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Field trip to see Bellevue House Kitchen Gardens (September 9th 2019).
Field trip to see Forman Farm, Ironwood Organics Farm, and Q.U.B.S. Bracken Tract (October 5th 2019).
Ironwood Organics Farm
Chris Wooding of Ironwood Organics Farm: "Our goal is to maximise species diversity......Conventional agriculture relies on dirt; Sustainable agriculture relies on soil....Herbicides, fungicides, pesticides, insecticides... all end up inside (human body)....Our restorative farming practices have doubled the soil carbon concentration from 2.5% to 5%."
Queen's University Biological Station Bracken tract factorial water availability x fertilisation x deer herbivory exclusion experiment:
Lab activities: Food insecurity and poverty; The biology of compost and vermiculture soils
Field trip to see Ravensfield farm (October 20th 2019).
Titia Posthuma: "A farmer needs to work with the land, letting it determine what can be grown most effectively.....It's the soil that matters - you need to work with, and enhance the soil....Animals, and especially ruminants, are the essential means of taking recalcitrant vegetation such as grasses and making it into high quality soil organic matter."