What is humus, and what does it have to do with our humanity? If you ask Bruno Follador, a young Brazilian agriculturalist who works with soil and composting for organic and biodynamic farms, he would answer, everything.
Only 31 years old, Follador is already making a significant impact in farming communities around the world. Through his lectures and workshops on composting he has helped farmers create humus to nurture the land and improve farm resilience.
I met with him recently at the Nature Institute, in Harlemville, NY where he is currently Scholar in Residence. We spoke about his work in researching the role of humus in soil management and its particular importance at a time when concerns of a major global food crisis are mounting.
Follador uses a type of scientific analysis called Circular Chromatography created by Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, a pioneer of the Biodynamic agricultural movement with Rudolf Steiner in the early 20th century in Germany (See Beyond Organic). Pfeiffer was a major influence in the United States, teaching farmers how to grow healthy food on land without using the newly popularized techniques of chemical fertilizers or pesticides. Through the use of Pfeiffer’s chromatography, Follador can determine the biological quality, mobility, and differences in the humus in soils and in compost.
In biodynamic farming the act of composting and creating the humus is as vital to the health of the soil and the farm organism as the end products themselves. Follador maintains that by examining the process, we are invited to consider our own personal relationship with nature and how we as a society, relate to our production of food. He points out that the words humus and humanity have the same etymological root, asking us, “What consequences will there to our cultural sphere if we ignore good humus production, and instead allow soil erosion and soil abuse to proliferate on our farms?”
Today it is not uncommon to hear phrases about our farmland being “tired and exhausted”. Soil fertility is not just a mechanical problem that needs fixing. According to Follador, it requires a holistic approach, involving a completely different relationship to Nature and the current scientific paradigm.
Creating healthy humus is a process that takes time (about 9 months) and human energy. Large industrial composting operations use computerized management techniques to create a finished product within a 2-month period. Follador warns, “To force our will power onto nature, thinking that we can speed things up or “fix” any problem with our ingenious technology - through genetically modified seeds, pesticides and ‘better’ machinery can bring, and already has brought, disastrous social and ecological consequences.”
Factory farming has violated our soil health in the decades since Steiner and Pfeiffer first applied their principles to growing crops. According to Follador, if we have learned anything from history, experiences like the Dust Bowl in the midwest should teach us that cultivating land without respecting and understanding can lead to a total collapse of nature’s biological balance and to social chaos. For too long we have been using violent and destructive methods to “kill the weeds, fight the elements, and wage war against the pests that attack our crops”.
Follador points out the importance of understanding that each farm is its own living being, always in the process of unfolding. The different needs and conditions of the specific microclimate, plants, animals and people on the farm call for sensitivity and subtle nuances of action along the way. In this line of thinking, the farmer simultaneously undergoes a metamorphosis and transformation similar to that in composting, resulting in humus, or a ‘humanity’ that is infinitely superior.
He believes that composting can become a central pillar to improve the health of our farms and the nutritional value of our food. According to Follador, this new paradigm for ‘Agri-culture’ requires us to “humbly accept an invitation to rethink our relationship with the Earth as well as ourselves in order to redefine the very fabric of our society."
Follador will be teaching a series of seminars in May at the Nature Institute.
See below for information:
http://www.natureinstitute.org/calendar/index.htm
To Your Health!
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