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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] soil testing

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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  • From: Tommy Tolson <healinghawk@earthlink.net>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] soil testing
  • Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2010 22:30:50 -0500

Wow, that's amazing. In CA, the certifying body did those tests, so it took a couple of years to get organic certification, but I think USDA organic standards (if you can call them that) trumped all other certifying bodies in the US.

That chemical soup causes a hundred thousand new cancer diagnoses in Texas each year, but "economic growth" is, "they" say, dependent upon the polluters continuing to pollute. Are we growing to extinction?

Smiles.
Tommy

On 3/22/10 11:07 PM, Tradingpost wrote:
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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