Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Andrew McGuire

@agronomistag.bsky.social

5.1K followers 280 following 340 posts

Views of an agronomist on soil, farming, and science. Evidence-based agriculture. Washington State University Extension. https://t.co/RZ11P3ozYm Same @ on X.

t.co

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Andrew McGuire @agronomistag.bsky.social · Jun 3

Cash crops, along with their well-managed residues, can match or even surpass the benefits of traditional cover crops. They effectively control erosion, scavenge nutrients, disrupt pest cycles, and enhance soil health.

How? Biomass production.
My latest: csanr.wsu.edu/cash-crops-a...

Cash Crops, and Their Residues, are the Best Cover Crops

Think about this. If a cash crop provides all the benefits of a cover crop and generates a profit, should we consider it a cover crop? The National Association of Wheat Growers thinks so. They are pet...

csanr.wsu.edu

4 3 19

Reposted by Andrew McGuire

Richard Waite @waiterich.bsky.social · 2d

Brassica oleracea / Brassica oleracea / Brassica oleracea

Three dudes dressed three very different ways - first in a more conservative suit and tie, second in a short sleeve shirt and hat, third in a pink vest and tie

5 43 230

Reposted by Andrew McGuire

Josh Mayfield @joshmayfield.bsky.social · 1d

🌱 Here’s one of the tropical pumpkin hybrids I bred last year. It was easy to grow, productive and very early. I harvested this one just 78 days after transplanting. It’s also delicious – incredibly sweet and nice balance of floral and savory notes.

Two halves of a pumpkin sitting on a table outdoors.

5 3 61

Reposted by Andrew McGuire

Michael Grunwald @mikegrunwald.bsky.social · 5d

The irony is, the advocates pushing "justice" in food systems are usually pushing low-yield organic/regenerative approaches that are nice for Chez Panisse but make food more expensive for the poor and more damaging to the planet.

2 1 7

Andrew McGuire @agronomistag.bsky.social · 7d

Same here with local bean growers. It's also a shorter season crop, so no-till has opened up the opportunity to plant them after first cutting of alfalfa or timothy hay (coming out of production), which also helps their bottom line.

1 4

Andrew McGuire @agronomistag.bsky.social · 9d

When do we start calling it bot-media?

Reposted by Andrew McGuire

Richard Waite @waiterich.bsky.social · 10d

If something is bad, don’t make it sound even worse

If something is good, don’t make it sound like the One Weird Trick that can fix everything

If something sounds like it could be right, but you know it’s wrong, don’t write or reshare it

Double check stuff before amplifying

We are the algorithm

1 13 47

Andrew McGuire @agronomistag.bsky.social · 12d

As an agronomist, my concern with all this is when ecologists turn to agriculture, and bring their ideology. In agroecology, organic, and now regenerative, this translates to a unscientific bias against synthetic materials.
acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.2134/...

Agricultural Science and Organic Farming: Time to Change Our Trajectory

Core Ideas Organic farming bans nearly all synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Research shows that these materials can be the best solution to specific problems. Agricultural science has incremen.....

acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

1 5

Andrew McGuire @agronomistag.bsky.social · 12d

And Ecology's Science Police.
issues.org/the-science-...

The Science Police

In 2013, Canadian ecologist Mark Vellend submitted a paper to the journal Nature that made the first peer reviewer uneasy. “I can appreciate counter-intuitive findings that are contrary to common assu...

issues.org

1 2

Andrew McGuire @agronomistag.bsky.social · 12d

The ideology is what drives Big Biodiversity.
“Values have a profound influence on the behaviour of all people, scientists included. Biodiversity is studied by ecologists, like myself, most of whom align with the “mission-driven” field of conservation biology.”
philpapers.org/rec/VELTBE

Mark Vellend, The Behavioral Economics of Biodiversity Conservation Scientists - PhilPapers

Values have a profound influence on the behaviour of all people, scientists included. Biodiversity is studied by ecologists, like myself, most of whom align with the “mission-driven” field of conserva...

philpapers.org

1 1

Andrew McGuire @agronomistag.bsky.social · 12d

“To most people, the word “ecology” or “ecological” refers to an attitude towards environmental issues, and only secondarily, if at all, to a scientific field.”

1 1

Andrew McGuire @agronomistag.bsky.social · 12d

...as the ideology will predictably influence the science, as seen in agroecology.

1 1

Andrew McGuire @agronomistag.bsky.social · 12d

"There are probably few sciences that are so closely identified with a specific ideology as is the science of ecology." True.
Yet Weiner goes on to argue that both the science and the ideology of ecology are needed, a dangerous proposal...
jacobweiner.dk/download/2me...

jacobweiner.dk

1 4

Andrew McGuire @agronomistag.bsky.social · 12d

Yes, it would have been interesting to compare them all to a monoculture cereal rye CC.

1 1

Reposted by Andrew McGuire

Tamar Haspel @tamarhaspel.bsky.social · 13d

If this works, it's a new day for beekeepers.

Michael Grunwald @mikegrunwald.bsky.social · 13d

So awesome: Greenlight Biosciences, the startup featured in my book for its RNA biopesticide that constipates potato beetles to death, gets approval for a new one that stops bee-killing “destructor mites” from reproducing. Science!

finance.yahoo.com/news/greenli...

GreenLight Biosciences Launches Norroa, the First RNA-Based Treatment for Varroa Mites, Offering New Hope Amid Record Bee Losses

GreenLight Biosciences ("the Company" or "GreenLight Bio") today announced the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) registration of Norroa™, the first-ever nature-based treatment specifically ...

finance.yahoo.com

1 11 49

Andrew McGuire @agronomistag.bsky.social · 13d

Cover crop mixture research, 5 states, 17 site-years, concludes that CC mixture diversity and seeding rate did not consistently improve CC performance, measured soil parameters, or cash crop yields.
But they cost more.
Open access.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10...

2 1 9

Andrew McGuire @agronomistag.bsky.social · 15d

The question from the abstract is "should farmers modify management to enhance the abundance and diversity of AMF?" not strictly limited to adding them. If there is no benefit from modifying management, then they are not important to management.

1 1

Andrew McGuire @agronomistag.bsky.social · 16d

I think so, and some experts would agree. nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Little evidence that farmers should consider abundance or diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi when managing crops

Contents Summary 1092 I. Introduction 1093 II. Investigating activity of AMF in agroecosystems 1093 III. Crop benefit from AMF: agronomic and mycorrhizal literature differ 1094 ...

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

2 2

Andrew McGuire @agronomistag.bsky.social · 16d

Dramatically? 🤔 Fertilizers yes, fungi not so much.

SPUN spin.

1 5

Andrew McGuire @agronomistag.bsky.social · 27d

Here's more about the benefits of N fertilizer to soil organic matter.
csanr.wsu.edu/nitrogen-fer...

Nitrogen Fertilizer and Soil Organic Matter: What Does the Evidence Say?

Does synthetic nitrogen fertilizer burn up soil organic matter? Whether you are focused on soil health, soil sequestration, or soil carbon credits, this is an important question. The persistent claim ...

csanr.wsu.edu

Andrew McGuire @agronomistag.bsky.social · 27d

Fertilizer DOES NOT burn up soil organic matter.
Long-term study finds "NP fertilization substantially augments both the quantity and stability of soil organic carbon stocks."
scienmag.com/long-term-n...

Long-Term N and P Boost Soil Carbon Storage

In the unrelenting battle against climate change, soil organic carbon (SOC) stands as a pivotal ally, intimately linking terrestrial ecosystems to global carbon cycles. Despite its vital role in climate mitigation and agroecosystem productivity, the persistent decline of SOC

scienmag.com

1 2 13

Andrew McGuire @agronomistag.bsky.social · 27d

I forgot this: Biochar is just char.
The process kills all the bio.

Andrew McGuire @agronomistag.bsky.social · 27d

AI is right up there with biofertilizer as a deceptive marketing term.
AI is just A.
Biofertilizer is just bio.

1 6

Andrew McGuire @agronomistag.bsky.social · Sep 2

Bluesky is not even close for production ag discussions.

2 2

Andrew McGuire @agronomistag.bsky.social · Aug 20

From what I understand, it was an excellent growing season for cherries, and so a large, high quality crop.

Andrew McGuire @agronomistag.bsky.social · Aug 18

If the full biodiversity of nature is the concern, then we should minimize cropland as much as possible, because even in it's best form - lower yields, organic, whatever - cropland biodiversity is a mere fraction of what was there before the cropland.

1 2