Episode Details

In this episode, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Robert Kremer, a microbiology scientist for the USDA who also works as a professor in plant sciences at the University of Missouri. In this episode, we discuss Robert's project with the USDA decomposing weed seeds in soil, native soil microorganisms and microbial interactions, and the implications of AMPA and glyphosate on soil biology. We also discuss Robert's thoughts on the challenge of manganese availability, how growing GMO's impacts soil health, building soil carbon, how to choose soil inoculants and many more fascinating insights from a highly respected soil scientist.

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Episode 1 - Dr. Kremer - Highlights

0:03:00 - What are Robert's memorable moments leading up to where he is today?

• Robert was asked by the USDA Agricultural Research Service to look at the possibility of decomposing weed seeds in soil used in microbiological approaches.
• Robert saw in the 80's, weed and pest management was mainly chemical based.
• Through trying natural ways of controlling weeds and attempting to understand what pesticides do, which lead him soil quality/health.

0:05:50 - Has Robert had success in developing biological controls? Are there tools available for farmers to use today?

• Robert found it almost impossible to control all weed growth.
• Modern input based agriculture ecosystems built up many weed seeds in the operations Robert was working on.
• Robert's work has helped set the stage for other work that has been done in this area.

0:08:10 - Is Robert aware of any development relevant to fruit and vegetable production systems? Or in areas where ecosystems have longer crop rotation incorporating cover crops?

• Agri-Food Canada has contributed to this area
• However, Robert doesn't believe there is a lot of development

0:09:40 - The impact of pesticides?

• Robert has found some pesticides to be damaging to certain microorganism, while the same pesticides can be stimulating to other microorganisms
• Microorganisms were able to adapt to commonly used insecticides and herbicides
• These compounds were building weed resistance, but also altering the soil microbial community at the same time
• Finding residual glyphosate in the soil

0:14:40 - How long does Robert find that glyphosate residues are remaining in soil?

• Plots that had gone a year without RoundUp had as high glyphosate levels as plots that received the glyphosate in the same year, showing there was a carry over of residual glyphosate
• Robert found it seemed random which plots had high levels