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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] The secret is in the soil
  • Date: Sat, 09 Oct 2010 21:38:46 -0600


The secret is in the soil
United Nations University
http://ourworld.unu.edu/en/the-secret-is-in-the-soil/
by John Moore on March 30, 2010

It has always been common sense for organic growers that the oxygen and
carbon dioxide balance is enhanced naturally when the soil is allowed to live
and breathe. Soil is a living, dynamic matrix that feeds and recycles
liquids, gases and solid matter. Hence it is food for microbes, insects,
animals and plants.

A recent major report from the Soil Association reviewing the research on
soil carbon found that soils under organic management have 28% higher levels
of carbon than conventionally farmed soils in Northern Europe, and 20% higher
in the rest of the world.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Japan
is one of the world’s leading users of chemicals to grow food. Yet, this
situation has only been the case for the past 30 years, less than one
generation of farmers. The top soil is currently a dead, or at best a null,
environment. The microbial activity, the oxygen, nitrogen, carbon and water
cycles are low, slow to enact, or non-active. Chemicals need to be added to
stimulate any growth cycles in this matrix. This slow carbon absorption rate
is further exacerbated by carbon and lead expelling machines and tractors.

The atmosphere around our fields is filled to overcapacity with exhaust from
cars, factories and energy production facilities, meaning that the dead soil
has further levels of chemicals poured into it every day. The exposure of
open soil to all this pollution, which happens for months at a time during
non-growing seasons, also further exacerbates the loss of microbes and
diminishes absorption abilities. In this depleted substance, we grow the food
for our children.

Soils ain’t soils

The good news is that the Soil Association report shows that, under organic
management, soils can provide carbon sequestration of 2 tonnes per hectare
per year. That, for the UK alone, would mean the sequestration of 64 million
tons of carbon over the next 20 years — the same as taking 1 million cars off
the road.

In the UK, that would translate into a 23% cut in emissions by the
agricultural sector, rather than the 6% proposed by the current UK
Government. Similar action on organic farming at a prefectural level would
help the current Japanese government to reach its proposed target of a 25%
cut in CO2 levels that was proudly put on the world table by Prime Minister
Yukio Hatoyama.

Organic soil making is an industry waiting to boom in Japan and the aging
agricultural workforce is waiting for a new job. Thirty years ago, human
effort made its own soil and its own fertilization from leaf and vegetable
matter, and animal and human wastes. It`s time to revive an old craft, for
many good reasons.

Beyond soil management, a low carbon farming system would be more diverse for
human and non-human food growth. It would incorporate more perennial plants,
open pollinated, heirloom and native seeds that enhance biodiversity and DNA
strength. Currently, varieties of Japanese vegetables and native species are
lost daily because farmers plant only the seed supplied to them by Japan’s
agriculture cooperatives and no longer plant local seed that has its own
unique taste and growing cycles.

In 10 years time…

Fortunately, many farmers grow their own family supply of food without
chemicals, separate from the food grown on their own farms. These country
gardens still hold local seed varieties and heirloom seeds passed down from
previous generations. We have around 10 years to gather them and pass them
onto the next generation to maintain better nutrition and DNA diversity.
After that, the current older farming generation will no longer be here and
the seeds and soil secrets will pass away along with them.

We need to plant local seeds into locally grown soils and sell the food
locally. We need to reduce actions like growing food in Okinawa and air
freighting it to Tokyo. We should grow food organically in Tokyo and deepen
the garden of food we live amongst.

Further, if we want to reduce the carbon footprint of food, we must start by
tackling the fact that 50% of what global agriculture produces is thrown
away. A shocking 20 million tonnes of food products are disposed of annually.
In fact, much of it tossed out by farmers even before it reaches the
supermarket in order to maintain higher food prices in cases of excess supply.

There are very few organizations like Second Harvest Japan who re-distribute
unneeded or imperfect food to people who will use it, or my own john moore
organics organization that runs a Food Commons offering surplus food to
people in exchange for their commitment to create a better tomorrow.

These actions may not yet threaten corporate interests in the nation’s food
market, but they do enhance people’s respect for the texture and experience
of food.

Grow your own

Unfortunately, such initiatives are not numerous in Japan and they barely
make a dent in the huge problem of food waste and the energy-intensity of
Japan’s food.

There are various simple ways to reduce the vast quantities of importing and
exporting of produce that could easily have been grown close to the consumer.
This is something that would reduce the amount of CO2 that finds its way into
not just the atmosphere, but also into our soils and food everyday.

Simply put: soil, grow your own. Japan`s wonderful climate makes this happen
within weeks and the necessary leaves, insects, microbes and vegetable matter
is abundant and cheap, if not free.

But how do street and parks maintenance crews dispose of all the leaves and
branches that are cut every season? In municipalities around the developed
world, this precious organic matter is plastic bagged and trucked away from
the soil. Those valuable leaves are not being used to help produce carbon
digesting organic soils!

So why not begin by doing as we do in the Shimomeguro area of Tokyo? Grab as
much as you can use to make your own food garden soils. To get started, check
out the work of the Rodale Institute and the information in the ‘How this
affects you’ sidebar of this page to get started.
~~~~~~~~
John Moore is creator of john moore organics in Japan and has grown organic
food for 45 years. He grows soil and seeds on six organic farms in Japan to
produce organic deli food for sale at the UNU Farmers Market and cafes in and
around Tokyo. He holds organic growing workshops that encourage people to
grow food in their own apartment, balcony garden or farm, as well as monthly
seed exchanges.






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