As Above, So Below: Building Community in the Soil and in Agriculture

By Janine Gibson

Our soils are constantly changing, just as our rural communities change. How we maintain and build the resources in these communities depends on how we define and manage them.

Community is place or space where citizens – life forms, prevail. Think of your local community and a community of like minded individuals working together for shared goals - a holistic resource management group, a church committee or a marketing group.

Culture is a set of learnings about how we, as a people can persevere and survive in a place. Culture in quantum physics terms is identified by what's important, not inert matter but energy and movement.

If we think about these definitions we see how they can be applied to both soil and community. For both, social space is in continuous creation by its citizens, who have authority and responsibility for their space. These associations will naturally tend to grow according to the gifts of the citizens.

Conventional input agriculture tends to focus on deficiencies of the soil rather than on the soil’s inherent gifts. The industrial model of the past century is based on linear thought processes that identify our resource base as unlimited. Western governments still use growth as the determining factor for a healthy economy, though more and more citizens are questioning the sustainability of this approach.

Adding compost is one of many agriculturally beneficial practices that revitalize and energize soil bacteria and flora. Thinking more deeply about compost helps us to see our connection to natural cycles. As we rethink waste (straw, manure, and municipal solid waste) we can see it as a resource, as compost which can feed and nurture our soils, our plants, our animals and our health. We are not separate entities from our soil, we are our soil!

A healthy soil needs a stable community of fungi, bacteria, nematodes and worms (along with air and water) to effectively cycle nutrients, break down organic matter and improve soil tilth.

Soil biological processes are responsible for much of the conversion of nutrients to forms that plants can use - nearly 75% of available nitrogen and 65% of available phosphorus in soil. According to Dr. Jill Clapperton, formerly of the Lethbridge Research Centre, “A healthy, beneficial nematode population can recycle 17 - 35 kilograms/hectare of nitrogen as they control bacteria and fungi populations in soil.”

Communities of microorganisms in the soil are destroyed by applications of synthetic chemicals and by tillage, erosion, drought or floods. When the number and diversity of microorganism populations are reduced, it takes time for the soil communities to rebalance the nutrient cycling and soil aggregating processes. When this happens our crops are less able to obtain nutrients, making them more vulnerable to disease, pests and unfavourable weather conditions.

Applying well made compost to soil can be beneficial for many reasons, but primarily because it reintroduces a diversity of micro organisms to the soil biota to jumpstart the nutrient cycling process. Given the expense of importing phosphorus and nitrogen, rebuilding the soil populations that can help crops access nutrients makes increasing sense.

Similarly, we need a diversity of people to rebuild our rural communities. Regardless of what husbandry techniques we use to grow our crops, those of us working in agriculture need to work together toward a new mindset. So few of our citizens today have a direct connection with agriculture. Urban and rural alike, we need to understand that when we buy food grown in our local regions we are supporting the health of our farm communities as well as our families.

To create a respectful understanding of where food comes from, and what decisions need to be made to ensure long-term sustainable food production and distribution, we need to support the health and diversity of the natural world and of our human communities. Education on connection and diversity will serve to rebuild our rural landscapes, both above and below the soil line.

 

Janine Gibson is a senior organic inspector and trainer in Western Canada, having inspected 2000 organic operations in the last 15 years. Janine thanks master composter Gerry Dube of bdmcomposting.com for his research and writing support with this article. She can be reached for questions at 204-434-6018 or janine@rrcc.ca. This article was commissioned by the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada (OACC).

Posted July 2009