Photo: Soil health guru Ray Archuleta holds up a clump of healthy soil at a recent field day in central Minnesota
One day at a large craft show we visited the table of a vendor selling a variety of scented candles. One carried the label, ‘Dirt’. I held it to my nose and sniffed. Sure enough, it smelled like dirt. Fresh dirt smells good, if you are referring to the stuff on the ground in our gardens and fields growing grass, flowers, vegetables and crops.
My only concern, other than the price of the candle, was the name. I mentioned to the vendor that the scent should be called ‘soil’ and not ‘dirt’. She laughed, saying someone else had said the same thing. A return visit years later revealed that she did not take our advice.
If I had known at the time that the word ‘dirt’ is derived from the old Norse word ‘drit’, meaning excrement or filth, the vendor might agree with the name change. The candles did not smell like that. The word ‘soil’ comes from the Latin word solium, meaning seat or ground, and an old French word, soille, or mud, referring to the earth or ground relating to plants and agriculture.
My understanding of soil and its health derives from past work experience involving agriculture and the environment, and a recent refresher on a farm field trip hosted by the Minnesota Soil Health Coalition. Once farmers ‘get it’ about soil health, they become passionate about its practices and promotion.
Dig the earth
A quote often attributed to Mahatma Gandhi about soil goes: “To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves.” Or, from Franklin D. Roosevelt, “A nation that destroys its soil, destroys itself.”
I remember a little picture-poster that my mother hung the wall in our kitchen: “You are closer to God in a garden than anywhere else on earth.” I should have reminded her about that when conniving to skip a church service, although then I would probably have go to work in the garden. Whether or not it counts as worship, I enjoy working in our garden, except maybe not this year.
Our garden sits down the hill in a low spot. With all the rain this summer the heavy clay loam resembles gumbo, and not the kind you enjoy in New Orleans. It drowned out the sweet corn, cucumbers, and pumpkins, but not the weeds. On a bit higher ground, that is where healthy soil would make a difference, where abundant organic matter and microbes would better absorb and infiltrate excess water.
Soil is life
Often overlooked and misunderstood by society in general, healthy soil is the foundation of life on earth. Soil and its carbon content, along with water and sunlight, makes our existence possible. A teaspoon of healthy soil contains more than a billion microorganisms – bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes, algae.
Wait a minute… that doesn’t sound very healthy. Maybe not, but they are key to our existence in the cycle of soil microbes, plants we eat, and the human gut. There is a high degree of shared DNA among soil, plants, animals and humans. Humans share ~60% of their genes with plants and even more with certain soil bacteria.
While I cringe hearing news about our current U.S. secretary of health’s insane campaigns against science, vaccines, and proven public health policies, his promotion of regenerative agriculture offers one point of agreement. Unfortunately, his wacko persona may do more harm than good for the growing movement
Our Postmodern system of industrial agriculture, which relies heavily on chemical inputs, has confounded the natural systems that connect soil, plants, livestock, and human health. Compared with 50 years ago, oranges today contain a small fraction of the nutrients than they once did. It’s the same with apples and many other fruits.
Mental health connection
Beyond the impact on physical health, there has been a paradigm shift in mental health regarding the brain-gut connection. Experts say about 100 million cells in the gut are linked to the brain. Fresh vegetables and protein raised on healthy soil supports a bacteria in the gut that helps the brain produce serotonin, although most serotonin is produced in the gut. It’s okay to ‘eat dirt’ so long as it is healthy soil and not the other kind.
While I don’t recommend eating soil to make up for that, there’s nothing wrong and perhaps it’s even beneficial to dig, or play, in it. One hot summer day many years ago in their early teens, our son and a friend took the hose and created a big mud wallow not far from the garden. Somewhere we have pictures of them covered in a layer of mud. Billions of microbes in the mud, and trillions in their guts. The connection may be described in a documentary, “Let Them Eat Dirt: The Hunt For Our Kids’ Missing Microbes.”
Healthy soil gospel
Among the experts and early adopters, North Dakota farmer Gabe Brown shares his experience and knowledge in his 2018 book, Dirt to Soil – One family’s Journey into Regenerative Agriculture. I have heard him speak at events; I am awaiting a copy of the book from the library. His efforts transformed degraded prairie land through regenerative agriculture.
Another expert, Ray Archuleta, was the featured speaker at the recent field day. A former USDA‑NRCS soil scientist, Archuleta preaches that soil is a living ecosystem that should be mimicked by agriculture, not overpowered with excessive tillage and chemicals. He preaches no‑till with cover crops, continuous living plants, and inclusion of animals to feed soil biology.
At the field day it was encouraging to see many young farmers excited about following Archuleta’s advice. “We’re here as a family,’ he said. “I don’t think you guys realize we’re the only family we have. To the rest, we’re a bunch of wackos…. I want to start you off with holistic thought process. We are all affected by the Western Roman and Greek thought that reduced things all the way down to a piece. That does not work in natural ecosystems and the human body.”
More food for thought: According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “Soil is the foundation of resilient food systems, producing 95 percent of the food we consume. Yet, soil faces serious threats from degradation, erosion, and unsustainable land use.” Growing interest about soil health among farmers offers hope, for the soil, and us.
