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  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@bellsouth.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] History of Organic Agriculture slide presentation
  • Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2012 12:37:28 -0400

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [SANET-MG] History of Organic Agriculture slide presentation
Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2012 11:37:07 -0400
From: Joel Gruver <jgruv@HOTMAIL.COM>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

Hello Michael,

Almost exactly 13 years ago, I posted the following message to the SANET listserv:

Hello to all...

While perusing a book titled Fauna in soil ecosystems: recycling processes, nutrient fluxes and agricultural production (edited by Gero Benckiser, Marcel Dekker, 1997,

ISBN 0-8247-9786-8) I encountered a very interesting quote attributed to an individual somewhat infamous in sustainable ag circles. In 1855, Justus Von Liebig wrote:

"Unfortunately the true beauty of agriculture with its intellectual and animating principles is almost unrecognized. The art of agriculture will

be lost when ignorant, unscientific and short sighted teachers persuade the farmer to put all his hopes in universal remedies, which don't exist

in nature. Following their advice, bedazzled by an ephemeral success, the farmer will forget the soil and lose sight of his inherent values and their influence."



The original source of this quote is Liebig von, J. (1855) Die Grundsatze der Agriculturchemie mit Rucksicht auf die in England angestellten Untersuchungen. Braunschweig.


Those are some interesting words to ponder in this age of biotech promises of "universal remedies"...



Joel Gruver

Center for Agriculture, Food and Environment

Tufts University



P.S. I have the original German if anyone is interested

***********************************************************************************************

Liebig was indisputably a great scientist and educator who made many landmark contributions to inorganic and organic chemistry and the teaching of these topics.

For some reason however proponents of both organic agriculture and industrial agriculture seem prone to circulating misinformation about the man.

The wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justus_von_Liebig) contains several obvious errors:

Liebig did NOT formulate the law of the minimum and for much of his career believed that all crops had access to N from the air and thus would not benefit from supplemental N.

I address some of these myths in the presentation at the following link:

http://www.slideshare.net/jbgruver/history-soil-fertility

**********************************************************************************************

JI Rodale was not a scientist... he was a publisher and public speaker who greatly increased public exposure to the ideas of A Howard, W Albrecht, L Bromfield, E Pheiffer, M Fukuoka, R McCarrison, W Price...

Howard and Albrecht did not have the same views... but they shared a common interest in relationships between soil fertility/management and crop, livestock and human health.

I emphasized this point in class last week when we discussed the slides.

Joel

Joel Gruver

School of Agriculture

Western Illinois University

jgruv@hotmail.com

Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2012 12:57:44 -0400
From: michael.astera@GMAIL.COM
Subject: Re: [SANET-MG] History of Organic Agriculture slide presentation
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

Joel-

I enjoyed the slide show, but if its purpose is to trace the history of
"organic" agriculture I think it's going too far afield and wrongly
including some prominent researchers who don't fit under that tent,
Bromfield and Albrecht. It is also repeating an old and scurrilous canard
against Justus Liebig.

Lebig first: From your slide show "Howard thought that Liebig led
agriculture astray when he denounced the humus theory and promoted the NPK
mentality." At the time of the first publication (1840) of Liebig's
"Chemistry in its Application to Agriculture and Physiology" agricultural
science had long been dominated by the idea that humus was the sole source
of soil fertility. Liebig definitively showed that was not the case, and
provided evidence that the source of soil fertility was soil minerals.
Although he showed that the elements N, P, and K were of major importance
in growing food crops, and in human and animal nutrition, he emphasized
that whatever needed element was in shortest supply would be the limiting
factor in plant growth and health. The staves of the barrel you pictured on
frame 28 of your slide show, Illustrating Liebig's law of the minimum, show
ten or twelve minerals, not three. If Howard had bothered to actually read
Liebig he would have known him as an ardent champion of soil conservation
whose concern above all was to preserve and build the fertility of
agricultural soils. Liebig devoted a good portion of his energy over
decades to promoting the idea of returning the fertility lost in sewage to
the land. The fact that some short-sighted and greedy industrialists used
a small part of Liebig's work to promote harsh chemical fertilizers to
"mine" soil fertility is not Liebig's fault or doing. This false criticism
of Liebig has been repeated by many other writers who also, it seems, have
not bothered to read Liebig themselves.

Bromfield and Albrecht: Both were strong advocates of restoring and
preserving soil fertility. JI Rodale had some contact with them in the
1940s, but as I heard the story, Rodale was adamant that organic matter
alone was the source of soil fertility, and he strongly objected to the use
of any chemical fertilizers such as ammonium sulfate; Bromfield and
Albrecht were more pragmatic, and they knew that humus alone was not the
answer. On one of the rare occasions that Albert Howard even mentioned
minerals, he made the claim that adding some leaves from deep-rooted forest
trees would provide all of the minerals needed to maintain and build soil
fertility. This patently false claim was believed and repeated by Rodale
through most of the 1940s and '50s. By the late 1950s Rodale had learned
better, and started to emphasize the importance of minerals amendments such
as rock phosphate, greensand, and lime, though he made a serious mistake by
advocating only high-Mg dolomite lime. After Rodale's death in 1971, almost
all mention of minerals disappeared from OG magazine, with the exception of
using lime to adjust soil pH, again wrongly advocating only dolomite lime.

Albrecht was not a supporter of Rodale's organic movement for the simple
reason that he knew enough about chemistry, physiology, and nutrition to
know that organic matter alone would not make or maintain soil fertility.
That false claim is still heavily promoted by the Rodale institute, whose
present "chief scientist" has gone on record many times saying and writing
that no soils in the USA need any minerals, and that each and every soil
has all of the minerals any crop could ever need, forever.

I first came to this SANET forum to start a discussion of the importance of
minerals in soil fertility and growing nutritious crops, in an effort to
offset the exclusive focus on humus and organic matter. My contributions
were not well received or appreciated. The ideas presented were denigrated
and dismissed by a number of people, including Prof Joel Gruver. All of my
posts since early 2011 have been moderated; they must be approved before
going up. As far as I can tell, not because of what I have said, but
apparently due to the ad-hominem attacks against me, the forum moderator
restricted my ability to post while leaving alone all except one of those
slandering me or denigrating the importance of what I advocate for. Anyone
questioning that is referred to the SANET archives from late Dec 2010 to
Jan 2011.

Including Albrecht in a purported history of organic agriculture is
deceptive and intellectually dishonest, especially as it would give the
impression to the uninformed that Albrecht accepted and supported Howard's
and Rodale's ideas about soil fertility being based on organic matter. It
also gives the false impression that Howard, JI Rodale, the Rodale
Institute, or more than a small handful of organic gardeners and growers
have or had any knowledge of Albrecht's work on soil minerals, soil
fertility, nutrition, and health. To date they do not, and are for the most
part continuing to actively denigrate or ignore it.

I would refer anyone interested in Albrecht's understanding of organic
matter in the soil to his chapter on that subject in the 1938 Yearbook of
Agriculture. I would refer anyone interested in his opinion of Rodale's
"organic matter is all" dogma to his collected writings published in four
volumes by Acres USA.

Michael Astera
http://soilminerals.com


On Fri, Oct 19, 2012 at 10:34 PM, Joel Gruver <jgruv@hotmail.com> wrote:

> Hello folks,
>
> About a year ago I posted a link for a presentation on the History of
> Organic Agriculture that I created for my Sustainable Ag class.
>
> here is a link to an updated version of the
> presentation:
> http://www.slideshare.net/jbgruver/history-of-organic-agriculture-14808475
>
> the content is similar but I added some new pics and edited the text on
> many slides.
>
> Joel
>
> Joel Gruver
>
> School of Agriculture
>
> Western Illinois University
>
> jgruv@hotmail.com





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