Episode 22 - 19: Keeping Soil Biology Alive and Well with Cover Crop Coach Steve Groff

What research is emerging around plant health and soil biology in relation to nutrient-dense food? What role can farmers and gardeners play in building soil health to grow nutrient-dense food? Farmer, on-farm researcher, author, and Cover Crop Coach Steve Groff shares his experience and insights on keeping soil biology alive and well for soil and human health. Steve is a third-generation farmer based in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, who was an early innovator in using a roller-crimper in his no-till commercial vegetable operation to manage and terminate his cover crops. His grandfather was an early adopter of cover crops in the 1950s. Steve was at the forefront in using a daikon radish or "Tillage Radish" to naturally bio-till the soil with the plant's tuberous roots to alleviate compaction and encourage biological life. Steve also emphasizes that farmers need to continue to do their own on-farm research and have an adaptive mindset for the ever-changing world of agriculture, particularly as research on nutrient-dense food as prevention and medicine continues to grow and be rediscovered.

To learn about Steve Groff's soil health journey and mindset, you can read his new book The Future-Proof Farm: Changing Mindsets in a Changing World, which is available online at https://stevegroff.com.

For more information about soil health and cover crops, please visit the Virginia Soil Health Coalition's Tips and Resources website at https://www.virginiasoilhealth.org/resources-1. To take the pledge to follow and educate others about the four core soil health principles, please visit the 4 The Soil website at https://www.4thesoil.org/take-the-pledge.html.

Please visit the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) National Library of Medicine at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ for emerging research studies and findings on soil and human health connections. The 2007 NIH-supported Human Microbiome Project is a multi-year research study that specifically includes research on the connections between soil diversity and the microbiological life of the human gut.

4 the Soil: A Conversation is made possible with funding support from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and The Agua Fund. Other partners include the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service; Virginia Cooperative Extension; Virginia State University; Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation; and partners of the Virginia Soil Health Coalition.

Disclaimer: Views expressed on this podcast are those of each individual guest.

To download a copy of this, or any other show, visit the website 4thesoil.org. Music used during today’s program is courtesy of the Flip Charts. All rights reserved. 4 the Soil: A Conversation is produced by On the Farm Radio in collaboration with Virginia Tech. The host and co-hosts are Jeff Ishee, Mary Sketch Bryant, and Eric Bendfeldt.