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For the Love of Soil: Strategies to Regenerate Our Food Production Systems Paperback – September 18, 2019
Purchase options and add-ons
- Print length299 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateSeptember 18, 2019
- Dimensions6 x 0.75 x 9 inches
- ISBN-100578536722
- ISBN-13978-0578536729
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About the Author
Product details
- Language : English
- Paperback : 299 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0578536722
- ISBN-13 : 978-0578536729
- Item Weight : 14.4 ounces
- Dimensions : 6 x 0.75 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #247,286 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #45 in Soil Science (Books)
- #156 in Sustainable Agriculture (Books)
- #453 in Ecology (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Nicole Masters (1975-) was born in Auckland, New Zealand, to Air Force parents. Instilling an early love of traveling.
Nicole is an independent agroecologist, systems thinker, author, and educator. She has a formal background in ecology, soil science and organizational learning from Otago and Auckland Universities.
She has been providing agricultural consulting and extension services in Regenerative Agriculture since 2003, and is the Director of Integrity Soils Limited.
Together with her team of soil coaches, they work alongside producers in the U.S., Canada and across Australasia. Supporting producers who work with millions of acres to take their operations to the next level in nutrient density, profitability and environmental outcomes.
She is one of a growing number of people who are facilitating a rapidly expanding world of quality food production and biological economies.
Nicole has a US work visa for "An Alien of Extraordinary Ability."
"For the Love of Soil" is her first book.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book informative and well-researched. They describe it as easy to read and understand, with a sense of humor. Readers consider it valuable and practical from cover to cover.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book's information informative, well-researched, and insightful. They say it's an entertaining guide to what we can do with soil care. The content is excellent, with footnotes supporting some of the ideas. Readers mention that it's helpful for farmers considering or moving towards regenerative agriculture.
"...refractometer, water penetration testing, using weeds to diagnose some common deficiencies and soil issues, and various other bits and pieces that..." Read more
"...Yes there is the depth of knowledge over the wide range of influence that soils exert on our planet, plant animal and human life...." Read more
"A very informative, well-written book." Read more
"...To her credit it is very well researched and footnoted with tons of scientific peer reviewed papers that support some of her science...." Read more
Customers find the book easy to read and understand. They find it well-written, with humor and humanity to balance science. The book provides simple and complex methods for rehabilitating multiple degraded sites. It's a good introductory guide that doesn't get overly technical.
"...There are simple and complex methods suggested to rehabilitate multiple degraded sites...." Read more
"...An easy to read book, packed full of wonderful New Zealand sense of humor. This will be your best resource for the love of soil and our future!" Read more
"This is a down to earth how to develop soil from depleted and abused dirt with common sense and hands on experience...." Read more
"Well written and organized. Sometimes reached a technical level but the foundation was well established to follow along...." Read more
Customers find the book informative and well-written. They say it's worth the money, time, and effort to read. Readers appreciate the author's humility, fairness, and sense of leadership.
"...The author is inspirational, humble, very fair minded and leads us in a sensible discussion of the critical issues at hand..." Read more
"A very informative, well-written book." Read more
"...There are however lots of good things about this book. I did enjoy reading it other than the lack of editing...." Read more
"Oh Nicole , an amazing book!!..." Read more
Reviews with images
Fix your ailing soils, fast!
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2020I read several reviews that were very positive about the content, but commented on awful editing issues, typos etc. I bought the Kindle version which was marked as “Updated” and didn’t spot any issues whatsoever.
As to the content, it was absolutely fabulous!! I’m not a rancher or farmer, but as a human being I found this fascinating world of soil / land stewardship to be deeply engrossing, educational, thought provoking and downright fascinating.
The author is inspirational, humble, very fair minded and leads us in a sensible discussion of the critical issues at hand (really... soil and food growing spells humanities survival!) Unlike some books discussing the issues with big agriculture and the food production systems, it wasn’t just a whinge and takedown of the “bad guys”. Rather, a well referenced yet entertaining guide of what we CAN do, with encouraging stories of people who are already doing this to great effect. Loved it.
The appendixes also contained very useful reference info regarding using a refractometer, water penetration testing, using weeds to diagnose some common deficiencies and soil issues, and various other bits and pieces that had been discussed in the main text but were very useful in summarised form.
- Reviewed in the United States on December 24, 2019With her huge background and understanding of the complexity of soils Nicole has communicated her knowledge in a readily digestible way. Yes there is the depth of knowledge over the wide range of influence that soils exert on our planet, plant animal and human life. By sharing many examples that graphically illustrate the importance of this most basic element of our environment she draws us in, opening up possibilities for our own situations, depending on where we are starting from. There are simple and complex methods suggested to rehabilitate multiple degraded sites. By drawing on the many other writers within the regenerative agriculture sphere she leads us on to even greater possibilities for our futures. A tour de force!
- Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2024A very informative, well-written book.
- Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2019Ok, so I'm struggling with how to rate this book. As a regenerative farmer myself, and an organic farming consultant with 25 years experience, I want to love this book because any helpful attempt to further the regenerative ag movement is worth 5 stars! Books like this are so badly needed, now more than ever! But, this book has it's share of problems. If I'm comparing it to other regenerative ag books that received a 5 star rating, this one would probably get a 3. But I want to be generous and give it a 4. Here are the problems.
First, and it's a big one -- this book is in bad need of an editor! It has a serious error on almost every literal page. The book has bad grammar and punctuation, but the worst of it is incomplete sentences where a word or string or words are missing. Some of it is still comprehensible, some is not. Probably the worst was when she early on wrote: "Note all fungicides are compatible with fulvic acid." This is totally false. And in context with what she wrote earlier, didn't jive. Then at the end in the appendix, I find: "Note: not all fungicides are compatible with fulvic acid." My, what a difference a colon and a word make! There are hundreds of problems just like this. It makes the book look highly unprofessional.
Another problem with this book is it is highly anecdotal, which is fine; in and of themselves, anecdotes aren't bad. To her credit it is very well researched and footnoted with tons of scientific peer reviewed papers that support some of her science. But the anecdotes seem to be mostly with all her customers that she consulted for that she writes about. Virtually none of them have comparative data demonstrating what exactly she did, and how well it worked. Maybe this is because her clients did not want her revealing that info. And that is fine, but she should at least indicate as much. It left me somewhat unimpressed.
Another problem, and this is more subjective than objective, is that she is a proponent of the Reams Theory of Ionization (she doesn't say that, but she is a student of Arden Anderson and promotes his ideas, and he was a student of Reams). She also claims heavy reliance on the base saturation theory of balancing cations. Ream's/Anderson's theories are not scientific, have been thoroughly refuted time and again, and border on voo-doo science. And the base saturation theory is largely impractical and unnecessary. I was very open minded about these theories 15 years ago, having worked with a Reams student for 4 years spending thousands of dollars on trying to obtain that golden ratio, balancing phosphate to potash, claims that weeds will disappear, trying to change the Ca:Mg ratio, using refractometers and penetrometers, etc. All of this is a huge waste of time and money. You would be better off just focusing on Elaine Ingham's soil food web and get your organic matter up (see Gabe Brown as a practical example on how to do that), and balance your fungi:bacteria as best you can (Earthfort Lab is the best in the country for help in doing that). It's interesting that she references Brown and Ingham several times, both of whom are not Reams/Anderson disciples, and would never spend that kind of money to regenerate soil. If you get your biology right, your chemistry will fall into place on its own. No need to go out there trying to chase ideal ratios with phosphate to potash with the idea your weeds will change and your brix will increase. It won't. Especially if you are a rancher in the cattle business. Margins are razor thin, and telling ranchers to balance cations in the soil is not a good service in my opinion.
There are however lots of good things about this book. I did enjoy reading it other than the lack of editing. Most of the information you can find elsewhere, but it was entertaining following her around the globe with some of her projects. I particularly liked the story about the ranchers in northern Nevada. And I could chuckle about the part about the grizzly bears eating caraway in Montana just outside Yellowstone; I actually was up in those very fields this summer and spotted several grizzlies eating that same escaped field of caraway.
I thought the chapters on weeds and insects towards the end of the book were the most interesting part of the book. I plan to try some of those approaches that I haven't already done before. I was warming up to give her a 4 star instead of the 3 stars I thought it deserved. Then I got to the first appendix, and in her 5 point list of transition steps, the number 3 is missing in front of the third step. 1, 2, (missing), 4, 5. Whoops. I was almost going to drop it back to 3 stars again, but nah I think I will be kind and stay with 4 stars. But, GET AN EDITOR! If you want to look like a professional, and get the attention of a wide audience including educated conventional ag producers and educators, you need to make it look like it wasn't hacked out from a phone while riding your horse or traveling in your trailer from farm to farm. Clean it up, and it will be 5 stars even with the disagreeable Reams/Base Saturation theories. :)
- Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2019If you are in agriculture, a gardener, or a person that has any lawn grass at all. “For the Love of Soil” book will become your bible for how to take care of (Love) your soil. The book is packed full of biological recipes and fixes for your ailing soils. Whether you have weed problems, soil erosion, soil compaction, water and nutrient runoff, or soils that are too wet or flooding; this book has the solutions for you. Nicole Masters a great storyteller, with vast, vast experiences in multiple countries. An easy to read book, packed full of wonderful New Zealand sense of humor. This will be your best resource for the love of soil and our future!
5.0 out of 5 stars Fix your ailing soils, fast!If you are in agriculture, a gardener, or a person that has any lawn grass at all. “For the Love of Soil” book will become your bible for how to take care of (Love) your soil. The book is packed full of biological recipes and fixes for your ailing soils. Whether you have weed problems, soil erosion, soil compaction, water and nutrient runoff, or soils that are too wet or flooding; this book has the solutions for you. Nicole Masters a great storyteller, with vast, vast experiences in multiple countries. An easy to read book, packed full of wonderful New Zealand sense of humor. This will be your best resource for the love of soil and our future!
Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2019
Images in this review - Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2019Oh Nicole , an amazing book!!
I attended 2 of your practical farming seminars in northern N Z a wee while back and they were so informative indeed
The fact that you had discovered your "ikomai" was so apparent in the passion and knowledge shared at that time.
As a guy now retired and approx the age of you father, I so share your philosophies re regenerative farming. Such bear common threads to those ok both Weston Price and more latterly Graeme Sait.
Your book is truly a testament to a "NEW" way of farming which offers fabulous soils providing incredible animals, crops, and profitability for the farmers of that soil!!
Thank you Nicole!
- Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2022This book has changed my outlook on soil. I new it was alive with life, but not to the extent that Nicole explains. Her passion brings the microscopic creatures to life in a way that’ll have you looking at the soil as an untapped jungle full of wildlife that actually helps you grow your food. My veggie garden will never be the same.
Top reviews from other countries
- AbrahamReviewed in Mexico on January 20, 2025
5.0 out of 5 stars Start with your below ground livestock
Highly recommended if you are a newbie in restoration agriculture. If an old chap you will enjoy it anyway, how she makes an effort to teach how to read your soil, with a wonderful appendix of tools to use.
- deer watcherReviewed in the United Kingdom on December 30, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading
Essential reading for us all to understand about this important part of producing our food as well as carbon sequestration.
- Shelley OlsonReviewed in Canada on September 8, 2021
5.0 out of 5 stars Great narrator; accessible content
This book was so wonderfully narrated! I so learned much from the soil science, perspectives and practices employed to improve soil that I bought the hard cover to share with my farmer guy. We are looking for a way to make things better on our farm and this book covered many different locales and situations, explaining the science simply and with a passion that can work to move those set in their ways, to better ways.
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C. R. PalmaReviewed in Spain on April 5, 2021
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesante contenido pero escrita malísima
Esta autora, necesitaba de alguien que, le editara su texto. Tiene centenares de "," mal, colocadas y muchos otros, problemas gramaticales. El texto es, interesante aunque pasa de un tema, al otro sin gran esfuerzo de, explicar lo que presenta. (molesta, verdad?)
- ORSOBRUNOReviewed in Italy on November 24, 2019
5.0 out of 5 stars Super
Mind blowing
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