Revered by some and unknown to many, breadfruit is one of the most promising yet underutilized perennial staple crops in the tropics

A single breadfruit tree can produce 500 pounds of nutritionally dense fruit seasonally for decades.

The case for a breadfruit resurgence: Breadfruit is a species of tree in the Moraceae family, native to new New Guinea. It initially spread to Oceania and is now found throughout the tropics.

Known as 'Ulu, It is also one of the celebrated "canoe plants" brought to Hawaii by ancient Polynesians.

Each year, we lose 3–4 million hectares of tropical forest, 90% of which is attributed to agriculture.

Productive agriculture and healthy forest ecosystems are not mutually exclusive.

Take the example of Ernst Gotsch:

Ernst Gotsch is a Swiss-trained agronomist who settled in the northeast of Brazil after years of tropical agriculture research stints.

He started with 120 hectares of former farmland so degraded that the Ministry of Agriculture deemed it unsuitable for any type of farming.

Modern farms rely heavily on plastic.

Irrigation materials, plastic mulches, row covers, etc., contribute to a steady stream of microplastic deposits in the soil.

Microplastics serve as a vector for transmitting pathogenic and antibiotic-resistant bacteria into the food system Plastics effectively adsorb chemical substances. Chemicals like antimicrobial pesticides and heavy metals, which would otherwise move through the soil, stick to microplastics. Meanwhile, bacteria and other soil microbes preferentially colonize the surface of these microplastics.

A single beaver pond holds an estimated 1.1 million gallons of water and recharges underlying aquifers with an even greater amount of water.

Upon European arrival to North America, as many as 65 million beaver dams strung together waterways and hydrated landscapes. Beaver fur was prized by Europeans for its texture and used to make some of the finest hats known to the Western world.

This spawned the beaver fur trade that spread throughout North America in the 1500s and would eventually become one of the continent's main economic drivers.

The Loess plateau was the cradle of the Chinese civilization and sustained vibrant agriculture for thousands of years.

By the 20th century, overgrazing, deforestation, and the ensuing cycle of drought and erosion reshaped this once-fertile land into a desolate dust bowl. The Loess Plateau and its eponymous soil type consist of wind-deposited glacial dust rich in minerals and highly prone to erosion in the absence of plant cover.

This fertile region is believed to be the 2nd place on Earth where humans settled to practice agriculture

A preliminary study shows the superior nutritional integrity of cabbage produced on a regenerative farm versus organic and conventional farms.

Cabbage from the regen farm contained more magnesium, calcium, potassium and zinc; vitamins – B1, B12, C, E and K; and phytochemicals. The cabbage from the regenerative farm had lower levels of elements deemed detrimental to health like sodium, cadmium and nickel, compared to conventional cabbage.

Although this comes from a preliminary study with a small sample size, the results indicate what many already know

We are all taught that water exists in three distinct phases – liquid, solid, and vapor.

It turns out this is just the tip of the iceberg... 100 years ago, Sir William Hardy, a renowned chemist, proposed a 4th phase of water. He described a structured gel-like phase of water between liquid and solid

This hypothesis was quickly buried in favor of the reductionist explanations of water we all learn in school

Prairie strips are a farm conservation practice that requires minimal intervention and delivers huge benefits

By converting 10% of cropland to native prairie, farmers can reduce soil loss by 95%, total phosphorous loss by 90%, and total nitrogen loss by 85%

A quick summary: Prairie strips are the product of 13 years of research at Iowa St. University

Iowa was once 85% perennial prairie

The deep-rooted prairie built and maintained many feet of rich topsoil

Today that same 85% of the land is home to nearly 23 million acres of corn and soybeans

The Ogallala aquifer is the largest underground water source in North America, giving life to ~ 30% of all crop and animal production in the US

The aquifer’s water supply has dropped by as much as 75% and is on pace to dry up in the next 70 years. The water in the aquifer, referred to as fossil water, dates back to the most recent ice age and likely much earlier.

The Ogallala's rate of water recharge is almost non-existent, ranging from 0.02 – 5 inches per year

Meanwhile, the water table drops up to 5 ft per year.

The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is an innovative and holistic agriculture method used to grow rice.

Compared to conventional irrigated rice farming, SRI rice yields 20-100% more, requires 90% less seed, and 40% less water.

Here's a brief summary of the method: The SRI method of cultivating rice was developed in 1980 by French Jesuit priest and agronomist Henri de Laulanié.

After years of observation and field trials in Madagascar, he devised the SRI method, breaking all the rules of conventional rice cultivation.

The Spanish Dehesa is an ancient and resilient agriculture system dating back over 2,000 years.

The Dehesa sweeps across 9 million acres of rolling hills in the Iberian Peninsula, where otherwise marginal land remains abundantly productive and vibrant.

A look at the Dehesa: The Dehesa is a silvopasture system incorporating livestock, trees, diverse perennial pastures, annual grasses, and crops.

The Dehesa is renowned for the Iberian pigs that roam its pastures, feeding on the acorns of Holm Oaks that dot the landscape.

Yuma County, Arizona, receives just 3 inches of annual rainfall.

Yet the county grows 90% of all winter greens consumed in the US.

Lettuce contains 98% water.

One of the driest places in the US is the leading exporter of water in the form of lettuce. Yuma County agriculture exists thanks to a generous allotment of water from the Colorado River.

The county receives ~7% of all the water allocated from the Colorado River for just 150,000 acres of farmland.

The Inca built one of the greatest civilizations in human history.

They flourished without the wheel, written word, draft animals, or iron and steel.

But they did have one of the most advanced agricultural systems we have ever seen, which was the key to their prosperity. The Inca emerged around the 12th century and built upon the techniques and knowledge from preexisting cultures to transform marginal landscapes into productive and enduring agriculture systems.

They did this across four distinct ecozones.

On April 14th 1935 the largest dust storm in American history occurred

A black cloud carrying 300,000 tons of topsoil from the Great Plains deposited dust as far away as New York

This day was the culmination of a perfect storm of events, ravaging millions of acres of farmland After the civil war, a series of land acts incentivized pioneers to move west and take up farming.

These acts generated a massive influx of new and inexperienced farmers to the Great Plains grasslands

1.6 billion tons of food go to waste each year, equal to ⅓ of all the food produced globally.

30% of the waste could be saved by better refrigeration – enough to feed 950 million people annually

This is a simple solution overlooked in conversations about feeding the world. Refrigeration is the invisible backbone of our food system.

Without an adequate “cold chain” providing refrigeration from farm to table, food spoils before it reaches its distribution point, farmers lose money, and the hungry go unfed.

Vanilla was once considered a gift from the gods and is now the most popular and widely used flavor in the world.

Today, cultivation of this unique flower barely comprises 1% of global demand.

Here is some of the story: Vanilla planifolia, a sprawling tropical vine, is a member of the orchid family, a consortium of approximately 25,000 species.

Out of all of the species of orchids, vanilla is the only one that produces edible fruit – what we know as the vanilla bean.

The typical coffee farm applies ~ 200 kg/ha of synthetic nitrogen each year, an excessive amount

I worked with this farm to phase out synthetic N and cut a total of 195,000 kgs of annual applications

The trees are healthier, higher yielding, and the coffee tastes better... Synthetic N made up 80% of the fertility budget and diverted resources away from key nutrients like Ca, Mg, and trace minerals.

With the price of synthetic N skyrocketing over the past few years, this is a huge saving allowing for more profit and on-farm innovation

Intensive Silvopasture is an agroforestry practice that combines high densities of nitrogen-fixing trees with grasses.

The trees and grasses are grazed by livestock in a managed rotation.

Within the proper context, these systems offer several massive benefits. Intensive silvopasture is most prominent in tropical climates, which offer a plethora of nitrogen-fixing tree options.

Leucaena leucocephala is the most commonly used N-fixing tree in these systems.

It can be grazed heavily, resprouts rapidly, and has a 30% protein content.

A polyculture of wheat grown with walnut trees produces ~ 40% higher yields.

1 hectare of wheat/walnut mix yields the same as 1.4 hectares of each crop grown separately.

This is an example of overyielding. Overyielding is when a polyculture (multiple crops grown together) produces higher yields than equal areas of the same crops grown separately.

Other benefits of wheat and walnuts polycultures:

–Trees provide shelter for the wheat from wind, rain, temperature swings etc.

Today, Hawaii imports 90% of its food.

Before Captain Cook landed, the populous Native Hawaiians were entirely self-sufficient and produced more food using less land than modern Hawaiian agriculture.

Here is a quick tour. Native Hawaiians developed the ahupua'a system, a geographic unit used to delineate a specific land management and food production area.

Each ahupua'a started as a narrow point high in the the volcanic peaks, spreading wider like a slice of pie as it descended towards the sea.

It's a common belief that cattle cause ecological destruction.

So common that Allan Savory, whose grazing framework has been used to regenerate 40 million acres, once held this belief.

That is, until he came across the work of a little-known Frenchman Andre Voisin was a French biochemist, farmer, and the originator of the theory of "rational grazing."

He would spend entire days simply observing his cows' grazing patterns, which led to his breakthrough in understanding how grazing can benefit the land.