A Book Review first published on NRAD.org.au and republished here with permission
The light hearted and buoyant voice of Nicole Masters welcomed me to this book via audibles download. Nicole is the Director/Owner of Integrity Soils based out of New Zealand and Author of For the Love of Soil – strategies to regenerate our food production systems. First published in 2019 this book dives deep into regenerative practices and soil health. As someone who has been involved in regenerative and permaculture circles for some time now, the thought of jumping into this book had me interested but not excited. I had heard of Nicole Masters and the book a few times but it was not at the top of must-read list. How wrong I was.
The first chapter had me hooked. Nicole shared her own story about Paraquot poisoning in her teens and how it affected her health and her journey into ultimately becoming an Agro-ecologist, educator and systems thinker. She not only tells her story but weaves it beautifully into the topic of this book. She speaks of chemicals, genetics, epigenetics and more telling the story of human reliance and exposure to these things. She encourages each and every one of us to listen to our bodies, nature and our intuition to build a rich and insightful life. In so doing she builds the reason for having written the book and her love of nature and soil.
From this point on in the book to say my mind was blown is an understatement. From underground livestock management to regeneration of the soil microbiome, Nicole goes into great detail on how and why we should be managing the soil and its inhabitants not just better but with reverence. She carefully discusses subjects that should be common knowledge but aren’t as well the more complex side of biology and plant health.
“FIRSTLY, EVERYTHING COMES BACK TO SOIL, SECONDLY CONNECTING PEOPLE TO SOIL IS LIKE OPENING A DOOR OF POSSIBILITIES THAT CAN NEVER BE CLOSED AGAIN.”
Nicole Masters
Using quotes from well known authors and creative thinkers to set the stage for each chapter she cleverly builds the imagery so it can be seen with the minds eye as clear as if you were looking at it in person. Some concepts required stopping to think or research further but overall, so well written was this book it left me wanting more knowledge and more of Nicole’s writing style.
Topics including weeds as indicator of soil health, vermiculture and its uses as well as reducing off farm inputs and programming your future path to success are all covered in a well laid out and natural progression through out the pages. Utilising stories of farmers from the USA to Australia to further develop her topics she skilfully weaves the common threads together to give the reader a true sense of the profound effect this knowledge and its implementation can have on lives, productivity and the land we seek to steward.
No matter if you are at the beginning of your regenerative journey or further down the road, Nicole Masters’ ‘For the Love of Soil’ will open your eyes and heart to fascinating new world below your feet.
Gabe Brown, author of Dirt to Soil, had this to say;
“For years many of us involved in regenerative agriculture have been touting the soil health – plant health – animal health – human health connection but no one has tied them all together like Nicole does in “For the love of Soil”! Gabe Brown, Browns Ranch, USA
Clearly, this lady not only knows what she is talking about but she shows her passion and love for her work through these pages. Every farmer, gardener and nature lover needs to read this book! Every library should have more than one copy and our educators should be teaching this to school students around the globe. In fact, I personally think that this book should be under every Christmas tree in the country this year. So important is the message. Nicoles book is available at all good bookstores.
