Dear Michelle,
----- Original Message -----
From: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Moen Creek
To: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Tuesday, November 26, 2002 7:31 PM
Subject: Re: What is Magic?
Allan is right. A LOT of nutrients can come from the atmosphere. Out your way a lot can disappear into the atmosphere, can't they? What goes up must come down. Where does the topsoil/fine organic matter go when it blows off from neighboring fields? Won't you catch some if you farm with that in mind?
Plus, as every housewife anywhere in the world knows, dust settles everywhere, evens in the deepest, most unused closet. As every archeologist knows, you have to dig down to uncover the civilizations of previous eras--the older they are the deeper you dig. Plus, as every astronomer knows, the Earth acrues millions of tons of dust from the solar wind each year. In a sunspot year it can be a lot. And there are volcanic events that can gift you with some really nice stuff once in a while.
It's funny that the ag colleges know about wind and rain erosion, but they don't know about soil deposition. I guess using their methods they don't see much deposition, just erosion. That's another reason to take what they say about agriculture with a grain of salt.
Best,
Hugh Lovel
Although this is the major argument why grassfed is not truly
sustainable, aren't a lot of nutrients also coming from the
atmosphere so that it is possible recycle manure while harvesting
meat and still be break-even on the nutrient scale(s)?
-Allan
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