Regenerative Agriculture Podcast

In this episode of the Regenerative Agriculture Podcast, John Kempf interviews plant pathologist Dr. James White of Rutgers University, whose work provides a new perspective on plant pathology, susceptibility to soil-borne pathogens, and plant absorption of nutrients. Dr. White explains how endophytes, non-pathogenic fungal and bacterial organisms present in all plants, are a mechanism by which plants can absorb complete molecules, internalize and propagate soil-borne microbes, and nullify pathogenic organisms.  In the interview, Dr. White describes how plants cultivate microbes at the meristem, or root tip, where exudates are created. In this zone, these endophytes further attract and cultivate microbes from the soil in the rhizophagy cycle, from rhizo- meaning ‘root’ and -phagy meaning ‘eating’. Through this process, plants attract and internalize soil-borne microbes. The microbes are then internalized by the plant and deliver nutrients from the soil directly to the roots. Dr. White relates how this endophy