SOILThis section was originally devoted to mycorrhiza. On 2nd April 2006 I resolved that it should begin with SOIL, followed by a link to a major sub-section devoted to mycorrhiza. Whilst I compose the site, I offer a selection of quotations that unequivocally tell us about the fundamental importance of soil and the modern, western world's extraordinary failure to understand and care for this vital resource, whether in natural or agricultural circumstances ... even in the garden. There will be a lot to say!Click here to continue "The agriculture of ancient Rome failed because it was unable to maintain the soil in fertile condition. The farmers of the West are repeating the mistakes made by Imperial Rome". Sir Albert Howard (An Agricultural Testament, 1940)
"Few things matter more to human communities than their relations with the soil. The biology of soil is of fundamental importance to the sustainability of life on earth … soil remains the least understood, and perhaps the most abused, habitat on Earth". Prof. Richard Bardgett (The Biology of Soil, 2005)
"Virtually all terrestrial ecosystems are founded on soil. Plants rely on it for water and nutrients, as consequently does everything else in the ecosystem, including us. Yet our species' blithe disregard for soil is evidence of our reluctance to understand its fundamental role in our welfare. Many of the great ecological disasters in history occurred when inappropriate farming techniques were applied to fragile soils, a well known example being the dust-bowl of the American mid-west that inspired John Steinbeck's classic novel The Grapes of Wrath." "Our appetite for destroying soils continues." Prof. Alastair Fitter FRS (Darkness visible: reflections on underground ecology. J. Ecol., 2005. 93, 231-234)
"The soil is the major natural resource available to mankind, yet it has been abused by us to the point of self destruction. Many past civilizations have perished due to their abuse of the soil (e.g. Rome, Mesopotamia and the Mayan civilization)". Anon.
It is helpful and not so far-fetched to think of the soil as itself an organism - a social organism like a human society, for example the manifold vital activities of which are carried on by its numerous living inhabitants. Disturbance of anyone of these activities may affect others and thus lead to loss of equilibrium and the appearance of symptoms of disorder, with eventually an increasing degree of biological inertia of one kind or another, a condition just the reverse of the vital activity characteristic of a living and fertile soil. M.C. Rayner (Trees and Toadstools, 1945)
Nature has provided us with food production processes she has proved over millions of years in collaboration with Evolution. Yet we choose to ignore, interfere with and damage them, arrogantly making remediation - which is expensive in time, money, transport, raw materials, environmental distress and common sense - the basis of our agriculture, rather than co-operation. It seems that before we begin to grow food, we must first deliberately make the land unfit for purpose. James Merryweather (Secrets of the Soil, Resurgence, 2006)
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