By SUZANNE ARMSTRONG
As was mentioned last week, this year has been declared the International Year of Soils by the United Nations. This is the first of three commentaries highlighting speakers from the Soil Health Day I recently attended organized by agricultural consultant Ruth Knight. Dr. Christine Jones, visiting scholar from Australia, was the keynote speaker. Dr. Jones has been touring Canada, speaking to farmers in different provinces about her “Amazing Carbon”( http://www.amazingcarbon.com/) approach to improving soil health. She and the other guest speakers, who came from the United States, were all keenly interested in using no-till and cover crops to improve soil while at the same time increasing farm profitability. The methods they described increase yields and decrease the need for many farm inputs, thus building soil and also improving the bottom line. Upcoming commentaries will focus on maximizing the value of animals, and innovative methods of working with cover crops.
I have read that no-till farming is good for building and protecting soil, and that cover crops are an important part of getting the most benefit from no-till methods. I had not really understood why this was until I heard Dr. Jones’ talk. Her explanation centered on the importance of healthy relationships between living plants and living organisms in soil.
In my study of religion, I found that active healthy relationships were vitally important for those I interviewed in their lives as Christian farmers. These included relationships to family and community, as well as relationship with the land and animals they farm. The importance for farmers of actively caring for family, community, soil, animals and plants came directly from their sense of responsibility as stewards. Active engagement and familiarity with farmland and animals makes for good stewardly farming.
Unsurprisingly, as Dr. Jones argued, it is active relationships between plant and soil life that are vital to soil health. It is primarily green living plant life above the soil, more than dead plant debris, which feeds the living organisms below the soil. This vibrant relationship is what makes soil nutrients available to plants, and thus the rest of the food system. This living-to-living relationship is also what builds humus in the soil. Dr. Jones emphasized the value of living green plant life above the soil, for as much of the year as weather will allow, in order to build strong connections, especially between plant roots and mycorrhizal fungi, within the soil.
It is through relationship with our neighbour that we build strong communities. It is familiarity with soil, plants and animals that makes for good farm stewardship. In farming also, Dr. Jones argues, it is by fostering active healthy relationships between living plants and living soil organisms that makes for good soil stewardship, and productive, profitable farms.
Source: CFFO