Episode #66: Jon Stika
Regenerative Agriculture Podcast
AEA Marketing
4.7 ā¢ 546 Ratings
šļø 18 March 2021
ā±ļø 58 minutes
šļø Recording | iTunes | RSS
š§¾ļø Download transcript
Summary
Jon Stika is an agronomist and former soil health instructor with the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Officially retiring in 2015, Jon now spends his time as environmental consultant for those looking to gain insight on the biological systems of agriculture. Jon is also the author of "A Soil Owner's Manual: How to Restore and Maintain Soil Health," which was published in 2016, yet continues to have an impact on agricultural thought leaders around the globe.
Throughout their conversation, Jon and John discuss:
- Jon's realization that soil is not a chemical system, but a biological one.
- The impact of using synthetic fertilizers for several decades and how this has "sidelined" the true biology of our fields.
- What it means to be energy inefficient and the impact on mainstream agricultural systems and practices.
- Jon's 15-year journey to a regenerative approach; how rapid implementation and economics can inspire other growers to transition to integrating biological methodologies.
- The differences between building soil from the foundational bedrock versus the act of regenerating soil.
- Jon's belief in the power of educating beyond the growers, working with lenders, banks, agronomists, and landowners to help them understand and support the transition to regenerative agriculture.
- How models used in mainstream agricultureāand even sustainable agricultureāoperate on a foundation of "dysfunctional soil."
Pick up a copy of Jon's book, "A Soil Owner's Manual: How to Restore and Maintain Soil Health," today! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30084638-a-soil-owner-s-manualĀ
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, friends, this is John and welcome back to the regenerative agriculture podcast, |
| 0:05.0 | where we talk about the agronomic science and the cultural management practices that regenerate |
| 0:11.0 | plant health and soil health, and ultimately, of course, livestock health and our own health as well, |
| 0:19.0 | the health of the entire ecosystems. I'm very pleased for this episode to have as a guest, John Stika from North Dakota. |
| 0:28.4 | John has authored this very interesting little book that is titled A Soil Owners Manual, |
| 0:35.2 | and it is very seldom that I've read a book that contains as much information in as few paragraphs as this one does. |
| 0:44.3 | It's something that I really highly recommend to all of you to take a look at and we'll link to it in the show notes and when we put it out there. |
| 0:51.3 | So with that introduction, John, can you tell us a little bit about your background and history |
| 0:58.6 | and story and what has brought you here and what led to the book and to the work that you |
| 1:02.2 | engaged in? |
| 1:03.5 | Well, I currently live in North Dakota and gained a lot of experience here. |
| 1:08.2 | I'm originally from Wisconsin. |
| 1:10.2 | I grew up on a dairy operation and |
| 1:13.3 | questioned a lot of things back then about the way that we did things in the field, the way we |
| 1:20.0 | grew our crops. It was in 1992 as an employee with Natural Resources Conservation Service that I was presented with a soil quality |
| 1:34.8 | test kit. |
| 1:36.3 | And at that time, I was working as an agronomist. |
| 1:41.4 | And none of the soil scientists were really interested in the soil quality test kit because |
| 1:47.4 | it didn't relate to soil classification, which was primarily what soil scientists with NRCS were |
| 1:56.9 | involved with. So I said, well, I'd be interested in looking at it. And I began to look at it, |
| 2:03.1 | and it made me start to think about how the soil functions because we never really talked about |
| 2:10.9 | that. We talked about how to classify it, how to test it chemically, all of these things, |
... |
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