Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Pete Vukovich <pvukovic1@yahoo.com>]

Couldn't agree more, but I'd go further, it shows we may not as a species have what it takes to survive. Some individuals certainly do, but there may be an evolutionary failing which prevents a species from having a niche and ours may be our brains.

Great Article though, hung on every word.

-- pete

--- On Sun, 7/12/09, Harvey Ussery <harvey@themodernhomestead.us> wrote:

From: Harvey Ussery <harvey@themodernhomestead.us>
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] fwd: The wealth of nature
To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
Date: Sunday, July 12, 2009, 11:13 AM

>
> 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

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