Alas, our summer reading list has been light on mystery books and romance novels. Instead, we’ve had our noses buried in “heavier” topics, like the demineralization and degradation of our earth’s soils and how we have to make dramatic changes if we have any hope of saving the planet (and ourselves).
Not that we’re complaining, though. We are soil geeks—and judging by the popularity of recent books about the future of soil and the food that it produces, we’re not alone.
If you aren’t already convinced that healthy, mineral-rich soil is the key to our planet’s future, we recommend two books published in 2014. Both offer a bleak view of the current state of the environment in general, and of soil health in particular. Soil has been plowed to death, over fertilized, and stripped bare of minerals and other essential nutrients.
Fortunately, both books offer some hope—there are potential solutions, but only if we are willing to step up to the challenges.
Challenges and Solutions: How to Save the Soil
The first book is Dan Barber’s The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food (The Penguin Press, 2014). The title is a reference to Barber’s insistence that the farm-to-table movement’s emphasis on free-range meat and local fruits and vegetables, while admirable, is not enough to sustain the planet. Instead, we have to let ecology dictate the way we source, cook and eat our food—and not the other way around.
The book is well-written, and the author has a good sense of humor considering the seriousness of the subject. Here are some notable quotes from the chapters on soil:
“You can taste a decline in soil fertility before anything else (“the doom before the doom”). […] How soil is managed, and how a farmer negotiates weeds and pests, is the single best predictor of how food will taste.”
“We have to turn the idea of ‘Mother Earth’ around. Instead, we have to mother the earth by feeding the soil properly. If not, plants get stressed…then they get sick.”
“Healthy soil brings vigorous plants, stronger and smarter people, cultural empowerment, and the wealth of a nation. Bad soil, in short, threatens civilization. We cannot have good food—healthy, sustainable, or delicious—without soil filled with life.”
“Synthetic fertilizers in soluble form are nothing if not…fast. Whoosh! Water and nutrients just flush through directly to a plant’s roots. Ever “taste” a piece of lettuce like iceberg that is blah? It’s almost all H2O and the nitrites saturate the H2O leaving no room for the uptake of minerals.”
“Healthy soil is like the inside of a well-made loaf of bread…moist, textured and filled with irregular bubbles. Unhealthy soil is like cake mix—dry and packed down, with no spaces for air to circulate or organisms to maneuver.”
The second book is The Soil Will Save Us: How Scientists, Farmers, and Foodies Are Healing the Soil to Save the Planet by Kristin Ohlson (Rodale Books, 2014). The author opens our eyes to the fact that the soil has suffered for as long as there have been humans on earth (i.e., industrial agriculture has certainly accelerated things, but humans have been practicing destructive farming since the dawn of time). The result is that 80% of the carbon that was in the earth’s soil has been released into the atmosphere where it is warming the planet.
With input from a variety of experts, including scientists, farmers, ranchers, and foodies, the author argues that we need to turn our attention to the dirt beneath our feet if we want to reverse global warming and heal the earth.
Some of the soil quotes that jumped out at us include the following:
“Plowing seems so harmless and soothingly bucolic…but nothing in nature repeatedly and regularly turns over the soil to the depth of 15 to 20 centimeters […] Neither plants nor soil organisms have evolved or adapted to this drastic perturbation.”
“…when you look at a healthy plant you’re seeing the productive output of a busy village down around the roots, making sure it gets everything it needs.”
“…it behooves the plant to keep the fungi and bacteria around, well fed, and increasing in numbers, as they bring the plant nutrients that it can’t get any other way. Both fungi and bacteria secrete enzymes that liberate minerals from the clay, silt, and sand, as well as from stones and actual bedrock.”
Do you have any other soil selections to share with us? Let us know!
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Cascade Minerals believes that healthy soil equals healthy plants, happy people and a healing planet. Made of all-natural volcanic basalt from Central Oregon, our all-natural Cascade Minerals Remineralizing Soil Booster returns essential minerals to the soil for more vigorous plants that produce more nutritious food. Our product is OMRI Listed for organic production and is safe to use around pets and children when applied as directed.
