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Sacred Soil: Biochar and the Regeneration of the Earth Paperback – Illustrated, July 18, 2017

by Robert Tindall (Author), Frederique Apffel-Marglin (Author), David Shearer (Author),

24 ratings

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A fascinating description of how utilizing the biochar embedded in terra preta, the recently rediscovered sacred soil of the pre-Columbian peoples of the Amazon rainforest, can cut our dependency on petrochemicals, restore the health of our soils, remove carbon from our overheating atmosphere, and restore the planet to pre-industrial levels of atmospheric carbon by 2050. The authors show that the rediscovery of terra preta is an opportunity to move beyond the West’s tradition of plunder and genocide of the native civilizations of the Americas by offering an invitation to embrace the deeper mystery of the indigenous methods of inquiry and to participate in an animate cosmos that gave rise to such a powerful soil technology. Sacred Soil, in recognizing the need for biocultural regeneration, takes a multi-disciplinary approach to the phenomenon of biochar soils, utilizing mythopoeic, historical, anthropological, and scientific perspectives to embrace the deep past, the vexed present, and the prospectus for our future. Coming at this crucial juncture in human history, the potential resting in biochar is also an open doorway into the indigenous ways of knowing that enabled the pre-Columbian Amazonian high civilizations to support a population of millions while leaving their lands more fertile than when they arose.

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Print length

256 pages
Language

English
Publisher

North Atlantic Books
Publication date

July 18, 2017
Dimensions

6 x 0.6 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

1623171180
ISBN-13

978-1623171186

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“The highly qualified authors of Sacred Soil show us a way forward toward restoring our garden planet, shifting the Earth’s carbon balance from the oceans and the sky to the soil and living vegetation, where it can nourish our hearts, blood, and bones and ensure our collective thriving. It is up to all of us to act on this knowledge.”
—Ian Baker, author of The Heart of the World

“A visionary manifesto and a pragmatic, solutions-oriented approach to how we can heal our connection with the Earth as well as our kin in the bacterial world, Sacred Soil offers a path for modern people to understand the world, as many indigenous cultures do, as a vast sentient organism.”
—Daniel Pinchbeck, author of Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism

“Tindall, Apffel-Marglin, and Shearer have taken a seemingly arcane topic and turned it into a compellingly readable book on ecology, indigenous wisdom, sustainable development and our relationship with nature. Highly recommended!”
—Mark Plotkin, PhD, Amazon Conservation Team

“Sacred Soil is a major contribution to healing the septic split dividing spirit from matter, and culture from nature, that is poisoning all life. With soil as its exemplar—at once material, biological, and sacred—this book reminds us that we are part of a greater world that is alive, intelligent, and whole.”
—Patrick Curry, author of Ecological Ethics

“Magic flows in Sacred Soil, and realism beckons throughout the mythopoeic, historical, anthropological, and scientific perspectives on times, characters, and the fecundities of life. These authors join imaginative writing, distinctive research, and interdisciplinary engagement with environmental concern in this magnificent account of how ceramic shards, burials, and the processes of life-death make biochar soil.”
—John A. Grim, Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale

“Over the last decades botanists and ecologists working in the forests of the Amazon have found large but isolated expanses of terra preta—black soil, clearly of human origins—showing that indigenous peoples did not simply slash and burn and move on, but chose instead to stay put, actively enhancing the agricultural potential of the land, with charcoal for nutrient retention, and organic waste as compost. A book examining the significance of these new revelations, and indeed celebrating the potential of such indigenous technologies, has been long overdue.”
—Wade Davis, professor of anthropology, University of British Columbia

“A superb historical, ethnographic, fictional, scientific, and applicable account of one of the wonders of humanity—the anthropogenic black earth of the Amazon—this changes our perception of pre-Columbian Amazonian societies, their knowledge, complexity, and the extent of their spiritually-imbued contribution to biodiversity. Most importantly, this work clearly indicates possible contemporary applications of Amerindian concepts and techniques to most needed environmental regeneration.”
—Luis Eduardo Luna, director of Wasiwaska Research Center

“This groundbreaking book reveals the hidden story of the astonishing and profoundly ethical civilization of the Amazonian Indians. For millennia the indigenous peoples of the Amazon rain forest constructed a civilization of harmonious coexistence of humans, plants, animals, physical entities, and the intangible spiritual beings that inhabit the quantum world. And they did it by creating and recreating their own healthy environment. This jewel of a book is a breath of pure utopian air.”
Stefano Varese, PhD, professor emeritus, University of California, Davis

About the Author

ROBERT TINDALL, MA, is a classical guitarist, a long-time student of Zen Buddhism, an inveterate traveler, and the author of The Jaguar that Roams the Mind and The
Shamanic Odyssey: Homer, Tolkien, and the Visionary Experience. Tindall works as a professor of literature, and divides his time between the San Francisco Bay Area and Peru. He leads journeys into the Amazon rainforest and to the Andean archaeological site of Chavín de Huántar to encounter the healing traditions there.

FRÉDÉRIQUE APFFEL-MARGLIN, PhD, is emerita professor of anthropology at Smith College and director and founder of the Sachamama Center for Biocultural Regeneration in the Peruvian Upper Amazon. She was a research associate at the World Institute for Development Economics Research. She has authored and edited thirteen books and published some sixty articles and book chapters, including The Spirit of Regeneration: Andean Culture Confronting Western Notions of Development and Subversive Spiritualities: How Rituals Enact the World.

DAVID SHEARER, PhD, is co-founder and CEO of Full Circle Biochar, a clean technology company developing biochar products for global agricultural and carbon sequestration applications. He was chief scientist at California Environmental Associates and principal environmental scientist at AeroVironment Inc., where he worked in next-generation transportation, energy, carbon mitigation, and information technology. Dr. Shearer has a PhD in environmental epidemiology and a MS in environmental microbiology from the University of California.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ North Atlantic Books
Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 18, 2017
Edition ‏ : ‎ Illustrated
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1623171180
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1623171186
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.6 x 9 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #2,882,089 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #581 in Sustainable Business Development
- #1,565 in Food Science (Books)
- #2,190 in Environmental Economics (Books)
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Yael Flusberg
I had the great pleasure of reading the first chapter of an advanced ...
Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2018
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I had the great pleasure of reading the first chapter of an advanced copy of Sacred Soil last year when I met Robert Tindall, who I had the honor of traveling to Chavin de Huantar in the Andes with, and who described his interest to me at the time as "spiritual archaeology." Some months later, returning to Peru to visit my stepkids, I bought the book to take with me as a way of enriching my understanding of the eco-cultural legacy of my husband's family. I found myself immediately drawn into the account of Santiago Altimirano, a fictional Spanish shepherd who joined the Francisco de Orellana expedition of 1542 which completed the first known navigation of the full length of the Amazon River. The expedition reported what, at the time, appeared to be outlandish and impossible encounters with an advanced and thriving civilization there, evidenced by the existence of terra preta, or black soil. Terra Preta improves the topsoil, increasing its fertility and endowing it with climate restorative qualities, by adding a combo of compost, manure (including humanure), ceramic shards, and micro-organisms. Far from being a virgin forest filled with primitives, these soil technologies helped support a population of at least 5 million before the conquistadors came along, decimating upwards of 95% of the indigenous population, along with their integrative perspective of the bidirectional mutually beneficial relationship between man and earth. I especially appreciated considering the parallels between current South American shamanic understanding and practices -- which are immensely popular with Westerners such as yours truly -- and the virtually-eradicated indigenous European approaches. Not sure that I'll be able to replicate any of this in my own home garden but I will definitely look to support organizations that are doing so -- and am immensely grateful to this book for giving me yet another fascinating layer of insight into a world that has -- and might again -- exist.

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John Patrick
I really enjoyed this book
Reviewed in the United States on December 23, 2017
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
I really enjoyed this book. The begining catapults you straight into the jungle. Dodging arrows and traversing into the unknown. I found it just as exciting as it was informational. I suggest this read for anyone interested in the knowledge of pre Colombian societies of the Amazon. To be inspired by their spiritual connection with the land and discover how their techniques are capable of restoring harmonious balance to our planet. A lesson in rediscovered knowledge that has great potential to protect our water, food, and climate security. Learn how you can take part and help with the regeneration of the earth through biochar.

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Ghost Reader
Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2018
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
This purchase was for a friend.

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Josh G
Not what I expected
Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2019
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
I have read 125 pages of the 209 pages of this book (not counting the notes at the end) and in all this time the author has barely touched on the main subjects of the book which are supposed to be biochar and terra preta (maybe 3% of the time the author discusses them). The first 80 pages are a fictional historical account of a Spanish Conquistador named Santiago. At one or two points in the story he saw terra preta (yay!). The next third of the book, the author talks about a Peruvian shaman who supposedly cured someone's autoimmune disease, different opinions of the worlds physicists (not about terra preta or biochar, just their differing views of the world), how light is made up of both particles and waves....the list goes on an on. The one thing he barely touches on is the actual subject of the book, biochar and terra preta . I bought this book because I wanted to learn: what are biochar and terra preta, how are they made, how do they work, how can they save the planet? Maybe at some point the author will actually get to the point, but I just can't force myself to push through and find out. As a stand alone scholarly work, this book may actually be 5 stars, but as a book about terra preta and biochar the best I can give is one star. If you want to learn about biochar and terra preta, read "Terra Preta: How the World's Most Fertile Soil Can Help Reverse Climate Change and Reduce World Hunger." It is the first book that comes up when you search "terra preta" on Amazon. That book nails it. It is exactly what it claims to be, a book about terra preta.

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ijil RHG
Interesting topic.
Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2020
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
Interesting topic. Big ag will never save the human race. These guys are just hyping them selves. All about the money.

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Anne Marie Codur
An essential reading for anyone who is actively engaged in rethinking/redesigning our relationship with Mother Earth!
Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2017
Format: Paperback
A fascinating journey in the heart of the Amazonian region to discover how the vanished civilization that flourished there for thousands of years (and was entirely annihilated by smallpox and other diseases contracted at the contact of Spanish colonizers in the 16th century) had developed a deeply spiritual and symbiotic relationship with the forest, animals, soils, waters, co-creating its ecosystems with the non-human world, and in the process, building the most fertile soil on earth, terra preta, the Amazonian dark earth - whose discovery 500 years later is about the revolutionize agriculture through the use of biochar, as a way to build organic carbon in soils and boost their fertility, and as a solution to climate change, drawing down excess carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in soils. The first chapter reads like a novel, based on the chronicles of the first Spanish explorers awestruck by the discovery of the Amazonian highly complex societies, and following chapters offer a great analysis of the lessons we can learn today from the worldview and practices of the ancient Amazonians, precisely at a time when our own Western/Global civilization is on the brink of climate collapse, brought by the hubris of our mechanistic worldview of a natural world disconnected from us and subjected to our power. Can we learn from the age old wisdom of the Amazonians how to shift paradigms and transition from an exploitative relationship with nature to a regenerative relationship with Mother Earth, within whom we are fully embedded, and with whom we can respectfully co-create an ecologically sustainable future for humankind?
Anne-Marie Codur, Ph.D.
ecological economist, Tufts University, Massachusetts.

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Wendy
This book strengthens, enlightens and clarifies our relationship to the earth.
Reviewed in Australia on August 19, 2018
Format: KindleVerified Purchase

This book is so important at the moment when we are drowning in a sea of greed and not so much 'fake news' as fake food and fake ideas of what is important in life. It puts the 'natural world' in a true perspective, that we are part of it and it is part of us and if we don't understand that we are doomed to be slaves. It is so well written and referenced, I keep marking salient points. I have the kindle version but will buy a hard copy so that I can mark passages and easily refer back to them. Thank you to the authors, you have created a brilliant and timely book that should become a text book for our time.

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Camila Fava Pestana
Strongly Recommend - MUST READ
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 10, 2019
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
This book changed my life and my understanding of the Amazon, indigenous communities, agriculture and much more. I had the honour of having Frédérique Apffel-Marglin as my Master's supervisor at Schumacher College. I visited the Sachamama Center for BioCultural Regeneration (SCBR) in the Peruvian High Amazon founded by
her in collaboration with the indigenous Kichwa-Lamistas.

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Sacred Soil: Biochar and the Regeneration of the Earth Paperback – Illustrated, July 18, 2017

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5.0 out of 5 stars I had the great pleasure of reading the first chapter of an advanced ...

5.0 out of 5 stars I really enjoyed this book

5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars

1.0 out of 5 stars Not what I expected

2.0 out of 5 stars Interesting topic.

5.0 out of 5 stars An essential reading for anyone who is actively engaged in rethinking/redesigning our relationship with Mother Earth!

Top reviews from other countries

5.0 out of 5 stars This book strengthens, enlightens and clarifies our relationship to the earth.

5.0 out of 5 stars Strongly Recommend - MUST READ

I had the great pleasure of reading the first chapter of an advanced ...

I really enjoyed this book

Five Stars

Not what I expected

Interesting topic.

An essential reading for anyone who is actively engaged in rethinking/redesigning our relationship with Mother Earth!

This book strengthens, enlightens and clarifies our relationship to the earth.

Strongly Recommend - MUST READ