Ken Burns Presents “The Dust Bowl” on PBS
This coming Sunday and Monday nights (November 18-19), PBS is featuring the Ken Burns documentary, The Dust Bowl. Burns calls it “the greatest man-made ecological disaster in Unites States history… A...
View ArticleThe Gas We Eat
Anhydrous ammonia fertilizer tanks. Source; State of Minnesota. Nearly half of the world’s population owes its existence to food grown with industrial nitrogen fertilizer produced from natural gas. (1)...
View ArticleSoil Connections: Drought, Dust and Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria
Photo by Alan Stark An unfortunate sequence of events involving drought, depleted water resources, wastewater management, antibiotic resistant bacteria (ABR) and dust storms may pose a real health risk...
View ArticleSymphony of the Soil is a Beautiful Film Documentary
I can’t say enough about this film made by Deborah Garcia. Symphony of the Soil is available here through October 10 for free viewing. The film has wonderful macro and micro videography and a...
View ArticleField Drain Tile and the “Re-Eutrophication” of Lake Erie
Field water is pumped from a drain tile pump station into a roadside ditch en route to the River Raisin and western Lake Erie. Lenawee County, Michigan (June 2015). Algae Blooms, Microcystin and...
View ArticleAgricultural Runoff and Ohio’s Senate Bill 1
Lake Erie looking east from Luna Pier, Michigan (September 2015). In response to the August 2014 shutdown of Toledo’s water supply due to microcystin contamination, the Ohio legislature passed Senate...
View ArticleLake Erie Watershed Soil Phosphorus Study Shows Glyphosate Link
Maumee Bay, Toledo, Ohio (May 2010) As reported recently by Laura Barrera in the magazine No-Till Farmer, a study led by Ohio Northern University chemistry professor Christopher Spiese links the...
View ArticleLake Erie Algae Blooms Correlate to June Rainfall
June precipitation appears to be positively correlated to algae blooms in Lake Erie. Looking at monthly precipitation data readily-available from Weather Underground and comparing it to the Western...
View ArticleRejected Export Corn Prompts Class Action Suit
Grain elevator at the Port of New Orleans Photo by MeRyan, Wikimedia Commons. Shipping containers are partly used to prevent mixing of GMO and non-GMO grain slated for export. Updated 16 November 2016...
View Article“Fairy Rings” or “Hexinringe” and the Role of Fungi in Weathering and Soil...
As our three-year old chocolate-golden Labrador mix looks happiest when he’s running, we try to get him out to a park once or twice a day. While he’s chasing noisy killdeer and attacking discarded...
View Article