Symphony of the Soil

Source: symphonyofthesoil.com

A regular reader and contributor to this website pointed me to a cool website and excellent film on soils—their importance and the processes involved in their formation and development. Here’s the link to the website and film.

In a earlier post on the decline of monarch butterflies, I briefly speak to one of the important topics covered in the film—impacts of genetically modified crops, Roundup Ready® seeds, and biofuels production.

This week only, the film—Symphony of the Soil—is offered for FREE, so get over to the website soon and check out the film. It is available for purchase, too (home use: DVD $20 / BluRay $30). The film is produced by Deborah Koons Garcia and Lily Films of Mill Valley, California; they produce films on the environment and sustainability. It celebrates International Year of the Soils 2015.

I’ll reproduce here the summary on the home page of The Symphony of the Soil. It is followed by a few favorable newspaper quotes about the film and a link to another cool website on soil foodwebs.

The 68th UN General Assembly declared 2015 the International Year of Soils. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has been nominated to implement the International Year of the Soils (IYS) 2015, within the framework of the Global Soil Partnership and in collaboration with Governments and the secretariat of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.

To help celebrate the International Year of the Soils, we will be streaming the full feature film, Symphony of the Soil, for FREE for the week of December 5 – 12, 2014. You can help us spread the word by linking to or embedding the film on your site with a link to the Symphony of the Soil website and to the International Year of the Soils.

Help Raise soil consciousness by purchasing a DVD, giving a DVD to friends, or by participating in our Educational Gift Program (where you make a purchase to give the film to a community who may not have the resources to purchase an educational license).

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“True to its title, the film really makes a symphony of soil…” 
—Civil Eats, Sally Neas

“Unfolding with gentle joy and an unexpected beauty, this ode to the miracle of the Earth’s topmost layer gives us a newfound respect for the ground beneath our feet.”
—New York Times, Jeannette Catsoulis

“…a stimulating and visually engaging product..”
—The Village Voice, John Oursler

“This film raises the bar. It makes you care about our Earth’s precious skin, so rare among planets.”
—Washington Post, Barbara Damrosch

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I also recommend this website: www.soilfoodweb.com. It is managed by Elaine Ingham, a soil biologist specializing in soil foodwebs and a contributor to the film. Her website includes helpful information on plants and microorganisms, composting, and related books and articles.

🙂

Dane County Farmers Market

Greg from Madison contributes this post about the bountiful farmers market he visited last weekend.  This post indicates some of the benefits from buying locally. It reminds me of the Zero-Mile Diet (2010) and 100-Mile Diet (2007). Thank you Greg!

In Madison, we’re lucky to have the Dane County Farmers Market. It runs all summer long and is the largest producer-only farmers market in the U.S. That means everything is produced locally by the people who sell it, most of whom are family farmers from southern Wisconsin.

Their booths line the Capitol Square downtown every Saturday morning, offering everything from just-picked sweet corn to 25-year-old aged cheddar to sparkling-fresh honey gathered by the beekeepers themselves (see pic below).

This morning I arrived at 7:30 and began to make my rounds. First stop, Harmony Valley Organic Farm for their prana-filled salad greens and sweet corn. Next stop, the Cress Spring Bakery booth, for a homemade blueberry bar to nibble, then gobble. After that, Canopy Gardens for red peppers, cucumbers and leeks. Then more stops at some of my other favorite vendors.

Along the way I passed seedless watermelons, ruby-red tomatoes (with a sign that said “grown In Real Dirt”), the buddha-like grey-haired woman who sells emu eggs, and stack after stack of green beans. Oh, and did I mention the giant fall raspberries, the squeaky cheese curds and the sweet cherries and peaches from Door County?

So much to choose from. And each vendor is happy to tell you about their farm, their growing practices and how to prepare the foods for the best taste. Strong bonds develop between the farmers and their customers. A few summers ago, we had so much rain one of the farms flooded and its crops were ruined for several weeks. Because of the loss of income, the farmers weren’t sure if they’d be able to continue coming to the market. Amazingly, their loyal customers chipped in so that they could.

Not only is everything at the market incredibly fresh, buying it is also a great way to be of service to the environment. According to an expert at the University of Vermont, well-managed farms (especially organic farms) conserve fertile soil, protect water sources, and sequester carbon from the atmosphere. They also provide fields, meadows, woods and ponds that provide habitat for wildlife in our communities.

Buying locally produced food also decreases the amount of fossil fuels needed to truck or fly food in from far-away places. By supporting local farmers we help ensure there will be farms in our communities tomorrow. 

Of course, being Madison, the market is sprinkled with street musicians, activists, philosophers and other assorted characters as colorful as the vendors themselves.

As I finished circling the square, I took a deep breath and wished that summer would last forever.

Algae in the Great Lakes and beyond

The environmental topic of the week in the Great Lakes region is the “do-not-drink” advisory on water supplied from Lake Erie, which has been apparently contaminated by toxins from algae. The contamination and advisory have affected about 500,000 people in the Toledo area and a few areas in southeastern Michigan. So far, there are no reports of people becoming sick from drinking the water. Federal and state environmental agencies and a university in Michigan are performing more tests on water samples. Further testing will determine how long the advisory will be in effect.

The toxin microcystin was discovered recently in a northwestern Ohio treatment plant. Reportedly, levels of the toxin in drinking water have decreased; however, monitoring and further testing is underway. As a precaution, the City of Chicago is testing its Lake Michigan water supply in response to the news from Ohio. Water treatment facilities usually test water for a range of algal components including those producing microcystin.

Microcystin can kill animals and plants, but is rarely fatal to humans. It is produced by microorganisms like flagellates (protozoa with whip-like structures used for locomotion) and cyanobacteria (blue-green algae). It is also known to accumulate in the tissues of organisms, reaching high concentrations during algal blooms. Summer algal blooms in Lake Erie have occurred more often, probably because of increasing inputs of phosphorus from agriculture runoff and municipal sewage treatment plants.

The problem is not unique to Lake Erie.

Mortality in hundreds of migratory birds, such as great blue herons (Ardea herodias), occurred in the Chesapeake Bay in 2001, 2004 and 2005. According to the US Geological Survey, the more serious mortality events were associated with algal blooms and higher levels of cyanobacteria. Further research suggests the cause was exposure to the cyanobacteria toxin microcystin through ingestion of contaminated water and/or prey items.

As I indicated in a earlier post on endangered ecosystems, nitrogen and phosphorus enrichment from agricultural fertilizers have contributed to degradation of terrestrial and wetland ecosystems. Fertilizers applied to land often reach aquatic and marine systems through storm-water runoff and groundwater discharge.

A potential for added public health risk?

Bacteria such as Escherichia coli and Salmonella tend to thrive in algae, according to University at Buffalo researchers. They found that, “…green algae in the Great Lakes not only protect bacteria from destruction by the sun’s ultraviolet rays, but feed the organisms as well.” The research was featured in the journal Royal Society of Chemistry’s Environmental Science: Processes and Impacts, showing how algae affect the health of the Great Lakes, the world’s largest surface freshwater system. “Because algae are a nuisance, we don’t think that they are harmful. But some may be harboring bacteria,” according to Dr. Berat Haznedaroglu, of the University of Buffalo.

E. coli and Salmonella are usually killed by UV rays; however, an algae bloom can shield the bacteria from radiation, allowing them to proliferate to alarming levels that can trigger pubic health advisories. Dr. Haznedaroglu and graduate students collected algae samples from the upper Niagara River at Beaver Island State Park in New York, and tested them with different counts of lab-grown E. coli and Salmonella, and with and without algae. The samples were continuously exposed to the same amount of UV radiation similar to daylight. The researchers found that the bacteria hid beneath the algae to avoid the radiation and they clustered around the algae to feed on chemicals they release.

Ecological effects of nutrient enrichment in aquatic systems

Similar problems have been seen in Florida’s freshwater springs. Widespread increase of algae has affected water quality and clarity, and diversity of aquatic animal species. The impact is also affecting local economies and tourism as canoeists, scuba divers, and swimmers stay away.

In Florida, the problem relates to excess nitrates in groundwater that discharges eventually into freshwater springs. Sources of nitrates include agricultural and residential fertilizer use, municipal sewage treatment effluent and residential septic systems.

Dr. Matthew Cohen, an ecohydrologist at University of Florida, suggests an important factor in restoring the springs could involve restoring populations of algae-eating native freshwater snails of the genus Elimia. Cohen and his doctoral student Dina Liebowitz completed a six-year study of the springs. The research team collected samples at 11 springs at different times of the year, that had high and low levels of nitrates, oxygen and algae. The results are published in the journal and show nitrate enrichment reduces grazing on algae, leading to increases in algae biomass and changes in the snail community. The researchers tested three linked hypotheses:

1. Reduced grazing causes increase in algae;
2. grazer control of algae is brought about by dissolved oxygen concentration; and
3. an algal-dominated state may persist if biomass reaches a level that grazers can no longer contain algae accumulation.

The researcher’s observations included a significant and consistent negative correlation between algal and snail biomass — more snails, less algae. Further experimentation confirmed that snails are an important mediating factor in algae proliferation in Florida’s springs.

Photo of Elimia snail, courtesy of Chris Lukhaup