Soil and agriculture provide us with something every day. Dara Booher is an agricultural educator with Shenandoah County Public Schools and a farmer-mentor coordinator with the Virginia Forage and Grassland Council and the Virginia Soil Health Coalition. Dara loves talking to youth and others about soil and agriculture. In this episode, Dara shares her enthusiasm for youth education and soil health with Mary, Eric, and Jeff, along with many teaching and demonstration resources (e.g., Enviroscape, Soil Your Undies, etc.) for immersive experiences and classroom fun.

Dara recommends the National Agriculture in the Classroom teacher center for lesson plans and a full suite of educational resources. Additionally, Dara encourages farmers to visit the Virginia Forage and Grassland Council's website for farmer-to-farmer networking opportunities.

As always, we encourage you to cooperate with other farmers and follow the four core soil health principles: 

1) Keep the soil covered -- Cover crops are our friends;
2) Minimize soil disturbance -- Practice no-till or gentle tillage in your field or garden as much as possible;
3) Maximize living roots year-round -- to improve biodiversity and life in the soil; and
4) Energize with diversity -- through crop rotation and/or livestock integration.

Yes, soil health is a great conversation starter because we can all be 4 The Soil and for the future! 
 
To enjoy recent 4 The Soil blog posts and additional soil health resources, please visit https://www.4thesoil.org/blog and https://www.virginiasoilhealth.org/. For questions about soil and water conservation practices and outdoor educational activities for youth, call or visit a USDA Service Center, a Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District office, or your local Virginia Cooperative Extension office.  

4 the Soil: A Conversation is made possible with funding support from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and The Agua Fund. Other partners include the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service; Virginia Cooperative Extension; Virginia State University; Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation; and partners of the Virginia Soil Health Coalition.

Disclaimer: Views expressed on this podcast are those of each individual guest.

To download a copy of this, or any other show, visit the website 4thesoil.org. Music used during today’s program is courtesy of the Flip Charts. All rights reserved. 4 the Soil: A Conversation is produced by On the Farm Radio in collaboration with Virginia Tech. The host and co-hosts are Jeff Ishee, Mary Sketch Bryant, and Eric Bendfeldt.