Amanda Smith, MSc

My life has been spent receiving exposure to multiple sides of the same picture. After early years surrounded by the smog and asphalt of Southern California, my family moved to Madison, WI where there was snow, green things and wonderful cultural and ethnic diversity. Visits to my grandparents’ Iowa farm during those years instilled an interest in agriculture and the land. However, I didn’t realize that their conventional, monoculture corn and soy bean farming was actually degrading soil, yet growing no food for people. Eventually we moved back to Corona, CA, where I arrived with a greater sense of the diversity of this planet, and wanting to learn more.

I first fell in love with soil during my B.Sc. studies in Environmental Science at UC Riverside, and went on to earn an M.Sc. in soil chemistry. Years followed of unfulfilling environmental laboratory analyses for pesticides and petroleum on food and in the environment. Disillusioned, I changed my life and became a massage therapist. After a decade, trying to find balance, I returned to science and opened my own soil and water lab in 2007, monitoring environmental issues - but without providing real solutions to pollution, soil degradation, lack of water, and dead, compacted soil profiles.

Since 2012, seeking solutions to these problems has led me through 3 Permaculture Design courses, Soil Food Web training with Elaine Ingham, a Regrarian Workshop with Darren Doherty and Watershed Restoration with Craig Sponholtz. Now I focus on restoring health and balance to the soil by reviving its life with compost, mulch, and diverse plantings. These simple steps sequester carbon and create the physical soil properties that increase water holding capacity and biological diversity, and reduce the need for pesticides and herbicides. Through Soil Harmonics, I get to contribute to transformation of the Earth back to health, while encouraging people to be part of the land and its stewardship.

September 2016