Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Harvey Ussery <harvey@themodernhomestead.us>]

> Soil suitable for crops, after all, is not simply rock dust A large  
> part of it – sometimes more than half – is organic matter, some  
> living, some dead but not yet wholly decayed, some dissolved into  
> organic colloids complex enough to give analytical chemists sleepless  
> nights, and all of it is put there by the activity of living things  
> over long periods of time. Energy and raw materials flow through  
> soil, uniting bacteria, fungi, algae, worms, insects, and many other  
> living things into one of the most intricate ecosystems on Earth.  
> Plants participate in and depend on this bewilderingly complex world;  
> they draw water and mineral nutrients from it, and cycle leaves and a  
> wide range of chemical compounds back into it.

The fact that the vast majority of our citizens do not have the 
slightest understanding of the above sentences--that they think of soil 
is just "dirt" rather than an incredibly complex living ecology--may be 
the *major* factor in the coming Collapse. Yes, even bigger than Peak Oil.

~Harvey

--
Harvey in northern Virginia
www.themodernhomestead.us

A society that permits the advantages of ecological abuse to go to  
individuals, while the costs are shared by the whole society, is  
effectively subsidizing the destruction of its environment.  ~John Michael Greer