Can I ask for a bit of help from my friends here?

[Tumbulu]

46. I LOVE Soil Microbiology

in fact I was going to get my PhD in it.....but the professor demanded that I take an oath that if I ever had a baby that I would not take any time off- get right back to work within 6 weeks. This was typical for that period of time. Very few women said no to this- I did though and then just began my solitary work of plant breeding for organic farming myself. It did break my heart- I loved that field of study.

I refused to take this oath and thus only have a MS in Entomology/Plant Path/Nematology- Crop protection Sciences . But I agree with you that it all starts in the soil. And soil is made by the micro and macro organisms with the help of ruminants predigesting the cellulose and pruning the leaves and encouraging the roots to slough off (making them available to the microbes) and then allowing them to grow larger and deeper again and again....... and I do believe that soil is the one of the most precious of our resources. Of the soil microbes I am drawn to fungi the most- they take the longest to become established, but have the most transformative abilities, I think. Anyway, that you for the wonderful discussion and encouragement.

One summer in the early 80's I interned at the oldest Ag Research Station in the world in England. There was an oat field there that had the same variety of oats planted on it year after year for 100 years. The soil nitrogen levels were adequate and they had stayed at this same high level without any inputs whatsoever all the years that they have been able to measure soil nitrogen. The soil folk were always trying to figure out how this could be- plant rotation in the foundation of good stewardship.......I got the idea about low yielding highly nutritious grains from this field as it was a low yielding old oat variety. It primarily produced plant materials- stems, roots, and some very nice oats, just not much of them compared to modern oats. But the soil was not being depleted at all. And there were no diseases of the plants either. And so I think it is a lot about what is taken away and what remains on the land as much as what the crop is.

I really try to keep my mind and heart open.