The psychology of totalitarianism

'Dirt to Soil is the [regenerative farming] movements?s holy text' The Observer Author and farmer Gabe Brown, featured in the Netflix documentary Kiss the Ground ?A regenerative no-till pioneer? NBC News ?Dirt to Soil confirms my belief that animals are part of the natural land. We need to reintegrate livestock and crops on our farms and ranches, and Gabe Brown shows us how to do it well.? Temple Grandin, author of Animals in Translation Soil health pioneer Gabe Brown did not set out to write a book on no-till, regenerative agriculture but that was the end product of his research into a new method of farming that would bring back life to his farm, rather than taking away from it. As a series of weather-related crop disasters put the Brown family farm on the brink of financial ruin, Brown took the bold decision to cut costs by omitting the use of most pesticides, insecticides and synthetic fertilizers. This was the catalyst that led to Brown experimenting with regenerative agriculture, a method of farming that undid the damage of conventional agricultural practices. He switched to no-till planting, started planting diverse cover crops mixes and changed his grazing practices. In doing so, Brown transformed a degraded farm ecosystem into one full of life starting with the soil and working his way up, one plant and one animal at a time. The Brown?s Ranch model, developed over twenty years of experimentation and refinement, focuses on regenerating resources by continuously enhancing the living biology in the soil. Using these principles, Brown?s Ranch has grown several inches of new topsoil in only twenty years! The 5,000-acre ranch profitably produces a wide variety of cash crops and cover crops as well as grass-finished beef and lamb, pastured laying hens and pastured pork, all marketed directly to consumers. The future is regenerative, no-till, organic farming and Dirt to Soil is the perennial bestseller to start you on that journey, for the betterment of the food we consume and the state of our shared planet.

?Big ideas that just might save the world??The Guardian The founder of the international Transition Towns movement asks why true creative, positive thinking is in decline, asserts that it's more important now than ever, and suggests ways our communities can revive and reclaim it. In these times of deep division and deeper despair, if there is a consensus about anything in the world, it is that the future is going to be awful. There is an epidemic of loneliness, an epidemic of anxiety, a mental health crisis of vast proportions, especially among young people. There?s a rise in extremist movements and governments. Catastrophic climate change. Biodiversity loss. Food insecurity. The fracturing of ecosystems and communities beyond, it seems, repair. The future?to say nothing of the present?looks grim. But as Transition movement cofounder Rob Hopkins tells us, there is plenty of evidence that things can change, and cultures can change, rapidly, dramatically, and unexpectedly?for the better. He has seen it happen around the world and in his own town of Totnes, England, where the community is becoming its own housing developer, energy company, enterprise incubator, and local food network?with cascading benefits to the community that extend far beyond the projects themselves. We do have the capability to effect dramatic change, Hopkins argues, but we?re failing because we?ve largely allowed our most critical tool to languish: human imagination. As defined by social reformer John Dewey, imagination is the ability to look at things as if they could be otherwise. The ability, that is, to ask What if? And if there was ever a time when we needed that ability, it is now. Imagination is central to empathy, to creating better lives, to envisioning and then enacting a positive future. Yet imagination is also demonstrably in decline at precisely the moment when we need it most. In this passionate exploration, Hopkins asks why imagination is in decline, and what we must do to revive and reclaim it. Once we do, there is no end to what we might accomplish. From What Is to What If is a call to action to reclaim and unleash our collective imagination, told through the stories of individuals and communities around the world who are doing it now, as we speak, and witnessing often rapid and dramatic change for the better.