1.1: Introduction

"An undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns, puzzles the will."

—Hamlet, William Shakespeare

This may seem like a strange quote with which to begin a book about soil, but I like it. Most people interpret this as Hamlet puzzling over death and what that must be like--a foreign country from which nobody ever comes back to let us know what it is really like. However, I like to think this quote also refers to SOIL, the topic of this book. Soil has been an undiscovered country up until very recently. We didn't know what went on in there, who lived there, or even how much that 'country' impacts our food, our health, our farms, our waters. We took it for granted because it was just 'common ground'. So common, we stand on it, we till it, we eat from it, we build homes on it. We haven't had to think twice about it--soil has just always been there at the foundation, literally, of our lives.

But lately, in the last 50 years, we have begun to examine this undiscovered country. This is especially true as we've started to care about the impact of our farming practices on soil. We've put it under a microscope, we've analyzed its particle sizes and cohesiveness, we puzzle about its mineral nutrient cycles, we are thunderstruck at the life in it, and we watch it wash off our fields and into our waters. This book is a journey about all those things. Come with me as we explore the undiscovered country of soil. I'll be your tour guide along with Fred Magdoff and Harold van Es (who wrote the SARE portions of this book). I will try to pass along what I learned from my guides Henry Foth, Emmett Schulte, Elaine Ingahm, and Rick Adamski. I hope that you will come to see soil as a beautiful, underappreciated country that gives its gifts to all. It is from the soil we were formed - it provides the food that becomes us - it is to the soil that we will return someday. And that return will take us to Shakespeare's version of yet another undiscovered country.

"All over the country [some soils are] worn out, depleted, exhausted, almost dead. But here is comfort: These soils possess possibilities and may be restored to high productive power, provided you do a few simple things."

—C.W. Burkett, 1907

It should come as no surprise that many cultures have considered soil central to their lives. After all, people were aware that the food they ate grew from the soil. Our ancestors who first practiced agriculture must have been amazed to see life reborn each year when seeds placed in the ground germinated and then grew to maturity. In the Hebrew Bible, the name given to the first man, Adam, is the masculine version of the word “earth” or “soil” (Adama). The name for the first woman, Eve (or Hava in Hebrew), comes from the word for “living.” Soil and human life were considered to be intertwined. A particular reverence for the soil has been an important part of the cultures of many civilizations, including Native American tribes. In reality, soil is the basis of all terrestrial life. We humans are derived from soil. Aside from when we eat fish and other aquatic organisms, we obtain the essential elements in our bodies, such as the calcium and phosphorus in our bones and teeth, the nitrogen in our flesh, the iron in our red blood cells, and so on, all by directly or indirectly consuming plants that took these from the soil.

Although we focus on the critical role soils play in growing crop plants, it’s important to keep in mind that soils also provide other important services. Soils govern whether rainfall runs off the field or enters the ground and eventually helps recharge underground aquifers. When soil is stripped of vegetation and starts to degrade, excessive runoff and flooding are more common. Soils also absorb, release, and transform many different chemical compounds. For example, they help to purify wastes flowing from the septic system drain fields in a rural home's backyard. Soils also provide habitats for a diverse group of organisms, many of which are very important, such as those bacteria that produce antibiotics and fungi that help plants obtain nutrients and water and improve soil structure. Soil organic matter stores a huge amount of atmospheric carbon. Carbon, in the form of carbon dioxide, is a greenhouse gas associated with global warming. By increasing soil organic matter, more carbon can be stored in soils, reducing the potential for climate change. We also use soils as a foundation for roads, homes, industry, and our communities.