Pot Luck March 2015
/Dirty business
We are one month into the United Nation’s proclaimed International Year of Soils. “Soil, where food begins,” is the rallying cry. I’ve two books to suggest for a soils reading list, one new, one old. The new or relatively new book (2007) is “Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations” by MacArthur Foundation “Genius” award winner David Montgomery. In his book, the star attraction at Horticulture Nova Scotia’s annual gathering three years ago wrote that, “Throughout history, societies grew and prospered as long as there was new land to plow or the soil remained productive. Things eventually fell apart when neither remained possible.” So, how are we doing?
The other book is “Soils and Men,” the 1938 Yearbook of Agriculture from the USDA. The chapter, “Soils and Society,” by then Chief of the Soil Survey Division, Charles Kellogg, is a treasure chest of insights into things we’ve had these 75 years since to get right, but have not.
“The art of agriculture is inseparable from the art of homemaking,” Kellogg wrote.