The Dirt About Organic

There are many reasons to eat organic produce, including for your health, but one you may not be aware of is that - when it comes to growing food – healthy, regenerative soil is vital. Organic is the only method of growing that is sustainable.

An estimated 10,000 species of microbes, including bacteria, fungi, and nematodes live within a gram of organic soil. The plant roots absorb the nutrients in the soil, and the microbes digest dead material and replenish the nutrients.

Conventional or rather chemical farming practices, in essence, kill the microbes and this beneficial life cycle in the soil with the use of pesticides. The pesticides kill the pests, but also all the microbes. The pests often rebound faster, and with nothing to keep them in check, can take over and cause problems. We then have to use more pesticides, disrupting the balance even more. Each year, the soil gets more and more depleted rather than richer.

We then have to use fertilizers to replace the nutrients. The inorganic fertilizers are derived from petroleum products and the cost is much higher to produce them, than letting nature do her business. The array of nutrients is not complete either. Its like people living on bread alone.

From destroying healthy soil, not regenerating it, and erosion, we now have 25% of the topsoil left in America from before the industrial age. A farm has to go 3 to 10 years without pesticides and inorganic fertilizers before the microbes in the soil are back to their natural equilibrium and antibiosis.

An insightful film that tells the story of the unappreciated material beneath our feet is "Dirt" It was inspired by William Bryant Logan's book Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth. The movie take a substantial look into the history and current state of the the living organic matter that we all depend on. The Awarenest will be giving away a free copy of the DVD June 15th to one of our subscribers.
All that we ask is that the winner watch the movie (hopefully with a group) and then pass it on to someone else with the same request. To read more about the movie or to order a copy go to: DirtTheMovie.org.

Contributed by Marnie Vyff owner of Mountain Lakes Organic Co-op, LLC