Hans Kristian Westrum, Founder and Chief Growth Officer of Soil Steam International AS,  talks about how they are restoring soil health and boosting harvests sustainably without using chemicals in the most recent episode. Hans went into depth about how they created the technique for attacking weeds, nematodes, and fungus that degrade soil health by injecting steam into the soil. He spoke briefly about his upbringing at his farm, how his father began to see difficulties in the soil, and how they discovered that steam can be used in agriculture. We discussed how the machine works to deep steam soil down to 30 cm depths in open fields and how the technique mitigates fungus, weeds, seeds, and nematodes in the soil without the usage of pesticides. He also described the problems and how they have been monitoring yield with scientists in the field. We talk about how it can make a significant contribution to organic farming and how steam can combat harmful organisms in the soil. We also had a quick discussion about soil fatigue and how crop rotation might help to preserve soil health.

Based in Sandefjord, Vestfold og Telemark invented the unique machine that uses steam to remove between 95 and 100% of all WFN in the soil. This has the potential to have a huge influence on global food production. Pesticide resistance is growing among fungi and weeds, while pesticides are becoming increasingly restricted. This implies that many vegetable and flower growers no longer have viable solutions to combat fungus, disease, and weeds. The steam destroys nearly all WFN.