How To Promote Diversity And Sustainability In Cropping Systems | Advice From An Agronomist
Finding Genius Podcast
Richard Jacobs
4.4 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 24 January 2023
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Mitch Hunter joins the podcast today to discuss plant diversity, sustainability, and more. As the Associate Director of Forever Green Initiative and Adjunct Assistant Professor at The University of Minnesota, Mitch is interested in developing cropping systems that promote greater diversity, resilience, and sustainability.
Mitch is a Minnesota native, and his work at U of M greatly centers around his expertise in the science of soil management and crop production. Using his deep knowledge of this topic, Mitch is on a mission to diversify agricultural landscapes with new crops – thus improving the environment and creating new economic opportunities for farmers and businesses alike …
Click play to uncover:
- How Mitch is working with Forever Green Initiative to improve soil health and increase crop diversity.
- What cover crops are, and what can be done to improve them.
- The factors that drive farmers' selection of cover crops.
- The benefits of planting early, and the challenges that arise when trying to do so.
To learn more about Mitch and his work, visit Forevergreen.umn.edu!
Episode also available on Apple Podcast: http://apple.co/30PvU9C
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | 10 or 12 years ago, and they've converted it from row crops into perennial pastures. That was the |
| 0:05.6 | first big project and got all that established, got a beef herd going. And within the last five or |
| 0:11.9 | six years, my dad has gotten a little bit obsessed with oak savannah restoration. And there's a |
| 0:17.0 | you can tell on the farm that there's some big old burrow trees that must have grown up in the days |
| 0:22.8 | when the landscape was pretty open. My name was a savannah, managed by fire grazing. And then we took |
| 0:28.9 | those things away as far as land management tools. And it all grew up into trees. And so now we're |
| 0:34.4 | working on opening it all back up. And that's going to bring back a ton of plant diversity, |
| 0:39.1 | native plants that are adapted to that fire regime in a savannah, animal diversity, insect life, |
| 0:45.8 | everything that comes along with a native ecosystem, the best that we can do at approximating a |
| 0:50.3 | native ecosystem. Forget frequently asked questions. Common sense, common knowledge or Google. How about advice |
| 0:57.1 | from a real genius? 95% of people in any profession are good enough to be qualified in license. |
| 1:02.7 | 5% go above and beyond. They become very good at what they do. But only 0.1% are real geniuses. Richard |
| 1:10.0 | Jacobs has made it his life's mission to find them for you. He hunts down and interviews geniuses |
| 1:15.6 | in every field. Sleep science, cancer, stem cells, ketogenic diets, and more. Here come the geniuses. |
| 1:21.7 | This is the Finding Genius Podcast. Richard Jacobs. |
| 1:29.4 | Hello, this is Richard Jacobs with the Finding Genius Podcast. I have Mitch Hunter. He's the |
| 1:34.5 | Associate Director for the Forever Green Initiative. He's an adjunct assistant professor. This is |
| 1:39.7 | all at University of Minnesota. And we had to talk about plant diversity, sustainability, |
| 1:45.1 | and as I mentioned, there's something called the beef farm. So Mitch, thanks for coming. And we'll |
| 1:49.7 | talk about whatever subject is of most interest to you. Sure. Well, thanks for having me, Richard. |
| 1:54.2 | I appreciate the opportunity. Yeah, no problem. I guess since it sounds unusual and intriguing, |
| 1:58.4 | what is the beef farm? First of all, then we can move on to other stuff. |
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