I picked up a Scientific American that came last August and thumbed my way to page 12, where alarm bells rang. The two-page article was titled, Pesticides are Killing Our Soils. And the sub-title declared, “They harm worms, beetles and thousands of other vital subterranean species.”
When the word “pesticides” is used in Scientific American, it usually means bad hype for those of us who grow crops. That was the first alarm. The second was the word “vital.” Millions of acres of desert soils around the world lack earthworms and other invertebrates, and also a productive and diverse microbiome. Yet they produce fabulous crops when provided water and nutrients. Hydroponic farmers grow crops in gravel or other soilless (and microbiomeless) mediums.
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So the word “vital” is hype.
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That said, I don’t mean to imply that worms, beetles, and thousands of other subterranean species, plus a diverse supply of beneficial fungi and bacteria, are not good for a healthy, productive soil. The emphasis here is on beneficial, because the soil is not a benign, everybody-gets-along place. It’s a battleground, where every species vies for resources and space.
