There is a great deal of confusion in the gardening world about
compost, organic matter, humus, fertilizer and their roles in soil
fertility, plant health, animal health, human health and gardening
success. Some authorities seem to recommend as much manure or
compost as possible. Most show inadequate concern about its quality.
The slick books published by a major petrochemical corporation
correctly acknowledge that soil organic matter is important but give
rather vague guidelines as to how much while focusing on chemical
fertilizers. Organic gardeners denigrate chemicals as though they
were of the devil and like J.I. Rodale in _The Organic Front,_
advise:
"Is it practical to run a garden exclusively with the use of
compost, without the aid of so-called chemical or artificial
fertilizers? The answer is not only _yes,_ but in such case you will
have the finest vegetables obtainable, vegetables fit to grace the
table of the most exacting gourmet."
Since the 1950s a government-funded laboratory at Cornell University
has cranked out seriously flawed studies "proving" that food raised
with chemicals is just as or even more nutritious than organically
grown food. The government's investment in "scientific research" was
made to counter unsettling (to various economic interest groups)
nutritional and health claims that the organic farming movement had
been making. For example, in _The Living Soil,_ Lady Eve Balfour
observed:
"I have lived a healthy country existence practically all my life,
and for the last 25 years of it I have been actively engaged in
farming. I am physically robust, and have never suffered a major
illness, but until 1938 I was seldom free in winter from some form
of rheumatism, and from November to April I invariably suffered from
a continual succession of head colds. I started making compost by
Howard's method using it first on the vegetables for home
consumption.... That winter I had no colds at all and almost for the
first time in my life was free from rheumatic pains even in
prolonged spells of wet weather."
Fifty years later there still exists an intensely polarized dispute
about the right way to garden and farm. People who are comfortable
disagreeing with Authority and that believe there is a strong
connection between soil fertility and the consequent health of
plants, animals, and humans living on that soil tend to side with
the organic camp. People who consider themselves "practical" or
scientific tend to side with the mainstream agronomists and consider
chemical agriculture as the only method that can produce enough to
permit industrial civilization to exist. For many years I was
confused by all this. Have you been too? Or have you taken a
position on this controversy and feel that you don't need more
information? I once thought the organic camp had all the right
answers but years of explaining soil management in gardening books
made me reconsider and reconsider again questions like "why is
organic matter so important in soil?" and "how much and what kind do
we need?" I found these subjects still needed to have clearer
answers. This book attempts to provide those answers and puts aside
ideology.