Why does soil health really matter?
"Stricken in succession by every scourge...the soil, become in places a sterile, unhealthy desert...refusing to yield up its riches. Bending over it...like a doctor at the bedside of a patient, the cultivator tends it lovingly."
-Pope Pius XII to the Italian Farmer's Federation
Success starts with your soil
Most gardeners, farmers and growers are well aware of the difficulties that come with growing and harvesting a healthy, bountiful crop. Many circumstances throughout the year can ruin a crop such as weeds, pests, or unfavorable weather conditions. While most people might try to fix these problems as they come up, what if I told you there was a way to strengthen your plants beforehand. That by looking at plant nutrition from a more holistic approach, gives the plants on your farm or garden a "healthy immune system" to protect against insect and disease pressure as well as provide a better food product. How do we ensure our plants get these nutrients they need to achieve a healthy immune system? Well, healthier plants begins with what's in the soil.
A soil is a complex solution of minerals such as phosphorous, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sodium, sulfur, zinc, manganese, and boron to name a few...but that's not all! Soil also has organic matter in the form of active soil microbiology and plant matter as well complex organic molecules. One teaspoon of healthy soil will contain between 10,000 and 50,000 species and more individual organisms than there are people in the world.
Most soils especially here in the United States are very mineral rich. However through different environmental factors minerals in these soils have been depleted or become excessive in the soil. For instance typically much of the Southern States lack calcium and magnesium where as the upper Midwest has an excess of magnesium and the western states have an over abundance of calcium.
When these nutrients are out of balance the soil life does not thrive. It would be like if your heater in your house would never heat the house over 40 degrees. You would probably survive but you probably would not thrive.
The good news is it is possible to supply the soil with these minerals to restore nutrient balance. This holistic approach treats the system as a whole allowing life to thrive within the soil.
When an abundance of life is present in the soil, we refer to this as soil health; plants are healthier, there are fewer weeds, livestock are healthier, and ultimately people are healthier.
How do we restore soil health
Ok so this sounds great but how do we create healthy soils?
That is where we come in. Our method starts by testing the soil to discover what nutrients are abundant or lacking. Then using a holistic approach we can balance out the nutrients within the soil to give the soil life the environment to thrive in.
We can then use tailor made solutions based on the crops you are growing to fit your gardening or farming goals.
Have you ever wondered why the same crop gets hit with the same pest in your garden every year and your neighbor's garden struggles with a completely different pest than you? There is a good possibility that its a mineral imbalance.
Benefits of restoring soil health
The benefit of adding the correct nutrients to the soil is these nutrients are passed on to the food we eat and livestock we raise. Once these soil nutrients are in the proper proportions, life can thrive. Plants and animals become healthier naturally. What is even better is these nutrients are in our food making us healthier too. Take for example iodine. Iodine deficiency can cause a lot of problems with the thyroid gland. Midwestern soils typically are very low in iodine. When we fertilize with an ocean sourced fertilizer such as kelp meal or different fish products, we can raise the iodine level within the plant. Thus providing more biologically available iodine to you or your livestock. The same goes with multiple other minerals and nutrients.
