Plexmkm

Bio

About me

I'm currently a jack of all trade's sportsman, in training, happily but inadequately sponsored by the U.S. government. I have a newfound interest with the innerworkings of nature, home grown shitakes being the latest endeavor, among other things. Alibaba.com is #$cking awesome, diodes for LEDs and other electronics are horrifically cheap, cough cough. I have another love hate relationship with Hamilton Morris, the host of Vice News' tv series "Hamilton's Pharmacopeia", heavy on the love. I fully utilize Amazon's free rental service and would be thoroughly confused if a person had a morality issue with that. I was a trumpeter in middle school but quit before high school. I'm now beginning to wade my way back into the world of music by playing a multitude of instruments with the assistance of some musically inclined family members. My most recent favorite book is "All Quiet on the Western Front", by Erich Maria Remarque. Sidenote, I discovered that book with the help of a clever friend, purchased for $1, hard cover, limited edition, from the bi/tri/something or other annual overstock book sale put on by Friends of the Library for all of King County. Go and make sure not to miss it, all soft covers are 50 cents, and all hard covers are $1. Oh, and I'm terrible with punctuation.

Wikipedia Interests

Hmm, come to think of it...I haven't edited, built, or added a single bit of content to Wikipedia. Now that I am, thinking of it, I guess it would be cool to use it at a catalyst to dive a bit deeper into my own hobbies, organize my thoughts, and have my own knowledge corrected or fine-tuned. It'd be a bit poetic to go about it in that manner seeing as Wikipedia has taken me on countless deep dives into unknown and interesting information.

Article Evaluation

I started messing about with No-Till gardening to keep busy during Covid isolation. So, I headed on over to the No-Till Farming Wikipedia article and gave it a read. This left me felling a bit put off due to the article's laser vision focus on the standard definition of the term No-Till. The article isn’t wrong per se, but it fails to capture, what I believe to be, the true meaning of the term. During my visit to the No-Till Farming article on Wikipedia, I found three aspects of it worth commenting on: Definition, Origin Story, and Living Soil.

Definition

Introduction & Background on a subject should contain information that helps the reader obtain a base understanding of the main topic. First and foremost, I believe that No-Till Farming is inadequately defined as farming without tillage. From what I understand, the term No-Till defines a stable and productive system used in the preservation of soil ecosystems. Maybe No-Till needs a new name, something that isn’t so pointed, then again that’s the point. The point being to purposely direct attention towards one of the most destructive aspects of commercial farming and envelope it with techniques to fortify and preserve soil biology. Without the correct definition or addition of explanations related to the effect of a bolstered, and tailored, soil ecosystem the article will remain incomplete.

Origin Story

The origin of No-Till as described in the No-Till Farming Wikipedia article is bias and incorrect. It states that the idea of modern No-Till Farming came from the author of “Plowman’s Folly,” Edward H. Faulkner. Although he did author a well-known book about zero-tillage he is far removed from pioneering any techniques or philosophes on the subject. What the article fails to include is information on the generations of multicultural farmers, whose knowledge and techniques were used to build current No-Till Farming systems. It also fails to acknowledge the tremendous amount of research into plant and soil biology used to refine our understanding of why these systems work and how to create better ones. The lack of a proper origin story, especially one replaced with what feels like a quick glance at a google search result, does the topic a mortal injury.

Living Soil

The article is strewn with incorrect information due to the lack in proper understanding of No-Till Farming and omission of knowledge regarding living soil. Living soil is a term used to describe a complete and healthy soil ecosystem. Soil that contains archaea, bacteria, actinomycetes, fungi, algae, protozoa, and a wide variety of larger soil fauna, including springtails, mites, nematodes, earthworms, ants, insects is said to be living. This has caused the article to amass many inaccuracies, so I will just point out one that caught my eye. Under the heading, “Profit, economics, yield,” it is explained that no-till soil can take longer to heat up in the Spring thus delaying the seeding process. The explanation of this is said to be due to refuse from the previous crop reflecting solar radiation that would normally be absorbed by the darker soil. What it fails to consider is that the heat generated from the soil biology would be insulated by the same refuse, and that the refuse is sustenance for the lower biology within the food chain that creates the heat. The refuse can also be fermented, broken down, and imbued with beneficial bacteria and then buried deep enough in the soil to create a safe space for soil microbes to wait out a harsher winter. I believe the article was written with incomplete data which, in this instance has led it to labeling a mistake in technique, a consequence of No-Till Farming.

Summary

I have to say that the No-Till Wikipedia article is, hands down, the best damn thing I have ever read on zero-tillage, as described in a book written in the early 1940s. With that said, the article describes how most of the agriculture industry goes about not tilling their soil and allows the reader to see a few of the benefits of half-assing the thing. Unfortunately, all the fine details are missing, leaving a husk of incomplete information. Hopefully the article will lead people towards the communities that refine the concepts of No-Till into revolutionary and sustainable farming. Though, I fear that most will leave feeling underwhelmed and unconvinced of the planetary impact No-Till Farming would have, if fully adopted, on Earth.

References

Chadwick, Mr. “Animal Bar.” The Illustrated World of Mr. Chadwick, Mr. Chadwick, Unknown Publication Date, https://i.pinimg.com/originals/20/02/78/2002783f9a52785649b2d5a99fa06743.jpg.