Episode Details

“I think the fate of humanity ultimately rests on how we conserve and protect that thin, magical layer of soil on this planet” – David Van Tassel

David Van Tassel is a lead scientist at The Land Institute, a non-profit research, education, and policy organization dedicated to sustainable agriculture.

In this episode of Deviate, Rolf and David discuss Agriculture 101 (3:00); the impact of agriculture on the formation of society (25:00); farming, modernity, and the Green Revolution (39:00); The Land Institute and the push to develop perennial staple plants (47:00); and politics and the long game of sustainable agriculture (1:13:00).

Notable Links:

• Perennial plant
• Annual plant
• Green Revolution
• Evolutionary biology (subfield of biology)
• Sexual selection (mode of natural selection)
• Origin of domestic dogs
• Monoculture (agricultural practice)
• Polyculture (agricultural practice)
• Kernza (perennial grass)
• Silphium (perennial sunflower)
• Upland rice (type of rice)
• Japonica rice (type of rice)
• Indica rice (type of rice)
• Columbian Exchange
• Farmers of Forty Centuries, by F.H. King (book)
• Wes Jackson (Founder and President, The Land Institute)
• Nature as Measure, by Wes Jackson (book)
• Maya Civilization (ancient civilization)
• Anasazi (ancient civilization)
• Mesopotamia (historical region)
• Ancient Egyptian agriculture
• Jerry Glover (soil scientist at The Land Institute)
• Scree (geological feature)
• Loess (type of soil)

The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel’s 2017 album Lumber.

Note: We don’t host a “comments” section, but we’re happy to hear your questions and insights via email, at deviate@rolfpotts.com.