A healthy soil is a complex mix of dead organic matter and living organisms. Nature continually creates healthy soil, as is easily seen on forest floors. Too often, however, modern garden and agriculture practices do the opposite. Synthetic pesticides and other harsh methods strip soil of its most important elements.
Title: Is It Dirt or Soil?
Organization: North Carolina Cooperative Extension
Description: This resource clarifies the difference between soil and dirt, which it defines as “dead soil [that has] lost the characteristics to support life.” It describes the living organisms within healthy soil that promote plant growth and protect plants from disease and delineates the important role soil plays in an ecosystem.
Title: What Is Soil Health?
Organization: Ecological Landscape Alliance
Description: A short article defining soil health and soil quality, listing soil’s important functions, and describing nine characteristics of a healthy soil, including tilth (its physical character), depth, water storage and drainage abilities, nutrients, role of pathogens and pests, and range of beneficial organisms.
Title: Soil Fertility Principles
Organization: Bionutrient Food Association
Description: From the website of an organization devoted to increasing the nutrients in our food through soil enhancement, this page explains how “all plants in nature and in healthy environments have well established multi-speciated symbiotic relationships with soil and leaf life” and describes, among other things, the symbiosis between plants and the bacteria and fungi found in the soil.
Title: Basic Protocols
Organization: Bionutrient Food Association
Description: Among many informative pages on the website of this organization devoted to increasing the quality of our foods, this page details how minerals, soil life, carbon, air and water are essential components in a healthful growing environment.
Title: Gabe Brown: Keys to Building a Healthy Soil
Organization: Kiss the Ground Transcend Productions. Filmed at the Idaho Center for Sustainable Agriculture.
Description: Hour-long video of regenerative agriculture guru Gabe Brown, author of "Dirt to Soil, One Family’s Journey into Regenerative Agriculture," presenting his five principles for building a healthy soil, from caring for your soil to promoting biodiversity. The goal is to support plants and all the living things that share that soil by adding life to your soil.
Watch the movie trailer to "Kiss the Ground."