Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Andeanfx" <andeanfx@midrivers.com>]

When I posed the original question I was thinking in the context of testing 
it for deficiencies not contaminates.  Dean


Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken. - Oscar Wilde


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
To: <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, March 22, 2010 10:07 PM
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] soil testing


> Sorry, not to my knowledge. Unless you have a small fortune to shell out 
> for special testing for particular chemicals. And literally nobody can 
> afford to test for hundreds of potential contaminants. And generally 
> organic standards don't require soil testing OR produce testing. Surprise!
>
> We live in a chemical soup; that's our so called civilization. People 
> think if a chemical is being sold it must be approved as safe by the 
> government. Forget it. Some thousands iof chemicals were grandfathered in 
> years ago, untested, when EPA took effect as GRAS - "generally regarded as 
> safe". For food chemicals start with 
> http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/228741/Generally-Recognized-As-Safe . 
> Thousands of others never tested are approved for industrial, agricultural 
> and household uses.
>
> At least where we live, there's never been any industry and to our 
> knowledge this spot was never farmed in modern times if ever due to 
> historical climate.
>
> In the end, we can get to a point of obsessing over contamination and go 
> far past a point of diminishing returns, to a point where most of our 
> toxins come not from our food but from the water we drink and air we 
> breathe in a pristine wilderness. Let's think about that.
>
> paul tradingpost@lobo.net
>
> *********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********
>
> On 3/22/2010 at 8:44 PM Tommy Tolson wrote:
>
> > Doesn't a soil test indicate if your soil has toxic chemicals in it, so
> > it won't pass organic standards for several years, at least?  By now,
> > most soil in the US has been polluted, hasn't it?
> >
> > Smiles.
> > Tommy
> >
> > On 3/22/10 7:46 PM, Ken Hargesheimer wrote:
> > > Grow it: green manure/cover crops.  Ken H
> > >
> > > --- On *Mon, 3/22/10, Andeanfx /<andeanfx@midrivers.com>/* wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > >     From: Andeanfx <andeanfx@midrivers.com>
> > >     Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] soil testing
> > >     To: "Healthy soil and sustainable growing"
> > >     <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
> > >     Date: Monday, March 22, 2010, 1:05 PM
> > >
> > >     Well, I'm not sure which of the three suggestions to work with.
> > >     Probably
> > >     add organic matter.  :-)
> > >
> > >     We do not have our own compost and are renting with the hope of
> > >     moving so
> > >     setting up here is not really an option.  Last year we put some
> > >     aged horse
> > >     manure on it and there seemed to be no gain.  I am wondering if we
> > >     were not
> > >     a victim of the weed free hay.
> > >
> > >     I am a bit gun shy so it seems at this point the best options are
> > >     to try to
> > >     find some 'useable compost or aged manure or leave it as is and
> > >     take what we
> > >     get from it??????  Dean
>
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