Dig the dirt – soil that nurtures

For many people reading this, there is nothing alluring about soil, not even the sweet, consistency-of-crumbled-chocolate-cake organic variety. Like a jolly good pair of wellington boots, you can’t sex it up either. The idea of plunging a hand into tilled soil, deeply inhaling its richness and marvelling at the worms that twist about inside it probably has about as much appeal as the prospect of an intimate medical procedure.

So it can come as a surprise to learn that soil – and, more specifically the microscopic life it supports -    still plays a pivotal part in our physical wellbeing.  And now more than ever before, it plays a leading role in the health of the planet.

Subsistence farmers across the globe have probably known intuitively for centuries what a world-first study into organic farming concluded back in the 1940s; that the health of humans, animals and soil are one “indivisible whole” and that biological balance begins and ends with a “truly fertile soil”.

British organic farming stalwart Lady Eve Balfour published the findings in her book, The Living Soil, at a time when agricultural systems worldwide were moving away from the very “back-to-nature” concepts that organic farming espoused, towards high-input, high-yield production.

Her claim that conventional farming worked against, rather than with, natural systems, depleting the fertility of soil and the nutritional complexity and punch of the foods it yields, placed her right out there on the lunatic fringe.  It is a reflection of the changed status of the organic industry worldwide that Balfour and the likes of Prince Charles, once considered an odd and eccentric mascot for the British organic movement, are now widely seen as visionary campaigners in the global push for more sustainable farming.

The organic difference

So what, exactly, is it about organic soil that distinguishes organic produce from mainstream fare? Richard Mee, who runs an organic farm near Leicestershire in the United Kingdom, believes organic farming’s lower yields (production is between about 30 and 60 per cent less than conventional farming) and the “microscopic wildlife” in fertile soils holds the key.

“One theory is that foods grown in organic soil absorb more health-giving trace elements because there are more nutrients available and fewer plants competing for them,” he says.

Higher nutrient levels are the result of a system of crop rotation in which grass and clover lay down the foundations of the soil, introducing the life giving nitrogen that chemical fertilisers mimic. As one organic farmer put it: “Nitrogen from plants harnesses energy from the sun rather than from fossil fuels, which are used in chemical fertilisers.”

The grass and clover is grazed by livestock and nutrients from their waste provide further fuel for the soil, preparing it for planting. A single organic cycle starts with grazing livestock and ends after two to three years of crop growth – a process that takes seven years, with each cycle adding another layer of fertility to the soil.

“Conventional farming may have higher yields but the soil nutrients are diluted because there are more plants taking up the good stuff,” says Richard.

Microscopic organisms in the soil facilitate the plants’ absorption of trace elements but they are adversely affected by chemical sprays and fertilisers, he says. “The wildlife in the soil is what earthworms live on and the earthworms break down the soil, making it easier for plants to absorb the nutrients that are there.”

Soil alive with great bugs

According to the US-based Organic Trade Association, a single teaspoon of compost-rich organic soil can host between 600 million and one billion helpful bacteria from 15,000 species. The chemically treated equivalent can host as few as 100 bacteria.

Richard Mee says chemical fertilisers are deceptive. “These fertilisers promote lush growth but they make the plants much more susceptible to pests and disease. Our organic fields are not as lush but the plants we grow are stronger for it,” he says.

Truly fertile soil is the result of common sense and nature left very much to its own devices.  “It takes thousands of years to build soil up to this point but, unfortunately, only a few years to destroy it.”

According to the OTA, it takes 3000 years to naturally form six inches of topsoil and one inch of that is eroded every 28 years as a result of conventional farming practices. The association states that organic farming can produce the same amount of topsoil in as little as 50 to 60 years.

The idea that soils are complex and variable is illustrated by a single field on Richard Mee’s property, which incorporates three or four different soil types that relate directly to typography. Glacial soils on high ground contrast with low-lying soils that are typically “higher value and more workable”. Soils in valleys and swales emerged from ancient river beds and have higher drought resistance.

“Each soil type has a different degree of drought resistance, a different level of pest resistance built in to it,” he says, pointing out that organic farmers use these differences to their advantage rather than “throwing chemicals” at any shortfalls.

Cheap attitude costs dearly

The global push for higher and higher yields is playing havoc with the natural order of soils. “About 95 per cent of customers in the UK don’t care about the quality of the food they eat – they just care that it is cheap,” Richard says. “They would rather have another holiday in the year than spend their money on organic food – especially during an economic downturn.”

Organic butcher Jason Quittenton, 38, has worked on organic farms since his early teens and credits his unusual good health (he has never had a day off work due to illness) to the clean nature of the food he grows and eats. Raising a rare breed of short-horn cattle and growing his own produce on a farm near Coventry in the UK, he says cattle grown for the mainstream market are like a different species to the traditional breeds he raises for a select clientele.

“We go for quality rather than quantity – our animals grow slowly and we don’t hurry them along with drugs,” he says. “They graze on grass and clover grown in organic soil and you get nutrients from the soil in their meat the same way you get them from cows’ milk.”

Crops lose valuable nutrients

One of the world’s leading experts on soil microbiology, Dr Elaine Ingham, believes data from the United States Department of Agriculture showing a considerable drop in the nutritional quality of food produced in the US since the 1920s reflects modern agricultural practices.

A ten-fold decrease in micronutrients and proteins in commercially grown crops had occurred since inorganic fertilisers and pesticides were introduced, she says. While some argue this has more to do with new varieties of high-yield crops and food warehousing, others are less convinced.

David Younie, a senior organic farming specialist at the Scottish Agricultural College, believes high-yield crops produced today are lower in zinc, potassium, iron, magnesium, selenium and other important nutrients as a direct result of the widespread use of artificial soil fertilisers.

“With artificial fertilisers it is the crop that is being fed rather than the soil so you are only supplying the nutrients that are in the fertiliser and you are also creating an imbalance in the nutrient content of the harvested crop. The higher the yield of the crop, the lower the nutrients – there will be a deficiency one way or another.”