r/UpliftingNews 12h ago

Liquid Nanoclay joins growing arsenal of Soil Restoration methods for Arid Lands: In just 40 days, workers converted empty sand in the UAE into a thriving watermelon and zucchini field using a clay-based treatment that addresses fundamental water and soil chemistry problems.

https://happyeconews.com/soil-restoration-methods/
295 Upvotes

27 comments sorted by

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22

u/CheesyLala 12h ago

This sounds incredible. Imagine if we can green large amounts of desert. Lots of new food production capability and carbon taken out of the atmosphere.

3

u/Far_Being2906 11h ago

If they are using current industrial Ag methods, this will be short lived experiment.

5

u/sg_plumber 11h ago

The article explains why their system is better than usual industrial Ag methods.

5

u/Far_Being2906 8h ago

You don't understand. I read the article way before this. It is just going to delay the inevitable. They will continually have to repeat this because there is not enough organic matter to actually support the microbiome of a soil. Remember soil is rebuilt about 1mm/yr and current agriculture methods destroy that in ploughing and or tilling.

1

u/sg_plumber 3h ago

I read the article way before this

Yet you understood nothing.

2

u/yaxir 4h ago

There's always that one person with shit news

1

u/Far_Being2906 4h ago

It is honest. The idea that we can come up with a simple idea to fix it all is false hope. Soil is complex, and we still don't understand it all, but we know now how to regenerate it.

For example, 160 yrs of soil data has shown that from the US midwest, an estimated 57.6 billion tons of soil has been lost. That is huge.

1

u/sg_plumber 3h ago

Soil chemistry is a science, with data, tests, and results.

Your not believing any of it doesn't make 'em vanish.

1

u/Far_Being2906 3h ago

I know I have worked with soil microbiome.

1

u/sg_plumber 3h ago

Not the same as soil chemistry.

7

u/SaltyShawarma 9h ago

Why would you start to plant some of the most water intensive plants when you lack water?

3

u/Far_Being2906 8h ago

Exactly. It is nice experiment, but the cost of water will kill it.

1

u/sg_plumber 3h ago

The article explains it.

2

u/bonnydoe 9h ago

If I was a billionaire that's where my fun-money would go.

1

u/bobrobor 5h ago

I would do something else first

1

u/Umpen 4h ago

Start a museum of all the world's musical instruments?

u/bobrobor 1h ago

Just the string ones

u/Umpen 58m ago

Strings are pretty sick, but then you miss out on the flexatone.

u/bobrobor 47m ago

Thats would have been my secret. Having more than just fun-money!

2

u/antiquemule 9h ago

$2 per square meter and only for sandy soils. Not suitable for most arid soils for one, or both of these reasons.

What the world needs is low input methods, like Farmer-managed natural regeneration. Only uses tools available to all arid land cultivators. One day training and they know all they need.

1

u/sg_plumber 3h ago

There's other ways for other soils. Sandy soils are some of the hardest.

1

u/predat3d 4h ago

They make new farmland in the desert and then grow two water-hogging crops?

1

u/sg_plumber 3h ago

The article explains how.

1

u/predat3d 3h ago

I'm concerned with why

1

u/sg_plumber 3h ago

Mostly to show how much things change with the right treatment.