HERE’S THE DIRT!
HERE’S THE DIRT!
An Article By Barre & Deborah Lando
IT BEGINS IN THE SILENT DEPTHS OF THE EARTH, a transformation of centuries. Moving glaciers, raging rivers and temerature extremes are the forces at play. Seasons are moments, but this is the design of larger cycles. There was a time when mankind was aware of Nature’s ways, always honoring generations past, and those yet to come.
The Earth’s surface is our home. We travel upon it and use it, but lost is the Spirit of giving back.. The soil sustains us, but we take for granted what we should respect most.
Living harmoniously with Nature requires knowledge and wisdom. No longer do we understand our place within an interconnected web and the responsibility of symbiotic stewardship, let alone the consequences of our actions.
Soil is a living and continuous process. The organic matter, minerals, and organisms that we presently identify exist within a delicate interdependence.
“The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all. It is the healer, the restorer, and the resurrector, by which diseases passes into health, age into youth, death into life. Without proper care for it we can have no life.” ~ Wendell Berry
Its emergence for our use requires the passage of eons to support life. Decayed plant matter becomes the humus for new vegetation to flourish only after thousands of years. The cycle of life is one of growth, death, decay and rebirth taking decades to regenerate to generate a single centimeter of rich earth. Time marches on, and layers, known as horizons, combined to create the substances we recognize as soil.
Fast forward to our more recent history. World War II has ended; scientists from Europe are invited to join the ranks of America’s emerging petrochemical industries. Farmers are promised larger yields, easier crop production and less back-breaking work.
Mass distribution of chemical fertilizers, toxic pesticides, mechanized farm equipment and genetically modified seeds are the answer. The ignorance of “better living through chemistry’ has canceled Nature’s handiwork of millenniums.
The post war generations of industrialized cultures have been raised on petrochemicals and noxious pesticides, while average lifespans are beginning to plummet and chronic degenerative illness has become the norm. Plant health and its ability to nurture our bodies has similarly declined. Is it possible to conjecture a nexus here?
Fortunately, a great awakening is well underway, while innate intelligence is beginning to check unbridled corporate greed. Now apparent to most, that running counter to Natural Design is both illogical and impractical. Organic has become the recognized banner heading a movement to restore our Earth and the health of our families.
While organic simply refers to common practices prior to the present historical gliche, corporate interests have worked overtime to ridicule the growing inclination to farm responsibly. Never-the-less, organic farming is here to stay and growing worldwide. GMO seeds, toxic fertilizers and pesticides have been outlawed in numerous countries. A movement for decentralized food production is gathering momentum, as Mom & Pop farms and community projects are beginning to displace large mechanized farms. The home vegetable patch and teaching gardens in elementary schools are thriving, while Farmers Markets are now a staple across America.
So what have we learned through our brief foray in tampering with the very blueprint for Life? Chemical fertilizers and pesticides actually diminish food and flower production, as they rob the soil of minerals and necessary nutrients.
The run off from these chemicals is harmful to soil, water, animals and people.
Genetically modified seeds produce fake food and a growing dependency on the only beneficiaries of these practices: corporations What escapes most, is the fact that eating such foods is actually modifying you!
The soil, our source for food and health, can no longer tolerate persistent chemical and mechanical practices that leave it bereft of necessary nutrients and processes.
Pure and simple, it has become a matter of integrity. Can the home gardener and larger farm enterprises alike learn at a pace to avoid the point of no return? We can no longer view ourselves apart from Nature. It is time to resurrect generational traditions for composting, utilizing seaweed, fish and animal manure for fertilizer and cultivating worms and worm castings that all play a part in the sustainable life-cycles of soil.
Many brilliant organic farmers and permaculturists are innovating technologies that benefit both farmer and soil, which will be the subject of future articles.
