Two Percent Solutions for the Planet: 50 Low-Cost, Low-Tech, Nature-Based Practices for Combatting Hunger, Drought, and Climate Change

We live in an era of big problems, and we tend to spend our time thinking of big solutions.

Thinking big, however, can have a paralyzing effect on taking action. In Two Percent Solutions for the Planet, author Courtney White takes readers on a journey around the country―and the world―where low-cost, easy-to-implement solutions are regenerating the planet now, rather than in some distant future.

Two Percent Solutions for the Planet profiles fifty innovative practices that soak up carbon dioxide in soils, reduce energy use, sustainably intensify food production, and increase water quality and quantity. Why “two percent”? It is an illustrative number―not a scientific one―meant to stimulate our imaginations. It refers to: the amount of new carbon in the soil needed to reap a wide variety of ecological and economic benefits; the percentage of the nation’s population who are farmers and ranchers; and the low financial cost (in terms of GDP) needed to get this work done.

Powerful solutions, in other words, can be accomplished for small costs. They are solutions that are regenerative over the long haul, and as White pointed out in his previous book, Grass, Soil, Hope, we need solutions that replete rather than deplete people, animals, plants, soil, and other natural resources.

The two percent solutions that White presents include:

• holistic grazing of cattle to regenerate soils, sequester carbon, and raise healthier meats;
• using no-till farming and cover corps to eliminate pesticides;
• forming food co-ops to bring fresh, local food to market;
• creating rooftop farms in big cities and edible backyard forests to grow food in urban areas;
• raising bees and creating wildlife corridors;
• harvesting rainwater and using compost to nurture soils;
• collecting and saving native seeds, and a wide variety of other regenerative practices.

The short, engaging success stories inWhite’s latest book will inspire readers to connect the dots between diverse, exciting, and pragmatic practices, and to dig deeper into each concept, energized by the news that solutions do exist and that many can be put into action in their own community.