Industrial farming vs. horticultural farming

Agriculture sucks, at least at the moment. Over the last 150 years we have depleted agricultural soils  of soil organic carbon (SOC)(Lal, 2009), leading to a food production system heavily dependent on artificial fertilisers and pesticides. 


This depletion of carbon from the soils together with the burning of fossil fuels leads to the rising CO2 concentration in the atmosphere resulting in the rapidly changing climate.The biggest question is where can we store all that Carbon, where it can not harm us and future generations?


Agricultural soils show the biggest potential in storing carbon in the form of soil organic carbon (SOC), as the exchange of atmosphere with the soil is very high. Even more important, SOC content in the soil is one of the key factors for a healthy soil. Examples from South America (terra petra) show that  soil can store carbon over centuries.


It is an elegant solution: storing excessive atmospheric carbon  in agricultural soils where it builds fertility, the very foundation of our societies now and for many generations to come.
How can we built an agricultural system that does exactly that, building SOC in the soils instead of depleting it (and using artificial fertilisers instead).


This article argues that we already have such a system. A system  that enriches the soils with a lot of organic matter, allowing the soil not only to find a new higher balance of SOC. Even more important, this agricultural system does not need artificial fertilisers nor a lot of plant protection, as the healthy living soil it built secures healthy plants and a large harvest. Horticultural gardening or horticultural farming very well represent such a system, very well presented (among others by Charles Dowding)

Charles Dowding is a market gardener in England promoting a growing system under the brand of NO-DIG. As the name suggests, one of the pillars of this method is an undisturbed soil – no tillage. The second pillar of this method is an annual application of compost of 5 to 10 centimeters (2-4 inch).


Many growers over the planet practice this method on different soils and in different climates. Results are very promising. The soil under this agricultural practice is full of beneficial organisms and microbes as well as fungal networks and activities (mykhorizza). This leads to very resilient healthy plants with no need for pesticides or artificial fertilisers.
So far the increase of SOC under this method has not been monitored. However, early estimates are very promising though. An analysis of soils managed under these regimes on a world wide scale may clarify the potential of this agricultural practice, not only to meet climate change, but more important to built again fertile soil, the very basis of our existence

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