Meditation – The Microbiome, Organic Farming and Regenerative Agriculture
What is Organic Farming?
In the early 1900’s farmers began to use synthetic herbicides, pesticides, fungicides and fertilisers instead of organic ones. DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) was one of these insecticides – used initially in World War II to limit the spread of insect-borne diseases like malaria and typhus – but by October 1945 it was widely available.
After the Industrial Revolution many more chemicals became available as by-products of industrial processes – and farmers were using increasing amounts of chemicals as fertilizers and to kill weeds, insect pests and fungal infections.
It was much later that the damage to our insects – and subsequently our birds – was finally realised. In 1962, Rachel Carson’s book ‘Silent Spring’ described the environmental impact of DDT and questioned the logic of widely broadcasting potentially dangerous chemicals – but it wasn’t until 10 years later that the use of DDT was banned.
But farmers still use chemical insecticides and fungicides because modern plant varieties are so inbred that they have few natural defences against pests and diseases. And soils are so depleted of structure and nutrients that they are unable to provide what plants need to defend themselves.
Farmers also still use chemicals fertilisers – including ammonium nitrate, calcium nitrate and potassium nitrate because, over many years with little or no organic material, lack of crop rotation and plants with no natural defences – it is the only way they can grow crops on depleted and exhausted soil. It takes years of regenerative agriculture to heal and regenerate exhausted soil and restore its natural balance. Nitrates contribute to water pollution – fertiliser run-off contaminates streams and rivers harming aquatic life and, ultimately, causing dead zones in oceans.
Globally, the use of agro-chemicals is still increasing.
So organic farming is not just about not using chemicals – it is and always has been about the health of the soil – the relationship with all the life within the soil and with the plants and creatures that live in and on it. It’s about growing varieties of plants that still have natural defences, growing them alongside companion plants – that help each other and repel pests and diseases, and developing a naturally fertile soil by rotating crops and using compost manure and clover. An organic system encourages biodiversity and natural balance.
In 1946 The Soil Association was formed, founded by Lady Eve Balfour on her farm at Haughley Green in Suffolk, following the Haughley Experiment, the results of which were published in her book ‘The Living Soil’ – and demonstrated that organic farming did not compromise the overall yield of a farm and, in fact, crops benefit in many different ways from natural farming methods. She declared: ‘The health of soil, plant, animal and man is one and indivisible’.
Sam Mayall began farming in 1923 at Pimhill in Shropshire, he became Vice-President of the Soil Association. In 1948, his son Richard went to Glasgow to study agriculture and he was loaned a book called ‘Humus and the Farmer’ by a student called ‘Friend Sykes’ which changed his life – and the future of Pimhill which became an organic farm.
Arthur Hollins was born in 1915 at Fordhall Farm in Shropshire. In the 1940’s he devised his own organic farming methods and developed a 100% pasture based system called Foggage farming – which means cattle and sheep live outdoors throughout the year, making them completely pasture-fed. This system relies on a vast diversity of grasses and herbs in the fields which provide a healthy and medicinal diet for livestock – and a robust root structure protecting the ground in winter. The animals have fewer health problems and the environment benefits, increasing biodiversity.
What is regenerative agriculture?
It’s an holistic system of farming that encompasses the whole farm. It includes a no-till system – digging facilitates easier planting but, in the long term, it damages soil structure. Soil structure helps to retain moisture and allows drainage in the soil, it provides the scaffolding within which the soil food web thrives – without it there will not be significant life in the soil. Soil is replenished with organic material – compost – and green manure which consists of plants that are grown to benefit the soil improving fertility and structure. Green manure plants like clover, mustard and fenugreek can be grown amongst crops to supress weeds, or as part of crop rotation to rest an area of ground. A perennial like white clover is grown around fruit trees to supress weeds and provides habitat for insects, including pest eating predators. Several green manure plants have vibrant flowers that attract bees and hoverflies.
Regenerative agriculture also includes planting hedgerows with different varieties of trees and shrubs – and wildflower field margins – all providing homes for pollinators and pest predators.
Healthy soil is a living system, containing microbes that help diversify our microbiome. It contains mycelium, a root-like fungus that connects plants through their root systems and allows them to exchange nutrients, especially in adverse growing conditions. This network of mycelium is sometimes called the “woodwide web”.
In 1940 Sir Albert Howard said he thought it probable that the digestive products of the soil fungi were ‘at the root of disease resistance and quality … if this is the case it would follow that, on efficiency of the mycorrhizal association, the health and wellbeing of mankind must depend’. (From Philip Conford’s ‘Origins of the Organic Movement’.
Many species of fungi possess the ability to act as an effective biosorbent of toxic metals such as cadmium, copper, mercury, lead, and zinc, by accumulating them in their fruiting bodies. Fungi participate in nitrogen fixation, hormone production, biological control against root pathogens and protection against drought. They also play an important role in stabilization of soil organic matter and decomposition of residues.
Soil fertility and functional biodiversity are the keystones of productive and regenerative farming systems. The benefits to human and environmental health are profound. The plants we eat are the product of the soil they are grown in – vegetables grown without chemicals in healthy soil will contain many more nutrients – and trace elements – vitamins and minerals – and will be beneficial to our human microbiome.
And when our microbiome doesn’t function properly, our body and mind notice – and we suffer the consequences – inflammation, indigestion, digestive disorders like IBS and IBD – and mental health issues including depression.
Farming practices need to change before it is too late – for plants, people and the planet.
#microbiome #OrganicFarming #RegenerativeAgriculture