Growing the Future

Farming With Your Gut

Episode Summary

Greg Patterson, founder and CEO of A&L Canada Laboratories and co-founder of A&L Biologicals, walks through the history of soil fertility from bird guano to synthetic nitrogen to what he calls the Evergreen Revolution, feeding a plant's rhizosphere so it builds its own disease-suppressing, nutrient-cycling biology. He explains why bulk soil sampling is close to useless, what the Soil Health Index measures, and how a properly balanced field can grow twice the corn on less than half the nitrogen per bushel. The conversation closes on the emerging science linking soil biology, nutrient-dense food, and human health.

Episode Notes

Greg Patterson has been a Certified Crop Advisor for over 30 years, one of the first in Canada to earn the designation. He is founder and CEO of A&L Canada Laboratories and co-founder of A&L Biologicals. His argument is simple and a little uncomfortable: most of what growers apply to their soil never reaches the plant at all.

The conversation traces fertility from Peruvian bird guano through the Haber-Bosch nitrogen era to what Greg calls the Evergreen Revolution, feeding the plant's own rhizosphere, its root-zone microbiome, so it can do more of the work itself. The payoff shows up in a real side by side comparison: one grower hit 300 bushels of corn an acre using under a pound of nitrogen per bushel, while his neighbor used more than double the nitrogen per bushel to grow half the corn.

What's Inside

• Why only 15 percent of applied phosphorus and potassium actually reaches the plant in a given year, and what that means for how you should be thinking about placement
• The real difference between a 300 bushel corn crop grown on under a pound of nitrogen per bushel and a neighboring field that used more than double the nitrogen to grow half as much
• Why a bulk composite soil sample tells you almost nothing, and what site-specific, geo-referenced sampling actually reveals
• The Soil Health Index, scored zero to sixty, and what happens biologically once a field crosses 40
• Why boron, magnesium, and calcium levels change how much nitrogen a crop actually needs
• The surprising link between balanced soil fertility, nutrient density in food, and human gut health, and why A&L Biologicals is researching both at once

Connect with Greg:

Website: https://www.alcanada.com/index

Twitter: https://twitter.com/alcanadalabs

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ALcanadalabs

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alcanadalabs

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