Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com>]

--- On Sat, 9/25/10, Harvey Ussery <harvey@themodernhomestead.us> wrote:
> I read the observation somewhere that in a typical soil
> profile there is enough mineral fertility in the depths to
> support agricultural production for 100,000 years. A
> fanciful claim, perhaps, ...

That probably depends on the soil.  But I think as a general statement it is 
very legitimate and effectively refutes the argument that soil is governed by 
a sort of bookkeeping of nutrients in which what goes out in form of food 
must be compensated by a nutrient-input in form of fertilizers or minerals.

Soil deficiencies mainly occur in chemical mono-cropping systems.  
Biologically active soil will make available nutrients and minerals naturally 
existing in soil that cannot be accessed by chemical farming.

Dieter Brand
Portugal