Abby Rose
Author contributions
Soil Science Latest: How Can We Sequester More Carbon and Build Soil Health?
Abby Rose discusses how we can sequester more carbon and build soil health.
Learn about the Earthworm Engineers
Eliza Jenkins and Abby Rose summarise their 4 favourite papers from the archive of research on the science behind on-farm earthworms from the European Journal of Soil Science
Spring Soil Test Challenge – Get a Free Trial of Soilmentor
Invitation to and details of the 2016 Spring Soil Test
A chance to get down and dirty with your soils
I arrived at Whittington Lodge Farm in the Cotswolds on a very grey and damp day in August. A cheery Ian Boyd greeted me and immediately put the kettle on. At first Ian seemed very wary as I told him I’d made an app that was going to help him monitor his soil health. I don’t blame him for being suspicious, I am a British girl with a distinctly American accent, wearing leopard-print leggings and claiming that I had created an app that could help him out in the field. Who wouldn’t be suspicious!?
New perspectives on farming
In September 2015, 42 people; a motley bunch of bakers and bankers, neighbours and scientists each co-invested £200 in a field of wheat in fertile Lincolnshire. The field is owned by conventional arable farmer Peter Lundgren, who (in a moment of madness) agreed to let these 42 people help decide what he was going to do with his 20 acre field that year. I was one of those collective members and this was the start of an eye-opening, emotional and practical journey - ‘A year in the life of a wheat farmer.’