Frank Ashwood: The World Beneath Our Feet

301: Frank Ashwood has devoted his career to creatures most of us never notice: springtails, mites, earthworms, and the enormous community of life beneath the soil surface. That hidden world is not incidental to agriculture - it's required! Soil life is what helps turn organic matter into fertile soil and keeps nutrients moving through a living food web to help grow our food, medicine and vital wildlife habitat. Frank explains what happens when those relationships are repeatedly disrupted and why protecting soil biodiversity may be every bit as urgent as protecting the life on Earth we can see. https://realorganicproject.org/frank-ashwood-world-beneath-our-feet The Real Organic Podcast is hosted by Dave Chapman and Linley Dixon, engineered by Brandon StCyr, and edited and produced by Brightstocking. The Real Organic Project is a farmer-led movement working towards certifying 1,000 farms across the United States. Our add-on food label distinguishes soil-grown fruits and vegetables from hydroponically-raised produce, and pasture-raised meat, milk, and eggs from products harvested from animals in horrific confinement (CAFOs - confined animal feeding operations). To find a Real Organic farm near you, please visit: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.realorganicproject.org/directory⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ We believe that the organic standards, with their focus on soil health, biodiversity, and animal welfare were written as they should be, but that the current lack of enforcement of those standards is jeopardizing the ability for small farms who adhere to the law to stay in business. The lack of enforcement is also jeopardizing the overall health of the customers who support the organic movement; customers who are not getting what they pay for at market but still paying a premium price. And the lack of enforcement is jeopardizing the very cycles (water, air, nutrients) that Earth relies upon to provide us all with a place to live, by pushing extractive, chemical agriculture to the forefront. To read our weekly newsletter and get firsthand news about what's happening with organic food, farming and policy, please subscribe here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.realorganicproject.org/email/⁠