Dr. Elaine Ingham uncovered the Soil Food Web nearly 4 decades ago and has been pioneering research about Soil Food Web ever since.

As powerful decomposers and efficient nutrient movers, the world’s macro and micro fungi fulfill critical roles in the sustainment of resilient soil and habitat ecologies. In this talk, Peter will highlight these keystone fungal functions to demonstrate the many reasons that the funga should be placed alongside the flora and fauna in any discussion on environmental health.

Ninety percent of the world’s plants form a symbiosis with mycorrhizal fungi to acquire water and nutrients from the soil in exchange for photosynthate. The fungal mycelium connects the plants in a mycorrhizal network and facilitates interplant transmission of water, nutrients and information. The parlance in this network provides plants and fungi with flexibility for perceiving and responding to changes in their communities, including invasions, stresses, herbivory or infections. Enhancing these connections in the plant-soil ecosystem can increase the productivity, health and resilience in plant communities world-wide.

Ninety percent of the world’s plants form a symbiosis with mycorrhizal fungi to acquire water and nutrients from the soil in exchange for photosynthate. The fungal mycelium connects the plants in a mycorrhizal network and facilitates interplant transmission of water, nutrients and information. The parlance in this network provides plants and fungi with flexibility for perceiving and responding to changes in their communities, including invasions, stresses, herbivory or infections. Enhancing these connections in the plant-soil ecosystem can increase the productivity, health and resilience in plant communities world-wide.

What is Syntropic Farming? There is no quick answer. We have to be honest and immediately warn that you won’t find a recipe ready to copy and paste here. Syntropic Agriculture (also described as successional agroforestry) is not a technology package that can be purchased, nor a definitive design plan that fits all tastes. It is first and foremost a change in perspective. It’s a new proposal for reading the ecosystem which enables the farmer to seek his/her answers using another reasoning, quite different from what we’re used to.

We have added captions for Ernst Gotsch’s video. We apologize that the captions may not be perfect.

This live panel discussion includes speaker-specific break-out rooms for more intimate Q&A sessions.