Humus

Alexandra

"Because a healthy soil digests the dead to nourish the living, Salatin calls it the earth's stomach" (Pollan, 127).

"The psalmist who described life as a transit from "dust to dust" would have been more accurate to say "humus to humus" (147, 240).

"Humus is the stuff in a handful of soil that gives it its blackish cast and characteristic smell. It's hard to say exactly what humus is because it is so many things. Humus is what's left of organic matter after it has been broken down by the billions of big and small organisms that inhabit a spoonful of earth--the bacteria, phages, fungi, and earthworms responsible for decomposition." (240).

According to the dictionary, "humus" is "the dark organic material in soils, produced by the decomposition of vegetable or animal matter and essential to the fertility of the earth."

Source: http://www.relfe.com/07/soil_humus_properties.html


 * Table Tent: What is Humus and Why Do We Care?**

In a nutshell, humus is the perfect tool for gardeners everywhere looking to grow tasty, organic crops. Humus essentially turns unfertile soil into the fertile kind. Gardeners mix humus into the dirt and plant gardens that result in ideal crops, resulting from ideal soil. That is, soil with water-retaining qualities and nutrients that are beneficial for plants of any kind. Did you know that humus can hold 80-90% of its weight in moisture? This helps the soil and plants survive through droughts. Sometimes humus can even help prevent diseases, and its dark brown to black color helps warm up cold soil in the spring.

"Humus" is created by a process called "humification." This process happens when a green waste and wood combination (compost) is broken down by bacteria, fungi, and earthworms. During this decomposition, the compost turns into the dark, spongy, gelatinous substance that is humus. Humus is the basic building block of farming and is what brings fresh, delicious fruits and vegetables to the table; everything revolves around humus.

So what's the problem and why do we care?

Dr. Alexis Carrel, 1912 Nobel Peace Prize winner, states that soil is the basis for all human life, and life will either be healthy or unhealthy depending on the soil's fertility. Why? **All food can be traced back to the ground.** There's the obvious—fruits and vegetables—and then there's the indirect route: meats and dairy depend on the health of the animal that provided it, and the animal depends on the grass and food it eats. Michael Pollan says in his book The Omnivore's Dilemma that "the psalmist who described life as a transit from 'dust to dust' would have been more accurate to say 'humus to humus.'" But in today's agricultural world, where quantity rules over quality, humus is scarce, fertile soil is scarce, and therefore today's society is inherently unhealthy. What's even worse is that few are trying to fix this problem.

Of the few that are trying, many are going about it the wrong way. Believe it or not, chemical fertilizers don't help fertilize the soil; only humus can do that. Instead, chemicals cause plants to be more susceptible to diseases and sap the plant of its proteins that help keep consumers healthy. There is no possible way to replicate humus's properties except for using organic humus itself.

But few are taking this route, because humus takes effort and time to create. You can't just go to the store and buy a bag; you have to make it yourself. Why in the world would anyone want to spend time making their own organic fertilizer when they can use that time and energy otherwise? And besides, crops grown with humus are more expensive than crops grown with chemicals. So why bother? Have we come so far that we are willing to compromise our own health to save a few dollars? Are farmers today willing to sacrifice the health of America so that they can have a few minutes of extra time a day?

Apparently so. Next time you bite into a carrot or take a forkful of potato, think about whether it came from organic humus, or whether the soil that housed it was doused with toxic chemicals. Humus can help make American healthy again, if only people would take the time to recognize it.