If you are going to improve your soil health over time, you need a way to adapt your management practices to better align your efforts across your entire farm ecosystem. We must identify what is not working. When most of us think of our operation, we unconsciously accept and assume certain conventional characteristics.

Thinking Differently About Soil Health - And Farming More Profitably

Congratulations, you've unlocked free shipping!

MarkdownText

SwatchGridBase

PlasmicCart

PlasmicCartItem

PlasmicCartItemName

NavDropdown

KlaviyoNewsletterSignup

PlasmicOpenCartDrawer

PlasmicCartItemQuantity

BasicButton

PlasmicCartActiveDiscount

DesignNavigation

SwatchBase

Cart

AeaFooter

DesignSwatch

PlasmicUpsellItems

ResourcesBlogDetail

Advancing Eco Agriculture creates customized crop programs, combining innovative products with regenerative practices to improve crop quality & yields.

Regenerative Ag | Advancing Eco Agriculture

Navigation

PlasmicCartGiftNote

UpsellTitleText

DesignSwatchGrid

PlasmicCartSubtotal

PlasmicCartItemPrice

ArticleModule

PlasmicCartVariantName

UpsellPriceText

PlasmicCartOrderOptionToggles

blinkSlider

AeaAboveNavigation

UpsellAddToCart

Modal

CartPage

PlasmicProgressRegion

TriggerCheckout

PlasmicCartItemCustomAttribute

Screen

Experiment

Segment

plasmic-embed-css

plasmic-basic-components

react-youtube

blink-Advancing Eco Ag

EYEMAGINE Development

By Dan Schultz, October31, 2022
There’s an old story about a failed revolt. It was an uprising planned for some time. 
 On a certain day, the various parts of the human body, including the brain, arms, legs, eyes, feet, hands, lungs, etc., got together to discuss the body's belly and what they thought about its contribution to the group's efforts on behalf of the body.
 
The body parts were all unhappy and resentful for various reasons, and chose to target their collective anxieties at the belly, in a rather bullying way. The unhappy body parts decided that the belly was not doing enough towards maintaining the body's operations, and accused the belly of spending its time lazily consuming food and allowing other members to do all the work.  "We have decided that we will no longer do what we need to do in order to feed you," they said to the belly, "Because you do nothing to help us, and you are lazy and unproductive." 
 And they stopped feeding the belly. The belly soon starved. But to their surprise and terror, each member of the body starved too. The unhappy body parts now realized - too late unfortunately to save themselves and the body - that although the belly seemed to be doing nothing, it had in fact been fulfilling a vital function necessary for the wellbeing of the body and all of its parts. 
 In the US, it is estimated that soil on cropland is eroding 10 times faster than it can be replenished. At this rate of loss, some experts predict that we will be out of topsoil in about 60 years.
  Nearly all of our food production depends on the critical function of healthy topsoil. We can only begin to make progress when we stop lying to ourselves and start pursuing new opportunities for restoring soil health and fertility. As Albert Einstein famously said, "we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them." We must venture to think differently about our soils. 
 The new way to think about farming in the 21st century is to promote soil health by changing your management practices.
 Today, the vast majority of advising we do with farmers, agronomists, and industry leaders is to get them to flip this script. 
95% of us think that we know where our focus should be. We naively focus on yields without considering the complexity of the system we’re farming in.
​
After all, we have to feed the world, right?
​
So we tell ourselves that we care about leaving our farms better than we found it. We mouth the words and we continuously remind ourselves that this is the way it has to be to grow cheap food. We continue to apply the same excessive rate of nitrogen fertilizer. We just need to push those yields up a bit more, a few more bushels. We continue to push and move forward with convention to the point that we now lose 2 pounds of topsoil for each pound of corn that is produced in the state of Iowa. The brutal truth is that we need to change. 
​
Our farms will tell us what they need - all we have to do is learn to listen. 
 Listening to your plants and reacting to the signals they are trying to send is the best way to think about managing your fields.
​
If you are going to improve your soil health over time, you need a way to adapt your management practices to better align your efforts across your entire farm ecosystem. We must identify what is not working. When most of us think of our operation, we unconsciously accept and assume certain conventional characteristics.
 
We say things like, “this is how it’s done around here,” and “we have to do it this way. We got this.” We apply the same herbicides and fungicides we did last year; we till extensively; we use the same frame of reference year over year, season after season.
​
Instead, we believe that you need to introduce incremental changes into the way you farm so that you can begin to think differently about the entire system. As you continue to iterate and learn, test different management practices so you can identify where your limiting factors exist today. 
​
Here at AEA, we like to say don’t guess, test. 
​
We must learn to pay attention to micronutrients in the soil. Micronutrients are key for plant growth, and pesticides used to kill plants readily and easily chelate them. This means that once you use the pesticide, it can bind with the micronutrient and make it unavailable for the plant. As a result, essential processes necessary for the plant's survival are inhibited. 
Soil health is essential to farm profitability. And we need to start thinking differently about how we manage our soils—not just from a fertility standpoint, but from a microbial standpoint as well. We need to understand that the soil is a living system, and it’s teeming with life. If we manage it properly, we can create an environment that is conducive to plant growth and also supports a healthy population of soil microbes.
​
 
When we do that, we’ll start to see a lot of the problems that we’re currently dealing with in agriculture begin to disappear. We’ll see fewer diseases, fewer pests, and healthier plants. And that will result in more profitable farms for years to come.

Privacy Policy

Introduction 
<ul class="color_15 font_8" data-mce-fragment="1">
<li data-mce-fragment="1">
These terms and conditions shall govern your use of our website.
</li>
<li data-mce-fragment="1">
By using our website, you accept these terms and conditions in full and our&nbsp;<a href="https://www.iubenda.com/privacy-policy/96470459" data-mce-fragment="1" data-mce-href="https://www.iubenda.com/privacy-policy/96470459" target="_blank">privacy policy</a><a href="https://www.iubenda.com/privacy-policy/96470459/cookie-policy" data-mce-fragment="1" data-mce-href="https://www.iubenda.com/privacy-policy/96470459/cookie-policy" target="_blank">&nbsp;and cookie policy</a>; accordingly, if you disagree with these terms and conditions or any part of these terms and conditions, you must not use our website.
</li>
<li data-mce-fragment="1">
By using any of our website services you expressly agree to these terms and conditions.&nbsp;
</li>
</ul>
 Copyright notice
Copyright 2023 Advancing Eco Agriculture
Subject to the express provisions of these terms and conditions:
<ul class="color_15 font_8" data-mce-fragment="1">
<li data-mce-fragment="1">
We, together with our licensors, own and control all the copyright and other intellectual property rights in our website and the material on our website; and&nbsp;all the copyright and other intellectual property rights in our website and the material on our website are reserved.
</li>
</ul>
 License to use website
You may:
<ul class="color_15 font_8" data-mce-fragment="1">
<li data-mce-fragment="1">
view pages from our website in a web browser;
</li>
<li data-mce-fragment="1">
download pages from our website for caching in a web browser;
</li>
<li data-mce-fragment="1">
print pages from our website;
</li>
<li data-mce-fragment="1">
stream audio and video files from our website;
</li>
<li data-mce-fragment="1">
download files and information contained on our website for that purpose unless you own or control the relevant rights in the material, without express permission, you must not:&nbsp;republish material from our website (including republication on another website); or&nbsp;sell, rent or sub-license material from our website
</li>
</ul>
 Limitations and exclusions of liability The limitations and exclusions of liability set out in this Section 12 and elsewhere in these terms and conditions:&nbsp; 
<ul class="color_15 font_8" data-mce-fragment="1">
<li data-mce-fragment="1">
To the extent that our website and the information and services on our website are provided free of charge, we will not be liable for any loss or damage of any nature.
</li>
<li data-mce-fragment="1">
We will not be liable to you in respect of any losses arising out of any event or events beyond our reasonable control.
</li>
<li data-mce-fragment="1">
We will not be liable to you in respect of any business losses, including (without limitation) loss of or damage to profits, income, revenue, use, production, anticipated savings, business, contracts, commercial opportunities or goodwill.
</li>
<li data-mce-fragment="1">
We will not be liable to you in respect of any special, indirect or consequential loss or damage.
</li>
<li data-mce-fragment="1">
You accept that we have an interest in limiting the personal liability of our officers and employees and, having regard to that interest, you acknowledge that we are a limited liability entity; you agree that you will not bring any claim personally against our officers or employees in respect of any losses you suffer in connection with the website or these terms and conditions (this will not, of course, limit or exclude the liability of the limited liability entity itself for the acts and omissions of our officers and employees).
</li>
</ul>
 Variation 
<ul class="color_15 font_8" data-mce-fragment="1">
<li data-mce-fragment="1">
We may revise these terms and conditions from time to time.
</li>
<li data-mce-fragment="1">
The revised terms and conditions shall apply to the use of our website from the date of publication of the revised terms and conditions on the website, and you hereby waive any right you may otherwise have to be notified of, or to consent to, revisions of these terms and conditions.
</li>
</ul>
 Assignment 
<ul class="color_15 font_8" data-mce-fragment="1">
<li data-mce-fragment="1">
You hereby agree that we may assign, transfer, sub-contract or otherwise deal with our rights and/or obligations under these terms and conditions.&nbsp;
</li>
<li data-mce-fragment="1">
You may not without our prior written consent assign, transfer, sub-contract or otherwise deal with any of your rights and/or obligations under these terms and conditions.&nbsp;
</li>
</ul>
 Severability 
<ul class="color_15 font_8" data-mce-fragment="1">
<li data-mce-fragment="1">
If a provision of these terms and conditions is determined by any court or other competent authority to be unlawful and/or unenforceable, the other provisions will continue in effect.
</li>
<li data-mce-fragment="1">
If any unlawful and/or unenforceable provision of these terms and conditions would be lawful or enforceable if part of it were deleted, that part will be deemed to be deleted, and the rest of the provision will continue in effect.&nbsp;
</li>
</ul>
 Third party rights 
<ul class="color_15 font_8" data-mce-fragment="1">
<li data-mce-fragment="1">
A contract under these terms and conditions is for our benefit and your benefit, and is not intended to benefit or be enforceable by any third party.
</li>
<li data-mce-fragment="1">
The exercise of the parties' rights under a contract under these terms and conditions is not subject to the consent of any third party.
</li>
</ul>
 Entire agreement 
<ul class="color_15 font_8" data-mce-fragment="1">
<li data-mce-fragment="1">
These terms and conditions shall constitute the entire agreement between you and us in relation to your use of our website and shall supersede all previous agreements between you and us in relation to your use of our website.
</li>
</ul>
 Our details 
Our principal place of business is at 4551 Parks West Road, Middlefield Ohio 44062.
You can contact us:
<ul class="color_15 font_8" data-mce-fragment="1">
<li data-mce-fragment="1">
by post, using the postal address given above;
</li>
<li data-mce-fragment="1">
using our website contact form;
</li>
<li data-mce-fragment="1">
by telephone, on the contact number published on our website
</li>
</ul>

Thinking Differently About Soil Health - And Farming More Profitably

Company

Customer Care

Follow Us