World Soil Day
04/12/15 05:20
The time between Thanksgiving and New Years is often described as holiday season, so I’m sure that you’ve got a big celebration planned for today. It is, after all, World Soil Day. That’s right it is the day of dirt. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has a web site devoted to Global Soil Partnership that even includes a map of World Soil Day events planned around the world. The map doesn’t show much going on in South Dakota. The nearest event shown on the map is in Utah with another in Texas and events in both Spokane and Seattle Washington as well as Vancouver, British Columbia. The theme for this year’s celebration is “Soils: a solid ground for life.”
Soil is very important for sustaining life and soil conservation has been an important part of contemporary farming. During the Great Depression of the 1930’s large amounts of topsoil were eroded, primarily through wind as the drought left huge amounts of farmland without crop cover to hold the soil. The planing of shelter belts and discovery of low tillage and no tillage farming has greatly reduced the erosion of topsoil, but it is still a major issue. We’ve driven across eastern Oregon and Washington where there are huge corporate farms. On windy days the road ditches fill up with topsoil blowing off of the fallow fields.
Human well being depends on the preservation of soil. The production of our food, fuel, and fiber is dependent upon healthy soils. Clean water and resistance to floods and droughts are dependent upon rich soil.
The stories of our people are literally caught up with the stories of soil. Genesis 2:7 says, “then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.” There is an important wordplay in the Hebrew that doesn’t come through in many English translations. The dust of the ground is “Adamah" in Hebrew. The man formed from the dust is “Adam.” We have the language to express a similar pattern: The human was formed from the humus. The wordplay continues in the Hebrew. The breath of life is “Ewa” and the woman formed from the side of the man is named “Eve.” In that particular Biblical account of creation, Adam and Eve are literally made out of soil and breath. Wind and dirt: the basic elements of life. Water also figures deeply in the story. The place where the human is created only after “a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground.” The river that flows out of Eden to water the garden is divided into four streams and the great rivers of the region are named as having their origins in that garden.
We come from the soil and to the soil we will return. The elements of our human bodies are all natural parts of creation. We are made of the same stuff as the earth.
Now, in a time of modern science, we know that humus is not a single entity, but rather a rich and very biodiverse community of organisms that live in the soil and assist with decomposition and reconfiguration of elements into new forms of life.
In our backyard we have a couple of bins for composting and we place organic materials including table scraps, corn stalks, extra materials from the garden, grass clippings and more in those bins. We stir them from time to time and remove soil from the bottoms of the bins to enrich the garden each year. This year, after many years of using the compost, we were able to remove about 24 yards of material from the bins that we used to make some changes in our landscaping in our front yard. As I toted wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow full of the rich soil, I was amazed at the bounty of our simple compost piles. Without cost and with very little effort, we were able to harvest a rich bounty for our yard. Of course, there were a few weed seeds in the compost. It is, after all, a biodiverse entity.
Each year our landfill produces tons and tons of compost from yard waste. The compost is used in area parks and is available to home owners for their use. It is pretty impressive when you consider that most of our area has thin topsoil and the pine forests mean that the soil is quite acidic, not the best for rich garden yields. But with a little effort, the soils can be enriched naturally to produce a wide variety of plants including garden crops and fruit trees.
I haven’t planned a party for world soil day, but it seems appropriate to pause and reflect on the great bounty that makes our lives on this planet sustainable. Since we are made from the soil and dependent upon soil for our food, it makes sense that we show a little appreciation for the soil that provides for our being.
There is nothing new in this observation. As I mentioned earlier, the relationship between our lives and the soil is embedded deeply in the stories and traditions of our people. We have been talking about this for thousands of years. Old stories, however, can become so routine that we don’t pay attention to them unless given a reason to do so.
When we served rural congregations in North Dakota, we observed Soil Conservation Sunday in the middle of May each year. We would get litanies and bulletin resources from the local soil conservation district and use them in worship to remind our people of the connections between faith and the care of the land. It was a lesson that we didn’t really need to teach. Family farmers are among the best stewards of land from a soil conservation standpoint.
The practice of observing the connection between the land and our lives is probably more important for those of us who do not live on farms. We need to be reminded of a truth that our people have long known - a truth that our farm neighbors practice every day: soil is an important resource.
Happy World Soil Day!
Soil is very important for sustaining life and soil conservation has been an important part of contemporary farming. During the Great Depression of the 1930’s large amounts of topsoil were eroded, primarily through wind as the drought left huge amounts of farmland without crop cover to hold the soil. The planing of shelter belts and discovery of low tillage and no tillage farming has greatly reduced the erosion of topsoil, but it is still a major issue. We’ve driven across eastern Oregon and Washington where there are huge corporate farms. On windy days the road ditches fill up with topsoil blowing off of the fallow fields.
Human well being depends on the preservation of soil. The production of our food, fuel, and fiber is dependent upon healthy soils. Clean water and resistance to floods and droughts are dependent upon rich soil.
The stories of our people are literally caught up with the stories of soil. Genesis 2:7 says, “then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.” There is an important wordplay in the Hebrew that doesn’t come through in many English translations. The dust of the ground is “Adamah" in Hebrew. The man formed from the dust is “Adam.” We have the language to express a similar pattern: The human was formed from the humus. The wordplay continues in the Hebrew. The breath of life is “Ewa” and the woman formed from the side of the man is named “Eve.” In that particular Biblical account of creation, Adam and Eve are literally made out of soil and breath. Wind and dirt: the basic elements of life. Water also figures deeply in the story. The place where the human is created only after “a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground.” The river that flows out of Eden to water the garden is divided into four streams and the great rivers of the region are named as having their origins in that garden.
We come from the soil and to the soil we will return. The elements of our human bodies are all natural parts of creation. We are made of the same stuff as the earth.
Now, in a time of modern science, we know that humus is not a single entity, but rather a rich and very biodiverse community of organisms that live in the soil and assist with decomposition and reconfiguration of elements into new forms of life.
In our backyard we have a couple of bins for composting and we place organic materials including table scraps, corn stalks, extra materials from the garden, grass clippings and more in those bins. We stir them from time to time and remove soil from the bottoms of the bins to enrich the garden each year. This year, after many years of using the compost, we were able to remove about 24 yards of material from the bins that we used to make some changes in our landscaping in our front yard. As I toted wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow full of the rich soil, I was amazed at the bounty of our simple compost piles. Without cost and with very little effort, we were able to harvest a rich bounty for our yard. Of course, there were a few weed seeds in the compost. It is, after all, a biodiverse entity.
Each year our landfill produces tons and tons of compost from yard waste. The compost is used in area parks and is available to home owners for their use. It is pretty impressive when you consider that most of our area has thin topsoil and the pine forests mean that the soil is quite acidic, not the best for rich garden yields. But with a little effort, the soils can be enriched naturally to produce a wide variety of plants including garden crops and fruit trees.
I haven’t planned a party for world soil day, but it seems appropriate to pause and reflect on the great bounty that makes our lives on this planet sustainable. Since we are made from the soil and dependent upon soil for our food, it makes sense that we show a little appreciation for the soil that provides for our being.
There is nothing new in this observation. As I mentioned earlier, the relationship between our lives and the soil is embedded deeply in the stories and traditions of our people. We have been talking about this for thousands of years. Old stories, however, can become so routine that we don’t pay attention to them unless given a reason to do so.
When we served rural congregations in North Dakota, we observed Soil Conservation Sunday in the middle of May each year. We would get litanies and bulletin resources from the local soil conservation district and use them in worship to remind our people of the connections between faith and the care of the land. It was a lesson that we didn’t really need to teach. Family farmers are among the best stewards of land from a soil conservation standpoint.
The practice of observing the connection between the land and our lives is probably more important for those of us who do not live on farms. We need to be reminded of a truth that our people have long known - a truth that our farm neighbors practice every day: soil is an important resource.
Happy World Soil Day!