For the past 12,000 years mankind has been farming to feed an ever increasing population. In an effort to improve crop yields, increase the area of cultivated land, and to get rid of weeds, from early times tilling has been a widespread practice. This was done using ploughs and the energy of animals, or in modern times the energy of machines, in which the upper layer of the soil is cut up and turned over. While this softened the soil and made it easier to sow seeds, little did people realize that with this practice they achieved the opposite of what they set out to do. More weeds grew and over time the productivity of their lands slowly decreased. They did not recognize the significance of important organisms in the soil, such as fungi and the rest of the soil-food-web, which were decimated or killed by tilling.
Industrialization and the population explosion in the 20th century then further necessitated some intervention if humanity was to feed itself. So, following the millennia old physical treatment of the soil, modern scientific knowledge made it possible to have a chemical approach: agricultural lands were treated with inorganic fertilizers containing nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and other minerals. When disease struck, there was always a toxic chemical to apply to kill fungi, bacteria or insects that caused the disease. The chemical treatment of our soils finished off the extermination of soil biology that tilling started millennia before. Little did we know that with this we only treat the symptoms, not the real cause of the disease. The real cause is the incomplete or non-existing biology in the soil, which in natural ecosystems provides protection from infections and enables plants to get the nutrients they need, in the exact amount they need them.
The time has now come to work with nature and not against it. Nature will always win in the end, even if humanity wins a battle or two. Using a biological approach when growing plants means that we keep all organisms alive that would be in the soil in natural ecosystems. This will maintain nutrient cycling with a healthy and thriving soil food web. This makes toxic chemicals such as pesticides, fungicides, and inorganic fertilizers unnecessary and results in more nutritious and flavourful food for us to eat. Think of natural ecosystems, an old growth forest, for example. Who adds fertilizers? Nobody, and yet life flourishes in all its diversity.
It is time we started working with Nature and aligned our methods with her ingenuity.
