Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Daniel Conine <dconine@bertramwireless.com>]

Ironically, Dieter, I read a book called "Our Second Brain" which describes 
our gut as analagous to holding an ecosystem outside of our actual bodies because it is 
isolated by another skin which forms the alimentary canal, and that our intestines draw 
nutrients from the foods and activity of the gut like plants draw nutrients from the 
soil. We should treat the gut like we take care of a garden, in other words. Dumping 
poisons (alcohol, antibiotics) or indigestible stuff or too much of any one thing isn't 
good. We could go into a whole book of analogies about meat alone....(attracting pests, 
etc.)

Things to make you go "huh".

Dan C.
Belgium,WI



> From: Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Early Roots of the Organic Movement
> To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing
>         <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Message-ID: <409773.73881.qm@web63407.mail.re1.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Thanks Paul, that is pretty exhaustive as far as thinking
>  on soil and plant nutrition is concerned.  
>   
>  There is one item, though, that particularly appeals to me 
>  that isn't included here.
>   
>  According to a text I read recently, Aristotle considered that
>  _soil is the stomach of plants_ in the sense that soil performs
>  many function like the mechanical and chemical breakdown of 
>  organic materials which needs to occur before plants can access 
>  these materials as food.  These functions are performed in the
>  body by the teeth, the digestive tract and other body organs.
>  In fact, it is possible to see the root system of plants as a 
>  digestive tract turned inside out.  Both are colonized by 
>  bacteria needed for processing food.
>   
>  This, to me sounds like an explanation of plant nutrition as
>  intelligent as any provided by modern science.
>   
>  I don't know were Aristotle is supposed to have said this and
>  the text from which I cite is in German.