Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Email | RSS

Bioremediation Wrap Up: Helping Nature Do The Damn Thing Part 4

In our final episode in the series of Bioremediation, we finally express the reasons why we shared this information and reviewed the overall point of these practices.

Works referenced

Asante Sana ߊߛߊ߲ߕߌ ߛߣߊ
Medase Paa ߡߍߘߊߛߋ ߔߊ
Modupe O ߡߏߘߎߔߋ ߏ

Thank you for listening to

Jìgìjìgì ߖߜ߭ߌ߬ߖߜ߭ߌ߬

Transcript (automated)

Peace,

I am Mason Olonade and this is Jìgìjìgì: Africulture Podcast. Here we believe building a healthy soil builds a healthy soul, so we share strategies for how to do both. To do both we ask two questions: How do you grow while you grow Kale, Collards, Tomatoes, and Melons. And why, do you think, the healthiest soils are Black?

Bioremediation Wrap Up: Helping Nature do the Damn Thing

In producing these episodes I’ve learned a lot and I hope you have too. It may not have been the clearest, I’m known to be a lil obtuse, so I just want to summarize some of the points.

We discussed some ways to clean our soils and build our soils at the same time. Why is this important? Why here?

Our communities, our lands, especially in suburban and doubly so in our urban environments will be among the most affected by pollution. As we mentioned before, where Mandela and I were growing near Howard University had been a previous spot where people cut corners and dumped lead pain chips into someone else’s backyard with no repercussions. Although I have no evidence for this, I am likely to believe that this has happened quite often in our communities.

Figuring out ways for us to be able to extract, sequester, or release these toxins from our soil is just as important as using the vegetables we grow to rid the toxins from within our bodies. Figuring out ways to do this with the least expenses incurred is also necessary for our community. We’ve shown studies that demonstrate certain composts can become chelators and transform the chemistry of these toxins, facilitating better uptake by your plants while improving the structure and health of the soil at the same time!

The caveat is that bioremediation takes time! It takes an entire season for Sunflowers to grow and accumulate enough biomass to store this lead in its tissue after removing it from the soils. Generally lead is stored in the more aerial parts of the plant, so as we discussed before, taking the grown sunflower to the municipal dump is one of the ways to extract the lead from your soils.

As we continue our conversations about urban agriculture, sustainability, regeneration, food policy and food justice, it is also our responsibility to grow clean soils in order to grow healthy soils.

I was very pleased to know that there is established and highly scientific literature out about building mycoremediation reactors. Although the presentation that we’re highlighting doesn’t go into detail about the construction of the myco-reactors, my understanding of the talk leads me to believe that they are constructed quite similarly to what I described in the episodes Rhizofiltration and Remediation, and Shrooms? In My buckets?

Since moving here to Charlotte we’ve collected many different species of fungi that we’ve added to our myco-reactors like Blewits, Blue Milkys, and other mushrooms we’ve never seen before. Perhaps we’ll get results similar to our previous experiments.

Perhaps you’ll share Jìgìjìgì with your friends, family, and closely related siblings of the soil. Leave us a 5-star review wherever you listen to and we will say then as we say now, Asante Sana, Medase Pa, Modupe O! Thank you, for listening, to Jìgìjìgì. Peace.