The early Brinton settlers in Pennsylvania lived off the land’s richness and built a colony of growers and producers. Still, in some severe winters, they had to rely on more skilled Native Americans for extra game to survive.

Expression of “terroir” goes hand in hand with sustainability in vineyards, with close attention to the cycle of organic matter from residues, pressings and locally sourced manures. But when do inputs exceed “natural” fertility and conflict with terroir?

If you see these tracks in a European field- its a sign of foliar spraying of chemicals (often nitrogen) to boost a grain crop. In Germany just the appearance of field stripes disallows “Grünland” classification.

Each crop responds to the local soil environment and weather, which soil tests imperfectly measure. Here the sorghum-sudangrass performed the most efficiently with the least added N since the previous rotation generated 80 lb/a N from mineralization.