Seriously, there has to be a good reason why fish fertilizer has been used for thousands of years. So we called in organic expert and gardener extraordinaire Jeff Lowenfels to give us the lowdown on the various products available that are derived from our aquatic friends.

American kindergarteners are taught the story of Squanto, a Native American who showed the Plymouth Rock pilgrims how to use fish to fertilize their corn plants. Egyptian children learn about their ancestors using fish to feed plants along the Nile, and Peruvian youths are taught that their pre-Columbian ancestors put a kernel of corn into the mouth of a fish and planted the whole thing.

My Grandfather, an avid gardener and fisherman, was my Squanto. He taught me to bury fish guts and too-bony-to-eat-fish in the rose garden and beneath the tomato plants. The results were outstanding. I’ve been hooked, if you will pardon the pun, on fish as great fertilizer ever since.

What is Fish Fertilizer?

Obviously, fish fertilizer is fertilizer made from fish or fish parts. However, not all fish fertilizers have the same characteristics. In fact, there are actually three different categories of fish fertilizer, so don’t just walk into a store and pick up whatever is on the shelves without doing a bit of homework first.

Each category of fish fertilizer is made using a different process and the products that result, contain varying amounts of nutrients. There are also best uses and special problems, so it is important to know a bit about fish fertilizers before you wade into the water (sorry, I can’t help myself!) and start using them.

In sum, the three categories of fish fertilizers are: fish meals, fish emulsions and fish hydrolysates.  Fish meals are made by grinding fish carcasses after a heating process has removed much of the oils. Wastewater left over from making fish meal can be concentrated to produce fish emulsions. Finally, fish digested in vats using enzymes instead of heat produces fish fertilizers called hydrolysates.

Large Tank of Fresh Fish Hydrolysate

The word “fish” can refer to both a single fish or plural when referring to fish in general or to a quantity of fish of the same kind; the word “fishes” is a special kind of plural used to refer to a quantity of various types of fish.

What types of fish are processed into Fish Fertilizer?

Virtually any kind of fish can be made into a fertilizer. However, fish are usually divided into two groups. The first are fish harvested for human consumption. These include tuna, salmon, catfish, halibut, bass, anchovies and sardines. Fish processed specifically to make products for plants and animals make up the second group. These include pollack, menhaden and herring.

What are the advantages of Fish Fertilizer?

Fish fertilizers have several advantages over their chemical counterparts. First, they can be totally organic with all the benefits associated with improved soil structure, increased microbial life and better plant health. Second, fish fertilizers don’t burn plants as readily as chemical fertilizers. Fish fertilizers generally have slower release rates and they don’t need to be applied as often. Moreover, fish fertilizers are not readily leached from the soil, rather they are held in the bodies of the microbes that turn then into plant food. Finally, they often contain trace nutrients not found in chemical formulas.

Characteristics of Fish Fertilizer

The characteristics of a fish fertilizer are based on the way it is processed as well as what is in the fish used. Processing methods are either listed on the label or implied by the name of the kind of fertilizer.

Fish Hydrolysates

These fish fertilizers are made from whole fresh fish, or fresh fish scraps, which are digested using special enzymes that break down the large proteins in fish meat and bones. Enzymatic digestion is known as hydrolysis, hence the name hydrolysates for the liquid mixtures that result. These liquids are like thick fishy milkshakes. Phosphoric acid is added to the mixtures to halt the digestion process. As a result, the pH of hydrolysates is usually lower than other kinds of fish fertilizers. Also they don’t smell nearly as bad.

Generally, fish hydrolysates have an NPK analysis around 2:3:0, 2:4:1 or 2:5:0. Because no heat is involved in making the fertilizer, and nothing is removed from the fish, hydrolysates contain more of a fish’s proteins, hormones, trace elements and vitamins than do other kinds of fish fertilizers. Application requires dilution to about five or six teaspoons per gallon of water. Fish hydrolysates can be used in all stages of growing.

Finally, unlike the other two kinds of fertilizers, hydrolysates contain all of the fish oils. These oils are excellent beneficial fungal foods, which make fish hydrolysates a good nutrient source for maintaining and increasing soil fungal populations.

Hydrolyzed fish is widely considered to be the “high-end” fish fertilizer product. It doesn’t have a highly objectionable odor like fish emulsion and it’s also highly water-soluble, so it’s great for drippers and foliar applications. It also contains higher levels of phosphorus than fish emulsion products.

Fish Meals

Fish is often heated to remove fats and oils to use in various products. The lean carcasses that remain are ground up into a meal and sprayed with phosphoric or sulfuric acid for stabilization and deodorization. Unlike hydrolysates and emulsions, fish meals are not liquid. They have more protein than emulsions, but less than hydrolysates.

Fish meals usually have an NPK analysis around 10:6:2 or 12:6:2. The high nitrogen obviously makes them good for vegetative growth and the relatively high phosphorus content makes fish meals good for root development, too. The down side is that fish meals have a strong odor.

Fish meals are granular or powder in form, and are usually applied at a rate of 5 to 10 pounds per 100 square feet. They continue to smell for a few days and are therefore usually buried into the root zone. They are not recommended for indoor use because of their odor, but if you can stand the smell, they can be mixed into soils where they act as a slow release fertilizer.

Fish meal is a good soil conditioner for use early in the outdoor growing season—it’s ideal in new vegetable or flower beds because it will help root development. Although most fish-meal fertilizers will last for 6-8 months, most of the benefits are realized in the first few months.

Fish Emulsions

After oils, fats and proteins are removed from fish, a liquid slurry is all that remains. This slurry can be concentrated by evaporating up to half of its liquid, resulting in a syrupy emulsion suitable for use as a fertilizer.  Some phosphoric acid is added to stabilize and deodorize things. This lowers the pH of the emulsions, which is still not as low as that of hydrolysates.

The cooking segment of the fish emulsion manufacturing process destroys a lot of the fish “goodies” such as the vitamins and hormones so useful to plants and microbes. There is much less protein in emulsions, and fewer solids, but the upside is that fish emulsion is more soluble than other fish fertilizers and cheaper, too.

Fish emulsions have an NPK analysis of 5:2:2 or 5:1:1, even though they are known for their micronutrient content. As the most soluble fish fertilizers, they are good for foliar feeding.

The fish used to make emulsions are usually “trash” fish, which are harvested only for this purpose and not for consumption by humans. They often contain toxics. Menhaden, for example, spend part of their lives in waters that are heavily polluted with metals. Some freshwater fish that can’t be eaten because they are polluted are also often processed into fish emulsions.

Moreover, if the steam employed to strip oils from the fish is from a municipal source, it usually contains chlorine. When the final liquid is concentrated, so is the chlorine—reportedly up to as much as 50%. Chlorine can be harmful to plants and beneficial soil microbes, so you might want to review product MSDS reports to make sure what you buy isn’t too loaded with chlorine.

Application rates of fish emulsions generally run about five or six tablespoons per gallon of water. Fish emulsions are often used in mixtures made up of kelps, other seaweeds and crab shells. They sometimes contain additional materials to raise the NPK. These may not be bad, but you need to take into account what they provide before using these fish fertilizers on your plants.

The nitrogen contained in fish emulsion is released more gradually than in many other non-fish-based fertilizers. Fish themselves naturally contain about 2.3% nitrogen.  However, some fish emulsion products contain synthetic sources of nitrogen, such as urea, to boost the nitrogen percentage. Be sure to check with the manufacturer to find out if their fish emulsion product is comprised only of organic inputs.

Hydrolysate and Emulsion Process (image credit - Dramm Corporation)

Common Objections to Fish Fertilizers

There are some basic objections to using fish fertilizers, which may help you decide to use one versus another.

It Stinks!

One of the biggest concerns about using some fish fertilizers is their smell. Fish meals, for example, smell horrendously. The odor goes away after a few days but using the stuff inside might be problematic, even for those growers with the largest carbon filters! Fish emulsions can also have a strong, offensive odor even when deodorizing agents are added to them. Generally, hydrolysates have much less, if any, offensive odor.

While humans may take offense to the smells of fish meals and emulsions, many pets and pests find the odor attractive. Cats, dogs and raccoons love to eat fishmeal and some dogs like to roll in it. If you are concerned about animals disturbing your plants, take protective action.

Toxins

Adding to the problems caused by high concentrations of chlorine in the steam water used to cook some fish fertilizers are the existence of other toxins. Some fish fertilizers contain heavy metals like mercury, which are found in fish living at the top of food chains. Concentrating solutions when making emulsions also concentrates these toxins. However, these fertilizers may still be fine for inedible plants.

Unfortunately, the amount of toxins in a fish fertilizer is not going to be listed on the label. However, you can look up individual fertilizers by—to determine any heavy metal content—on a great website maintained by the Washington State Department of Agriculture.

Sustainability

No one should ever buy fish fertilizer made from endangered or depleted fish stocks and some argue that there are good reasons not to buy any fish fertilizer made from “trash” fish. For the most conscientious growers, only waste fish and fish wastes from human consumed fish are acceptable.  Again, a little snooping around on the Internet can provide you with the valuable information needed to make a rational purchasing decision.

In this day and age, there are other sustainability considerations. Packaging, energy resources spent on processing and transportation, as well as additives used are all inputs to making a choice as to which category or brand of fish fertilizer to purchase. Again, a little research is worth it in terms of environmental, plant and human health.

Suitability for hydroponics and foliar applications

Fish emulsions and fish hydrolysates can be used in hydroponics systems because they are liquid in form. Emulsions are more soluble and some of their nutrients are plant useable without beneficial microbiology, but both work best in organic systems with microbes. Odor is a concern, especially with emulsions, and toxins may be as well. If you use a filter in your system, fish hydrolysates may need straining to prevent clogging the filter’s fine mesh screen.

All of the major hydroponics companies sell fish based hydroponics fertilizers. They also supply lots of information to promote them, but read labels carefully and fish (ouch!) for the necessary information to make an informed decision. You can also request MSDS (material safety data sheets) from these companies.

Fish fertilizers as a catalyst for beneficial biology

Organic fish fertilizers excel at supporting the microbe herd that is at the base of the soil food web. They all provide some NPK and most, at least those made from sea fish, also provide trace elements, micronutrients and other good stuff.

Fish hydrolysates, in particular, come about as close to duplicating the practice of burying a whole fish. Only the hydrolysis process makes the fish more available to microbes, breaking down large molecules into tiny ones. Microbes can and do happily feed off the organic matter and proteins from the meat and guts. Calcium from the fish bones is also retained in hydrolysates. And, as noted, the oils in hydrosylates make great fungal food for those plants that prefer fungal dominated soils: perennials, trees and shrubs. For this reason, hydrolysates make great fungal food for compost teas.

Fish meals, too, support loads of microbial activity. They contain tremendous amounts of protein and are great foods for bacteria, and annuals and vegetables that prefer a bacterial dominance in their soil. Covered with bacteria, fishmeal added to a compost pile gets the pile cooking due to its high microbial metabolism. In addition, flies (and their larvae) love it, which in turn attracts other members of the soil food web.

Fish Fertilizers: Be an educated consumer

Not all products sold as fish fertilizers are made just from fish. Some contain non-fish additives as previously mentioned—primarily seaweed and crab shell. The seaweeds are full of micronutrients, auxins and cytokinins; crab shells provide chitin found in the cell walls of fungi. Sometimes, however, non-organic materials are added to boost NPK, so always read the labels on fish fertilizers.

The right fish fertilizers, or combinations thereof, can be great for your plants. Fish hydrolysates provide more nutrients and vitamins, hormones and micronutrients. Fish meals are slower acting, more suitable for outdoor use and larger areas.  Fish emulsions are ideal for quick-acting foliar sprays.

However, while fish fertilizers can be extremely useful, do your homework before buying. Research the web, read labels and know what to ask for and you won’t go wrong.

Words: Jeff Lowenfels – author of the best selling gardening book “Teaming With Microbes: The Organic Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web” from Timber Press.
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The following questions are simple, yet their answers can be complex as most relate to microbiology. That in itself demonstrates the first rule of organics, especially as it relates to micro flora and fauna. We are only scratching the surface of understanding. Even the most complex and cutting edge technologies our industry promotes appear unsophisticated and heavy-handed when compared to the nearly incomprehensible biological synergy, which exists within functioning ecosystems.

The last slide of my presentation simply stated: Experiment and observe. If you are considering organics and microbiology, your garden is cutting edge. You could be doing a combination of things that have not been used together before. When you make a change in your garden, enjoy the experiment but always observe. A solution is not an answer if you can’t replicate it.

Can you use organics and synthetics together? Do synthetics damage microbiology?

It is possible to use organics with synthetic products. In fact, there are many “hybrid” products within the marketplace already. Organic acids such as humates can provide substantial benefits to synthetic forms of nutrients. Stimulants such as kelp and yucca—among others—have also found their way into many products. Clearly organic enhancements to synthetic programs can provide benefits, though it is up to the gardeners to test what works in their own situations.

When it comes to biology in your indoor garden, mineral-based nutrients can cause issues. Soluble phosphorus can inhibit many strains of mycorrhizae, while abundant nitrogen will cause nitrogen-fixing bacteria to become dormant.

There are many instances where synthetics can damage biology; in this case your indoor garden is no different than conventional agriculture. Remember that in an indoor garden, biological stimulants are a temporary adjustment, whereas in nature they’re in an omnipresent relationship, which builds and diversifies over time. You’ll never duplicate that relationship, so use biological stimulants as temporary and specific beneficial substances instead.

Can I use organic nutrients in a soilless mix? Can I cultivate beneficial microorganisms in this medium?

Organic nutrients can work well in soilless media. If you are using a powder or granular option try and premix it with your medium. Also, consider charging it with some useful beneficial organisms and some enzymes to begin the decomposition process. If you can’t mix with your medium because your plants are already rooted, consider using an organic liquid, which would include digested nutrients and would have a higher initial availability. Using the premix and then adding in liquids is a great way to get the best results out of organics indoors. You can cultivate microbes in a soilless medium but it is difficult to find balance and ensure long-term survival. Use biology as you would any other supplement—as a short-term beneficial substance. Pick a biological option for a specific need and give your medium as heavy an application as necessary.

What is the difference between fungi and bacteria?

They are both exceptionally important in the ecosystem, being part of the trophic layer related to decomposition, however they are quite different. Bacteria are unicellular organisms that can rapidly colonize localized areas in soils. Fungi are multi-cellular and slower growing so apply them as soon as possible. What’s more, bacteria can thrive in disturbed soils, but generally fungi can’t as soil disturbances interfere with their mycelia networks. In many cases bacteria and fungi compete, but they can both exist together in a balanced system. Both types of organisms secrete various byproducts such as organic acids that can be exceptionally beneficial to your plants. As with any microbial option, be sure to understand why you are choosing and applying the organism you have selected for use.

Should I use carbohydrates to feed my beneficial? How can carbs help plants?

Feeding beneficials with simple sugars sounds good in theory but in practice it can cause headaches. When bacteria are exposed to high levels of sugar they begin to frenzy (a desired effect within a high oxygen aerobic compost tea system). The unfortunate problem with this activity is that most beneficial bacteria are aerobic. Aerobic organisms use oxygen during activity. In the root zone where oxygen levels are at a premium, does this type of stimulation make sense or could it lead to anaerobic conditions? Not to suggest the abandonment of a carbohydrate supplement, simply be aware that this reaction can have a negative effect on plant roots and cause a proliferation of pathenogenic microbes stimulated by the lack of oxygen. Sometimes a little is better than a lot. To benefit microbes, consider insoluble humates or substances like Biochar as more persistent sources of carbon.

Carbohydrates can help plants but “carbs” come in many forms. Once again, testing is the easiest way to determine if there a desirable benefit—such as an increase in yield.

Can one type of beneficial be too aggressive and will it crowd out other species? Isn’t it all about variety?

In a natural system, biodiversity is the essence of life. The soil food web is sometimes presented in a simple chart—an effective learning tool but an over simplification. The reality is we understand a fraction of the activity that occurs in soil and have identified only a small portion of the organisms that thrive there. In an indoor garden, no matter how talented the grower, it would be sheer arrogance to suggest he has the definitive answer to balancing a complex system of beneficial microbes.

Our approach is more hit and miss. Many microbes will not have the required soil conditions to thrive and will die out quickly, whereas some might like the conditions and dominate the root zone. You can only hope that the ones that dominate are beneficial. Be sure to understand the effect of your chosen microbes and apply them frequently to ensure some viable colony exists in your medium. Remember that bacteria can colonize more quickly than most types of beneficial fungi so it’s easier to find benefits from bacteria in short-cycled annual crops. In nature most established ecosystems are usually fungal dominated, however these systems have evolved and been left to mature for exceptionally long periods of time.

Can mycorrhizae thrive in a water system? Do I need endo- and ecto- varieties?

We are only just beginning to understand this 350 million year-old relationship. What we do understand does question the benefit of adding a product like this in the absence of soil or media to colonize. The main functions that we understand about mycorrhizae at this point are the absorption of hygroscopic water which would be unavailable to plants in the absence of their fungal partners, and the exceptional ability of these fungi to acid mine various minerals that are hard for the plants to access, which includes phosphorus and several micronutrients.

Look at a water system in regards to these two main benefits. The constant supply of water over the roots seems to contradict the necessity of these fungi accessing water that plant roots just can’t find. Most gardeners are supplying soluble mineral salts and chelated micronutrients to their water systems so the fungi are rendered ineffective for this purpose as well. In fact if soluble phosphorus is applied at more than 25 ppm in solution, the colonization of the mycelium network is inhibited. If you were to be gardening in a soilless media with organic nutrients, then the mycorrhizae would surely be more beneficial with the introduction of hard-to-access water within the medium and also organic nutrients that needed to be broken down—rock phosphate, for example.

It is possible mycorrhizae could create a biofilm around the rhizosphere in a water-based system and that they could provide benefits outside of the two major points we understand. Remember we have a very limited knowledge of the scope of this relationship. More research is required to get a better understanding and you can always experiment in your own garden. Now, that is cutting edge!

Endo- and ecto-mycorrhizae varieties as they relate to the indoor garden has always been a difficult concept for me. I enjoy learning and for all of the science I have reviewed I still can’t understand why someone would add ecto-mycorrhizal fungi into a water system growing annual plants. I pursued the issue with several experts who reaffirmed my thinking on the subject. Unless you are growing conifers or some deciduous trees you really have absolutely no use for ecto-fungi varieties in your indoor garden. You get way more colony forming units per gram with ecto than you do endo, but at least the lower number of endo are actually doing something for your plants.

Most blends that have both are designed for nursery growers so they can just use one product for all of the plants that respond to endo- and ecto-mycorrhizae. This is an important feature for a time and cost sensitive diverse nursery operation; however, remember the concept of biofilms and the limited understanding we have of these organisms. Perhaps there is a positive relationship to adding ecto- varieties unrelated to the observed and validated associations. I can never stress enough that if you observe a difference in your garden from the addition of a component try and find a reason, and keep using that product!

What are the benchmarks for a good quality compost tea and what are the scope and limits of its use?

There are several professional organizations that provide standards and testing for microbial diversity in compost tea. If you are serious about this beneficial organic option be sure to get your solution tested so you can be sure it truly is beneficial. There is clearly no way to visually assess a compost tea and if it is untested you will have no idea what is going into your soil. A quality compost tea blend is an excellent biological inoculant and in some cases could be effective as a foliar spray for disease prevention. Note: it is far easier to amplify bacterial populations in a short-cycled compost tea brewer, but you can still charge your medium with many other soil dwelling organisms when applying your brew.

WORDS: Simon Hart

Got an organic growing question we didn’t answer? Email us at rant@urbangardenmagazine.com

“A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.”
~William Shakespeare.

Let’s hear it for worms! They not only help to increase the amount of air and water that gets into the soil, but they also play a key part in breaking down organic matter into forms that plants can use as food. And even if that weren’t enough, they also leave behind castings (worm poop) that rank as one of the most highly prized fertilizers on the planet.
Ask any seasoned organic grower (indoors or outdoors) and they’ll tell you that worm castings are where it’s all at. But why are they so special and what are the metrics of quality?

We decided it was about time we learnt more about worms and the rich, wholesome, soil enriching castings they produce so we brought in seasoned vermiculture expert, Larry Martin, to bring us up to speed on Mother Nature’s soil workers.

There are over 7,000 species of worms, but only two species, the Redworms (Eisenia fetida) and the European Nightcrawler (Eisenia hortensis) are widely used in vermiculture—farming worms and harvesting their castings and vermicomposting—using worms to create compost out of organic waste.

If you want to breed your own worms and create your own worm castings the first thing you need to do is look at  your chosen species of worm’s native habitat to get a good idea how they might function in a worm growing operation. Redworms and Euros are from the same genus and share a lot of the same traits, but they are actually different species.

Redworm Habitats

The redworm’s native habitat is on open grassland, especially where there is plenty of animal manure for them to feed on.  You will find these worms in great numbers on farmlands, particularly around animal pens and manure piles. The anaerobic bacteria in their manure is what gives it that distinctively unpleasant smell! The worms consume and aerate the manure, thus reducing the odor. They are top feeders that are found in the top 6-8 inches of the soil. Farmers that use pesticides will have very few worms and a very smelly farm.

Euro Habitats

The Euros native habitat is the forested areas of Hungary, but they are now found in other areas of Europe and the USA.  In Europe, due to their forest dwelling attributes, they are also known as the ‘leaf worm’, consuming the leaf litter and animal waste on the floor of the forests. They burrow much deeper than redworms and can be found up to three feet beneath the soil surface.
These two earthworms have a lot in common and can be raised together for home use in vermicomposting bins (more on that later).  It’s preferable to raise them separately if the excess worms will be sold.  The Euros are a larger and tougher worm, which makes them a great worm for fishing as well as for vermicomposting and gardening.  The redworms breed quickly and produce more offspring than Euros but, pound for pound, Euros consume more organic matter than redworms.

How Worms Work

Earthworms have no teeth, but daily they consume their own weight in decomposing organic matter and microorganisms, from which they derive their nutrients. The crop and gizzards help breakdown their food, and astonishingly, worms have five hearts to pump blood throughout their body. Worms breathe through their skin and must live in a moist environment. As organic matter passes through a worm’s intestines, it becomes inoculated with many more microorganisms.
A worm ‘cast’ is produced after a worm feeds. This worm poop is rich in nutrients and beneficial soil bacteria. On the way through the worm’s body, the calciferous gland coats each tiny casting with different thicknesses of calcium that are readily available for the plant to uptake.  It is the multiple layers of calcium that make worm castings a sustainable slow release fertilizer.  This encapsulates all the plant nutrients and microorganisms with the correct amount of moisture that will keep the nutrients and microorganisms viable for up to three years when stored properly.

General Earthworm Anatomy

Both species are true hermaphrodites.  The smooth band or “Clitellum” near the head end of the worm is formed at maturity. On the underside of the Clitellum there are two pores that release the sperm on one side and two pores that release ovum.  They mate head to head so both can share the sperm and ovum.  They also secrete albumin (a water soluble protein) to feed the developing baby worms within the cocoon, and mucous to make the protective cover around the cocoon.  The cocoons can stay dormant and remain viable for a year or more and will not hatch until the right moisture, temperature and the proper microorganisms are present. Given optimal conditions, a cocoon will hatch in a couple of weeks and produce one to four small pinkish baby worms about ¼ inch long. Given the right conditions, it takes them three to four months to reach maturity.

Vermicompost and Worm Castings  – Know The Difference!

The vermicomposting process greatly reduces the volume of material in the finished product.  For example, 20 cubic yards of compost or compostable organic matter processed through the worm would reduce the volume to between 10 and two cubic yards of a much denser finished product – Vermicompost, not pure worm castings.

So what actually is the difference between vermicompost and worm castings?

Vermicompost is the end product of adding worms to decaying plant debris to speed up the process of breaking down the organic matter (compost).  After removing the worms from the process, what remains is the vermicompost.  Vermicompost will have typically not been screened and not all of the organic material will have passed through the worm.

Worm Castings (aka ‘worm humus,’ ‘worm manure’ and ‘vermicasts’) are literally worm poop that has been separated from vermicompost by passing it through a 1/8th inch screen.  All of the organic matter that has not passed through the worm is removed, leaving just worm castings.

A really good Vermicompost will contain 40 to 60% pure worm castings, but many products out there contain significantly less. Much like thermal compost, vermicompost is a highly variable product. Some manufactures add pure worm castings to cured compost, this is slightly different and is called a blend. The advantage of a blend is you know the percentage of both the castings and the compost that is being purchased. As with any product, it’s always advisable to do some research before buying vermicompost to ensure you are purchasing a good quality, effective product.

Doing it Yourself with Vermicomposters

Also known as a ‘worm bin’ or ‘wormery’, a vermicomposter is a vessel in which vermicompost and worm castings are produced. There are many types of contraptions in which worms can live and produce valuable plant amendments; they range from huge worm bins used in commercial production, to small plastic boxes you can use at home.

Worm Bin Tips

A simple worm bin can be purchased online or you can easily use your DIY skills, purchase a similar bin or tote from a DIY store and make your own. If there is a strong chemical smell coming out of the bin you will need to let it air out for several days or fill it with water and place in the sun for a couple of days.  The pliable plastic bins contain chemicals that leach out which will slowly kill the worms! Any of the food grade plastics will not harm the worms. It’s a good idea to drill 12-15 ¼ inch holes in the bottom to allow air flow.

The multiple stacked vermicompost bins look quite glitzy, but they can have a high failure rate if Redworms are used because they often drown in the reservoir at the bottom of the unit. Also, worms have a mind of their own and it is usually hard to ‘train’ the worms to migrate to the upper tray.

A larger ground vermicomposting bin can be made from 2×12 lumber or cinder blocks. For a bin that would deal with a family of four, simply make a raised bed that is 2 feet wide by 3 feet long with weed block placed on the bottom—this will help to keep the moles from dining on your worms. In-ground worm bins should be located in partial shade to avoid temperature extremes.

In any worm bin, a combination of the Redworms and Euros work very well together.  The Redworms are surface feeders and the Euros feed both surface and subsurface.  The main difference between the two species is that the Redworm still has an aquatic gene that attracts them to the water. If the mix of materials becomes too wet in the vermicomposter, they will preferentially stay in the water and die in less than 24 hours.  Other than checking the moisture content, you can tell if the mix is too wet – dead worm odor is really, really nasty.

Some worm bins have a reservoir and tap in the bottom to catch and pour the “worm tea”. A lot of this liquid is from the fresh fruits and veggies that are 90% water.  Some of the directions sold with the bin encourage the use of excess water to make ‘worm tea.’ which at that point is actually ‘garbage tea!’  Tea is best made from the finished vermicompost or worm castings, which when applied will not burn the plants.

Bedding

The first step is filling your worm bin half way with ‘bedding’ – brown (carbon) coarse organic matter to trap oxygen below the surface. The best bedding is made with stuff taken from your own compost heap. Bedding materials such as shredded paper and/or cardboard that is commonly used will pack too tight and cut off the oxygen needed to sustain healthy worm populations.  However both may be used in moderation in combination with the following materials:  Pine shavings from rabbit cages or horse stalls, chopped woody plant stems from the garden and shredded dead small branches.

Tip: Do not use any cedar shavings or pine straw in bedding mixes as they are high in harmful resins.
After adding your bedding to the worm bin, water well to make sure that there are no dry spots.

So What do Worms Like to Eat?

Use a mix of green veggies waste from the kitchen or garden, plus fruits, grass, etc. for your nitrogen source.  Do not overload it with any one item.  It is ok to use citrus waste, but don’t go to a juicer and put a ton of it in at a time.  Do not use meat, cheese or other milk products, these take too long to break down and will encourage animals to dig up your worm beds. The wastes should be chopped up so it will break down quicker.

The quality of the vermicompost can be improved with the addition of a tablespoonful of a quality rock dust once a month.  Microbial inoculants are also a great additive to increase the microbial population and rapidly break down the organic matter, as well as to help convert the rock dust to usable minerals for plant uptake.
Remember, what is grown in our earth can be recycled through our earthworms and returned to Mother Nature.  Be aware that feedstock used from municipal composting operations may contain heavy metals, pesticides, herbicides and sometime sewer sludge.  Leaves and twigs picked up by the city curbside programs often have traces of antifreeze, oil and other contaminates from the roads. The worms do a great job reducing contaminates, but do not complete eliminate them. If you put garbage into your vermicomposting you will get garbage out of the back end of those worms!

Buying worms – Buyers Beware!

Try to find someone locally that is vermicomposting and purchase worms from them. If that doesn’t work try the Internet but do some checks to make sure that this person has been in business for more than a week. Worms are usually purchased by the pound. Sounds simple enough, but there are some different opinions in what constitutes a pound of worms. Some will include the weight of the bedding in the pound of worms. But a pound of worms should be just that – one pound of worms. This includes the ¾ to 1 pound of bedding that is mixed with the 1 pound worms to keep them alive while in transit. The rule of thumb is to purchase ½ to 1 pound of worms per sq. ft. of your vermicomposting bin.
Next, put the worms to work. A mixture of the worms and their bedding is great way of inoculating the garden, planter box or other growing containers. The partially vermicomposted bedding will give the plants a shot in the arm.  The worms will start to work aerating the soil and converting the organic matter to the nutrients NPK, Calcium, Iron, etc., plus microorganisms need for a healthy soil food web.

A Quick and Easy Worm Tea

Place two cups of vermicompost in a recycled milk jug(s), fill with water and shake well several times during the day. The next day it is ready to use. When using this tea for recovering stressed plants, shake the tea well before watering. When applying to healthy plants simply watered with the clearer tea leaving the debris in the jug. Alternatively you can pour the clear liquid through cotton or cheese cloth filter into a spray bottle, this solution can then be used as foliar spray which will give the plants a boost of nutrients, and populate the foliage with beneficial bacteria to help protect against pests and disease.

Tips & General info:

Beneficial Biology: A good quality vermicompost with have a minimum of the following microbes; Aerobic & Facultative Bacteria, Yeast, Actinomycetes, Pseudomonads & Nitrogen Fixing Bacteria. Do not dry out the vermicompost. 30 to 40% moisture content is necessary to maintain micro-life of product. Do not freeze as it will kill most all of the microbes and storing above 100 degrees will also have a deleterious effect.

Nutrients: Calcium, Magnesium, Nitrogen, Phosphate, Potassium, Manganese, Boron, Iron & Zinc. Hopefully it will be very low in the heavy metals and free of E. coli and Salmonella. Some really great quality vermicompost contain less heavy metals than in some municipal drinking water systems!

Application Rates: For good quality Vermicompost, use 15-25% as a soil amendment for growing veggies and up to 30-40% for plants with a higher nutrients demand such as fast growing annuals, trees and shrubs. For large outdoor plots use two tons per acre or 80LB per 1000 ft2. If using high quality worm castings, use 50% of the above recommendations.

Teas: Generally speaking aerobic teas made using a quality vermicompost are often superior to that of aerobic tea made with only thermal compost. However, teas made with only vermicompost will more often than not be dominated by bacteria and low on fungi. The best approach for a diverse range of soil food web organisms is to use both types of compost as a microbe source.

Consumer Quality Control Test:

Use empty 20oz. drink bottles
Place 3oz. of worm castings in each labeled test bottle
Fill each bottle about ¾ full of water.
Shake vigorously for two to three minutes
Let is set for 25 or 30 minutes
First, check to see what if anything is floating on the surface. This is a good way to check if there are any weed seeds and how much unconsumed junk is floating.
Next, check out the sediment layers. If they use sand as filler, it will be the first to settle out at the bottom. What is the color of the layers? The darker the color the more pure castings will be in the product. This is my type of testing, it costs you only your time!

Purchasing Tips:

When purchasing vermicompost, make sure that the bag is not air tight. Invariably the vermicompost will have some worms and egg cocoons, which will hatch. They require a lot of oxygen as do the microorganisms. Without some air flow they will die and really smell bad. Pure worm castings have a shelf life or around two years, after this the micro-life will begin to diminish.
When buying worm castings for the first time, ask the retailer if you can open up the bag. There should be a pleasant earthy odor and a nice uniform texture, much like coffee grounds. The color of the castings should be should be light to dark black.

“Life is hard. Then you die. Then they throw dirt in your face. Then the worms eat you. Be grateful it happens in that order.”
~ David Gerrold

Words: Larry Martin

“We know more about the movement of celestial bodies than we do about the soil underfoot.”
~Leonardo da Vinci

Commercial grape growers in Sonoma and Napa pay big bucks for beneficial biology consultants to come to their vineyards. And for good reason—the right blend of microbiology in their soils can significantly increase the market value of their wine by promoting more sophisticated flavors and bouquets in their grapes. When it comes to actually selling the end product, it can be the difference between producing a bottle that sells for, say, ten bucks and one that sets you back fifty or more. Just think what an understanding of beneficial biology could do for the fruit and veggies in your garden?

Organic waste decomposing at a composting facility in sacramento, California.

So what exactly is this beneficial biology? How do we ‘capture it’ and put it to work in our gardens? It turns out that the answer’s been right beneath our noses all this time. Literally! Microbes form an integral component of all living systems. In fact, if microbes didn’t exist then you wouldn’t be worrying about them, because you wouldn’t be around either! While you ponder that fact, consider one more. There are more microbial cells in and on a human (or at least one not taking antibiotics) than there are human cells in your body!

We’re going to find out how to breed microbes (it’s easy!) and deploy them in our gardens. To this end we’ve pulled in beneficial biology expert, Evan Folds from Progress Earth, to give us a practical introduction to brewing your own compost tea–and using it to grow the most delicious, chi-filled produce imaginable!

Salivating? Then you’d best read on!

Give it up for microorganisms! They perform relatively Herculean acts for their size. Microbes are responsible for aiding limitless plant processes, including helping plants feed and protecting them from disease. They even help to create the very soil that serves to support the entirety of life on Earth.  Meanwhile, many of us have become conditioned by modern marketing to foster a disdain and disrespect for microbial creatures (think hand sanitizers and antibiotics.) Healthy soil is alive with microbes. They form incredibly important mutualistic relationships with the plants we depend on for food. They break down organic matter (which is inaccessible to plants) into a form that plants can use. Think of them as little ‘compost conversion’ factories. Now start to imagine the potential for increasing the life force in your garden by learning how to breed these microbes at home! We’re talking about something called “actively aerated compost tea” or AACT for short. It’s “life juice” for your plants—a brown soup that’s full of beneficial microbiology, the essential components of any organic growing situation.

Compost Tea and Soil Food Web

Bubbling air through compost tea is essential to create a healthy, earthy-smelling brew

Brewing compost tea is easy and can be done in many different ways. You take some compost and other humus sources as a source for microorganisms and grow them to extremely high concentrations in an aerated water solution comprised of food sources and catalysts. The result? The soil food web unleashed in all its glory! Microbes and plants are natural teammates, so compost tea is simply the best way to replenish and enhance this wonderful relationship.

However, our current understanding of how to best take advantage of compost tea when growing plants can be called “rule of thumb,” at best. We know a lot about microbes, but relatively little about what they do or how to use them while growing plants.

Adding compost tea to rain water

There are potentially billions of microorganisms and thousands of feet of fungal hyphae in a mere teaspoon of quality compost. The fact is, microbes are so abundant, so pervasive in everything we do, that it’s no issue to promote astronomical numbers when discussing and marketing them in compost, or compost tea products. It’s easy to get bamboozled with all the hype surrounding compost and compost tea. Consider this: microbes are so small that up to 500,000 bacteria can fit in the period at the end of this sentence. When it comes to brewing your own microbes, high numbers are the easy part, but the number of microbes present in a biological sample is nowhere near as important as the diversity and strength of those organisms. Total numbers can be relevant when evaluating the balance of biological products or whether a humus product is stable, but it does not address the most important aspect of all—how well the product works in a real-life growing situation.

Biological Diversity and Microbe Strength

Many biological products available at your local grow store are created by microbes raised by humans in a laboratory. This biosynthetic approach is necessary for the cost effective distribution of certain microbes and has its merits, especially with mycorrhizae fungi, which cannot express their abilities without a plant and are not benefitted by brewing in compost teas. However, I believe that a biosynthetic approach cannot represent the full potential of an intact biological network. There’s no synergy amongst the different microbes as they didn’t grow up together. Remember, microbes aren’t robots, they’re unique dynamic living breathing life forms with varying abilities, even within a given species.

A key concept to grasp is that no living organism operates autonomously. In other words, there is a symbiosis, or “give and take,” found in the natural world that we humans take for granted, and therefore restrict. Think you grow your plants? Sorry but it’s far more likely that you merely get in the way and mess with the magic! All microbes operate by way of teammates. They play off of each other, with one teammate unlocking the ability of the next. The big man cannot dunk without the assistance from the point guard. When 52 different organisms (ones that were individually grown by a human in a Petri dish) are brought together as an end product intended for use in a gardening situation, the optimal result is surely compromised. Remaining with our basketball analogy for a moment longer, the team’s overall ability is hindered if all the players are not on the court and, even if they’re all present, what happens if the coach puts the players in the wrong positions?

Sure, microbes don’t play basketball (as far as we know) so you may be forgiven for thinking that it’s not feasible to identify ability in microbes. But first, check out some Bt products. Bt is a bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis. It’s commonly used in gardening because it’s gentle with plants, but very capable of parasitizing the larval stage of common pest insects. The Bt organisms geared towards fighting larvae such as caterpillars are called the kurstaki strain and the Bt aimed at fighting mosquito larvae in water is named the israelensis strain. These organisms are of the same species and illustrate differing abilities depending on the application.

Microbes can react and adapt…by design. Did you hear about the “new” proteobacteria discovered by scientists in the wake of the recent oil spill? Look it up. BP must have been stoked!

Making and Using Actively Aerated Compost Tea

So, you want to brew your own compost tea. Where do you start? The answer is humus! Microorganisms are found dormant in quality humus sources like compost or worm castings, but can be awakened and stimulated to grow under the right conditions. There are several different methods for creating compost tea (AACT). It’s simply a matter of adding your humus source to water and using air pumps to increase the amount of air in the water solution in order to grow microbes. The final part of the jigsaw is to add some sort of food and catalysts for the microbes to grow, such as molasses, kelp, rock dust, fish, humate, sea minerals, etc.

Brewing your own AACT is similar to running an aquarium. You aerate water for fish the same way you do for microbes, or for roots in a deep-water-culture hydroponics system.

The porous bag allows microbes to escape and enter the solution while keeping the tea free from debris.

DIY Compost Tea Shopping List

You can purchase ready-to-go brewers if you want to make your life nice and easy. Alternatively you can make one yourself. To brew compost tea, you’ll need a pump, some air tubing, a gang valve, and three bubblers.

• An aquarium pump large enough to run three bubblers or air stones
• Several feet of tubing
• A gang valve
• Three bubblers
• A porous bag for the compost, like a nylon stocking OR Something to strain the final tea, like an old pillowcase or tea towel.
• A bucket

All the components of your own compost tea brewer can be obtained at your local garden store for around $60. Without sophisticated equipment it’s hard to determine technical aspects like dissolved oxygen, so it’s best to keep it simple. A small aquarium air pump is sufficient for up to 10 gallons. More air will not be harmful; it’s simply that water can only hold so much of it. If you want to use higher volumes of water, you may want to consider getting a larger air pump.

As your compost tea brews (it usually takes about 12––24 hours) you will notice a layer of foam forming on the surface. This is nothing to worry about and is actually a result of the proteins produced by biological growth. This foam is a good sign that your compost tea (or rather the microbial life within) is flourishing.

Deliberate overuse of bat guano.

Some foods sources such as bat guano create more of it, but a good fish oil (or the active ingredient in comfrey called allantoin) will keep things in motion and keep the foam down if need be. Foam is generally not a concern, especially when using suggested recipes from reputable compost tea companies.

When brewing AACT keep in mind that the higher the water temperature the greater the biological growth, but the lower the dissolved oxygen. It’s a matter of physics that the warmer the water temperature, the less oxygen can be dissolved. It is also true that the colder the water temperature the slower the biological growth. Dissolved oxygen levels above 6 parts per million (ppm) will provide sufficient biological growth, and levels around 8 ppm are attainable at room temperature. An accepted approach among compost tea enthusiasts is to brew AACT at a similar temperature to where it’s being used, for example; if your root zone temperature is 68°F (20°C), brew the AACT around this temperature.

The food source utilized when brewing compost tea can determine the microbe grown. This idea follows the concept of succession. An acre of land left fallow will begin to regenerate using annual plants (weeds), and then progress into more perennial species (grass, vegetables) until it culminates into a forest (perennial hardwoods). Over the course of this natural process, fungi become gradually more dominant than bacteria. This is not black and white, but is evident in the fungal dominance of old growth forests.

So what does this knowledge mean? Well, you can use it to brew compost teas that make more sense to what you are growing. For instance, a sugar source like molasses fed to a balanced stable compost inoculant will encourage more bacterial growth, whereas kelp or fish fed to the same inoculant will encourage more fungal growth. The same is true for other inputs, like Equisetum (horsetail), which encourages the growth of beneficial nematodes. To be clear, molasses does not discourage fungi from growing, it simply encourages bacteria more. Similarly, using a fungal dominant tea on an annual plant will not harm it in any way; it’s a better/best scenario. There is so much more to be discovered as da Vinci reminds us—we know more about the stars.

Using AACT

Microbes given a proper environment can grow to extraordinarily high concentrations. The book Secrets of the Soil states that a single microbe reaching maturity and dividing within less than half an hour can, in the course of a single day, grow into 300 million more, and in another day to more than the number of human beings that have ever lived. Further, according to the book Microcosmos, bacteria, in four days of unlimited growth, could outnumber all the protons and even all the quarks estimated to exist within the universe. This reality allows growers to use as little as five gallons on an entire acre of land, roughly equivalent to about a one cup per gallon dilution.

Compost tea can be used in unlimited ways and really cannot be used incorrectly unless you are overwatering your plants. Some growers choose to use compost tea on every watering, but weekly applications or on reservoir changes would be sufficient. It is even possible to experience benefits from compost tea with just one application. After all, you’re dealing with living organisms that can populate and reproduce by themselves if given proper conditions.

It is a common supposition that synthetic products (i.e. mineral based nutrients) kill microbes. While this is certainly true on some level, using compost tea with synthetic nutrient regiments can produce good results. The image inset illustrates the use of a leading compost tea brew used at one cup per gallon on weekly reservoir changes in a mineral-based hydroponic situation growing jalapenos.

Again, it’s a better/best scenario; you’re better off using compost tea and mitigating the potential harshness of your mineral-based nutrients than worrying about the microbes dying.

It is always advisable to check nutrient concentrations with a meter before using a tea on sensitive or special plants, but by keeping inputs at or near recommended amounts there should be no fear of burning. “Burning” a plant is actually a water stress based on total ion concentration. Having too many ions around a root system sucks water out of the plant via osmosis, causing the plant to respond by sending its available water into the middle of the leaf and leaving the edge to burn. Because compost tea is created at relatively low concentrations (600-800 ppm) burning is a non-issue when used at recommended levels.

As if to underline the previous point, compost tea can be used with seedlings and cuttings with great success. The sooner and more microbes used the better, even in hydroponics. Use a gallon of compost tea to 20-50 gallons of water in hydro reservoirs; some growers even use compost tea concentrate as their primary reservoir solutions. Consider using organic and organic-based nutrients as food sources for biological inoculants. It is not necessary to feed microbes after you have implemented them into a garden, but it can certainly have a positive influence. After all, natural farming is about feeding microbes, not the plant.

Compost Tea as a Foliar Application

You can even use compost tea as a foliar spray. Some growers spray their plants every day, but once a week will do the trick for measureable results. When using compost tea you are harnessing a synergy of living microbes for general benefit, however, this is one of the occasions when a targeted biological product can be effective. Many times the microbes used in human designed microbial products are found naturally in compost, but not in high enough concentrations to make them applicable once pests or disease have struck. In the end, a pest or disease is simply a biological imbalance of some sort, so when one trophic level gets out of whack a higher concentration of a certain microbe can work effectively.

The active ingredient in many biological fungicides is the bacterium Bacillus subtilis, which is found naturally in compost. This concentrated organism will work better on a disease outbreak, but if used consistently, compost tea can work preventatively to allow the disease to express itself in the first place. The more consistent you are in delivering microbes to the leaves and root zone of your plants, the more benefits you will receive.

Compost tea can even help control pests if used consistently, many bacteria found in compost seek protein, which is what comprises the exoskeleton of many target pest species. As with any new endeavor in the garden, isolate a test plot and experiment before implementing it into the entire growing situation.

There is no real precedent for using Actively Aerated Microbial Extracts (AAME) in compost tea brews, but it’s certainly a good idea for experimentation. Some grow stores set up multiple compost tea units for grow/bloom or bacterial/fungal purposes. I anticipate that we will start seeing them for pest and disease control too in the near future.

AACT Brewers

There are varied compost tea units available on the market, everything from a five gallon bucket to large commercial units. For the most part, the unit you choose will be based on volume size and convenience, not biological performance.

There is a healthy debate regarding the importance of the size of the air bubble produced by air diffusers and another on whether they need to be used at all. While it is certainly true that the smaller the bubble the more surface area exposed to the solution, it is unclear whether this really makes a difference based on maximum dissolved oxygen levels considering water holds a finite amount of oxygen relative to its temperature.

Filter bags to hold compost are also a point of difference between respective models. They are used strictly for convenience so that the compost tea brew does not clog up sprayers after creation. This can save time, but must be balanced with what is not extracted from the physical compost when brewing. As mentioned above, microbes hold on really tight. A quality humus is colloidal and most inputs used are soluble, so a filter bag is not absolutely necessary. You can always filter it after you are done brewing.

It is vital to use quality water when brewing compost tea, and in your garden in general. If you are unsure of your water source, use a filter. There are quality reverse osmosis (RO) filters and de-chlorinators on the market for reasonable prices. Most nutrient solutions are not designed to account for what comes through the tap, so if possible start from zero ppm. Remember, chlorine kills microbes and it’s added to just about every public water supply in some form for this very reason. Bubbling your water will remove chlorine in a couple of hours, but not chloramines, its more persistent cousins—also used in many municipal water supplies. At the very least, let your water sit out for 24 hours before using it to brew tea. Ideally, invest in a reverse osmosis water purification system.

Composts, Inoculants and Food Sources for Compost Tea

When brewing compost tea, starting with a quality microbial product is essential. This is a major problem with people who compost in their back yards. Organic matter doesn’t melt; it’s biologically digested. It’s not advisable to use manure to make compost tea because manure is not yet plant food. This is why black cow “compost” at the hardware store costs $1 a bag. It’s aged manure. It’s mulch, not plant food. Remember, trees in a forest don’t eat leaves; they eat what the microbes make of them.

Some growers use worm casings as the sole basis for their compost teas. While this is certainly a viable option to brew tea, worms are predominately a bacterial organism, and do not contain some of the trophic levels of beneficial organisms, such as fungi, nematodes, protozoa, ciliates, etc. that provide vital benefits to plants and gardens. Worms sequester bacteria in their gut in order to work their magic, like termites use fungi to digest the wood they eat. To brew a better tea, consider using worm castings along with a balanced humus product.

Food sources for compost tea include molasses, kelp, fish, bat guano, and generally anything that was once alive that is soluble enough to be put into solution, even fruit pulp. It is important to note that recipes and preferences vary widely, for instance, some may recommend up to 16 tablespoons of molasses per 5 gallons of water, others only 1 tablespoon. Be sure to experiment based on these general recommendations, but here are a couple of simple recipes:

Use the formulating company’s recommendations for humus and catalyst per gallon, then for a bacterial dominant tea, use 4-6 tablespoons of molasses and 2-4 tablespoons of kelp to five gallons of aerated water. Reverse the ratio for a more fungal dominant tea.

Three Simple AACT Recipes (All for 5 Gallon (19L) brewers)

Bacterial Dominant Tea

1.5 pounds (700g) bacterial compost or vermicompost
3-4 tablespoons (45-60ml) liquid black strap molasses
4 teaspoons (23g) dry soluble kelp or 2 tablespoons of liquid kelp
3-4 teaspoons (15-20ml) fish emulsion

Equal Ratio – Fungi : Bacteria Tea

1.5 pounds (700g) 1:1 fungi to bacteria compost
3-4 tablespoons (45-60ml) humic acids
4 teaspoons (23g) dry soluble kelp or 2 tablespoons of liquid kelp
3-4 teaspoons (15-20ml) fish hydrolysate

Fungal Dominant Tea

2 pounds (900g) fungal compost
3-4 tablespoons (50ml) humic acids
2 teaspoons (10ml) yucca extract
4 teaspoons (23g) dry soluble kelp or 2 tablespoons of liquid kelp
4-5 teaspoons (20-25ml) fish hydrolysate

Recipes from ‘The Compost Tea Brewing Manual’, 5th Edition by Dr Elaine Ingham.

Fish-based natural fertilizers are generally obtained in one of two forms, condensed fish solubles known as emulsions, or enzymatic digested fish known as hydrolysates. Fish hydrolysate is cold processed (minced, enzymatically digested and liquefied) to preserve proteins for quick turnover by microbes into nutrients for plants. Emulsions are created using extreme heat, and while they may be easier to work with because they are further refined, the processing removes valuable ingredients and denaturing nutrients. While both fertilizer forms can benefit a compost tea, hydrolysates retain the natural oils from the fish that are a very potent fungal food.

Mineral Catalysts

One thing that is not discussed enough in the compost tea community is the use of mineral catalysts. Catalysts, as we know, change the speed of a reaction. It’s important to understand that microbes work indirectly via chemical decomposition. In other words, bacteria don’t chew on a banana peel in a compost pile, they offer up an enzyme (biological catalyst) that works to chemically break it down. Enzymes are specialty proteins that work like keys to a lock for important biochemical reactions within living organisms, plants and people included. All enzymes incorporate a single molecule of a trace mineral—such as manganese, copper, iron or zinc—without which an enzyme cannot function. We all know the benefits of adding enzymes to our gardening systems, but not many growers know that you get free enzymes from microbes.

Microbes help plants eat and, in return, plants feed microbes. In fact, over half of the energy derived through photosynthesis by plants is fed to the soil as exudates. Think of an exudate as a meal for microbes. Plants actually know what they need, they just can’t tell us. This means that plants have the ability to attract specific trophic levels (imagine the balance of the big fish and the little fish in the ocean) of microbes by preparing food from its surrounding environment that attracts those capable of generating what is deficient in the plant. This biological/plant network, or intelligence, if you will, cannot be established overnight, but it can be tapped into if we are aware of it. This is especially true when growing indoors in artificial environments.

It’s important to provide everything for plants so they can be allowed to eat what they desire, but it’s even more important to allow microbes a complete tool kit. Not doing so is like hiring someone to build a house and only providing them half the tools. The pictures inset illustrates a side-by-side conducted with a broad-spectrum mineral product. The tea sample on the left was brewed in the presence of many more elements than the tea sample on the right. Note the enhanced foaming and darker color after only four hours.

Other catalysts to consider are rock dusts, yucca extract, or any broad-spectrum natural mineral. Remember, these materials are not “food” for microbes; they help microbes eat their food.

Buying AACT

Your grow store might be one of the many who offer up their own in-store brew from units operated inside the store. If you choose to purchase compost tea from a gardening store, be sure to use it as soon as possible. We have seen evidence of beneficial life for up to three days under a microscope with some systems, but it is always advisable to use it the day you get it from the shop. Make sure to ask your retailer about the components of the compost tea being brewed, including the biological source and whether mineral catalysts are being used. If they have a microscope set up, even better. Make a habit of reconciling the microbes you see under the scope before you take it home with the results you are getting in your garden.

Some models found in stores involve refrigerating brews and coordinating pickups on certain days, while others encourage running the units perpetually by adding food source, catalysts, and microbes daily based on the amount of water added to the unit.

Brew Times

The most commonly heard figure for brew times is 12-24 hours. If pressed for why, a common answer is because bacteria are most active in these stages. While bacteria are beneficial to plants, so are many other microorganisms. Take protozoa for example. It is well known that compost tea brewed for over 24 hours begins to develop protozoa and ciliate dominance. (The brew “matures.”) Protozoa are extremely efficient nitrogen (N) cyclers, so why would a grower looking for more nitrogen not brew their tea longer to populate more protozoa dominance? Further, they are also the shredders in the soil; they eat bacteria and fungi like a shark eats fish in the ocean. Humus is actually the guts of microbes. They have digested available organic matter to create stable dormant humus (plant food). The guts of microbes are actually fertilizer bags. Why wouldn’t we want protozoa in there creating nature’s plant food shredding up bacteria?

There is no “right” way to brew compost tea, only better and best. Before long we will have developed biological feeding schedules that direct growers on how long to brew their compost teas given humus, foods, and catalysts to accomplish the microbe spectrum that makes sense for the plant and stage of growth, like we do mineral products. If one wants bacteria to use as a foliar, use molasses and brew for 12 hours. For a higher fungal: bacteria ratio for hardwoods, brew 24 hours using fish hydrolosate and humates. Feed hay has shown promise in increasing protozoa counts, so brewers can use it and brew for 48 hours to sequester more for their gardens. The possibilities are endless.

Some growers are experimenting with aerating their microbes for a period of time before adding food sources. The idea is that some microbes wake up faster than others, so brewing without food lets all of them get their feet on the ground, so to speak. Makes sense, but much more research needs to be conducted. The new frontier in natural gardening will develop around these ideas. One thing is for sure, we’ve got a lot of work to do. But, hey, it could be worse, we could be sitting in a cubicle.

If we approach the biological situation of our soils and hydro systems humbly, we will be in a far greater position to benefit. We can get more out of our plants than we have come to expect. Growing plants is about much more than feeding a plant directly, it’s about taking stock of their total environment, including the biological (microbial) and energetic (biodynamic) aspects of the growing situation. Rather than listen to ourselves, let’s listen to our plants for a change.

If you’ve never used compost tea with your plants, you’re not maximizing the genetic potential of your garden. Consider this your clarion call. Stop by your local garden store and get started today.

“Nutrition as it is today does not supply the strength necessary for manifesting the spirit in physical life. A bridge can no longer be built from thinking to will and action. Food plants no longer contain the forces people need for this. So long as one feeds on food from unhealthy soil, the spirit will lack the stamina to free itself from the prison of the body.”   —  Rudolf Steiner • Creator of Biodynamics (1861-1925)

WORDS: Evan Folds

Borlaug grew up in a remote corner of rural Iowa – a place with twelve- grade one-room schools from which most youngsters dropped out by the eighth grade, a place with one car, no telephones, no electricity, but the Iowa Corn Song ,3 proudly sung like the Star-Spangled Banner at the start of every school day:

There was no future, other than growing corn, but “Norm Boy’s” grandfather had another vision, and inculcated the boy with a determination to obtain a higher education. He arrived at the University of Minnesota at age 20, “as a student athlete [whose] ability to do university work was questioned” 4 but left years later clutching a Ph.D in plant pathology,.

Assigned during World War II to Dupont, where he helped to develop DDT as part of the war effort, Borlaug was offered the sky, but given the choice between Dupont and sub-subsistence science for sub-subsistence Mexican farmers, he chose the. latter, working. with the Rockefeller Foundation, in a project to stave off a looming food crisis in overpopulated Mexico.5

THE AGRICULTURAL END OF FOOD PRODUCTION USES STAGGERING AMOUNTS OF WATER. AS AN ILLUSTRATION, HERE’S A RECIPE FOR A QUARTER-POUND CHEESEBURGER

The project goal was to breed strains of wheat that could withstand adverse climates, survive wheat’s fungal diseases, and produce prodigiously on dwarf plants, then convince tradition-bound farmers to adopt forthwith the new hybrids and the technology that accompanied them.. It was a race against time, and an extraordinarily demanding task in the pre-DNA era. Borlaug set up field operations in two locations with disparate climates and growing seasons so he could have plants accustomed to multiple climates, and could grow two generations of seedlings each year.

Borlaug shortly achieved his goal, and Mexico’s food crisis was over in a decade. On to Asia, where the same thing was happening: overpopulation, courtesy of modern medicine.. India was home to some of the poorest people in the world. Famine was widely forecast for the mid-seventies. It was the era of Ehrlich’s Population Bomb. Stanford professor Ehrlich was an icon for the rising environmental movement, but overnight, stubborn farm boy Borlaug appeared to prove him wrong. In a few short years, the Green Revolution turned a land of undernourished millions into the second largest wheat producer in the world. Borlaug became the hero of millions of peasants, and also of those who spoke for unlimited growth, and in the next twenty years The Population Bomb disappeared from the environmentalist lexicon, leaving the population boom unquestioned.

The Green Revolution, which was to go on producing wonder strains for other crops and other countries, had three central parts. The other two were irrigation and chemical fertilizer. These changed agriculture fundamentally, from a primarily solar-energy craft dependent upon local weather and soil conditions, to a fossil-fuel technology designed to force the land to produce mightily regardless of its natural limitations. Borlaug, summarizing in his Nobel lecture, warned that the new hybrids had not resulted in major yield improvements without both irrigation and “a strong responsiveness and high efficiency in the use of heavy doses of fertilizers.”6 Plentiful water, plentiful chemical fertilizer – that’s the secret to how in the last half century India – and California – turned arid lands almost instantly into wildly productive garden baskets. It may not be a sustainable solution, but at the time, the world needed a quick fix.

In his Nobel lecture, Borlaug talked proudly about how the new practices had given near-starving subsistence farmers surpluses they could sell, the money to buy oil-driven water pumps and tractors, and the influence to insist upon doors opening to the broader world. If you’ll permit me a broad brush, the Green Revolution had doubled and tripled grain production for multi-millions who had been on the brink of starvation, but turned locally self-sustaining agriculture into hydroponics. And it turned subsistence farmers, dependent on the whims of the soil, sun and rain, into small-time contractors dependent on the whims of the discount rate, the commodities markets and the petrochemical industry.

It weakened their umbilical cord to Mother Earth, and eased a process in which millions would find themselves drawn to seek their fortunes in the cities, providing cheap labor to run the Indochinese economic machine. But those were events far in the future when Borlaug performed his magic, and it’s hard to quibble when several hundred million people are about to die of starvation..

The agricultural end of food production uses staggering amounts of water. As an illustration, here’s the author’s recipe for a quarter-pound cheeseburger:

Ingredient /Water used in production

Lettuce (1/4 cup)…………………………0.8 gal

Bun (2 bread slices equiv) …………………….. 22.0 gal

Tomato (1 oz paste equiv) ……………………. 6.1 gal

Cheese (1 oz.)……………………………………… 58.3 gal

Ground beef (4 oz) ………………………………..641.2 gal

TOTAL………………………………… 728.4 gal

8-oz. Glass of milk……………………… 50.0 gal 7

The reason water consumption for meat and dairy products is so much higher than for vegetables and grain, is that, very approximately, it takes two pounds of grain to produce a pound of chicken, five pounds to produce a pound of pork, and ten pounds to produce a pound of beef.

The Green Revolution doubled the world’s irrigated acreage from 346 million acres to 690 million acres, and increased by a factor of nearly five its consumption of chemical fertilizer .8 Where does all the irrigation water come from? Wells, largely; as the World Bank has pointed out, groundwater comprises 97% of the world’s accessible freshwater reserves.9

Wells are a classic case of Garrett Hardin’s “tragedy of the commons” 10 – if the aquifer is shared by multiple individuals or multiple villages and there are no rules on how much anyone can use, then the users are individually, although not collectively, better off if they use as much as they want until the wells all run dry. So unless everyone follows the Golden Rule or there is an elaborate legal “groundwater management plan,” controlling how much everyone gets, the wells DO run dry. The first thing you need to begin fair and sustainable allocation of groundwater supplies is records of pumping from wells. They don’t exist. And farmers everywhere, from the one-acre plots of North China to the 1000-acre ranches of California, rebel against interference with their freedom. Even if there were the will and the way to adopt rational groundwater management programs around the world, the task would take many decades to accomplish – unless another farm-boy-savior-scientist comes down from the sky, to whom the farmers and bureaucrats can relate.

So where does that leave us? The United States is in a relatively good position because only one fifth of its grain production comes from irrigated land, but the figure is three fifths in India and four fifths in China.11 The world-wide picture is bleak:

* The annual overdraft from the U.S. Ogallala Aquifer, producing cattle and grain in quantity, is said to be about equal to total yearly flow of the Colorado River.12 It was declared by the USDA over a decade ago to be “near depletion,” with Texas having already lost 1.4 million acres of irrigated land and the irrigated land supported by the aquifer expected to be reduced 50% by2030, an acreage accounting for roughly 10% of US grain production.

* In China, the world’s greatest grain producer,13 pumping from a fossil aquifer in the North China Plain is relied upon to produce half the nation’s wheat and a third of its corn, approximately 40 million tons per year or 10% of the nation’s grain production; 14.

* Northern India is also overdrawing its groundwater supplies to maintain grain production. Although the overdraft is apparently much less severe than in China or the United States, nonetheless, if the current level of unsustainable groundwater overdraft continues, government experts have concluded that “India could face severe water shortages.”15

* Lester Brown, founder of the Worldwatch Institute, reports that fifteen nations containing half the world’s population, rely on groundwater overdraft for irrigation.16

These practices cannot go on for long, and in this writer’s opinion, water development and conservation are unlikely to come to the rescue. large surface reservoirs and desalinization are unlikely to save the day, because these projects do not ordinarily pay for themselves and for the foreseeable future governments are unlikely to be in a position to subsidize multi-billion-dollar investments in concrete and steel to feed the poor. As for water use efficiency, it might theoretically permit savings of anywhere from 10-40%, but implementation and enforcement have all the hurdles of groundwater management plans, plus the additional hurdle that tens of millions of farmers were taught decades ago that plentiful water was essential to high yields. Changes may occur, but they will most likely be incremental and slow. So dropping grain production appears inevitable in the US and China, and likely in much of the rest of the world, in the absence of major increases in acreage and/or yield per acre.

As for increased acreage, there is general agreement that the acreages have been at best essentially “flat” for decades17 and in any event it is hard to envision major investments being made in land development to feed the undernourished and virtually destitute bottom seventh of our population when the same land could be used, if at all, to produce beef or biofuels for the top seventh.

Yields? They are still increasing at approximately 1% per year, not enough to keep up with population increase; in fact, world per capita grain production peaked in 1986.18 Steady 1% per year yield increases cannot, of course, solve the problem of exhaustion of fossil aquifers, likely to occur close to the same time as exhaustion of the oil supply. There are disputes as to whether or how long genetic tinkering can continue to improve yields. Eventually we have to hit the maximum efficiency at which photosynthesis can occur, but there are radically different educated views as to how close we are.19

In Lester Brown’s view, “Unless population growth can be slowed quickly, there may not be a humane solution to the emerging world water shortage.”20 The statistics appear to show that he should have said population growth must be “reversed quickly,” rather than merely “slowed quickly.”

So when the aquifers run dry, a return to the days when agriculture was limited to natural precipitation, is inevitable. This means, on top of the present inability of yield increases to keep up with population increases, a relatively abrupt loss of at least 10% of production.

What about the fertilizer? That comes from mining operations, too. That is literally true of phosphorus, although it wasn’t before we came along. There are more phosphorus-rich bones walking the face of the earth than ever before in geological history; humanity is hoofing it around with 5 billion kg or 11 billion pounds of phosphorus ,21 which comes from mines,22 – NONE of it recycled. This has happened only since half of us moved to the cities, taking our personal wastes with us; petrochemical fertilizers replaced natural ones; and community sewers were invented. Mama Nature can’t afford this kind of progress for long.

In fact, the world phosphorus reserves are expected to be depleted within 25 to 70 years, depending upon where you are. Humanity will apparently go extinct for lack of phosphorus within a century unless we resume recycling,.23 This writer is unaware of any government plans anywhere, to do so.

And phosphorus isn’t the perceived serious problem. Nitrogen is. We have a reasonable amount of nitrogen in the air for the present, but the nitrogen has to be processed into ammonium nitrate or something comparable with a high energy input, and the starting material is natural gas, 5 % of which globally is used for production of nitrogen fertilizers.24 There are presently no alternatives. Natural gas accounts for 90% of the cost of nitrogen fertilizer, so the cost of the latter is pretty much proportional to the cost of the former.25 When the petroleum supply starts to go, fertilizer prices will spiral upward.

Of course nitrogen fertilizer can also be produced by nitrogen-fixing legumes, but that necessitates alternating between nitrogen-fixers and market crops. In his Nobel lecture Borlaug spoke of a dream of nitrogen-fixing grains being introduced in 1990 that would free peasant farmers from the need to purchase chemical fertilizers, but then, he said, he would wake up, disillusioned. It was only a dream. 35 years and 3 billion more people later, he would have to tell the New York Times, “This is a basic problem, to feed 6.6 billion people. Without chemical fertilizer, forget it. The game is over.”26

So at present, grain yield is not keeping up with the population, and things will get worse as fertilizer and water become expensive and scarce. Will a large part of the population die when they are curtailed? Not necessarily, because of how we allocate the use of the grain we produce.

To see the whole picture, we need to understand a little about the grain market, which is the dominant food market.. There are at this time three competing demands for the commodity: food (i.e. direct consumption by people), fodder, and fuel. Before fuel became part of the mix, the division between food and fodder was 60:40, with the “fodder” component capable if used as food, of providing the caloric needs of 3.5 billion people.27 But we are squandering the 40% “cushion.”

The mix in 2008 was said by Worldwatch Institute to be 47% food, 35% fodder, 18% fuel. The 18% figure may not be a 2010 reality, but no one claims less than 9%, and use of grain for bioalcohol is projected to double in the next decade.28 The 18% that we burn or apparently will burn is more than sufficient to fill the stomachs of the record 1 billion people who are undernourished today. Does it give you a warm and fuzzy feeling that we burn the grain that is sufficient to eliminate world hunger? Me neither. And If we engaged in a modest conservation program in our gasoline use and gave the saved grain to the hungry, no one would have to go hungry, at least for the moment The feed use is increasingly for beef, and the fuel use is primarily bioethanol – an attempt to use the “cushion” in world grain production to let the middle class, particularly in the

US and China, indulge in quarter-pounders and gas guzzlers for a few more years, while the poor’s burgeoning undernourished try to maintain themselves on an ever-slimmer portion of the grain production.

Feed and fuel compete with food not only for consumers, but for land. The EU has adopted a policy requiring 17% of its farmland to be devoted to biofuels in place of food.29 Land from Brazilian deforestation (which of course many of us would rather see not at all) could produce grain for food, could support range cattle, or could produce sugar cane (or grain) for ethanol. Not surprisingly, biofuel and beef are Brazil’s primary products from destruction of the rainforest.30 Food comes out as a poor third in competition with feed and fuel both for grain and for land. No wonder there were riots over bread in 2008.

“THE MIX IN 2008 WAS 47% FOOD, 35% FODDER, 18% FUEL. THE 18% THAT WE BURN IS MORE THAN SUFFICIENT TO FILL THE STOMACHS OF THE RECORD 1 BILLION PEOPLE WHO ARE UNDERNOURISHED TODAY. DOES IT GIVE YOU A WARM AND FUZZY FEELING THAT WE BURN THE GRAIN THAT IS SUFFICIENT TO ELIMINATE WORLD HUNGER?”

And we have hardly looked at the inevitable consequences of an agriculture dependent for more than half its productivity on fossil fuels, outside the control of one-acre farmers in the Third World or even of thousand-acre farmers in the US. Two of the simpler ties between fossil fuels and food are the costs of fertilizer and water for a typical Third World one-acre farm. With most of the cost of fertilizer(although varying widely year-to-year and place-to-place, $100/acre is a reasonable figure) coming from the cost of natural gas, its cost is going to go up rapidly as oil runs out and (if it happens at all) as the world starts to do something about global warming. And the cost of gasoline at $3/gallon for pumping the water from an -all-too-typical 500-foot-deep well sufficient to irrigate an acre for a year is about $200.31 So rising fossil fuel costs are likely on the near term to drive up fertilizer and water coss by hundreds of dollars per acre The Ogallala-Aquifer farmer may be able to “pass the cost along to the consumer”(Brace yourselves, Americans!), but the farmer in India or China or Bangladesh has mostly to pass the cost on to herself. Where will it come from? Less fertilizer, less water, less food, with one billion people hungry already. These are of course just illustrative costs, but he writer suspects they are more accurate than the assumptions made by the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization in its food supply projections for the next decade, that the international community will invest $200 billion per year for technological improvements in agriculture, that oil production will meet demand and that its costs will hardly budge.32 So even if the world can produce enough food, most folks may soon be unable to pay for enough.

The story of how we got here is complex – a confluence of population boom, oil boom and bust, the tragedy of the commons, misallocation of resources between rich and poor, the almost-deliberate blindness of America to the consequences of biofuel production -. the list goes on. There is an ongoing academic argument about whether the plight of the poor is one of inequitable distribution “or” population, but it is quite clear at this point that the answer is “Both.” There is also a sociological factor – the separation of people from the land, which has allowed us to “commoditize” land, to block the recycling of phosphorus and nitrogen, to separate sustenance from daily life, to warehouse in China’s cities the millions who had recently been attached for millenia to the cycles of sun and rain and soil. Out of sight, out of mind. We will not treat the earth sustainably when we do not see it and feel it in our daily lives and know directly that what surrounds us is what keeps us and our descendants alive and healthy.

There are too many of us to go “back to the land,” but we must preserve the connection. In coming decades necessity will dictate that everyone produce their own food wherever and however they can, but more important, we must reconnect ourselves to the earth we have abused. You who put aside a little corner of your urban homestead where things green can flourish are preserving the connection as best you can, and must teach others to do likewise. You are preserving an essential thread to our past, which will, if we are lucky, allow us to have a future.

But it’s a slim thread.

It didn’t need to be this way. Norman Borlaug, far from viewing himself as the man who proved the doomsayers wrong, knew what was coming if we didn’t take care. In his Nobel lecture he described the Green Revolution as giving the world a “breathing space” until the year 2000, but then referred to an “impending doom” imposed upon us by the “Population Monster ,” and told his audience that”the frightening power of human reproduction must also be curbed; otherwise the success of the green revolution will be ephemeral only.”

Dr. Borlaug said in his lecture that whether and how we deal with the population problem is a”test of the validity of “sapiens” as a species epithet.” We have so far failed the test and squandered the thirty years he gave us. But the substantial fraction of the grain crop not used directly as food can, if we act quickly, allow us without famine to put ourselves on a sustainable population track, one recognizing that we don’t presently feed ourselves and that on the present track, things will get much worse. And of course no technical fixes can give the bottom seventh of the world population the wherewithal to pay for what they eat, so the looming food crisis will not just be fixed with a theoretical food supply for which they cannot pay. These things must happen. Is that likely? Probably not, given past history. But it is necessary.

Once again we 6.9 billion people are on our own, without leaders or guidance. But we know what we must do, as individuals and nations: we must avoid gasohol and beef, because we cannot take food from the mouths of the hungry; we must manage and conserve our diminishing water supplies, we must work to eliminate abject poverty so that people can pay for what they eat and we must begin to decrease our numbers by limiting ourselves to one child per family.33 There is no evidence that we can avoid famine otherwise. The Green Revolution was a one shot deal, because we cannot again double irrigated acreage or multipy use of chemical fertilizers by five; and because the Green Revolution was a program of the oil age, which is fast departing. Modest crop-yield increases may keep up with population growth for a while (although they haven’t for 25 years), but all indications are that the prices of what food there is will rapidly climb above the budgets of billions of us.

“Norm Boy,” the Iowa farm kid, died last year. He was 95.

………………………………….

The writer is a California-licensed attorney currently residing in Massachusetts. He has had professional experience trying without success to implement groundwater management in California’s vast agricultural San Joaquin Valley. Research and writing were supported by Urban Garden Magazine, which reserves copyright and all other republishing rights except the right to online submissions by the author. He wishes to thank Patricia Lemon and David Steele for invaluable editorial assistance.

1. This article will be published by Urban Garden Magazine in mid-August.
2. Bruce Alberts, President, NationalAcademy of Sciences
3. For the full lyrics, see http://www.netstate.com/states/symb/song/ia_corn_song.htmor http://iowareunionclub.com/iowacornsong.aspx
4. Mark Yudof, President, University of Minnesota.
5. Biographical information from Vietmeyer, Borlaug, Volume 1 (2004), unless otherwise indicated..
6. Dr. Borlaug’s Nobel lecture: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1970/borlaug-lecture.html
7. See Dr. Thomas Stein, sakia.org, 2007, http://www.sakia.org/cms/fileadmin/content/irrig/general/stein_2007_water_use_charts-units_converted.pdf for a general compilation of different foods and their water needs for production, together with a link for explanations as to how these were determined.
8. See chart, Global Education Project, Food and Soil, http://www.theglobaleducationproject.org:80/earth/food-and-soil.php. A hectare, a 100-meter square, is 2.2 acres. Spend an hour studying these charts, and you will know more than the average Ph.D. about modern agriculture.
9. World Bank, Groundwater, http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTWAT/0,,contentMDK:21633297~menuPK:4620525~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:4602123,00.html.
10. (Garrett Hardin, 1968 paper published in the journal SCIENCE (162:12431248). If you aren’t familiar with it, read it, and then go for a vacation and meditate on it for a week.
11. Lester Brown, Aquifer Depletion, 2006, http://www.eoearth.org/article/Aquifer_depletion
12. Patricia Muir, http://people.oregonstate.edu/~muirp/waterlim.htm
13. UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), Agricultural Outlook 20102019 (2010)
14. Lin Shujuan, China’s water deficit ‘will create food shortage’, Science and Development Network, 2007, http://www.scidev.net/en/news/china-s-water-deficit-will-create-food-shortage-.html; and Lester Brown, WATER DEFICITS GROWING IN MANY COUNTRIES: Water Shortages May Cause Food Shortages, http://www.greatlakesdirectory.org:80/zarticles/080902_water_shortages.htm.
15. T. V. Padma, Thirsty Indian farming depleting water resources, Science and Development Network, http://www.scidev.net/en/news/thirsty-indian-farming-depleting-water-resources.html, quoting scientists from NASA and also citing the Indian Ministry of Water Resources..
16. http://www.eoearth.org/article/Aquifer_depletion,
17. See e.g. the graphs shown in Staniford’s article cited below.
18. Patricia Muir, http://people.oregonstate.edu/~muirp/waterlim.htm
19. Stuart Staniford, Food to 2050, The Oil Drum, http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3702, discussing both sides of the dispute. See also Grain Production, http://www.whole-systems.org/grain.html, and Science’s February, 2010 issue devoted to food security. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/327/5967/812
20. Lester Brown, WATER DEFICITS GROWING IN MANY COUNTRIES: Water Shortages May Cause Food Shortages, above.
21. http://www.random-science-tools.com/chemistry/chemical_comp_of_body.htm
22. UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), Current world fertilizer trends and outlook to 2011/12, Table 4, ftp://ftp.fao.org/agl/agll/docs/cwfto11.pdf
23. For a recent and very readable discussion of the phosphorus situation, see D.A. Vaccari, Phosphorus: A Looming Crisis, Scientific American June 2009, www.ScientifiAmerican.com.
24. Wikipedia, Fertilizers, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fertilizer.
25. GAO, Domestic Nitrogen Fertilizer Production Depends on Natural Gas Availability and Prices, 2003, http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d031148.pdf.
26. K. Bradsher and A. Martin, The Food Chain: Shortages Threaten Farmers’ Key Tool: Fertilizer, New York Times, http://bigteaparty.com/fertilizer-soaring-foodprices-key-to-health-bad-for-environment/
27. United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Food from Animal Feed, World Food Supply, http://www.grida.no/publications/rr/food-crisis/page/3565.aspx). R. Segelkin, US could feed 800 million people with grain that livestock eat, Cornell ecologist advises animal scientists, Cornell University Science News, 1997, http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/aug97/livestock.hrs.html.
28. Worldwatch Institute, Vital Signs, Grain Harvest Sets Record, But Supplies Still Tight, 2009, http://www.worldwatch.org/vs2009.. The UN Food and Agricultural Organization says the figure is only 9% for biofuels at this time, but also says that the amount of grain being turned to alcohol will double in the next decade. OECD-FAO, Agricultural Outlook 2010-2019. So if 18% isn’t correct today, then it is likely to be correct in a decade…
29. X. Navarro, The European Commission says no to reviewing biofuel percentage goal, http://green.autoblog.com/2008/04/15/the-european-commissionsays-no-to-reviewing-biofuel-percentage/
30. OECD-FAO, Agricultural Outlook 2010-2019.
31. 1 gallon [U.S.] of automotive gasoline = 97,181,192.2530305 foot pounds. 1 acre pumping from 500 ft.: 3 acre-feet of water = 975,000 gal water x8 lbs/gal x 500 ft = 3,900,000,000 ft lbs/ 97,181,192.2530305 ft lbs/gal gasoline = 40.131 gal x $3/gal = $120, assuming a 100% efficient pump, or $200 assuming a 60% efficient pump.
32. OECD-FAO, Agricultural Outlook 2010-2019
33. There is a time lag of 30-40 years built into any population policy based upon birth control, because a rapidly-growing population over-represents the age group under reproductive age. Consequently, a “ZPG” birth rate does not result in ZPG for decades. Moreover, the water and energy problems imply that an overall population reduction is necessary.

By Nicholas C. Arguimbau
31 July, 2010
Countercurrents.org

Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis. Portland: Timber Press, 2006. 196 pages.

If you are a gardener who isn’t afraid of some food for thought, read Teaming with Microbes: A Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web.

It has an interesting premise, and does a nice job of supporting it: To reduce the amount of work and resources that you have to add and remove from the system, make better use of naturally occurring processes.

In a natural setting such as a forest or jungle, plants can thrive without any human intervention. There is a web of dependencies and products that allow resources to be acquired, used, and then made available again in some form to something further down the line. Plants need fertilizer, and if you follow the chain of events, they eventually become fertilizer with help from other parts of the web.

Conventional farming and gardening methods, on the other hand, attempt to restrict this web to the bare minimum required to produce the product that we want (fruits, vegetables, feed, etc.).

Now as any indoor gardener can tell you, the further you get away from a plant’s natural environment, the more responsible you become for supplying the needs that were being filled by other members of the web. For example, if you take a plant away from the sun, you become responsible for supplying light. If you remove the natural sources of nutrients, you become responsible for supplying the plants with nutrients, and so on.

In order to help explain what these naturally occurring factors are, the first part of the book describes the web from dirt and bacteria up to animal life. For material that contains a lot of Latin words, it is very straightforward and easy to understand. Much more the way textbooks should be written, instead of how they are. I have a feeling that I will be using it as a reference many times as I follow my own gardening path.

Once the Soil Food Web has been described, and the reader encouraged to take a more holistic, synergistic view of their garden, the second part of the book explains some ways to apply this knowledge. Instead of trying to force your garden to perform, you nurture and nudge it in the direction you want using compost, mulch, compost teas and so on. Like training an animal to perform tricks, you encourage your garden to do what you want, and discourage it from doing what you don’t.

To help readers distill the knowledge in the book down to a more manageable level for quick reference, there is a list of “The Soil Food Web Gardening Rules” which are nineteen statements that are the essence of some of the most important concepts in what the book has to say. It also has my only complaint about in the book: I would have liked a reference from the list of rules, to the relevant sections in the book.

It is the best book on garden interdependencies that I have read. Even though the topics discussed have given me a lot to think about, and the possible ramifications will have me referring back to it on a regular basis, the writing is so straightforward and smooth, that it has an almost “quick read” property to it. I finished it in two evenings.

If you want to consider yourself a “well read” gardener, put this on your list.

Peace, love and puka shells,

Grubbycup

WORDS: Hydroguy

To all the consumers who find the sheer magnitude of the plethora of plant products bewildering: I feel your pain. To know nothing is sheer abysmal confusion, yet to know more does not seem to make product choice easier. When I see new growers walk into a store with a blank gaze I can actually observe their mental processes block as the overwhelming, yet exciting, stimuli flashes at them from numerous brightly colored bottles. This blank gaze often turns into a mix of confusion and skepticism. Too often novice growers think in terms of ‘Is it real or BS?’ whereas they should really be asking: ‘Do I need this?’ All products are of use in some or another application, it’s just a matter of finding what’s useful to you.

Base Hydroponic Nutrients

All organisms are elemental and require elements to live. We can look at our “vitamin/mineral” requirements as humans and it’s a short list. Plants have a similar “short list” and science has determined that, in order to technically survive, plants must get hold of them. Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium (NPK), micro nutrients, etc. So these are the base survival needs. But to think of this as the limit of an organism’s needs is obtuse, just as a human would not have a great life eating cardboard for calories and taking vitamins. That said, whether your concern is simply production or quality of produce, you will need a base nutrient to supply the required minerals for growth. In the near-imperceptible chain of causality that affects plants outdoors, you have covered the most basic rudimentary needs. To qualify as a “base nutrient” all that is required are the N, P, and K in whatever ratio and micro-nutrients in sufficient quantity for your plant. Base nutrients are similar, but not the same. To arrive at a base nutrient (20-20-20 for example) a company can use various elemental compounds in combination; different combinations can have more or less purity at achieving the target mineral balance, and impurities are associated elements unintended for the outcome, such as arsenic. Aside from the ‘backpacked’ impurities in lesser quality products, different companies also use various arrangements of elemental compounds: for example, Calcium Nitrate or Ammonium Nitrate (among others) to provide the nitrogen. Different-sourced ingredients, as well as the final ratio of minerals, will all have slight variance in end use – those exact differences can be discussed another time.

Hydroponic base nutrients come in liquid 3-part, 2-part, and powder forms (”Why pay for water?”, some growers ask.) What you want is determined by preference, budget, availability, and trend. Read, ask your fellow growers, and inquire at your store to see what is buzzing – most base hydroponic nutrients are usable in any medium regardless of name. “Three part” can mean “use all three parts in conjunction” at different dilutions for each stage, or it can have one Grow and one Bloom for those respective stages and a third bottle added during both. “Two part” is often two parts for Grow and two for Bloom: four bottles mischievously pretending to be two. “Single part” is the actual two-part system with a Grow and a Bloom, or something representing those stages such as 20-20-20 and 15-30-15, and single part is also where you will find the “slurry” concoctions of mineral-based nutes with organics included. The ‘mineral/organic slurry’ is of some benefit to peat users since they add some cation exchange capacity (to be discussed later) to the inert peat without going all hippy.

“Well, I am using coco, so I need some coco food.” No, you don’t. Get better quality coco or add some cal/mag. Old coir was crappier because people didn’t realize the importance of desalinating it thoroughly, or some unscrupulous companies took the cheap route. Most coco-specific nutrients and only slightly increased in cal/mag and sometimes lessened in nitrogen – big whoop. If you are 100%-coco always then maybe it suits you, but I don’t see the importance.

There’s also the new “premium” base nutrients out there with labels donning expensive jewelry etc – these are still new to date for confidence, but if you’re willing to pay the piper for a trial there is some good buzz about some of them. As plant food becomes more of an organic chemistry art, we swerve less out of simple minerals and more into proprietary compounds we cannot know of even if we think we might understand them. That said, there still remains a need for disclosure and I can’t hold it against anyone for leaning to products with some transparency – in their attempt to avoid competitive replication, nutrient companies tend to alienate the consumer from understanding what their product is. Similarly, replication is a concern for consumers: nobody wants to add the same thing twice, and “just use it” is simply not convincing.

Organic Base Nutrients and Enhancers

The French Paradox. If you’ve never heard of it, pause to Google, but this is one example of a pretty basic point: there are more beneficial compounds in our food than simply vitamins. After the basic mineralogical requirements to sustain life, there are all the other bazillion compounds to improve the quality of life or, in our case, quality of produce of whatever form. An apple can technically minimally exist, or an apple can be packed with flavor, vitamins, and The Other Stuff (technical term – TOS). TOS represents turpines, flavonoids, organic acids, and a long list of stuff we don’t care to know of but still want to derive the benefits of. I don’t think it’s scientifically accepted that adding compost, kelp, guano, or another manure will increase the bio-active chemistry in produce, but “foliar feeding” isn’t accepted (in Canada) either – so my crutch is simple time-tested anecdotal observation: including organics will improve the quality of the end produce, thus increasing its flavor, aroma, and TOS.

Organic base nutes have come a long way in the last few years – mostly in convincing people they are worthwhile. We thought plants ate dirt, then realized they ate minerals from dirt (or water) – now it seems the geeks have decided that even larger organic compounds can make their way into the plants, such as vitamins. As always, it will always take science much longer to prove what people have been doing successfully for thousands of years, and continue to do today in “less advanced” areas of the world. The challenge for growers in the petrol world has been to match the yield of mineral nutes, and this has been displayed by various growers in enough circles to be generally accepted. It is a matter of substrate reuse and nurture, knowing what to add when – I will save details, but suffice to say if it is something you’re interested in it’s much easier today than ever, but still comes with a new learning curve.

Organics in hydroponics systems is something people would have balked at years ago; now there are products designed for such use. Growers have tested all forms of thick, organic sludge in their systems and, as much as commonsense still rules regarding buildup, slime clogs, and sugar coating, with a bit of elbow grease and absence of emitters or spaghetti hose many systems can run with nutrients not at all designed to be used in water gardens. The rigidity in this case is for generalization: you can’t tell everyone to do something that half will screw up. But, given the motivation and some knowledge, all these “can and can not” principles of growing can be realized as arbitrary guidelines. Beyond the liability of warranty and labeling, do what thou wilt.

ENHANCERS are there to enhance mineral nutes. You see, I think organics makes quality, whether it’s true or not. What is less debated is the notion that organic enhancers help make mineral nutes more available. Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) are big words meaning “the ability for dirt to grab nutrients for later use.” Peat has nearly none, coco has some – either way, more is good. Humates, composts, organic sludge – these are midway rest stops for minerals between your bucket and your plant because they have a high CEC. Without a CEC component in peat, your nutes are pretty much only around as long as they are soluble – or, with reactive minerals, much less time. Without organic stuff, peat is only a fiber: it hasn’t any real ability to stretch the lifespan of a mineral nute until an organic component is added. Often a combination of things are used, such as guano or worm castings added to the peat – and/or some compost tea or other organic blend (or even a dash of base nute sludge, gotta love the sludge) with food irrigated in.

Next Up: Grow Store 102 – Bloom Boosters and Stimulants

WORDS: Heather Walker

Germination Basics

To go from seed to seedling, tomato plants need a moist growing medium, light, and warmth. I grow seedlings in my own organic potting mix of peat moss, vermiculite (some growers prefer perlite), green sand, bone meal, and organic soybean meal. You can add some aged compost too, but weeds may take over your seedlings if the compost wasn’t hot enough to kill the weed seeds. I soak the mix in a wheelbarrow with warm tap water (we’re on a well, so no chlorine worries here) then run the hose to add water until I can squeeze the soil mix and water runs out. I fill 4-inch pots with the wet mix, then plant one seed in the center of each pot and label it: name, date planted, open pollinated or hybrid.

I like to start my tomato seeds in 4-inch pots on the windowsill in my living room, directly above a baseboard heater: the additional bottom heat gives them that extra encouragement. This summer was the first year I tried heat mats, and I definitely noticed a shorter time to germination with those bad boys.

To know when to water, dig down an inch or so at the edge of the pot, and if it’s still moist then don’t bother watering. If it starts to look dry, soak the pot a few times with room-temperature water.

Eager tomato seedlings on a heat mat.

Seedling Mix

2 parts by volume sieved garden soil
1 part by volume sieved sphagnum moss
Add to each cubic foot (5 gallons) of mix:
1 cup agricultural lime or dolomite lime
1 cup cottonseed meal or soybean meal
1 pint soft rock phosphate or 1 cup steamed bone meal
1 cup kelp meal

From “Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades,” by Steve Solomon.

The Sprout

Once the sprout emerges with its first pair of leaves, it’s time for the tough love. If you spoil your tomatoes when they’re young, they will grow into leggy plants that will be ill-prepared for the real-world conditions in the outdoor garden. If you give your tomatoes lots of warmth when they aren’t getting a lot of sun or supplemental light, they can get “leggy,” growing tall with a spindly, weak stem. This is particularly important for growers in the Northern half of our continent, where the sun’s strength and height in the sky in March/April may not offer enough light. The plant, receiving lots of warmth but not much light, reacts as if it’s being shaded by other competing plants: as a result, it grows fast and tall in an attempt to access the sun and out-compete the other plants that it thinks are crowding it.

These leggy tomato seedlings were exposed to too much warmth with not enough light, which encouraged them to stretch: the stems are thin and weak as a result. Weak plants are more susceptible to disease, drought, and pests. Photo: Greg Wagoner.

To prevent leggy tomatoes and encourage stocky, strong growth, narrow the gap between the light and heat the plant is receiving. To do this, steel your heart and move every tomato with leaves into an unheated greenhouse during the day, unless it’s unusually cold. The greenhouse protects the young plants from the wind, cold, and rain/snow, but exposes them to cooler temperatures than in the house, and more sunlight through the poly-plastic roof and walls: they will receive more light and less heat than on the windowsill or heat mat. Bring them in at night until you’re confident that the temperature won’t drop below 50°F (10°C), which can compromise a tomato plant’s development or kill it.

Ideal Tomato Growing Temperatures

Day: 65-70°F (18-21°C)
Night: 50-60°F (10-16°C)

It’s also important to expose your tomato seedlings to air movement from this point forward. Fans, ventilation, an open window, or even your hand brushing their tops a few times each day will encourage more stocky growth and prepare the plants for the realities of wind. Novice growers often leave the clear dome on their plant starts for far too long. Don’t be an overprotective tomato parent!

Transplanting

It’s very likely that your tomato plants will outgrow their starter pots before it’s safe to plant them outside. In fact, this is preferable: the more times you can transplant your tomatoes into larger pots, the better. Why? Because every time you re-pot a tomato plant, you bury it up to its “neck” (just below its top set of leaves), or as much of the plant as you can fit under the soil. The tomato will then send out roots from the newly-buried stem, creating a more well-developed root system. And a strong root system leads to a healthier, more productive plant! Transplanting in this way also helps control the ultimate size of your plant once it’s ready to go into the garden: it’s far easier to plant a foot of stem and foliage with 8-inches of well-formed roots than a 2 foot spindly monster that will snap in half if you look at it funny.

So once your tomato outgrows its four-inch pot, bury the plant up to its neck in a gallon pot of soil, with the top set of leaves above. If you start your tomatoes in 1-2″ cell trays, transplant them into 4-inch pots when they’re ready for more room, then eventually into the gallon pots. And once a tomato outgrows its gallon pot, it’s probably time to plant it outside.

Transplanting a tomato plant from a small pot to a larger pot: bury the plant up to its neck, leaving the top set of leaves above the soil.

Hardening Off

It’s a blue-skied, warm, sunny day: you’re ready to unpack those shorts and plant out your tomatoes! But hold on. It’s crucial that you gradually prepare your tomato plants for outdoor conditions, rather than abruptly moving them from their cozy, sheltered existence into the cold, hard world.

Plants must be “hardened off” for a week or so by gradually exposing them to less-hospitable conditions for increasingly longer lengths of time each day. My plants progress from their windowsill nursery, to the unheated greenhouse in the daytime, to the unheated greenhouse 24 hours/day. I’ll start leaving the greenhouse door open, then setting them outside for the daylight hours. It’s best to put them out on a cloudy or partly cloudy day, as a full day of direct, hot sun can be hard on a plant. Plants can sunburn too! Eventually there will be a warm night and I’ll leave them outdoors. If frost is in the forecast, or a storm, I’ll bring them under shelter until it’s clear again. Eventually the plants will become more hardy, and spring will really be here, and around late May to early June I’ll be able to risk planting them out.

Into the Garden

This transplanting technique from pot to outdoor garden minimizes transplant shock and encourages strong root development.

Rather than digging a hole and planting the rootball at the bottom, as when re-potting, lie each tomato in its place horizontally on the outdoor garden bed, then bury it in soil — again, up to the top set of leaves. Be careful to support the stem, to avoid snapping it. Carefully pat down the dirt to ensure plant/soil contact, then water the whole plant thoroughly. The top of the tomato plant will eventually turn up toward the sun and grow into a surprisingly strong stem, supported by the amazing root system you’ve helped it develop.

It might seem easier to dig a trench and lie the plant in it, to keep your garden bed nice and flat, but if you do this you risk exposing the plant to the chillier soil underneath that sun-warmed top layer. Tomato plants may turn blue/purple-ish as a result — a sign of transplant shock. They will take longer to recover, which may affect the time or quality of harvest.

Have your own tomato-starting secrets to share? Tell us about it below…

An Activist’s Toolkit

How would you react if you discovered that most of the foods you ate every day contained hidden ingredients that could be slowly poisoning you?

Disbelief? Sadness? Fear? Anger? Retribution? All of the above? Well, surely the first thing you should do is: STOP EATING THEM! Genetically modified crops such as corn, canola and soy are being used in over 70% of the processed foods available in your local grocery store. So you might be forgiven for thinking that if genetically modified ingredients are so widespread, they must be safe to eat, right? Wrong. It’s just a shame the FDA and the corporate-controlled North American mainstream media persist in turning a blind eye. (See The Big GMO Cover-Up by Jeffrey M. Smith.)

Of course, the last thing that the pro-GM food companies want is for consumers to get informed and use their immense power to force change in the marketplace. This has already happened in Europe where genetically modified ingredients have to be labeled by law. As a result, food companies don’t use genetically modified ingredients! However, in the absence of equivalent labeling requirements in the US or Canada, North American consumers have been left in the dark for over 13 years and are unwittingly taking place in a huge human feeding experiment.

We asked Jeffrey M. Smith, international bestselling author of Seeds of Deception and Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods, to give us some practical steps on how to get GMOs out of our diet and off the face of the Earth, forever.

Would you choose genetically modified food if given a choice? Some animals won’t.

There’s a bowl of corn chips in front of you made from natural corn. Next to it are genetically modified (GM) corn chips. Which do you choose?

If you were a pig or cow, we know the answer—the natural corn. In 1998 and 1999, several farmers in Northwest Iowa repeatedly let pigs or cows into pens with troughs of GM corn and non-GM corn. The animals would head straight to the closer trough, filled with the genetically modified organisms (GMOs). They’d sniff, maybe take a nibble, then go over to the trough with the natural corn. After finishing off the last kernel, they’d stop by the GM corn one more time just to check it out, but quickly walk away.

An Iowa farmer who read about the finicky livestock decided to see if squirrels had similar dispositions. He nailed ears of GM corn and non-GM corn onto trees by his house. Sure enough, the squirrels ate only the natural stuff, over and over again. When the farmer stopped replacing the natural corn, the squirrels still refused to touch the GMO. After 10 cold winter days, they got up the courage to nibble a few kernels, but that was all they could handle.

Another curious farmer wanted to repeat this with the squirrels in his area. He bought a bag full of GM corn ears, and another of non-GM, and left it in his garage to wait for winter. He waited too long. Mice did the experiment for him. They broke into the natural corn bag and finished it. The GM cobs were untouched.

Farmers, gardeners, reporters, and scientists have noticed similar behavior on at least four continents. Chickens, elk, deer, and raccoons avoided GM corn, while geese, rats, and buffalo refused GM soy, tomatoes, and cottonseed, respectively. Why are animals put off by genetically engineered food? No one knows for sure, but let’s get back to the GM corn chips still sitting in front of you.

Dangerous side-effects

Genetic material from bacteria and viruses are forced into the corn’s DNA, which is then cloned into a plant. This process leads to substantial collateral damage, including changes in hundreds or thousands of natural corn genes, plus widespread mutations. Most of the side-effects are never tested for. We do know, for example, that an allergy-producing gene, normally silent, gets switched on in a Monsanto corn variety. Proteins change shape, which might be a serious health hazard. And a compound called lignin is significantly overproduced. Lignin on its own may not be so bad, but in the process of producing it, the plant also produces rotenone, a natural pesticide linked to Parkinson’s disease. No one has tested your chips to see they contain more rotenone.

Bayer’s Liberty Link corn have added genes that allow the corn to withstand high doses of Roundup or Liberty herbicide. These varieties, therefore, have more weedkiller residues. Other GM varieties have inserted genes from bacteria that produce an insect killing toxin in every cell (and in every bite).

In addition, genes inserted into GM crops don’t necessarily stay put. In the only human GM feeding experiment— done with Roundup Ready soy— functioning genes transferred into the DNA of bacteria living inside our intestines. This means that millions of Americans probably have Roundup Ready gut bacteria—unkillable with Roundup herbicide. No one has yet looked to see if GM corn genes also transfer. If they do, their insecticide-producing genes could turn your gut flora into living pesticide factories, continuously producing toxins inside you—long after you finish your bowl of chips.

Have you made your decision yet? If you still need encouragement, check out “The Big GMO Cover-Up” in UGM007 to find out why the American Academy of Environmental Medicine wants doctors across the country to prescribe non-GMO diets to everyone.

But aren’t GMOs supposed to feed the world?

If you’re feeling some moral imperative to support GMOs, that’s understandable. The biotech industry spent more than $250 million convincing you that its gene-spliced foods are the answer to the sick and starving. So don’t be embarrassed if you fell for it. Many leading US politicians have likewise been mesmerized by this long-running PR ploy. Clinton’s Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman spoke candidly to a St. Louis Post Dispatch reporter about the pro-GMO attitude embedded in the US government:

“It was almost immoral to say that it wasn’t good, because it was going to solve the problems of the human race and feed the hungry and clothe the naked. … And if you’re against it, you’re Luddites, you’re stupid. … You felt like you were almost an alien, disloyal, by trying to present an open-minded view.”

Glickman acknowledged that he too “spouted the rhetoric,” admitting, “it was written into my speeches.” The current Ag Secretary, Tom Vilsack, is the latest GMO cheerleader. As Iowa’s governor, he gave Monsanto an award in 2000, and the next year was anointed Biotech Governor of the Year by the biotech industry trade organization.

In October 2009, Vilsack tried to play the “feed the world” card at a conference sponsored by the Community Food Security Coalition. Bad move Tom. The people in the room were actually experts at feeding the world. Attendees included numerous PhDs and eminent scholars, such as the co-chairman and several leading authors of the authoritative IAASTD report, the world’s most comprehensive evaluation of agriculture.

This crowd knew that GMOs had no answers for world hunger. The IAASTD report, for example, concluded that the current generation of GMOs does not reduce hunger and poverty, does not improve nutrition, and does not facilitate social and environmental sustainability. A comprehensive analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists concluded that GMOs do not increase yield; in fact, on average they reduce yield. A USDA study showed that farmers’ income doesn’t increase, and in some cases, it decreases. And it doesn’t help the overall economy either. The federal government has been spending $3-5 billion per year to prop up the prices of the GM crops no one else wants.

Thus, when Secretary Vilsack invoked “the ever-increasing population of the globe and the capacity to be able to feed all of those people” as the excuse to promote GMOs, he was greeted by moans, groans, hisses, and even boos. That didn’t stop Vilsack from playing the same card two days later, but this time he was at the World Food Prize conference. That’s sponsored by the biotech industry, so they were overjoyed that the Ag Secretary was still supporting their myth.

How Do You Choose Non-GMO?

Are you now ready to choose the bowl of natural chips? If so, you’re not alone. Most Americans, according to a CBS/New York Times poll, would also choose foods made without genetically modified organisms (GMOs) if they knew which was which—if they were labeled. But unlike most other industrialized nations, GMOs don’t have to be labeled in the US or Canada. Therefore, avoiding GM foods here takes some doing.

Tip #1: Buy Organic

The best way is to buy organic foods, which don’t allow the use of GMOs. And you also benefit from organics’ higher average levels of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, as well as lower pesticide residues.

Tip #2: Look for “non-GMO” labels

Some companies voluntarily label products as “non-GMO.” The best label is now the Non-GMO Project Verified seal. It’s the new uniform, third-party-verified standard for non-GMO claims that is spreading through the industry.

Tip #3: Consult the Non-GMO Shopping Guide

For a handy list of non-GMO brands by category, go to www. NonGMOShoppingGuide.com. View it online, download or order copies, and look for the Mobile Phone Application coming soon.

Tip #4: Avoid at-risk ingredients

If it’s not labeled organic or non- GMO, and the brand is not listed in the Guide, look at the ingredient panel to see if it contains any at-risk GMOs. The most pervasive GMOs are derivatives of corn and soy. Here are some common ones: (A more comprehensive list is available in the Non-GMO Shopping Guide.)

Corn: flour, meal, oil, starch, gluten, and syrups. Sweeteners such as fructose, dextrose, and glucose.

Soy: flour, oil, lecithin, protein, isolate, and isoflavones.

Oil from canola and cottonseed is genetically modified. Sugar from GM sugar beets was introduced in late 2008, but a recent ruling in a federal lawsuit may eventually drive it out of our food supply. For now, if the sugar doesn’t say pure cane, it’s likely blended with beet sugar.

Other than corn, there are only three items in the produce section that may be genetically modified. That includes papaya from Hawaii (yes, only Hawaii) and a small amount of zucchini and yellow squash. Mercifully, popcorn is not GMO.

Aspartame, the artificial sweetener also known as NutraSweet and Equal, is derived from GM microorganisms.

Meat, fish, eggs and dairy: FDA scientists had warned that animals fed GMOs might bioaccumulate toxins, which end up in milk, meat, or eggs. Their concerns were ignored and no safety studies have looked into this. Most US livestock, and even farmed fish, are fed GM soy or corn. To avoid GM-fed animal products, buy organic, wild caught, or 100% grass-fed. Fortunately, there are no genetically modified fish, fowl, or livestock yet approved for human consumption.

Dairy products also carry the risk that the cows were injected with genetically engineered bovine growth hormone (rbST or rbGH). The milk from drugged cows has more pus, antibiotics, bovine growth hormone, and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF- 1). IGF-1 is a powerful hormone and a high risk factor for cancer. That’s primarily why the American Public Health Association, American Nurses Association, and many other groups condemn the use of rbGH. Consumer concerns about rbGH have forced Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Dannon, Yoplait, and most of the major dairies in the US to stop using the hormone. Look for labels, consult the Non-GMO Shopping Guide, or buy organic dairy products.

How to Avoid GMOs in Restaurants

When eating at restaurants, it is not too hard to identify non-GMO options if your restaurant cooks from scratch. If they use processed foods, which is true of fast food places, they will have hidden GM ingredients.

For meals cooked from scratch, you will be able to easily identify most GMO food items. Corn products include tortillas, corn bread, corn on the cob, polenta, and corn chowder. Soy products include tofu, teriyaki and soy sauce.

The hidden ingredients are usually the oils used for cooking and salad dressing. Most restaurant cooking oil is from soy, corn, cottonseed, and canola—all GMOs. If they say vegetable oil or margarine, it means it is almost certainly one of these.

Therefore, your first question is, “What oil do you cook with?” If they use GMO oils, ask if they have anything that is cooked without oil, or if olive oil or some other oil can be used. If they have olive oil, be sure it’s not a blend. Many restaurants blend canola and olive.

Go through the same routine for the oil used in salad dressing, and for the shortening in desserts.

But for the sweet stuff, the GMO threats include sugar from beets, high fructose corn syrup, and aspartame. Since most processed foods contain GM derivatives (corn and soy, for example), ask what foods are freshly prepared. But check if packaged sauces are used.

Other potential sources of GM foods at restaurants include bread, crackers, and mayonnaise.

Moving GMOs out of the market

The declining fortunes of rbGH demonstrate the power of informed consumers. As more and more people linked the milk hormone to cancer, marketing executives realized that allowing their suppliers to use the controversial drug was bad for sales. Because the mainstream media has been pretty silent on the health effects, it took a few years of a concerted consumer education campaign to start the dominoes falling. If the hazards of rbGH had made headline news, the tipping point would have been swift.

The experience of GMOs in Europe shows us just how swift markets can move. In late January of 1999, biotech representatives predicted that 95% of all commercial seeds would be genetically engineered by 2004. But just a few weeks later, their plans to replace nature crashed. On February 16th, the gag order imposed on a scientist who had conducted GMO safety studies was lifted by order of the UK Parliament. When Dr. Arpad Pusztai, the top scientist in his field, discovered the extensive damage that a GMO diet can cause, he was fired after 35 years and silenced with threats of legal action. When he finally was able to speak, all hell broke loose.

Within the week, the European press reeled off 159 column feet of articles. Within the month, 750 articles on GMOs were circulating. According to one editor, the coverage divided society into two warring blocks. Within just 10 weeks, the tipping point of consumer rejection was achieved. GM ingredients had become a marketing liability. At the end of April, Unilever publicly committed to remove GMOs from its European brands. Within the week, so did nearly every other major food company.

These same companies continue to use GM ingredients in the US, where the Pusztai controversy was not reported. Here, only one in four people are even aware that they’ve ever eaten a genetically engineered food in their lives.

Engineering a North American tipping point

The Campaign for Healthier Eating in America is designed to achieve a tipping point of consumer rejection of GMOs in the US. Several indicators suggest that it’s not far off. A December 2009 issue of Supermarket News, for example, predicted: “The coming year promises to bring about a greater, more pervasive awareness” of the genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in our food supply. This trade publication, which is used by food executives as a source of industry news and trends, attributed the coming uprising in part to the Campaign’s new Non-GMO Shopping Guide.

The article describes how food “culprits” such as fat, carbs, salt, and added sugar can “define the decade” for the food industry; companies scramble to create new low-culprit or culprit-free options. When the specter of GMO health dangers surfaces onto consumers’ radar screen, however, there will be a significant difference. Whereas traditional ingredient culprits offer some consumer appeal like better taste or texture, GM foods do not. Furthermore, companies can usually eliminate GMOs without even changing recipes. They can simply substitute the non-GMO soy or non-GM corn, without reformulating.

Therefore, when the industry gets hit with the anti-GMO tipping point, they won’t create separate brand options of low GMO or GMO-free. Instead, they will eliminate all GMOs from their brands and proudly proclaim that here as they do in Europe.

The number of shoppers rejecting GMOs need only be a tiny amount, perhaps 5% of Americans, in order to convince food companies to do a brand-wide GMO clean-out. But when you look at the numbers, no matter how you slice it, they add up to a coming non-GMO tidal wave.

More than 9% of Americans regularly buy organic. About 29% are strongly opposed to GM foods and believe they are unsafe. And 53% say they would avoid GMOs if labeled. While most people do not conscientiously avoid brands with GM ingredients, it’s usually because they don’t know how. Hence the importance of the Non-GMO Shopping Guide.

Time to take charge

There are so many people predisposed to reject GMOs, we can achieve a tipping point without ever having to convince those who are resistant. Just by educating the people who want to know why GMOs are unsafe and how to avoid them, we can kick GMOs out of the food supply. The Campaign offers educational tools that are easy to use and to pass onto others. There are right-brain books, left-brain books, videos for the visual learner, brochures, articles, podcasts, CDs, PowerPoints, and of course, shopping guides.

The Campaign also provides strategies and support materials designed specifically for the most receptive targeted groups: healthand environmentally-conscious shoppers, parents, healthcare professionals, chefs and food service professionals, and even religious groups. If you would like to lend a hand and help protect the health of those you care about, visit www.healthiereating.org and look at the action items and tools available.

Little did you know that a bowl of chips would turn you into an activist…

International bestselling author and filmmaker Jeffrey M. Smith is the executive director of the Institute for Responsible Technology (www. healthiereating.org). His first book, Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies About the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You’re Eating, is the world’s bestselling and #1 rated book on GMOs. His second, Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods, documents 65 health risks of the GM foods Americans eat everyday. To help you choose healthier, non-GMO brands, use the Non-GMO Shopping Guide.

Step 1: Rediscover Your Soil

You have a few options for turfing your turf:

1. Cut it off and compost it, then feed it back into your soil.

PRO: it exposes the soil right away, so you can get growing sooner.
CON: back-breaking work, only partly alleviated if you rent a sod cutter.

2. Mow your lawn very close to the soil, then mulch (suffocate) the grass with a light-proof material, such as layers of newspaper (10 sheets thick). It helps if you wet the newspaper before laying it down, to jumpstart the decomposition process and keep it from blowing around. Top the newspaper with 6-12 inches of compost, straw, leaves, grass clippings, manure and/or topsoil. Everything naturally decomposes into the soil.

PRO: much easier to do and the decomposed plant material feeds your soil, making it more fertile in the long run.
CON: takes awhile (allow at least two months) to breakdown the sod, depending on moisture, temperature, your worm population, and whether you’re planting seeds or transplants. It helps the mulch breakdown if you run the sprinkler on it once in awhile.

3. Chew it up and mix it into your soil with a rototiller or by hand.

PRO: it’s more efficient and takes up less space than removing and composting the grass, and your soil directly benefits from the nutrients as the grass decomposes.
CON: depending on your rototiller, climate and season, it’ll take at least three rototilling sessions over six to eight weeks to break down the sod.

4. Flip the blocks of sod upside-down.

PRO: for a small area, this is the most efficient and effective method.
CON: this method may confuse the soil microbiology — allow a month or so for everything to acclimatize.

Keep in mind that larger plants, such as shrubs and trees, have deeper roots then grass and so will likely need more topsoil than what is usually found beneath lawns. Even if you’re just planting a vegetable garden, the soil under your lawn has likely been compacted by foot traffic and will need additional soil, compost, and TLC to give it the fertility and conditions necessary to grow food. You can also use a garden fork to gently lift and aerate the soil.

“The lawns in the United States consume around 270 billion gallons of water a week—enough to water 81 million acres of organic vegetables, all summer long.”
- Heather Coburn Flores, Food Not Lawns

Step 2: Strategy, Design and Structure

Most vegetables (e.g. carrots, garlic, potatoes) grow best when you raise them above the ground level somewhat — and it’s easier for you to work with them that way, too. Some gardeners build wooden frames (e.g. 2ft by 6 ft by 1 ft high) and build up the soil inside so that the bed is a foot above the ground level. You can also rake soil from either side to create a row, then pat down the peak to flatten it. Squash, potatoes and cucumbers grow well in mini-hills, but this isn’t a very efficient use of space. Try to leave paths between your raised beds or rows, to make it easier to move around your garden.

For some interesting garden strategies and methods, Google:
- lasagna gardening
- square foot gardening
- SPIN gardening (small plot intensive)
- biointensive gardening
- no till / no dig gardening

Must-haves for the complete garden:
- rain barrel to collect water and avoid the cost/waste/limitations of municipal water sources
- compost area for leaves, kitchen scraps (not meat), plant clippings, and sod
- worm bin to produce super-powered worm castings to feed your garden

“The lawn is one of America’s leading ‘crops,’ amounting to at least twice the acreage planted in cotton. It is estimated that there are roughly 25 to 40 million acres of turf in the United States. Put all that grass together in your mind and you have an area, at a minimum, about the size of the state of Kentucky, though perhaps as large as Florida.”
- Ted Steinberg, American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn

Step 3: What’s for Dinner?

Low-maintenance crops:

salad greens: simply sprinkle the seeds, rake them into the soil, pat everything down, and water to trigger germination. Cut the leaves as needed to make salads, leaving the plant to continue growing. Different varieties of greens prefer different temperatures, so you can keep yourself in salad from early spring through fall by planting a few different kinds.

strawberries: buy bare-root transplants from your local nursery or ask a gardener friend for some “runners.” June-bearing strawberries will fruit prolifically in June/July the year after planting and thereafter, while ever-bearing strawberries produce over the summer months within the first year. Once planted, strawberries will produce for many years, sending out “runners” which will root and grow into new plants.

garlic: garlic cloves are planted in the fall, pointy-end up, about 6 inches apart, 2 inches deep, then covered with grass clippings and/or leaves and left to grow until harvest the following spring/summer. Very little water is required, even in hot, dry summers.

Popular crops:

sweet corn: firstly, be sure to purchase certified organic seed to avoid any contamination from genetically-modified corn. Corn is a high-maintenance crop, requiring fertile, nitrogen-rich soil and ample, frequent watering.

tomatoes: bush (determinate) varieties can grow in tomato cages or with short stakes; vine (indeterminate) varieties need a trellis or taller stakes and like to be pruned. Frequent watering and fertile soil are necessary. The UGM team highly recommends trying flavorful heritage varieties.

Kid-friendly crops:

pumpkins: these needy squash will benefit from frequent watering and excessive attention. Plant your seeds in a large hill of compost (with cow, chicken or horse manure, if you can find it), plant 6-10 seeds a few inches down, and water generously. Pumpkins need warmer temperatures, so plant only after all danger of frost has passed. Thin the seedlings down to 2 plants before they get too big.

sunflowers: choose a large variety, like Russian Mammoth or California Greystripe.

In Canada & the USA:

1. Click here to download the seed-starting spreadsheet (courtesy of Maggie Wang).
2. Enter the “Frost Free Date” for your region in the spreadsheet. (To find your last frost date for the US, click here; to find your date for Canada, click here.)
3. The spreadsheet will quickly calculate all sowing and planting dates and place them in the appropriate fields.
4. Print your chart and get ready to plant. Easy peasy!

In the UK:

1. Click here and select your region from the drop-down menu, then click “SET MY FROST DATES.”
2. Then click here (or select “Veg, Fruit & Herb Calendars” from the webpage’s left-side menu) and choose whether you want a calendar for vegetables, fruits or herbs.
3. Ta da! Print your calendar and pull on your Wellies.

Step 4: Ongoing TLC

Weed seeds can remain in soil for many years. Mulch is one of the best organic ways to prevent weeds, which will compete with your plants for space, sunlight and nutrients. Typical mulches include grass clippings, leaves, newspaper with soil or compost on top, cedar chips (expensive!), straw, hay (often full of weed seeds), and compost. Simply lay down 5 inches or so of material around your seedlings, covering as much of the soil surface as you can. This will suffocate weed seeds and stifle their growth, while providing a perfect environment for your worm helpers.

“Lawns use ten times as many chemicals per acre as industrial farmland. These pesticides, fertilizers, and herbicides run off into our groundwater and evaporate into our air, causing widespread pollution and global warming, and greatly increasing our risk of cancer, heart disease, and birth defects. In addition, the pollution emitted from a power mower in just one hour is equal to the amount from a car being driven 350 miles.”
- Heather Coburn Flores, Food Not Lawns

Conclusion

Be patient with your new garden. It takes at least a few years for a new garden to perform properly. Healthy soil is key to your garden’s success and the nutrient value in your food crops: love your soil, and it’ll reward you.