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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Carbon Sequestration Through Organic Agriculture

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Carbon Sequestration Through Organic Agriculture
  • Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2006 22:18:46 -0600


Dr. Melendrez rightly stresses the central role of microorganisms in healthy
soil and healthy growing. Below is a post I passed on to our old Soilmakers
list. It's from the UN Food And Agriculture Organization.

paul, tradingpost@riseup.net
---------------
The outstanding scientific discovery of the twentieth century is not
television, or radio, but rather the complexity of the land organism. Only
those who know the most about it can appreciate how little we know about it.
- Aldo Leopold in Round River, 1933
--------------------

Organic matter, microbes, and plant health

"Soil organisms contribute a wide range of essential services to the
sustainable
functioning of all ecosystems. They act as the primary driving agents of:
nutrient cycling, regulating the dynamics of soil organic matter, soil carbon
sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions; modifying soil physical structure
and water regimes; enhancing the amount and efficiency of nutrient acquisition
by the vegetation; and enhancing plant health. These services are not only
critical to the functioning of natural ecosystems but constitute an important
resource for sustainable agricultural systems."

"Each type of soil organism occupies a different niche in the web of life and
favours a different substrate and nutrient source. Most soil organisms rely on
organic matter for food; thus a rich supply and varied source of organic
matter
will generally support a wider variety of organisms."

"Building of soil fertility is the cornerstone of organic agriculture. Organic
practices create suitable conditions for soil biotic and abiotic resources
through: manipulation of crop rotations and strip-cropping; green manuring and
organic fertilization (animal manure, compost, crop residues); minimum
tillage;
and avoidance of pesticides and herbicides use. Scientific research in Europe
has demonstrated that organically-managed soils significantly increase
biological activity and total density and diversity of soil micro-organisms.
Such biodiversity enhances nutrients recycling and soil structure."

from Organic Agriculture: The Challenge of Sustaining Food Production, United
Nations Sub-Group Meeting on Wildlife, Biodiversity and Organic Agriculture,
Ankara, Turkey, 15-16 April 2003
http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/005/AD090E/AD090E00.HTM

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

On 4/16/2006 at 5:05 PM Soilsecrets@aol.com wrote:

>Great email and very good points on one more reason why chemical
>agriculture
>needs to be reduced and natural agriculture implemented world wide.
>
>But I'd like to make an important improvement in the work of Rodale's work
>
>on this issue and the single most significant factor for banking carbon in
>the
>soil and producing a pipeline of humus. I'm speaking of the production of
> a
>protein in the soil called Glomalin produced by the mycorrhizal
>relationship
>between plants and the genus of mycorrhizae called Glomus. Research is
>showing that Glomalin protein in the soil is the single largest potential
>bank of
>carbon on Earth.
>
>
>In short there are two basic problems that most soils in the country have
>almost without exception:
>1. There is not enough humus already in the soil, or there is not enough
>biomass production on hand to provide for a humus generating pipeline to
>replace
> the humus being naturally lost by way of erosion and oxidation.
>2. There are either not enough mycorrhizae fungi infecting the roots of
>the
>plants or there is none at all. Without the Glomus mycorrhizae making
>Glomalin protein, the single best slow release form of natural fertilizer
>is
>missing. Protein is made from Amino Acids and Amino Acids are rich in
>Nitrogen.
>Protein is also the best source of nutritional calories for feeding your
>soils
>microbes and nature has given us a gift of a sustainable way of keeping
>protein available with the mycorrhizal relationship in place.
>The research is clear that plants need this mutualism and when they lack
>it
>the plant cannot uptake water or nutrients at the proper levels and
>therefore
>cannot be at optimum health. This results in plants unable to tolerate
>drought or lower water conservation efforts and plants that are more
>susceptible
>to disease and insect problems. While the claims of these benefits are
>criticized by many government entities such as the State Department's of
>Agriculture the 50,000 or more published papers of independent research
>exemplifies
>the benefits. When we get an effective inoculation of the mycorrhizal
>relationship in plants, the tolerable limits to drought hardiness
>improves
>dramatically!
>Dr. Michael Martin Melendrez - Soil Secrets LLC
>
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