Humus - the essential ingredient: Graeme Sait at TEDxNoosa

This was a video that has greatly shaped the way we farm. We do not use any synthetic fertilisers, pesticides etc. We only focus on mulching our soil with biomass and increasing the microbial variety and count in our soil. This has made a tremendous difference to soil fertility and water percolation and water holding capacity.

I’ve done my share from composting all my food scraps, worms and a backyard garden. I plant all my vegetables with fungi to build the soil. I create my own biochar. It’s time for everybody else to get with the program.

I have 40% more carbon in my soil than what I had 9 years ago. It can be done!

I've been teaching this, Humus and Microorganisms, in my soils portion of my Master Gardener class for the last 18 years.

Food with forgotten flavors! Love the way he put that.

TED at it’s best; essential information delivered with inspiring passion.

Love this. Learning all about permaculture currently and I suggest you each read a book on the subject. Very eye opening.

Great to see awareness on soil health and its importance is being spread! Growing up on a certified organic farm I saw the impact first hand of how soil health affected plants, animals and improved my health. Great talk I will be sharing this!!

The etymology of the words human, humus and humility is 'of and for the Earth'. Actions which will improve the conditions we live in: 1. Buying food from those who practise regenerative farming e.g. from farmers' markets; 2. Paying carbon credits to primary producers for increases in soil humus; 3. Composting becomes the mantra for everyone - particularly local councils; 4. Inoculating our soils with humus building organisms - the most important of these is mycorrhizal fungi; 5. Legislating to protect the existence of humus building organisms in soil; 6. Banning the burning of crop residues. This is carbon which ought to be returned to the soil rather than adding to the problem i.e. released into the atmosphere; 7. Including a carbon source with every nitrogen-based fertiliser; and 8. Extracting humates from brown coal to build humus in soil.

“Human initiative knows no boundaries if it’s well funded” exactly! If we show enough interest in renewable energy, big companies will start investing in it too

I built my home in 1972 which had a large yard.  That was the thing--a big yard.  I sowed it with rye and blue grass.  But the soil had been abused for many years that crab grass, crowsfoot, and buckhorn was what grew best.  About 20 years later, and after reading a book on soil, I decided to plow it under, then ran a garden tiller over it. When the old soil drys out in summer, it gets hard as a rock.  But before I tilled it, I contacted a lawn service, and asked him to dump all of his leaves and grass clippings on my plowed and spaded up lawn.  Then in the autumn, I drove over town begging people for their leaves.  The more, the better.  Finally, I tilled all the leaves and grass into the soil.  I let it winter over. Then I sowed blue grass the next spring.  The best blue grass I had ever seen.  Though I prefer to sow grass seed in late Sept. as the cooler weather and the angle of the sun's rays promote blue grass growth while the junk grass and weeds die out.

hehe..misread the talk...thought I was gonna learn about the essential ingredient for hummus. Interesting talk tho.

This is still the best and most important speech I have ever heard. This is true politics. Thank you Graeme!

An excellent presentation. Healthy Soils = Healthy Landscapes = Healthy People.

Thank you, Graeme,for your utter dedication and invaluable insights that we or direly need. God bless. Gail, Fred and the rest of us.

Excellent video! I resonate with this idea and love it! Namasté.

Thanks for the education and emphasis on the humus in the soil the forgotten wealth.

Amazing Video I really had no idea what humus was for. Thanks to the TED production team for educating me on humus. I just added it to my soil for years lol no idea the importance of the stuff.

Excellent presentation! As a home gardener I have searched for micorhyzzal fungi to add to my soil as an amendment, but can’t find anything affordable, unlike the USA which seems to stock in every garden centre. It would be great to source backyard quantities here. I am an avid composter and vermicomposter with a side line in leaf humus!

Well done. Schools don't teach this. I had to live 37 years and going for my only learn a lot of this stuff. It's a shame!