When I read my first book on permaculture, (which is a natural way of gardening), I unexpectedly learned such stunning facts about soil that I have radically changed many of my habits. In addition to composting, recycling, and buying only organic food, I now have a small permaculture garden of my own. Most importantly I have developed a deep respect for all soils.

During the hundreds of millions of years that plants have been living on our planet, they have become amazingly self-sufficient. In addition to obtaining a useful relationship with the sun, plants have learned to "grow" their own soil! When plants die, it may look to us like they just fall on the ground and rot, getting eaten by multitudes of bugs and worms. However, researchers were shocked to discover that dead plants get consumed only by particular bacteria and fungi. Plants "know" how to attract to their own rotting only those microorganisms and earthworms, that will produce beneficial minerals for the soil where the plants' siblings will grow. One way plants attract particular microorganisms into their soil is by concentrating more sugars m their roots. Thus roots, like carrots and potatoes, are always much sweeter than the rest of the plant. Plants and microorganisms develop a symbiotic relation, beneficial to both plant and microbe. Just like humans with our farm animals, plants "breed" certain microorganisms and specific kinds of fungi that produce the humus (organic matter) that is rich in the most useful minerals for these plants. Apparently, the quality of the soil is critically important, not only as a source of water and minerals for plants, but essentially vital for their very survival. That is why plants must never be researched separately from the soil they grow in.

If we care which nutrients we receive from plants, we absolutely cannot ignore the quality of nutrients plants receive from the soil because we literally consume minerals from the soil through plants. The quality of the soil in which plants grow has an immense influence on the health of the people and animals who eat plants. The following example with pure-bred horses clearly demonstrates the impact soil can have on people and animals: "Within a few generations, the originally giant dappled Percheron draft horses, developed on the soils of a French district south of Normandy had dwindled to the size of Cossack horses, though their bloodlines had been kept pure by the Soviets and their confirmation remained the same, though miniaturized." This case reveals that the soils plants grow in are as important to our health as plants themselves, if not more so! In other words, as odd as it sounds, our well-being depends on the quality of the land in which our food grows because the original source of nutrients for humans comes from soils, not plants.

The main difference between organic and conventional gardening is that "Conventional agriculture attempts to feed the plants while the organic method nourishes the microorganisms in soil." In simple words, conventional farmers ignore the microorganisms in the soil and aim their efforts at supplying potassium, nitrogen and other chemicals for the sake of plants, while organic gardeners take care of feeding the living things in the soil, which provide harmoniously balanced nutrients to the plants. Just as humans cannot live on chemicals instead of food, microorganisms in the soil cannot survive when fed artificial fertilizers. When all microorganisms get destroyed with chemicals, the soil turns to dust. No plants can grow in dust, no matter how rich in various chemicals this dust is.

Through the plants we eat, we receive essential nutrients that were created by microorganisms in the soil. The more organic mater or humus is in the soil, the more nutritious is the food grown on this soil.
In the following table please see the astonishing differences in nutritional content between organically and conventionally grown produce. Check out, for example. the iron content in tomatoes and spinach. Also make note of the fact that there is almost no cobalt in conventionally grown produce. Since cobalt serves as the base for the B-12 vitamin (Cobalamin). I wonder if consuming predominately conventionally grown veggies could contribute to B-12 deficiencies.

Plants seem to be much better "farmers" than we are. As a result of their clever "gardening" for millions of years, we humans have inherited many feet of beautiful fruitful topsoil all around the globe with zillions of happy microorganisms thriving in it. In their best-selling book, Secrets of the Soil, Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird state that, "The combined weight of all the microbial cells on earth is twenty-five times that of its animal life; every acre of well-cultivated land contains up to a half a ton of thriving microorganisms, and a ton of earthworms which can daily excrete a ton of humic castings."

As a result of our human "highly technological" gardening, most of the soil of agricultural farms in the USA contains less than 2% of organic matter, while originally, before the era of chemistry, it was 60-100%. According to David Blume, an ecological biologist, permaculture teacher and expert, "Most Class 1 commercial agricultural soil is lucky to hit 2% organic matter - the dividing line between a living and dead soil." By applying permaculture gardening techniques to a field of extremely depleted soil, which consisted of cement-hard adobe clay, David Blume was able to bring the organic matter to the 25% level within a couple of years.

From this field he harvested the crops "8 times what the USDA claims are possible per square foot."

We cannot successfully feed soils with chemicals because -biology does not equal chemistry." In other words, chemical. fertilizers are missing live enzymes which contribute to the most unique qualities of all soils. According to the abundance of research done in different countries, soil enzymes can transform one element into another if such "biological transmutation" would benefit the plants that grow in this soil. Take a look at the following quotes from numerous studies and see for yourself.

Professor Rene Furon, of the Faculty of Sciences at Paris University states, "It can no longer be denied that nature makes magnesium out of calcium (in some cases the reverse takes place); that potassium can come from sodium."

Komaki, head of a biological research laboratory at the Matsushita Electric Company in Japan states, "Various microorganisms, including certain bacteria and two species each of molds and yeasts, were capable of transmuting sodium into potassium."

Professor P A. Korolkov in Russia states, "... silicon can be converted to aluminum . . . we are being subjected to a radical revision, not of minutiae, but of the basic status of an inherited natural science. The time has come to recognize that any chemical element can turn into another, under natural conditions."

These are the solid facts from which we can conclude that chemical fertilizers could never enrich the living soil but could only damage or even destroy it with the most devastating consequences for plants, animals, and people.

Chapter 14 - Healing Powers of Chlorophyll

Back to Green For Life by Victoria Boutenko

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