Vigorous Agriculture —— Meeting the Challenge of Chemical Agriculture
When chemical agriculture was not "conventional", people's doubts about chemicals had long existed.
Vigorous farming was born in a series of lectures on "Agricultural Curriculum" given by scientist and philosopher rudolf steiner from 65438 to 0924. At that time, shortly after the rise of chemical agriculture, a group of farmers began to realize the problems such as the increase of soil and crop diseases and insect pests and the decline of food quality caused by chemicals, and began to look for solutions. This series of speeches is Steiner's direct response to the loss of soil-crop vitality caused by the trend of chemical agriculture.
"In history, new impetus has surged again and again. We can never go back to the past. When the natural growth conditions of plants are being disintegrated by tough (conventional chemical) agricultural methods and environmental conditions are degraded, a new agricultural driving force becomes necessary. " -official website, Australian Institute of Vitality Agriculture.
From theory to landing
Several colleagues of Mr Steiner have made great contributions to the scientific verification and practical implementation of his theory. Among them, Ms. Lily Korisk successfully scientifically proved that substances had a positive or negative impact on animals and plants in a very subtle state (diluted to 1000 billion times) during the period of 65438-about 1930, when the value of trace elements or vitamins was unknown; As the formula developer appointed by Steiner, Mr. Enfret Pfeiffer further refined the formula of dynamic culture through a lot of experimental research, and determined the dosage, proportion and quality standard of each formula. Pufa later became a famous American microbiologist and a pioneer of emerging nutrition at that time.
From 500 to 500.
The accuracy of understanding, formulating and using dynamic agricultural formulas has a key impact on agricultural laws.
Mr. Pfeiffer found that the basic formula of dynamic culture contains more than 500 million active microorganisms per gram ("500 million" in English, and the original value will continue to increase geometrically after activation), so he named it "500".
Alex PerDolinschi, deeply influenced by anthroposophy, went to the "land of the sun" in Australia and worked with a group of farmers who really worked in nature and the earth. Through nearly 70 years of practical efforts, he developed the Dynamic Farming Agriculture Law from theory to a complete set of agricultural legal system, and proved the powerful power of agricultural laws to land with facts in various climatic zones and soil conditions. Alex, who had close communication with Mr. Pfeiffer, strictly implemented the principle of formula making established by Mr. Pfeiffer, and even was considered by Mr. Pfeiffer to surpass his own production in the quality of individual formulas. In practice, in order to further improve the utilization efficiency of the formula, Alex created "Compound 500" on the basis of single formula 500 and six compost formulas, and its application effect was better than that of single formula 500. Now it is widely used in Australia, Europe, Asia and many other countries and regions.
2 Conservation tillage series agricultural machinery
In order to further adapt to the farming reality in Australia, a series of key agricultural machinery were born in the collective wisdom, among which the formula mixer successfully liberated the dynamic farming from manual mixing, so it can be effectively used in very large-scale farm forms; Based on the deep understanding of soil structure, the special subsoiling plow for Fuxing has successfully explored a middle way in soil protection and production efficiency, which enables the severely hardened soil to be quickly transformed and all kinds of soil to be continuously developed and produced. This is of special significance in today's global soil degradation, but as one of the main causes of soil hardening, the problem of heavy and crushing agricultural machinery has not been widely paid attention to.
From farmers to farmers, from soil to human beings.
Different from the dynamic agriculture limited to anthropology in the early days, Australian dynamic agriculture inherited Mr Steiner's initial intention of "expecting dynamic agriculture to be widely used on the earth" and emphasized the practice-oriented road of "farmers inheriting farmers", and gradually formed a mutual aid network among farmers, a tripartite support structure of "farmers' association-research institute-sales company/farmers' fund" and a standard certification system for agricultural products based on and higher than national organic standards. In an era when even the organic market is lacking, the food market of dynamic farming is gradually opened by relying entirely on food quality. In a comparative blind test of "routine chemical planting-organic planting-active farming planting in Demetri, Australia" 1 1, Demetri Certified Food Company of Australia obtained 8 blind tests.
4 The real beginning of holistic treatment
Good farming methods not only bring a bumper harvest in agriculture, but also have a chain reaction: healthy soil-sunny plants-high-quality food-energetic human beings-rejuvenated earth.
"In Australia, there is a dynamic farm with 65,438+0,000 hectares, and the terrain is as flat as a desktop. On one side of the farm is a valley river almost 6 meters deep, and on the other side is a road. On the hillside above the expressway is a conventional farm, and the farmer is 84 years old. Last autumn, after the usual drought of six to eight months, the old farmer said to us, "John John, I don't know what you are doing down there, but this is the first time in 80 years that I have seen the river-after summer and autumn-still flowing." "Our farm has cultivated enough humus to store water in the soil. A groundwater vein system has begun to develop and the whole area has entered a healing process." -1999 "agriculture for the future" delivered at the international conference in Demeter, Italy
Australia's booming agriculture
1 cognitive watershed-plant cultivation, natural or compulsory?
Chemical agriculture began when chemist Justus von Liebig discovered that "plants can only absorb water-soluble minerals". However, this is not a complete description of plant absorption mechanism. Australia's vigorous agriculture has been confirmed by long-term observation: in the natural state, the root system of plants presents two systems: uprooting and uprooting, as Steiner suggested:
"Plants get nutrients from humus instead of soil moisture."
In nature, plants "drink water if they want, and eat if they want", and the rhythm of feeding is completely regulated by the warmth of the sun. After neutralization and purification of humus, minerals are contained in humus in the form of water solubility, and the roots are absorbed from the fluff extending into humus into plants. Under the regulation of the sun, plants will not be in an unbalanced state of overnutrition, but soil moisture will remain pure. Because of the balance of water and salt in plant cells, photosynthesis is normal, and plants show their original morphology and flavor.
In the agricultural model of transporting nutrients through water-soluble fertilizers, plants absorb and mix water and nutrients (most hairy roots are often burned to death). When plants have been absorbing water due to transpiration, they are forced to absorb excessive soil moisture and salt, and in order to balance the excessive salt in the body, plants are also forced to absorb excessive water. Water transpiration and salt accumulation need more water. This vicious cycle leads to edema of plant cells, and excessive salt (such as nitrate) in the body cannot be completely neutralized and transformed. This has led to a series of problems such as blocked photosynthesis, decreased immunity, increased pests and diseases, increased food volume, but greatly reduced nutritional value and flavor quality. Turbid soil water not only pollutes soil, destroys soil ecological environment, accelerates soil hardening and degradation, but also continues to pollute groundwater as most fertilizers sink with water loss.
2 the core point of management-the establishment of soil life structure
"The importance of soil structure-humus is the natural food of plants. The loss of soil structure will lead to the loss of humus.
Modern science has no means to detect humus-it is a living substance. The detection of organic matter or carbon is different from that of humus.
Now, due to the management methods adopted, most agricultural soils on the earth have lost their soil structure. One of the consequences of this is that the soil no longer contains the natural food needed to hide plants. The nutrient requirements of these plants depend on the application of fertilizers. "
"Humus and soil structure are the basis of organic fertilization in natural tissues. They are the basic principles of Demeter's dynamic agricultural law in Australia. " -official website, Australian Institute of Vitality Agriculture.
Brand-new ideas-unknown microorganisms, new humus.
It is estimated that the global soil formation rate is per cm 178 years. "—— Soil Observation —— Chen Nengchang" Humans rely on six inches of topsoil again. "In Australia's extensive practice of vigorously farming under different climate and soil conditions, the transformation and restoration of degraded soil often see real results in a short time. More empirical research and industry dialogue are still to be done.
In the study of 500 formula milk powder that year, Pufa found that it contained some microbial species that had never been found in nature.
"Organic agriculture is facing potential uneasiness. It lives in the past-just like the Old Testament-and depends on the soil lost from the mountains. Flourishing agriculture, like the New Testament, has promoted the emergence of new soil.
In the future, it is impossible for agriculture and human beings to use the resources lost and deposited from the mountains forever, which is unsustainable. Flourishing agriculture is sustainable because new soil is created-sometimes old materials are used as little as possible. Looking further away, the old land is dying out, so the old "humus" that can be obtained will eventually become less and less. For details, see Intensive Cultivation-Agriculture for the Future.
This article is selected from the fourth issue of Sustainable Agriculture, which is to be continued.