Dirt to Soil
by Gabe Brown · first published 2018
11mentions
7recommended by
8HN commenters
2020–2023first – last mentioned
88% recommend13% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Practical, farmer-written account of regenerative agriculture applied at large scale and shown to be profitable; useful for those curious about cutting chemical inputs, tillage, and debt in farming.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…increase labor inputs - adding fertilizers, pesticides, annual tillage, managing irrigation systems - these are all things that can be eliminated, if the proper systems are put in place. Gabe Browns book, Dirt to Soil was an eye opening read. Cheers.
on “Investors say agroforestry is climate friendly and also profitable” ↗…nurtition density of our food. The catch is that we need the animals to restore soil health and presumably we need the business model of selling the meat to make this practice sustainable. Further Reading: Dirt to Soil - Gabe Brown Alan Savory's Holistic Management Practices - https://youtu.be/q7pI7IYaJLI https://www.marincarbonproject.org/
on “World’s first lab-grown meat facility pumps out 5k burgers per day” ↗Do you have sources for this? I used to think similarly, but now I’m not so sure. Gabe Brown, the author of Dirt to Soil, changed my outlook on animals place in a healthy ecosystem. On his farmland he puts about 700k lbs of cattle on 1acre of land at a time, rotating those cattle frequently across 40 acres. He claims this…
on “Organic and regenerative agriculture are revitalizing rural Montana economies” ↗Good read... "Dirt to Soil One Family's Journey into Regenerative Agriculture", by Gabe Brown, 2018 Gabe Brown didn't set out to change the world when he first started working alongside his father-in-law on the family farm in…
on “Healthy soil is key to feeding the world” ↗If you're into Permaculture and Solarpunk, "Dirt to Soil" by Gabe Brown
on “Ask HN: What book should I buy for my 18th birthday?” ↗> Any link to read about this 0.5 - 30 inch/hr conversion? Read From Dirt to Soil by Gabe Brown. He also mentions the first inch (2.5cm) infiltrates in 9 seconds! So his soil drinks up more water in 9 seconds than nearby farms do in an entire hour. > was this a carefully controlled…
on “Why are Pakistan’s floods so extreme this year?” ↗This is already in progress, in North Dakota. See Gabe Brown, and his book on this and related subjects, "Dirt to Soil". Some other resources... > Brown's Ranch – Regenerating Landscapes for a Sustainable Future: https://brownsranch.us/ > Brown’s Ranch, Bismarck, ND: https://www.csuchico.edu/regenerativeagriculture/demos/gabe-...…
on “How to bury carbon? Let plants do the dirty work” ↗And huge not-so-hidden costs in terms of chemical inputs. There are a number of stories in Gabe Brown’s “From Dirt to Soil” (well worth a read if you’re interested in large scale regenerative agriculture) that illustrate how financially precarious modern industrial ag can be.
on “Farms that create habitat key to food security and biodiversity” ↗"Dirt to Soil" by Gabe Brown might start getting more popular. He started investigating no-till, etc. after several successive years of crop failures and thus not being able to afford the normal inputs for industrial…
on “Farmers facing fertiliser sticker shock may cut use” ↗Yes, somewhat at least. Gabe Brown's Dirt To Soil book (haven't read it, but seen some of his videos (~1 and 2 hours length), and my guess is the main points of the book should be roughly the same as the videos. You can see them too, on YouTube). I…
on “So you want to buy a farm?” ↗…lawn companies and apply fertilizer and pesticides constantly. They don't have soil anymore. It's mid to light brown dirt. At some point, we watched a video of a Gabe Brown presentation (author of From Dirt to Soil). Our new, hold-my-beer, "game" is to do as little as possible to our lawn - other than keeping it long - while still having it greener than everyone else. One factor that turns out to be critical is…
on “Why is houseplant advice so bad?” ↗