Mick Wettenhall |Part 1 | Innovative farmer tapping into the power of the fungal highway
11/09/20 • 65 min
Charlie caught up with Mick Wettenhall at his property 'Weemabah' at Trangie, NSW to dig into his own regenerative journey. Mick most recently has been progressing research into a little know fungi that has an enormous capacity to sequester carbon in the soil. Mick would rather see an agricultural evolution than an agricultural revolution, highlighting that if we are to support the adoption of regenerative practices it needs to be 'adaptable' to their current farming situations.
To start a dialogue and converse more about topics raised in this podcast, please visit The Regenerative Journey Podcast Facebook Group.
Mick is an ex-saddle bronc rider | ‘Agriculture needs to be an evolution not a revolution’ | He was conventional farming at Trangie back in early 2000 | Mick highlights the situation agriculture and the human race is in, that of the 'Frog boiling in the pot', the environment and human health is in decline and we are not noticing the rapid decline in both | Mick is farming multi species forage crops and cattle now from a conventional mixed farming and cotton operation prior to him taking over management from his father in-law | The potential to build soil carbon is enormous | The environment is subsiding the cost of food |Family succession was managed by Micks father in law very well, which is not always the experience of farming families | Mick was inspired by a presentation by Tim Flannery in 2006 on climate change | The catalyst for the creation of Soil C Quest was at the Carbon Conference Dubbo 2013 with Mick's good mate Guy Webb | Peter McGee was the microbiologist who had discovered the particular fungi that Soil C Quest are furthering the research on to sequest significant amounts of Carbon in soil | Carbon is lost to the environment when in the presence of air or water | Carbon found in a micro aggregate was determined to be put in there by fungi and consequent research identified that the fungi could increase C levels by 17 times in 10 weeks in this particular case | melanised endophytic fungi | How do we get main stream agriculture to adopt practices to sequestrate Carbon | Soil C Quest (NFP) is developing an Endophytic innoculum seed dressing | The Soil C Quest big break came when Mick was interviewed on the BBC | Horizons ventures become interested and are now the lead investor | Soil Carbon Company created to develop the product The seed application product is applicable to grazing systems and however needs more research required.
Episode Links
Grassroots video - A story about farmers, the soils they work and a piece of powerful knowledge that nearly slipped through their fingers. Grassroots follows Guy Webb and his friends, unlikely heroes on a quest to bring a genuine climate change solution to the world.
AFR article on Horizons Ventures & Soil Carbon Co
Horizons Ventures - Venture capital firm
Charlie caught up with Mick Wettenhall at his property 'Weemabah' at Trangie, NSW to dig into his own regenerative journey. Mick most recently has been progressing research into a little know fungi that has an enormous capacity to sequester carbon in the soil. Mick would rather see an agricultural evolution than an agricultural revolution, highlighting that if we are to support the adoption of regenerative practices it needs to be 'adaptable' to their current farming situations.
To start a dialogue and converse more about topics raised in this podcast, please visit The Regenerative Journey Podcast Facebook Group.
Mick is an ex-saddle bronc rider | ‘Agriculture needs to be an evolution not a revolution’ | He was conventional farming at Trangie back in early 2000 | Mick highlights the situation agriculture and the human race is in, that of the 'Frog boiling in the pot', the environment and human health is in decline and we are not noticing the rapid decline in both | Mick is farming multi species forage crops and cattle now from a conventional mixed farming and cotton operation prior to him taking over management from his father in-law | The potential to build soil carbon is enormous | The environment is subsiding the cost of food |Family succession was managed by Micks father in law very well, which is not always the experience of farming families | Mick was inspired by a presentation by Tim Flannery in 2006 on climate change | The catalyst for the creation of Soil C Quest was at the Carbon Conference Dubbo 2013 with Mick's good mate Guy Webb | Peter McGee was the microbiologist who had discovered the particular fungi that Soil C Quest are furthering the research on to sequest significant amounts of Carbon in soil | Carbon is lost to the environment when in the presence of air or water | Carbon found in a micro aggregate was determined to be put in there by fungi and consequent research identified that the fungi could increase C levels by 17 times in 10 weeks in this particular case | melanised endophytic fungi | How do we get main stream agriculture to adopt practices to sequestrate Carbon | Soil C Quest (NFP) is developing an Endophytic innoculum seed dressing | The Soil C Quest big break came when Mick was interviewed on the BBC | Horizons ventures become interested and are now the lead investor | Soil Carbon Company created to develop the product The seed application product is applicable to grazing systems and however needs more research required.
Episode Links
Grassroots video - A story about farmers, the soils they work and a piece of powerful knowledge that nearly slipped through their fingers. Grassroots follows Guy Webb and his friends, unlikely heroes on a quest to bring a genuine climate change solution to the world.
AFR article on Horizons Ventures & Soil Carbon Co
Horizons Ventures - Venture capital firm
Previous Episode
Nicho Plowman | Bringing together the worlds of meditation and regenerative agriculture
Nicho articulately draws together the many parallels between meditation and regenerative agriculture in this long awaited interview with Charlie's cousin and co-founder of the worlds most used digital meditation platform Insight Timer (20million users). The connections with ones health, sense of purpose and the place from where one observes the film of our own lives in the ' conscious cinema of our mind' are highlighted, and the benefits of meditation as an antidote to the treadmill of life are explored by Nicho and Charlie. A life affirming conversation for those who are grappling with the speed and intensity of our times.
To start a dialogue and converse more about topics raised in this podcast, please visit The Regenerative Journey Podcast Facebook Group.
Episode Takeaways
There are many parallels between the philosophies of meditation and regenerative agriculture | Nicho had a 20 year period of ‘experimentation’ and pushing the boundaries somewhat before finding Vedic meditation 10 years ago | His challenges in that period created learning's that have enabled him to help others | He developed the Insight timer app which today has almost 20m meditators following it, over 10,000 meditation / yoga teachers and publishers, a 60,000 track library - and counting... more time spent on Insight each day than all other meditation apps, combined | Nicho just didn’t learn to meditate, he learned to teach it and has made it his life’s work to continue to help others experience a deeper conscious state ‘When people get up in the morning and go straight to fb where is their motivation?’ | Vedic meditation is practiced twice a day for 20 mins‘ | Our physiology is designed to be in a place where it is balanced and engaging purposefully’ | ‘There is no treatment in the world that we might find externally that can actually do a better job | ‘We have gone into the earth to rip up resources to extend life’ | Meditation is about restoring mental and physical and spiritual health through sitting further back in the conscious cinema of our mind, away from the front row of our lives. Meditation builds resilience to life | The soil is an encapsulation of life itself through its complexity, interplay and interdependence | Biodynamics reconnects people to their food, and inspires people to change behaviour | Do as I do, not as I say...setting an example of behaviours for our children is more important than telling them how to be | Treating the symptom is a 'proven failed strategy', were just playing a game of ‘whack a mole’ | ‘Behaviours don’t change until consciousness changes’ | ‘There is creative thinking and solutions out there....... but we’re just sucking up the stuff that’s negative’ | 'You need to go into the dark to appreciate the light’ | Meditation gives you a reminder of who your truly are | The foundation to the human experience is not just all of this individual external validation. The underlying part of where we came from is our universal Experience as it relates to the moment we were created’
Episode Links :
Nicho Plowman - Insight Timer Co Founder and Vedic Meditation Teacher
Insight Timer - free meditation app
Harvest - restaurant, NSW
Charlie Arnott - IG
Tim Brown - meditation coach
The One Wild & Precious Life - Sarah Wilson
Next Episode
Mick Wettenhall | Part 2 | Innovative farmer tapping into the power of the fungal highway
This is the second part of the Charlie's interview with Mick Wettenhall. Charlie caught up with Mick Wettenhall at his property 'Weemabah' at Trangie, NSW to dig into his own regenerative journey. Mick most recently has been progressing research into a little know fungi that has an enormous capacity to sequester carbon in the soil. Mick would rather see an agricultural evolution than an agricultural revolution, highlighting that if we are to support the adoption of regenerative practices it needs to be 'adaptable' to their current farming situations.
To start a dialogue and converse more about topics raised in this podcast, please visit The Regenerative Journey Podcast Facebook Group.
Episode Takeaways:
Dr James White pioneered the research into plants farming microbes back in 2013 |Think big, start small, scale fast | There is a massive potential to sequest carbon in soil, farmers just need to know how | The key to driving a shift in farmers thinking of how they can contribute to reversing climate change is the conscious consumer through their buying choices | ‘Create a product or service that people can patronize to make that difference | ’The only thing missing to rapidly progress the research and uptake of carbon sequesting practices in this space is money | You can’t manage what you don’t measure | Farmers need to be remunerated for the carbon they sequest and nutritious food they grow | Hand held nutrition scanning technology is developing rapidly |Market gets what market wants |Create a demand economy lead by consumers to support farmers to grow more nutritious food |Mick uses a number of Johnson Su compost bioreactors to make fungal dominant compost which he then makes an extract from to spread on his crops | It is essentially a static pile aerobic compost | Once the thermophilic stage is complete worms are then added (vermophilic) | If the same amount of funds that is currently invested in industrial Ag ‘solutions' was invested in regenerative farming techniques........ | Truth is first ridiculed, then opposed then accepted as fact | Next generation will want to be part of the solution | Mick attended Landmark in his early 30s. It could be called a personal development course, however is so much more...Charlie has completed the course as well | Landmark Forum is essentially 'Holding a mirror up against ones self to help identify why one does the things one does '....
Episode Links :
Aust soil planners group - Australia's largest sustainable group of farmers.
’Quality Agriculture’ - John Kempf
‘The Great Disruption’ - Paul Gilding
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