New Documentary “Symphony of the
Soil” Extols the Importance and Mystery of Soil
October 04, 2014
Story
at-a-glance
A new documentary shows how soil is one of Earth’s
greatest treasures, and how healthy soil is the key
to a sustainable nutrient dense food system that
truly nourishes you and your family and prevents
disease
It takes the earth hundreds to thousands of years to
transform weathered rock into a rich organic soil
that’s teeming with life and beneficial to plants
The modern food system, based on monoculture,
agricultural chemicals, and GE seeds, is decimating
Earth’s soils at an alarming rate
Chemical agriculture depletes soils of nitrogen,
destroying their biome, and leads to soil erosion,
salinization, massive runoff, and pollution
Organic farming and properly managed grazing builds
the soil, rather than destroying it, and uses much
less water and fuel than monoculture
By Dr. Mercola
“If we have declared a war against the soil itself, then
we are literally committing a species level suicide.” — Dr.
Vandana Shiva
One of Earth’s greatest treasures is soil, without which we could
not survive. Soil is the mother of nearly all plant life, and
ultimately, all animal life on this planet. It’s the interface
between biology and geology—the living skin of the earth.
A new documentary, “Symphony of the Soil,” extols the
importance and mystery of soil, as discussed by some of the world’s
most esteemed scientists, farmers, and activists.1
This visually stunning film reveals how the future of humankind
largely depends on how well we care for this vital natural resource.
Interestingly, the film was made by Deborah Garcia who also made
“The Future of Food” 10 years ago. This is the film that
catalyzed my commitment to eliminating GMOs. In September of this
year, I actually had an opportunity to meet Deborah and we did the
short interview below.
The Big Picture
Today’s chemical agriculture is destroying our planet’s soils at
a disturbing pace—soils that took hundreds, even thousands
of years to develop. A food system based on
monoculture, genetically engineered foods, and toxic
agrichemicals is decimating to the soil, which is a living,
breathing ecosystem.
Despite what industry purports, biotechnology is not the answer
to world hunger, nor is it sustainable. The rate at which we are
using up fuel, water, and soil does not bode well for the longevity
of our species, especially in light of the latest world population
estimates.
New predictions, based on revised algorithms described to be far
more accurate, predict the world population will reach 11 billion by
the end of the 21st Century.2,
3 Feeding this many people requires a VASTLY different
approach than the present system.
The rate at which soils are disappearing from our globe is
alarming. If you visit Worldometers,4
you can view a real-time clock that tracks the area of land lost to
soil erosion, along with other environmental statistics. As of my
last check, the area of land lost to soil erosion so far this year
amounted to 4,987,477 hectares—and of course, the year isn’t over
yet.
The focus of our food system should not be on growing food, but
rather on developing
healthy soil, which should be a priority if we want to survive
as a species.
One Tablespoon of Healthy Soil Contains 50 Billion Busy Microbes
Most of the planet consists of solid rock, upon which most plants
can’t grow. Approximately 75 percent of soils are transported soils
(such as from windblown sediment, or loess), with only 25 percent
forming in place. Soils are incredibly diverse, and different plant
communities adapt to different soils.
Soil starts with a mineral source—weathered rock, glacial silt,
river sediments, lava flows, sand, etc.—but it isn’t soil
until organic matter is added. Organic sources can be living or
non-living. Old leaves, dead animals, and tiny living things all
enrich the soil with its necessary carbon.
Healthy soil is about 50 percent solids and 50 percent air and
water, simply teeming with life—mites, nematodes, protozoa, and a
whole menagerie of other organisms, most of them smaller than the
head of a pin.
Soil microorganisms are so abundant that 70 to 80 percent have
yet to be identified. It’s estimated one tablespoon of soil contains
about 50 billion microbes.5
More than 90 percent of land plants are nourished by
mycorrhizae, a symbiotic form of fungi that help move nutrients
from the soil into the plants’ roots.
But there are also thousands of other microbes playing their
parts in this microbial symphony in the soil. According to North
Carolina University Cooperative Extension:6
“As soil life forms move through the soil, they create
channels that improve aeration and drainage. Nematodes and
protozoa swim in the film of water around soil particles and
feed on bacteria. Mites eat fungi; fungi decompose soil organic
matter.
The microorganisms' primary role is to break down organic
matter to obtain energy. They help release essential nutrients
and carbon dioxide, perform key roles in nitrogen fixation, the
nitrogen and phosphorus cycles, denitrification, immobilization
and mineralization.
Microbes must have a constant supply of organic matter or
their numbers will decline. Conditions that favor soil life also
promote plant growth.”
Soil Has Its Own Life Cycle
The full life cycle of soil, in all of its stages, can be seen
across the Hawaiian Islands in soils that are several hundred to
several million years old, with lava as their substrate. On the new
island like the Big Island of Hawaii, you will find soils as young
as 300 years to extraordinarily rich 20,000-year-old soils in which
just about anything can grow, to 350,000-year-old soils whose
nutrients have been washed out by eons of rainfall.
Extremely old Hawaiian soils, like Kauai, reaching four million
years, are almost completely devoid of nutrients. These ancient
soils are highly compressed and essentially just clay.
Unfortunately, agriculture the way it’s typically done today
greatly accelerates this soil aging process. Soils that would have
remained viable for millions of years in nature are rendered dead
and lifeless by monoculture in a few short years. Tragically, these
soils will take hundreds to thousands of years to recover fully in
nature—and not until all agricultural assaults are ceased.
Chemical farming results in waterlogged soil that’s easily
compacted by heavy machinery, rendered impermeable and susceptible
to erosion. One-third of the world’s arable land has already been
lost to soil erosion.
Chemical Farming Pollutes the Planet, Kills Bees, and Injures Babies
Only a few hundred of the 80,000 chemicals in use in the United
States have been tested for safety. The majority ends up in our soil
and waterways, destroying soil’s beneficial organisms while allowing
pathogens to flourish. Not only are these chemicals decimating our
soils, but they’re also killing off
bees,
butterflies, and other flora and fauna. According to this
documentary, 60 percent of the world’s ecological systems are
nearing collapse, yet industry continues to turn a blind eye to the
destruction.
Not only are agrichemicals making our soils sick, but their
long-term effects on humans have yet to be determined. Residues of
glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup,
are found in most commonly consumed foods in the Western diet,
courtesy of genetically engineered (GE) sugar, corn, soy, and
conventionally grown wheat that has been desiccated.
Atrazine and nitrates form a deadly combination, as nitrates
shut off your body’s defenses against these chemicals.
Research suggests
glyphosate may “enhance the damaging effects of other food-borne
chemical residues and toxins in the environment to disrupt normal
body functions (including gut bacteria) and promote disease.”
Glyphosate also appears to stimulate hormone-dependent cancers even
at extremely low concentrations.
Studies show that even tiny exposures to common lawn chemicals
can induce abortions and resorbtion of fetuses. In fact, the
greatest effects appear to be from the lowest doses. Very small
exposures can alter developmental trajectories, resulting in birth
defects, irregularities in genitalia, and learning impairments.
Babies conceived during the months of highest lawn chemical use are
known to have greater risks for these birth defects and
developmental abnormalities.
Nitrogen Depletion and Nitrogen Pollution—Two Sides of the Same Coin
Nitrogen is extremely important for plants, but 70 percent of it
is in the air, in an unusable form. Soil bacteria transform this
atmospheric nitrogen into a form plants can use. Typically, this is
done through nitrogen fixing bacteria like the types that are
present on many legumes. However, if soil bacteria are absent,
plants require some other source of nitrogen. In conventional
commercial agriculture, synthetic fertilizer is typically used—in
massive quantities.
Synthetic fertilizers increase plant biomass, so farmers enjoy
higher crop yields in the short run. However, a large amount of this
nitrogen ends up going to the wrong places. Plants can only use a
limited amount of nitrogen, so the excess gets released into the air
as a potent greenhouse gas, and into waterways and ultimately
oceans, resulting in dead zones.
On average, only half of the added fertilizer is taken up by the
plants—the other half is lost immediately to runoff and evaporation.
This is even worse with vegetable crops, which can lose up to 80
percent of added nitrogen. However, in spite of all this excess
nitrogen, the soil itself becomes depleted in nitrogen,
since most of the nitrogen-fixing bacteria have been killed off.
Nitrogen pollution reduces oxygen levels in seawater, which
causes plankton and other organisms to die off. The Gulf of Mexico
dead zone covers 7,000 square miles—an area the size of New
Jersey—largely the result of nitrogen leakage down the Mississippi
River from massive corn growing operations.
But it’s a completely different story with organic farming. There
is minimum leakage of nitrogen because it’s released slowly and
taken up again by living organisms, and there is much less water
runoff. Small amounts of nitrogen are continuously brought into the
system by nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Also, cover crops such as
vetches, oats, peas, and other legumes and manure continuously
release nitrogen into the soil.
Synthetic nitrogen fertilizers are extremely costly in terms of
energy. Fertilizers account for 50 percent of the energy use in
conventional agriculture. Studies show that using cover crops (crop
rotation) when growing corn or soy can reduce nitrogen leaching by
70 percent, as well as beginning to rebuild the soil in just two to
three years.
Soil Health Can Be Enhanced by Grazing Animals
Soil erosion is made worse by careless overgrazing. In the US,
there are 100 million head of cattle, seven million sheep and four
million horses grazing the land. The vast majority of these
livestock operations do not incorporate soil regeneration
practices—they just continuously take from the soil without putting
anything back. When soil is spent, they move on to “greener
pastures.”
Additionally, livestock are given parasiticides, which pass
through in their feces and end up killing many of the dung beetles
responsible for breaking down cow patties. Dung beetles carry their
little “dung balls” up to four feet away from the dung pile,
spreading those nutrients into neighboring areas. Without dung
beetles, this natural fertilization process doesn’t occur. Some
suggest the answer to overgrazing is to stop using animals for food.
However,
properly managed grazing combined with organic farming actually
builds the soil, as opposed to killing it, resulting in
higher crop yields and fewer weed and pest problems.
Irrigation Is Draining the World’s Water Supply
Our fresh
water resources are being drawn down at an unsustainable rate
through irrigation—70 percent of all fresh water is used for crops.
According to a UN study, the world’s need for fresh water is
projected to double over the next 50 years.7,
8 In China, 80 percent of grain is dependent on
irrigation. Chemical farming requires FAR more water than organic
farming. In arid regions that irrigate, soil losses due to
salinization equal those of soil erosion, accounting for a loss of
25 million acres of land each year across the globe. Plants grown in
healthy soil have only five to 10 percent of the water
requirement of plants trying to grow in sickly soil.
If soil is unhealthy, and compacted from the lack of a cover crop
or mulch, water can’t penetrate the soil layer and instead becomes
runoff, so it doesn’t replenish the aquifers. Severe droughts will
continue to plague our food supply, like the one currently parching
the American Southwest. California is in the death-grip of a
record-breaking drought, with ravages easily seen in a series of
before-and-after images posted on Vox.9
Here are a few things you can do to keep your soil healthy and
reduce your water requirements:
Grow organically; at Rodale Institute, organic farming
outperformed chemical farming by 70 percent under drought
conditions
Use drip lines for irrigation, which use water more
efficiently
Avoid plowing and tilling, and cover your home garden with a
mulch like hay or wood chips
Plant cover crops, such as legumes and oats, during the off
season
If you live in a rainy area, harvest rainwater in rain
barrels to use during the dry season.10
Using mulches like hay or wood chips will also dramatically
reduce the need for watering
Plowing and tilling are inadvisable as they disturb the soil’s
delicate ecosystem, once established. A better approach is direct
seeding and topcoating the soil with amendments. There is no need to
remove all of the dead plant matter, as it naturally decomposes and
nourishes the soil. Even “weeds” can be helpful to the overall
system—what you might consider a weed may actually be a plant that’s
making a valuable contribution. In fact, some weedy areas have
actually been shown to produce higher crop yields than weeded areas.
Wood Chips Are One of the Best Ways to Improve Your Soil Health
I am so grateful to Paul Gautschi, whose video
Back to Eden, helped me understand the value of using a
protective ground cover mulch like hay or wood chips. The simplicity
and low cost were massively appealing for me, and I believe it may
be the single best way to optimize soil microbiology with very
little effort. Paul replicates what occurs in nature, which doesn't
make compost piles, but degrades the ground cover of leaves, twigs,
and stems slowly over time. It seems obvious to me that this is
precisely the type of environment that soil microbes are adapted to.
The key here is to create stable carbon complexes. Biochar is
certainly one way to do that as it will last in the soil for
centuries, but you can actually create something similar for far
less time and money with wood chips. The chips and leaves gradually
break down and are digested and redigested by a wide variety of
bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and nematodes in the soil. Once the
carbon can't be digested anymore, it forms humates that last in the
soil for centuries and provide a host of benefits. The longer you
leave the chips on, and the deeper you put on the wood chips, the
deeper the topsoil will be. This simple method also cuts down on
weeding and irrigation needs, and eliminates the need of
fertilizers.
Nearly any biomass can be used for mulch but wood chips are one
of the best for a variety of reasons, one being the cost. In many
communities, they are merely thrown into landfills and can easily be
obtained for next to nothing by calling tree cutting services in
your area. Mulches will also normalize whatever soil you have. Paul
Gautschi used wood chips for decades and, when a soil test was done,
most of his nutrient levels were literally 10 times higher than the
great levels, and he never added any fertilizers. Finally, wood
chips serve as a great insulation blanket for your soil and
moderates the temperatures in the summer and the winter.
Corn-Based Biofuels are NOT the Solution
Contrary to the claims of the Obama administration, corn-based
biofuels are not the answer, for the following reasons:
A new federal study11
found that corn biofuels are worse than gasoline in greenhouse
gas contributions, at least in the short run; corn-based
biofuels release seven percent more greenhouse gases in the
early years compared with conventional gasoline
Corn grown in the US causes more erosion and uses more
synthetic fertilizer, insecticides, and herbicides than any
other crop
It takes 40 percent more fossil fuel to produce a gallon of
ethanol than a gallon of gasoline, further driving up
atmospheric carbon dioxide levels
More than three tons of carbon dioxide can be sequestered
per acre with organic agriculture, whereas chemical agriculture
emits carbon dioxide
1,700 gallons of water are required to produce just ONE
gallon of ethanol
Better Living Through Biology
One of the more insidious aspects to the industrial food system
is that, as soil becomes sicker and less able to perform its
functions, farmers become increasingly dependent on the chemical
technology industry—they become trapped. The use of glyphosate
begins a downward spiral, making it necessary for farmers to use
more and more herbicides, pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, and GE
seeds. Weeds become resistant to glyphosate, so farmers have to use
more weed killers. Crops become nutrient-deprived, so they have to
increase synthetic fertilizers. Weeds and bugs become superweeds and
superbugs... and on and on in a vicious cycle.
The best way to avoid this trap is to refrain from using
agrichemicals in the first place. Any organic farmer will tell you
that they are growing SOIL, not food—a properly cared for soil will
take care of growing your food. As was expressed in the film, all
you need to do is “feed your soil compost and seeds.” This is
actually a KEY factor I would encourage you to look for when
purchasing food. Certainly get non-GMO foods but also seek to only
purchase produce from local farmers who are using soil regenerative
techniques, such as no till, cocktail cover crops, and livestock
integration. The key is to use regenerative soil techniques not
factory farming degenerative approaches.
The answer to
world hunger is not genetically engineered foods or fuels, but
rather reverting to ecologically rationale and sustainable
agricultural practices, with an emphasis on supporting
small local farmers. In a comprehensive global report entitled
“Agriculture at a Crossroads,” IAAST (International Assessment of
Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development) gave
high-tech farming a dismal two thumbs-down.12,
13 Resistance to revamping the food system can be expected
from a few mega-corporations whose pockets are lined by the chemical
technology and pesticide industries, but as a consumer, you have a
great deal of power as you vote every day with your wallet.
Take Control of Your Health—Choose Your Foods Wisely
In a recent interview with to Dr. Stephanie Seneff, a number of
frightening revelations concerning GE foods came out during the
Beijing conference. Besides the potential hazards associated with GE
foods—which includes heightened allergenicity—the issue of
glyphosate contamination is a very important one. It appears to play
an instrumental role not only in celiac disease, but also in autism,
Alzheimer's, and cancer. In fact, Dr. Seneff's work suggests it may
play a role in most chronic diseases.
Copyright 1997- 2014 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.