)
Tractor Time Episode 43: Rebecca Burgess on the Farm to Closet Movement
Tractor Time Episode 42: Gerry Gillespie on Renewing Soil with 'Waste'
Tractor Time Episode 41: Darby Simpson on Finding Opportunity During a Pandemic
Tractor Time Episode 40: Marty Travis on Farming in a Time of Fear
Tractor Time Episode 39: Sherri Dugger and Judith McGeary
Tractor Time Episode 38: Mimi Casteel and Regenerative Wine
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Plant People
Regenerative Agriculture Podcast
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
Weather with Cliff Mass
Forestcast