Some conversion experiences are dramatic, sudden and memorable. In a religious context, we often (unduly) tend to give these examples pride of place over what is more normal: gradual, unremarkable changes of mind and heart.
Can you remember the exact time you first understood some principle of ecological agriculture? The “aha” moment when you realized that plants send exudates into the soil to signal their nutritional needs to microbes, and that microbes then provide the plant those exact minerals? Or more recently, when you first heard the concept of rhizophagy: that plants “consume” bacteria, partially dissolve them inside the plant roots, and then spit the microbe back out into the soil, growing new root hairs in the process?
Here’s another example: the idea that seeds are conveying not just genetics from one generation to the next — they are also transferring microbes. A lot of them — according to Dr. Christine Jones, as many as 8 billion microbes on and inside an individual seed. And these microbes may be just as important in determining the eventual success of the plant as the genetic material itself. The benefits of having loads of microbes in and on your seeds are numerous: optimized nutrition uptake for the new plant, protection from disease, stimulated plant metabolism, greater tolerance to abiotic stressors, and more.
Now consider how reductionistic today’s conventional approach is. The focus is solely on the seed’s genetic material. According to the experts, these genetics are so important that we can’t rely on natural breeding methods to shape them in the way we want — we have to go in and add or rearrange genes ourselves. Yes, even modern non-GM seed varieties aren’t “natural” in the sense that they existed in nature before human breeding programs — all pre-modern tomatoes were smaller and less flavorful than today’s — but this doesn’t mean that “natural” is a myth and that CRISPR is doing the same thing. Genetic meddling has untold unintended consequences that we’re just beginning to quantify.
But, crucially, modern seed breeders and sellers also ignore the seed microbiome. Except to try to destroy it — sterile is apparently the new black in their minds. This issue of Acres U.S.A. contains a number of articles and interviews that argue that seeds grown in a regenerative environment — in soil, and via plants, that are rich in microbes and that have functional, healthy relationships between those microbes and the plant — produce superior plants. Seeds need microbes, and if your seeds come with those microbes in and on them, the fledgling plants don’t need to spend time and energy trying to accumulate them.
Whether you’re familiar with this idea or it’s an epiphany, we’re confident this issue will convince you of the importance of seed-microbe interaction.
And that’s the view from the country.
