Gardening & Nature
Written by Doreen G. Howard

Healthy mature plants grow large in beds mulched with straw to foster microbes. - Doreen Howard Feed the soil, not the plant. It’s a simple axiom pivotal to organic gardening that sums up numerous facts about healthy soil producing healthy plants. The reality is that building fertile soil takes a bit more. Although adding compost or organic fertilizer to the soil is important, it’s the management of soil creatures such as earthworms, bacteria and fungi that builds long-term fertility. Soils are ecosystems that are at the mercy of those who use, abuse or build them.

Intensive land cultivation methods using tractors and plows are a major cause of severe soil loss and land degradation in many developing countries, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said Monday. If farmers applied ecologically sound cultivation, millions of hectares of agricultural land could be protected or saved from degradation and erosion, the organization said.

Particularly in warmer areas, where the topsoil layer is thin, conventional tillage contributes to soil loss. Land degradation also occurs in industrialized countries due to exaggerated mechanized tillage using powerful heavy machines.

In December, the U.S. ethanol industry was reported to be producing up to 7.3 billion gallons of ethanol annually. Figuring that it takes one bushel of corn to make 2.8 gallons of ethanol, the ethanol industry used about 2.5 billion bushels of corn.

What's more, the industry is expected to have the capacity to produce an additional 6 billion gallons by the end of 2008, potentially bringing total ethanol production to more than 13 billion gallons (using more than 4.5 billion bushels of corn) by the end of 2008.

Between 1960 and 2007 the amount of waste each person creates has almost doubled from 2.7 to 4.6 pounds per day. The most effective way to stop this trend is by preventing waste in the first place.

Waste prevention, also know as "source reduction," is the practice of designing, manufacturing, purchasing, or using materials (such as products and packaging) in ways that reduce the amount or toxicity of trash created. Reusing items is another way to stop waste at the source because it delays or avoids that item's entry in the waste collection and disposal system.

Source reduction, including reuse, can help reduce waste disposal and handling costs, because it avoids the costs of recycling, municipal composting, landfilling, and combustion. Source reduction also conserves resources and reduces pollution, including greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.

Source Reduction refers to any change in the design, manufacture, purchase, or use of materials or products (including packaging) to reduce their amount or toxicity before they become municipal solid waste. Source reduction also refers to the reuse of products or materials.