Soil/Life Part 2

Welcome back everyone,

This is the second part from last weeks blog post. So without further ado, lets get back into it.

Albrecht discusses the need for the plant to grow its own organic material. Now I want you to think long and hard on this subject, that being what he says, that crops must grow their own soil organic matter.  Now this part and the concepts here really threw me for a loop.  The one most important concept that has been drilled into my head as a farmer is this, crop rotation.  Why?  You have to rotate in order to prevent disease and to rebuild the soil.  Here Albrecht shows why that is a wrong concept.  But why?  In brief, when we clear cut the land, we take everything.

In nature/the natural setting this is not done. The crop that is left dies down and mulches naturally back into the soil. The plant has adapted and built up its own immune system and the old and dying plant returns that to the soil and thus prevents the diseases from forming in the next generation.  As he claims, the decay is also feeding the microbes with organic compounds to grow their own antibiotics, hormones, etc., by which they protect themselves and contribute organic compounds to the plants.

It was on such soils that the buffalo was healthy too, without any ministrations from man in his professional classifications. I have another book, which I don't want to discuss here as it adds too much more material, but it shows how people in the past have dealt with the problem of non rotation. Very successfully I might add.  I will introduce it later on in another part.  Here this concept is supported by some modern studies.  You have heard of the GMO (genetically modified organisms), I don't have time to explain this to you if you don't already know, as I am thinking that most of you do.  But current research is showing that in these GMO plants that we consume we are having these alterations being carried to the consumer of the plant and the activities that they were designed to do is also being carried out in the animal/human.  In simple speak, some of these types of plants are designed to develop their own pesticides for example. When the person eats the plant, the material and programming is carried out in the host and the design of the alteration continues.  In short, you are a lab for the development of some chemicals that you would prefer to not have in the old belly, blood, and so on.

Now back to Albrecht,  he also discusses the soil development in the forest soils.  These soils for the most part are poorly developed.  How is that?  They are in the early process of development.  I can attest to that fact as in the past I have on a number of occasions thought I was pulling a slick one and got some "Forest Soil" and tried to grow garden items in it, with disastrous results.  Why? Because it wasn't developed for the plants that were being grown.  So the point here, is now that a lot of you are doing your gardens, consider leaving your left over plants in the soil, or returning the unused garden material, carrot tops for example, back to your garden or to the compost heap.  Don't throw it away.   Albrecht goes on to talk about the strenght of the immune system of the plant is directly correlated to the fertility of the soil.

The main points in these two works are this.

1. Voisin explains the relationships of the minerals and related material to the soil.

2. Albrecht does a lot of the same but gives some real life solutions.

Down the road I would like to try to convey to you some possible theories and the possible solutions, drawing on the works of these two men as well as others.  In closing I would like to throw out an idea, I didn't want to hit on the spiritual thing, but really, it really has to touched on.  Here it goes. I'm sure most of you have a belief in God.  The God that I believe in is one that is concerned in our physical well being just as much as he is in our spiritual well being.  This is based on the idea that a sick and diseased person generally would have a very difficult time serving him and living up to the potiential of their creation. That God has provided us with the means to choose and act accordingly on our part.  But the key here is to do it his way, the way he has designed it to be.  Why is it done the way it is?  Because that is the way it is.  So I guess it is up to us to learn of the way it actually works and act accordingly.  The way it works, in simple terms, is this way.  The soil is developed to raise a healthy plant, the plant converts it to a useable form for us to use.  Sick and undeveloped soils produce sick and undeveloped plants and that in turn leads to sick and undeveloped animals and people.

So having said all of this I will wrap this up and see you next week for part 3 of this series.

Have a good day.

Written by Kent King.