Highly recommended if you care about your food

As a farmer soil is my bread and butter, it is the source of life all around us. This book is a fascinating study of how soil and civilizations are tied and what lessons we need to learn from history before we become history.

I will say there are a couple things in the book that are off such as “no-till” farming mean at least 30% of the residue remains. No-till means NO tillage period, it is challenging to do initially but it is vital to maintain soil structure created by the plants and microorganisms. We have Ben 100% no-till for 20 years and will never go back for anything.

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Will forever change the way I farm.

Here is not only a history of civilizations’ soils, but also a manual for how to feed the earth’s present and future. Just the right blend of science, history, humor, and practical down-to-earth (as it were) advice for how to garden on your farm/garden/urban flower pot in a way that respects the tiny sliver of usable dirt that supports all our lives and dreams.

The narration is measured, articulate, and well paced to absorbing concepts which might be new and sometimes confusing to non-scientists.

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Disturbing

In depth review of past failures per top soil and those looming. The author provides a grim outlook but one that can be redeemed.

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Required reading

Follow the money? No! Follow the soil! Required reading for all historians, regulators, investors, politicians. Another example of how short term thinking, profit making and theocracies lead to decline of civilizations and war. Hurray for the organic farmers, the soil scientists, the lovers of nature and everyone striving for a smaller footprint of man.

Important and fascinating

I come from a farm, so I know the soil is important. but I didn't know how fragile and precarious our situation was now. this book needs to be on everyone's list tomorrow.

Good history book

I enjoyed the review of the Science mixed in with the history. I will be reading his other books now.

Educational, though a bit dry.

I believe most people come to this book knowing what they are getting into, but in case you have some misconceptions. This is an incredibly educational and interesting book, but it is still a book about soil. It can get pretty dry around hour three. But that being said, you should expect to have an “Oh that’s cool.” moment about one per chapter.

A history lesson in agriculture and colonization

I knew it was going to cover a lot of history, and I would say 95% of it's content is that. Just a touch about soil science. No real solution offer, just a few ideas that are very centered around society having a change of heart and seeing soul conservation as more important that short term economic gain.

You will never look at the world the same again

This book is foundational in changing the narrative of the 21 century human. It is an important call to action for those involved in Ag, food systems and policy. It’s a wake up call for everyone who eats…. which is everyone. If it were up to me, this would be required reading for every politician, leader and high school senior in the world.

Revelatory

A couple of years ago, I started to understand what I think I first heard Derrick Jensen say in an interview a long time ago. Something about how to live sustainably, or in balance or reciprocity with the environment, we have to start with the land.

I think I first started to figure out what this meant after reading Dick Manning's Grassland: The History, Biology, Politics, And Promise Of The American Prairie, Against the Grain: How Agriculture Has Hijacked Civilization and James Scott's book, Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States.

The most profound realization I got from these books is that human beings can't eat grass, but, unfortunately, grass is pretty much all that grows naturally in the arid plains of the Midwest and the rest of the bread baskets of the world. Industrial agriculture is only able to squeeze corn, wheat, and soybeans out of these lands because farmers pour huge amounts of fossil fuel based pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers on these cash crops. Also, irrigation. And, government subsidies. This makes ridiculous, at least in my mind, any claim that vegan, and even just all-plant based diets, are a viable long-term solution to food shortages around the planet given the current global population. There's nothing vegan about industrial monocrop dead-zone agriculture.

Anyway, this book is an amazing companion to the aforementioned Manning titles and really drives home the Jensen point about everything starts with the land, i.e. the soil.

I learned so much from this book, but perhaps the most remarkable piece came in Montgomery's analysis of the American Civil War in which he argues that erosion of southern plantation soils, and thus their drop in productivity, was a contributing factor that lead to the war. This was mind blowing to me.