Some data from my world:
This time last year "Size 60" avocados (most common size) returned about $1.75/ lb to the grower.
Today = $1.06.
This time last year a gallon of UN32 (conventional nitrogen fertilizer) was about $4.96
Today = $8.54
Not fun.
It works better than another app I had from a team of senior computer science students who worked several months on it as a capstone project.
I used a paid version of Claude.
Then WSU told me the new app cannot be posted because of the difficulty of making calculators accessible. 😐
I was very surprised with the results of my second attempt to build a vibe-coded lawn irrigation calculator. After a couple hours, I had a decent html based web app with an interactive map for location that then draws soil and ET data from online sources.
Agriculture in general is still on X and not here.
I wouldn't think this holds in rural communities.
Just read the underlying study. It 1) does not say “modern agriculture is collapsing,” 2) acknowledges need for 35-56% more food by 2050 without further land clearance, 3) says labor needs in traditional systems are 10x higher, 4) says crop yields in highly agrobiodiverse systems are 20-40% lower.
It's Norman Borlaug's birthday! If you don't know who he was, you should--regardless of what you think about modern ag and the global food system--as NB was, for better and worse, a major part of creating them. Last year, I had a fun talk with Derek Thompson (@dkthomp.bsky.social) about the guy.
I'm not sure about the decision to include dried versions of foods that are not normally eaten dried. It concentrates everything.
And isn't okra only edible when breaded and deep fried?
Chart of the value of different foods from high, dried okra, to low, Gatorade.
For all you dried okra fans out there.
Nutritional Value Score Rates Foods Based on Nutrient Density and Noncommunicable Disease Prevention.
If we assume that the 1" applied is much less dense than in a pile, and use half an inch for the application rate, it is still a lot to apply every year for what most gardens yield.
I just resigned from NASA. It breaks my heart to leave, but I’ve become convinced the best path forward is to do the best science I can, and that can’t be here anymore. I’m still in love with the promise of those four magic letters. Ad astra per aspera, and remember: Earth is the only good planet.
Home gardening is valuable not because it can replace farmers, but because it shows just how tough growing food can be. And what works in a backyard with lots of time and organic inputs doesn’t automatically scale to commercial agriculture.
Here are my calculations:
Yesterday's AP article tells gardeners to apply 3-4" of compost to the soil.
Do the math: 3" is about 100 tons/acre with ~2000 lb of total N per acre. !!
Any farmers out there doing that?
apnews.com/article/heal...
Not to be petty or mean, but especially in #soilhealth and #regenerative ag: if you have a "researcher" presenting simple truths on complex matters... check the Google Scholar account.
One reason soil erosion is so tough is that it occurs over long timescales. In these long term plots in Wooster, OH, you can see that reduced tillage and adding grasses in the rotation has prevented ~4” of topsoil loss in the past decades.
This always reminds me of the Wendell Berry quote…
So "Ready Player One" is not the future.
Want to know why these Jena experiment results do not apply to annual cropping systems or cover crops?
Read this: csanr.wsu.edu/why-ecologic...
The used kits made also for soil testing. I wonder if the results would be similar if for the soil microbiome?
It comes down to this.
There are more soil inoculant products than ever, but research has found most don’t survive long enough to matter. Here’s why:
➡️Tiny cultivable fraction
➡️Fermentation-soil mismatch
➡️Native competition
➡️Soil‑to‑soil variability
My latest, csanr.wsu.edu/why-soil-ino...
This is interesting but doesn't add N to the system so is unlikely to reduce N use. Farmers will fertilize and take advantage of the yield gains, just as with any breeding gain.
Again, plant diversity is not the source of benefits.
"The presence of individual species, rather than diversity per se, determined the soil binding capacity of the system."
Open access.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
I don’t have a deeper message other than: Food and farming issues almost always involve tradeoffs. I wish people would grapple with the tradeoffs rather than retreat to vibes and ideology. END
Venn diagram showing nearly full overlap between 1) Organic, 2) Agroecology, and 3) Regenerative agriculture.
Why do organic, agroecology, and regenerative ag all look so similar?
Because they're built on the same foundation: pop ecology; notions about nature that feel intuitive but don't hold up to scrutiny.
csanr.wsu.edu/pop-ecology/
Me too.
Diagram showing how plant species identity is much less important for structuring soil bacterial communities than pH, organic carbon, and oxygen levels.
One of the many interesting points. Look how far down plant species is in terms of structuring soil bacterial communities.
This is one of the most clear‑headed soil microbiome papers I’ve read. No hype, just solid science. You might be shocked by how much we still don’t know about soils.
By @noahfierer.bsky.social
Unfortunately, not open access. www.nature.com/articles/nrm...
Everything after conversion = organic, sustainable, regenerative, biodynamic, permaculture, and anything else we do after conversion, except for returning it to nature.
