Notice: Our website is undergoing regeneration, too. Some links may be offline
All About the Soil, Plants, and Our Health!
Intro
What is soil? In short, soil is living dirt. Dirt contains nutrients, oxygen, and water, but lacks the microbiology needed to make nutrients available to plants. Any plants that grow in dirt must be constantly supplied with plant soluble nutrients (fertilizer) for them to survive. There is no upcycling of nutrients from the dirt. Soil on the other hand has organic matter as well as a healthy population of various micro and macro biology. It is an incredible universe of symbiotic living organisms working together to support life. The plants are providing needed sugars and other resources to the biology of the soil while the biology is breaking down nutrients and bringing them to the plants. Worms are involved in breaking down organic matter as well as balancing the pH and aerating the soil. Without organic matter and microbiology, soil is simply dead dirt.
Farming Practices
Unfortunately, many of our practices over the past 100+ years have been steadily stripping the organic matter and biology from the soil and leaving unproductive dirt behind. The biggest culprits are heavy tillage of the soil and harsh chemicals. While tillage may be necessary in certain circumstances, regular tillage massively disrupts the colonies of biology in the soil and kills fragile biology (such as fungi). Harsh chemicals also kill much of the biology in the soil, making the use of more harsh chemicals necessary to both provide plant soluble nutrients (fertilizer) as well as to combat rampant insects, diseases, and weeds. This is a major problem since most of our more desirable plants prefer soil with a balanced biology. Because fungi take longer to reproduce than bacteria, regular tillage and harsh chemical applications basically annihilate the fungal content of the soil and leaves bacterially dominant soil. Think of it this way... If a major tornado came through our area every third generation and killed everyone, what would our population be? People would possibly move in and start over, but it would be devastating. This is essentially what is happening every time we till the soil or apply harsh chemicals.
Out of Balance
What happens when soil doesn't have a good balance in its microbiology? The short answer is that many plants will struggle to grow. There are several reasons for this. The most obvious one mentioned earlier is the lack of consistent nutrient upcycling from the soil to the plants. However, certain plants also require specific biology in which to thrive. The vast majority of our desirable plants need the support of fungi in particular to thrive. The fungal strands form a network and connect with the plant roots to uptake nutrients and supply them to the plants. This network can increase the root surface area of a plant by up to 1,000 times its original reach! It can also connect plants of the same or different species and create a pathway for them to trade needed nutrients. Our soil also needs healthy populations of protozoa and nematodes to control pests, consume bacteria (thereby releasing their nutrients), and "patrol" or govern the numbers of other biology.
Healthy soil is an incredibly dynamic ecosystem. Healthy soil contains organic matter, water, oxygen, worms, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and nematodes, as well as living roots. When this complex and interconnected system of living things is thriving, plants thrive too. In fact, plants, the soil, the sun, the air, and, really, all of nature work together in harmony. We believe that all of creation, including humanity, was created to live harmoniously together in a symbiotic way. We attempt to work with nature to the best of our knowledge and abilities rather than against it.
Perspective
When soil is depleted and in need of repair, the rest of the elements work together to restore the soil. This means that, depending on the soil, certain plants that thrive in that particular soil begin to grow. They provide shade, cool the soil, and enable oxygen and nutrients to reach lower portions of the soil. At the same time these well adapted plants are also adding organic matter by establishing roots in the soil. This allows greater numbers of microbiology to return. Unfortunately, we label these plants weeds! Without these weeds, the soil degrades further until it is no more than dirt. We like to think of weeds as symptoms of poor soil conditions rather than as a problem in themselves. We have observed that when we change the conditions of the soil, the type of plants that grow well in that soil changes. We no longer have to fight the weeds because the soil conditions prevent the weeds from growing. There is a profound truth in this concept that was shared by Christ many years ago in his Parable of the Sower. This concept also relates to the conditions of our hearts and what grows in our lives! We invite you to think about your thoughts as the seeds and your heart or emotions as the soil. This realization has had a profound impact on our lives!
Why Soil is So Important
Why should we care about our soil? We can just add more fertilizer and keep spraying pesticides to control weeds, diseases, and pests, right? Can't dirt simply be a great medium in which to grow plants? It can. In fact, that's all that the earth is used for in many ag situations. It is nothing more than a growing medium for the plants. Fertilizer and water are added as needed, and the plants are kept alive by spraying them constantly to ward off pests and diseases that would find them exceptionally delicious because of their poor health and low Brix levels. This type of growing leads to a number of problems. Obviously, the soil will continue to decline and be completely unproductive without massive external inputs. This is unsustainable in the long run. However, there is also a much more immediate problem: the quality of food that is being produced using these methods. The food that is produced in this manner is "inflated." This means that there is a large amount of growth, but very few nutrients in the plants. When humans or animals eat the plants, they must eat a very large portion, or they won't be able to get the needed nutrients for their bodies to thrive. Unfortunately, much of the food being produced has very little nutritional value and absolutely no biological value for our bodies. As you can imagine, this causes problems for our health and the health of our animals that are consuming this food. "Our stomachs are full, but our cells are starving." We wish we could credit the author of this gem, but are unsure of who said it.
And
Another major reason to care for and protect our soil is to lower input costs. Plants require much less fertilizer when the soil is upcycling nutrients and making them plant available. Also, healthy plants growing in healthy soil have far less pest pressure. Weeds typically don't compete well with desirable plants when the soil is more suitable for the desirable plants than for the weeds. Insects also have a hard time digesting healthy plants because the Brix (sugar levels) are too high for their simple digestive systems. In fact, we believe that insects were created by God to be the "garbage disposal system" of the earth. If we have insect problems it's because they view our plants as unhealthy garbage and are there to clean them up for us! We can prevent this by nurturing healthy soil and healthy plants. Plant diseases are very similar in nature to insects. If the plants are healthy, they can easily fend off diseases. Just imagine how much input costs can be reduced if we have healthy soil and plants! We do our best to maintain both healthy plants and healthy soil without choosing one over the other. We understand that we have to use fertilizers at times to replace nutrients that are removed with crops or that aren't naturally in our soil. We use only fertilizers and micronutrients that will benefit our plants while building our soil at the same time.
The Plants
Now let's focus a bit more on the plants. After all, we can't eat the healthy soil, can we? Just as soil microbiology is the link between the soil and the plants, so the plants are the link between us and the earth. This is really where the concern lies for us. We definitely are concerned about our soil and environment because it is our home. However, the quality of our food has a very direct, massive impact on our health. If our food lacks nutrient density and healthy biology, our bodies can't function at optimum capacity. Let's consider these two aspects of our food. First, nutrient density is paramount since our bodies require the nutrients that the plants extract from the earth. This applies whether we are eating the plants directly or eating the animals that ate the plants. Secondly, our food really should contain the necessary biology for our guts to break down the food. This is becoming an increasing problem in our society. Much of our food is grown in poor soil, so it has very little nutritional value to begin with. However, much of our plant food has also been sprayed with harsh chemicals both before and after production. This kills any biology in the plant that our gut would typically use to break down the food and make the nutrients available to our body. This lies at the heart of our mission. We want to help people raise healthier food so they can enjoy healthier lives.
Human and Animal Gut Health
How is gut health related to soil and plant health? Just as the soil requires healthy microbiology to extract nutrients for the plants, our gut microbiome is essential for the extraction of nutrients for our body. As we mentioned earlier, much of our food has little to no biological value in it. What biology was left in or on the food after it was harvested was removed before shipping. This preserves the food until it gets to us, the consumers. Unfortunately it continues to preserve the food even after we eat it! The lack of necessary biology means that our gut can't extract the few nutrients that are in the food. However, a deeper problem exists. Some of our food has antibiotics in it that are devastating to our gut microbiome. Because of the liberal use of antibiotics in our society, most of us suffer from poor gut health whether we realize it or not. Gut health has been linked to over 80% of health problems! While eating healthy food is a huge step in the right direction, we also recommend taking a supplement of probiotics and enzyme support, both for us and our animals. It is also a great idea to take a nutritional supplement if you suspect that your food isn't supplying you with the nutrients you need. Thankfully, there are many great options available. We are excited to offer Conklin products for you and your animals' gut health needs! We personally use them on a consistent basis and have had great results with them.
Summary
In summary, the earth has an incredible, dynamic, interconnected system of health that supports all living things. We came from the earth; we will return to the earth. We can either support that dynamic system or inhibit it. Our vote is to work together to support each other and the natural world around us. We are excited to join with you to accomplish more together than we ever could on our own!