Charcoal cannot replace the need for adding mineral nutrients.

One of my projects made the front page of the Yakima newspaper. Since the paper tends to paywall these things in short order, I thought the blog would make a handy archive.

The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service has posted state-by-state results of their Natural Resources Inventory (NRI). The report depicts wetland gains and losses, soil erosion, farmland loss for the 48 contiguous United States through 2003. These numbers look pretty encouraging. It will be interesting to see if they continue this way in 2004.

Researchers find that soil phosphorus levels may affect plant phytate levels as much as plant breeding. Not only is the phosphorus in low-phytate grain crops more digestible by people, but low-phytate grains free up minerals essential to human nutrition: zinc, manganese and iron.

Web site discusses science in support of using grassland to sequester atmospheric carbon.

The Carbon Coalition started out among growers in the Central West Catchment Management Authority's Farm Systems training program in New South Wales and is expanding to cover Australia and other parts of the globe. The Coalition is a not-for-profit organisation that runs like a business, with the express aim of securing a central role for soil carbon in the credit trading schemes emerging around Greenhouse Gas Emissions abatement. Co-convenors are the Kiely family, woolgrowers from Goolma, NSW.