If you’re a regular reader of our newsletters, you’re aware of our continued push to improve organic matter in your soils given all the wonderful benefits to plant growth and health, including the ability to store water, nitrogen and phosphorus and the acceleration of the microbial engine below the surface, facilitating a natural exchange of minerals. Also, whether you believe that the degree of global warming that’s occurring is relevant or irrelevant, building soil carbon or organic matter in your soils via carbon sequestration (plants capturing solar energy and feeding the microbe community via sugar exudation resulting in the buildup of carbon) is a win for everyone as well as being especially beneficial to your crops.
According to a Bloomberg report, for decades the lowest CO2 level of any year has been higher than that of the year before. In fact, the last time the Earth experienced the current CO2 levels, modern humans didn’t exist and our seas were 100 feet higher than they are now. Humans have cut, plowed and paved more than half the Earth’s land surface. CO2 is entering the atmosphere about 100 times faster than it did when our planet emerged from the ice age about 12,000 years ago. Local actions have global effects. For example, burning forest to clear farmland in Brazil or increased emissions from industrialization in China, have a considerable impact on Greenland, which has no deforestation or industry but is losing 287 billion tons of ice per year according to NASA.
The soil, meanwhile, has been mostly ignored until lately. A century of synthetic-fertilizer production has disrupted the earth’s nitrogen cycle more dramatically than any event in 2.5 billion years. The top 3 meters or so of earth store more carbon than the entire atmosphere and all plants combined. Taking care of the planet’s soil is “critical for stabilizing atmospheric CO2 concentrations,” according to a synthesis by Stanford University’s Robert Jackson and five colleagues, published Thursday in Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution & Systematics.
With the new year just around the corner, please consider incorporating some organic and sustainable products and growing practices. Just a 1% increase in organic matter enables your soils to hold 20,000 more gallons of water per acre. Whether you’re an organic or conventional grower or in transition, building organic matter in your soil delivers a tremendous benefit.
The writing is on the wall given consumer demand and government regulation: organic and sustainable practices will continue to grow, and if you don’t become familiar with these practices, you’ll be left behind. Maybe even more matter-of-fact, there will be a day in the not-so-distant future when you’re likely not going to be able to get many of the chemical fertility and crop protection products that you use today. It makes a good deal of sense to become more familiar with the application of biology-based products to prepare for the future.
Let Andaman Ag help you. We have a broad array of cutting-edge organic and sustainable products that have an established history of delivering excellent results. We have experience in assisting growers transitioning to organic growing. Begin with our compost teas like MetaGrow ST combined with FertiBOOST, our humic/fulvic based microbial food package. It’s easy, simple (fertigate), cost effective and rewarding. The new year always represents a fresh start. Take the first step into organic and sustainable practices and products. We’re here to assist in any way we can.
Wishing you and your families a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We’re very thankful for our friendships and support from our growers, suppliers and dealers. Our next newsletter will come to you in the New Year!