Erosion Explosion

The corn commodity policies and incentives put in place by former Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz (during Nixon's term), whose message to farmers was "go big or get out" and to plant "fencerow to fencerow," have understandably resulted in farmers following his recommendation and expanding their corn fields to take up not only all their fields, but every inch of plow-able land available. As a result, corn fields now dominate land where animals used to graze, and other crops used to grow. The corn now grows from the edge of the farmer's house all the way to their exact property line. Sometimes this means that corn grows in risky places.

images:Gannon, Desmoines Register

Farmers along the Nishnabotna River in Iowa have demonstrated exactly what those risks can be. Susan Heathcote, a water program director at the Iowa Environmental Council recently took a canoe trip down the Nishnabotna and was astounded by what she saw(original article here) While Iowa is renowned for being a state with a very good record of riparian buffers and proper care for its waterways, those areas which are not under some sort of protection are falling prey to corn.

The local farmers have planted as much corn as their plows will allow, and the result is that the very land they intended to profit from is washing down the river on its way to the Mississippi and then to the Gulf. On its way, the soil, (which took thousands of years to form there, and us only a hundred years of industrial agricultural mistakes to wash away) will contribute to the sedimentation of the river, making it less hospitable for living things and mechanical ones.

Standard applications of chemicals destroy the microbial community that holds together the soil, the glue-forming bacteria and the fungal hyphae (which wrap like ropes around the soil particles and hold them together) are either crushed or poisoned, and the structure of the soil collapses, hence erosion, loss of organic matter and farmland fertility, dust-bowls, etc.

Some people, including Ms Heathcote, are calling for people to contact their local government representatives and insist on mandating riparian buffer zones so that the fertile lands of Iowa don't all end up in the ocean. I commend that effort, and would suggest further recommending that farmers start caring for their soil in a way that ensures productivity and at the same time protects waterways, prevents erosion and leaching of chemicals. Those microbes that belong in that soil, that built it and have maintained it for these thousands of years, lets bring them back too, and ensure that our food and the land that grows it doesn't end up taking a cruise down the river.

As an example, I'll show off the work of Hendrikus Schraven of the Hendrikus group. These photos are from a property here in the pacific northwest. A homeowner, living in a recently built home(on the far right in the photo) with a lovely view, was being threatened by erosion. In fact, the hillside was falling away, and before long it would be claiming the house as well. In this image, an application is being made of a microscopically scrutinized compost full of beneficial microorganisms. The microbes build up the structure of the soil, give the plants what they need in terms of nutrients, water, pest/disease protection, and the plants thrive. The slope stabilizes, and bye-bye threat of 'house-toboggan.' Below is actually a picture of the same slope. Look for the tall solitary tree in the background. These healthy established plants flourish because of the help they receive from their billions of microbiological allies, and our homeowner at the top of the hill can rest easily now.


So if simply adding a healthy diverse community of microbes (aka - really good compost) can keep a house from falling into the water, imagine what it could do for some corn!

The erosion problems the Iowa farmers are facing have been brought on by their own practices of cheap, linear solutions that remain blind to the system to which they are part. So, our nation's corn is floating down the Mississippi on its way to Mexico...

Really folks, we can do better than this!

100 years old, and still a potent message

This historical poster is from WWI era, (about 1917), and delivers a message we could benefit from listening to today. Thanks to the Maine Historical Society for keeping records. The ONLY change I would make for this to better suit today's food-climate, would be to replace 'wheat' with 'corn.'

What profound statements these are! And at the same time, what ridiculously simple ones. These basic principles of involving yourself in your food have been so lost today! These days, most people in the US buy the cheapest food-option, cook it in a microwave, most of our food is made primarily of corn (which is in turn made (grown) primarily using petroleum-based products), we buy our apples from Chile, and a 'small' serving in today's food market is equivalent to what used to be considered huge! Nevermind the waste, I won't even go there...

Over the weekend, Glenn Beck held his 'restoring honor' rally for all of his followers from his seat as a Fox News pundit. At one point he said something about reclaiming the values we held 100 years ago, and how we americans need to do that. While I certainly believe that it would be a very bad idea to regress back to a time when our values were racist, sexist, classist, bible-focused, capitalist (think Upton Sinclair's The Jungle), and nature-dominating,  I do love the concept of bringing back this little gem from that era.

At the very least, let's try to follow the very first rule, buy your food with thought. Educate yourself as to where it comes from, and what implications that has. Know your farmer if you can! Read labels, and don't believe health claims printed on the box (they usually do that to try to convince you to eat something that is actually NOT healthy)! Learn about industrial food practices. Lastly, and most importantly, VOTE WITH YOUR DOLLARS!!! The market for more sustainable food options grows by 20% every year (even through the economic jumble we're in now), and the big guys are listening! Soon the price gap between organic and chemical food will close, as oil becomes more expensive and farmers need to use more and more chemicals AND as organic recognizes that with the proper care and management, growing chemical-free food is way more profitable than not.

So let us learn from history, eh?

Pink Panthers and Cyanide Dumps

Thanks to Don Piper (www.Myndzeye.com) for referring this very cool story to me!

Somewhere out in the central Nevada desert, Tony and Jerrie Tipton came upon a monstrous sight. A 300 foot tall pile of crushed rock called a heap-leach pad. The rock contained low-quality gold ore, and it was extracted using applications of cyanide, into which the gold would dissolve, and be able to be claimed by the miners.

How a heap-leach pad works

The Heap-Leach pad pre-Tiptons

After a few years of pouring cyanide onto this specific pile of rocks, the mining company decided it was no longer extracting enough gold to make it worthwhile to continue leaching. The company sprayed enough water on the pile to make them feel like it was clean, and then they left it. There it sat, completely sterile, void of any organic material, and not growing anything. An eyesore at the very least was all that was left of this gold extraction project. The miners tried to re-vegetate the area by spraying it with chemical fertilizers, seeds, and a plasticized mulch used on highways. The area was able to grow one species of poisonous weed for one season, and then they were back to square one. The mine company, having satisfied their government-imposed responsibility of 'reclaiming' the site, left it to sit there.

When the Tiptons (who lived nearby in an old greyhound bus converted into an RV with a funny painting of the Pink Panther on the back, hence the name) approached the mining company and asked if they could try out a different method, the company didn't see any way it could hurt, so the gave them the go-ahead.

The same slope, after the Tiptons had their way with it

Tony and Jerrie Tipton brought in a few very simple ingredients. They spread a mixture of native seeds, some organic fertilizer (rich in microbial life!), some hay and some straw. Then, they brought in their processing team; cows. The cows came in, ate up the hay and straw, trampled down what they didn't ingest, and spread their own version of microbially diverse fertilizer on the ground. After only a few days, the cows left. What they left behind, the seeds, a bit of trampled organic matter, and a bunch of urine and manure, then went to work. After six months, the area was covered in native plants, growing well and establishing themselves. After three years, a scientist from the US Forest Service went to check on the area and found that there was not only still a healthy population of native plants still residing there, but also a community of wildlife had moved in and made themselves at home.

Since this first incredibly successful project, the Tiptons have gone on to engage with larger scale endeavors using their extremely simple, and extremely effective methods. They have attempted to engage on large scale (250,000 acre) projects, and have appealed to congressmen, senators, gov't land managers, educators, investors, and even to leaders of environmental organizations. With all this, its still pretty hard to find mention of these two after the year 2000 (yes, this project took place in the 90's!). However, apparently they haven't just faded into the background. Jerrie Tipton has held the position of Commissioner of Mineral County Nevada since 2007, and she and Tony have a BLM public land ranching operation in the middle of NV where they are continuing to do amazing things with their lands. 


Lets get these people in the spotlight! Sure, it may not be the most glamorous or technologically 'wow-ing' method, but dammit, it works. Sometimes it takes a little bit of openness to realize that the solutions we seek for our world are already right in front of our eyes. We don't need to invent new chemicals, new machinery, or new technology to solve the issues we have created for ourselves and our planet. If we use the tools that nature has given us, in the right ways in the right places, we can create a better, healthier, cleaner, more productive world for the coming generations of humans on this earth. 

This story, and others like it, can be found in the excellent book by Dan Dagget, Gardeners of Eden: Rediscovering our Importance to Nature. I recommend checking it out.

Droughts and opportunities

A usually full lake has nearly dried out in this photo from West Aftrica

I read an NPR story this morning that gave me cause for concern. The whole story is here, and basically it is about the current drought in West Africa. Malek Triki, the regional spokesman for the UN World Food Program, says "Because of failure of crops, because of erratic and late rainfall and the protracted drought, the whole region has been suffering a food crisis." The article goes on to cover the difficulties and challenges with providing aid to the people affected, but what it glosses over, and what I'll focus on instead, is the root cause of this problem, and a solution to it.

In farmland that has been worked extensively, has borne many applications of chemicals, and been plowed and tilled many times over, the natural structure of the soil, held up by the microbiological communities therein, collapses. Soil that once had tunnels, caverns, and microbe-sized lakes, now has nothing but little bits of rock squished up against each other with minute patches of organic matter in between. The natural water storing ability of the soil has been stripped, so what water is applied to the surface is mostly lost to runoff or evaporation. A soil with a healthy microbial community can require as much as 70% less water than land without the help of the microbes.

To demonstrate this point, and perhaps to introduce a technique that could turn this situation in West Africa on its head, I'd like to point out an example I recently stumbled on from Mexico. Doug Weatherbee, of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, is a Soil Foodweb Advisor for Soil Foodweb Inc (founded and run by Dr Elaine Ingham, my personal heroine).

Last summer, Mr Weatherbee conducted a trial on some corn grown locally, comparing a biologically correct method with a traditional campesino grower. For Mexico, 2009 was a hard year, which saw the worst drought in over 60 years. Many dryland crops failed, and most only produced meager results. Mr Weatherbee and his associates applied a highly fungal compost tea (made with microscopic precision) three times over the season, and provided minimal foods such as humic acids, and some fish hydrolosate made from fish sourced from a local lake. The results speak for themselves.

The corn on the left is from the non-biologic area, the corn on the right had the help of some microbes.

Astounding eh? The control corn barely looks edible, while the biologically produced corn would be considered an excellent corn specimen even in a normal (non-drought) year. So clearly, the quality of the biological corn is superior, but what about the yields?

Corn on left = 735 sq ft of biological, Corn on right = 735 sq ft of standard practice

The corn grown in soil with a healthy supportive biological community yielded nearly five times more food than the control plot, weighing in at 527 lbs biological versus 114 lbs control. This difference is monumental. If this is the case in a drought year, what could be produced in a good year? The answer: even more.

If we can extrapolate this kind of work to the places that really need it, like Niger and other drought-prone West African countries, we won't need to hear about how the UN is so pressed for food aid that they have had to limit their handouts to only families with children under two years old. We can instead hear about all the amazing things that the UN can do to improve education, health, disease prevention, and social well-being with all the money and resources they saved from not having to provide millions of starving people with barely enough food to live.

It grits my rivets to see all these problems in the world which can be traced to an improper management of natural resources. Even worse is when the response to the problem is only a poultice for the symptom, and not a solution for the systemic issue producing the symptom. Now, by no means am I suggesting that the UN not provide food aid to those in West Africa who are starving. Please, UN, do feed these hungry families. Could we please also try to factor in some energy to get the managers of land to also recognize that there are sustainable solutions out there? Even better, can we get those growers and farmers to try out some of these techniques and see what happens? Please? Lets address this issue at the root, and give these people of West Africa the information they need to be able to lift themselves up out of the situation that we have participated in creating for them.

Happy Chickens

Salmonella... and hope for the future!

As you may have heard, egg producer Wright County Egg in Iowa has issued a recall on something like 380 million eggs do to hundreds of people being infected by the Salmonella bacteria.

yuck. Really. Salmonella is a bacteria that can live in the guts of a chicken and never show any symptoms. The infected chicken poos out a pile of salmonella, which can then spread all over the place, including on the eggs, the chicken's body, and all the other hens that most likely are only a few inches away at anytime (considering your average conditions inside a chicken factory). The bacteria spreads from hen to hen, and then before you know it, millions of eggs and chickens are covered in these human-gut-busting bad guys. Scientists are now noticing that the bacteria can even grow inside the egg, rendering the average chicken factory's sterilization methods much less effective (though I hate to think what else might be living on factory-produced eggshells...).

Okay, so how does this tie in to my topic of sustainability? Well... as we are beginning to acknowledge (and as ecologists, animal rights folks, and health inspectors have been saying for decades), raising animals in factory settings is not a healthy way to produce food. The close proximity of the animals, combined with unsanitary living conditions (most food animals; chickens, cows, pigs, etc. spend a significant amount of time during their day standing around in their own, and their neighbors feces), combined with regular doses of antibiotics has led to some interestingly mutated diseases (anyone remember swine flu?). Also important to note are many other effects of factory food production, but I'll spare my readers the details on that. (though if you want more info, check out www.themeatrix.com, Food Inc., Upton Sinclair, and PETA)

What I would like to instead focus on is the hopeful alternative to disease producing animal abuse that some people call farming. I'd like to draw attention to a personal hero of mine, Michael Pollan. In his book, Omnivore's Dilemma, he spends some time on a farm in Virginia called PolyFace Farm (http://www.polyfacefarms.com). Joel Salatin, the farmer at Polyface, puts his chicken to pasture. He even wrote a book about in in '93 called Pastured Poultry Profits. Joel uses a system of different animals on what he calls his 'grass farm.' He'll graze the cattle over a section of pasture until they eat it down to a certain point, then he'll move them on, and bring in the birds. In nature, on grasslands, birds have always been associated with grazers. The birds will follow a herd of animals across the plains, or grasslands, or savannas, and they feast on the bugs that are either unearthed by the animals, or that are attracted to the manure. Salatin does the same at Polyface Farm. He usually waits a couple days before releasing his hens on the recently grazed pasture. He says that way, the fly larvae have grown up to a size that makes them delicious and highly nutritious to the chickens, and the chooks eat them all, eliminating the fly problem. The chickens also spread the manure around the field, distributing the nutrients and the magic bacteria that live in cow-pies. Economically, Joel says this method saves him about $0.20 per dozen eggs produced from all that they can eat from the recently grazed pasture. His methods, which I highly recommend learning more about (Joel Salatin will even be teaching at Channel Rock for a Food Security Workshop at the end of September! Check it out here!) has brought him healthy land, healthy family, healthy community, and a healthy wallet (though his eggs do sell for a meager $2.20 or so per dozen!).

Here is where I get to the good part. Using these methods, Joel has never had anyone report any kind of salmonella poisoning, or any other kind of food-borne illness from his farm. Not only that, but from his 100-acre 'grass farm' he is able to produce annually:

30,000 dozen eggs (360,000 eggs)
10,000 broilers (chickens for eating)
800 stewing hens
25,000 lbs of beef
25,000 lbs of pork
1,000 turkeys
500 rabbits

So, in order to produce an equivalent in eggs that have been recalled to Iowa (where I don't even want to think about what they're going to do with that many eggs... giant pancakes anyone?), there would have to be about 1,000 polyface farms out there. While that does seem like a lot, remember that the eggs are only one part of the system which is producing thousands of pounds of healthy food. Personally, I'd be a much happier person if I could see thousands of Polyface Farms opening up across the country. Heck, I'll take any. Any food-production facility which actually creates benefit to the land where it resides, is in my estimation, highly preferable to a factory for diseases like salmonella, greenhouse gasses, water pollution, suffering, oh, and some 'meat' too.

May we all read news articles like this one from the Associated Press as reasons to hope for, and create change in our world. The guiding examples for how to feed ourselves sustainably are out there! Lets start focusing on them, and announce news like this egg recall as secondary. Lets put those industrial food producers in the place they deserve, shame. In a world where there are successful, healthy, profitable, and beneficial ways to produce our food, the only news should be commending those who do it right and hinting to those still behind in the dark ages that its time to catch up!

Thats my rant for today

Thanks for stopping by, and feel free to leave comments, start discussions, etc!

Carbon Farming

This is a great description of the basis of why I am pursuing an MBA. This concept is the foundation of the business plan I will be writing in the next year. Carbon Farmer's of America say that they can build 6 inches of topsoil per year using intensive rotational grazing and a keyline plow. Bringing the technology of the soil food web into it, I think we can easily top that.

I love this concept so much because it creates benefit on so many levels. For one, there is the carbon sequestration process which takes carbon out of the air where it is a greenhouse gas, and puts it in the soil where it will be turned into plant food (oh, and did I mention that cow farts, i.e. methane, are much less frequent in cows with healthy grass diets than in cows fed on corn and soy). Also, there is the benefit of healthier food; if the plants that the animals eat are healthier, have deeper roots to access more nutrients, than they pass on those benefits to the animals. Also phenomenal are the benefits from decreased erosion of topsoil, groundwater filtration (imagine that! a cowfield that actually helps clean the groundwater instead of polluting it!), economic gain (since there isn't the same need to treat the animals for diseases, to fertilize the fields, to use pesticides fungicides or herbicides, plus the grass stays alive longer into the winter, so less need for purchased hay, and the cows get bigger faster in a healthier way!), oh, and did I mention climate change? On a large enough scale, this process has actually been shown to change local climates by increasing the moisture content in the air which actually cools the region and creates more rainfall! Directly combating climate change!

So, enjoy the video, and to any of my fellow BGI folks who might be interested, I'm starting to put together my entrepreneurship dream team now, and I'm taking applications!

Worm Compost = Pesticide?

So, the California Department of Pesticide regulation (DPR) is fining George Hahn, owner of California Vermiculture LLC (CV) $100,000 for not having registered his worm compost as a pesticide. The weak ground they stand on states that since CV claims in its advertising; “that your product suppresses pathogens which eliminates disease, repels harmful insects but no beneficial insects, and allows plants and trees to survive in adverse conditions and causes bark beetles to avoid and not attack trees.” According to the DPR, this means that this product ought to be registered as a pesticide.

What they have failed to realize is that it is in no way the product itself that is bringing these benefits, but the community of micro-organisms who live in the worm-poop who are responsible for these amazing perks. The establishment of a healthy microbial community on a plant will indeed suppress pathogens, repels pests, and help plants better survive in difficult conditions, as well as a host of other amazing benefits. It is also true that worm compost, if made properly, can host billions of beneficial microorganisms that can do all these things for plants.

The article where I encountered this is from a community comment section of a small southern Cali paper called the Coast News (http://thecoastnews.com/view/full_story/8837676/article-COMMUNITY-COMMENTARY---Worm-poop-versus-the-bureaucracy). In the article, the writer makes the natural connection that if the DPR claims that anything which kills bugs is a pesticide, that water, which can kill bugs given the proper amount, also ought to be registered as a pesticide. The heads of research and enforcement for DPR even stated, under oath, that "claims made that bugs could be drowned in water would make water a pesticide." As ridiculous as this is, what is even more ridiculous to me is the possibility that since other materials, like composts, compost teas and extracts, even healthy organic soil, all contain similar communities of beneficial microbiology, and would produce the same results when applied to a plant. Does this mean that according to the DPR, that healthy organic soils ought to be classified as a pesticide as well? Does everyone who sells any organic ingredients that don't attract bugs have to register their product as a pesticide?

Sometimes I'm amazed at how ignorant the regulatory agents in our society can be. It is also saddening to see the way in which people reduce complex systems to a single, simple category. There are many things in this world that repel bugs that might want to eat your plants, even outside the realm of synthetically refined and processed poisons. I am grateful to the regulators for doing the work they are supposed to do, but come on guys! try to stick to relevant issues and cases instead of running around suing and fining everyone you think you might get a dollar out of!

If I go out to a farm and step on bugs, does that make me a pesticide? Should I register my shoes with the regulatory agency and pay dues so that I can squash pests without worried about being fined?

...anyway, rant rant rant...

I'm glad to say that the head lawyer from the Pacific Legal Foundation (a successful public interest legal organization that fights for limited government, property rights, individual rights and a balanced approach to environmental protection) has taken this case, and is suing the DPR on grounds of an unreasonable and unfounded fine. The DPR has refused to drop the fine, and is taking the case to the Sacramento County Superior Court to hear what the judge has to say. I sure hope that judge is an organic gardener...

Enough ranting for now! But here is an interesting question to leave with: What other products on the market (any market) make any claims about bug deterrent qualities? What other ridiculous things are out there the the DPR would consider to be a pesticide?

Welcome to the Dirt!

Its about time! Finally a space where I can vent all my interests, desires, frustrations, hopes, and dreams relative to the world of the soil!


Welcome to my new blog. I am Caleb Summers, businessman, father, gardener, composter, and way more to boot. One of my main passions is something we all come in contact with all the time, in fact, we walk on it. Its dirt. Or maybe I should say soil... A wise woman once told me that dirt is that stuff we scrape off our shoes when we come indoors, soil is the living and life-giving super-organism beneath our feet. I am a self-described soil fanatic. I am the Director of Strategy for a CA-based company called BioLogic Systems (www.BioLogicSystemsUSA.com) where we are trying to bring the admiration and understanding of healthy soils to the world. I am a Master Composter (www.StopWaste.org), a member of the Soil Science Society of America (www.soils.org), and an avid supporter of soil health across the globe.

I'm also an MBA candidate at the Bainbridge Graduate Institute (www.BGI.edu) where I am learning how to make positive change in the world using the tool of business. The experiences, tools, skills, and connections I am acquiring at BGI are giving me what I need to manifest my dream of changing the world for the better from the ground up. Literally.

Here in my blog, you'll find my musings on current events, my theories of how soils can save the world, and all kinds of other things that I see as fit to print... or post, I guess.

So welcome, and I hope you enjoy my blog.