The soil sponge & the heatwave
The hottest June/July since 1936 the driest since whenever… Much talk about climate change, reservoir building and help for farmers. Very little about soil or the role of biology in the water cycle. The processes that could solve these problems if we co-operated.
As part of the Soil Food Web School foundation course, I joined the ‘Soil Sponge Workshop’ led by Didi Pershouse of the Land & Leadership Initiative. A series of discussions designed to help participants consider the wider implications of Dr Elaines soil food web approach. To reflect on our relationship with the ‘essential workers’, soil microbes, plant and animal communities that interact with the water cycle in ways we often over look.
Each of the five, two and a half hour sessions was facilitated by Didi with a very light touch, nudging us to explore ideas and ask better questions. The language she used to describe the natural world rooted firmly in the idea of allowing all life to “fully express its uniqueness” and place humans within it. We shared observations from our own locations which helped ground the discussions in everyday experiences of real places, whether that was a degraded back yard or an almost pristine wilderness.
Participants from all over the world shared observations about places that had impacted their lives. A woman in Devon had returned to her mothers farm and observed how an unexpected cold snap had damaged some young trees, a guy in the US ecosystem known as the “Crown of the Continent” (South West Alberta / Northern Montana). Where the Northern great planes meet the Rocky mountains and the Boreal forests. He described a land still teaming with the full assemblage of wildlife, with the exception of free roaming Bison… “but” he said - “we’re working on that”. Followed by a participant in Sedgemoor, Somerset - who provided a potted history of the Somerset levels. From its natural seasonal cycle of flood and migratory grazing, to 17th century drainage, through to the disastrous effects of modern nitrate powered agriculture on a flat man-made landscape... The way this built a detailed picture of the planet from our individual lived experiences was very powerful.
Didi reminded us how soil microbes build soil structure by gluing particles together and how these tiny microscopic architects can effect us on a whole landscape and ultimately a planetary scale.
When soil is properly structured by a diversity of microbes, the landscape functions as it should. Creating and absorbing rain, filtering drinking water, building deeper soils. Healthy plants are food for all life and clean the air. Plant life especially trees create rain through transpiration, while microbes in our atmosphere are the ‘seeds’ - that precipitate rain to cool and stabilise our climate. Didi helped us continually pull focus to make connections from the tiny important details, to the drama of the planetary level.
All the current negative effects of the heatwave mitigated by the work of the tiniest of organisms! Much of this I already knew but somehow I saw it all with fresh eyes. I was left in no doubt that healthy soil is literally the foundation for all life including healthy humans and human communities.
Didi shared an amazing success story from her work with the Andhra Predesh Community Managed Natural Farming Initiative. It all started with a women’s self help initiative set up by Vijay Kumar and has since developed into a network of more than 700,000 farmers practicing Zero Budget Natural Farming. Find out the full story here. With assistance from Vijay Kumar and Walter Jehne (Australian climate scientist & micro biologist) Indian farmers are harnessing their understanding of the water cycle to develop new agricultural practices that keep the land green and productive year round - including through the dry season. Crop yields have increased up to two and a half fold! The success of these developments have prompted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to decide India should become a Natural Farming Country.
The biggest take home for me from the “Soil sponge Workshop” is to practice thinking in terms of ‘how best can I cooperate with ‘life’ so that every life benefits’. A subtle shift but one which immediately puts us on a level with the natural world - we are suddenly one of it’s components rather than doing something to ‘it’.
For more about Didi Pershouse and the Land & Leadership Initiative follow this link. To watch a short film about soil click here. To download Didi’s Soil Health Manual click here. To learn more about the water cycle and its key role in cooling the planet check out Walter Jehen on Youtube.