Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Harvey Ussery <harvey@themodernhomestead.us>]

(Responses interspersed)

On 08/20/2010 09:35 AM, Laurie Ann Powell wrote:
> I remember early on in this list's history that there was a discussion 
> about sustainability. "The sun is always pouring energy into the 
> earth, so sustainability is achievable even when a farm is 'exporting 
> nutrients' by selling produce off-farm" was the basic premise.

One contribution to that discussion might well have been the following:
> It is often observed that if we take food from a piece of land, we are 
> reducing fertility. This is especially true when we think of a farm 
> that is supplying many other mouths than its own. Doesn’t the sale of 
> farm produce imply an export of nutrients off site—i.e., a continuing 
> leak from the closed nutrient circle which longterm has to result in 
> infertility? The answer is that the nutrient cycle is never a 
> completely closed circle—because the energy of sunlight is always 
> being added to the system. It is our challenge to make sure that what 
> we subtract from the soil in the form of food is less than the 
> potential boost to fertility of sunlight—such strategies are the heart 
> of sustainable homestead and farm production.
at 
http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/Achieving-Food-Independence-Soil-Fertility.html



> That struck me as a very critical factor in the agricultural debate, 
> and perhaps in the political landscape as well.

Interesting point about the relevance of "free sunshine" as a 
*political* issue. It's hard to believe, but we've made a deliberate 
choice in favor of chemical and energy intensive solutions over "free 
sunshine" to power our agricultural system because it is more 
"profitable" (in the short run, and ignoring "externalities")--and the 
political system enshrines that choice and defends it by reflex.


> Does anyone have a good article on that, or a suggestion for a concise 
> read I can share on the topic?

There is other stuff in the above referenced website about soil 
fertility/soil care. It's written by an old hick, but some of it might 
be of use.

Our #1 soil scientist may be Elaine Ingham--much of what I know on the 
subject I've learned from her writing. I can't think of a better brief 
compendium on the subject of the soil food web/natural soil fertility 
than SOIL BIOLOGY PRIMER which she largely wrote for the Soil and Water 
Conservation Society www.swcs.org. *Highly* recommended.

That one satisfies "concise" (at 48 pages). At full (but not all that 
long) book length is BUILDING BETTER SOILS FOR BETTER CROPS 2nd ed by 
Fred Magdoff and Harold van Es.

The next two issues of Countryside & Small Stock Journal will have in 
two parts my article "The Joys of Cover Cropping"--cover cropping is at 
the heart of this idea of "harvesting" sunlight to boost soil fertility.

~Harvey

--
Harvey in northern Va
www.themodernhomestead.us

The industrial mind is a mind without compunction; it simply accepts that 
people, ultimately, will be treated as things and that things, ultimately, 
will be treated as garbage.  ~Wendell Berry