[soilhack-announce] Humus doesn't exist?

Thu Jul 28 10:28:21 CEST 2016

Hi Adam

Not sure if you received my previous email about this.  Just wondering if
you'd be interested in taking part in Farm Hack Scotland 1st & 2nd Oct at
Tombreck Farm.  We now have some funding to cover travel and expenses for
all workshop leaders.

Info and tickets here:
http://www.commongoodfood.org/whats-on/farm-hack-scotland

We're keen to have some soil hacks on the go.  Would you or anyone else who
is active in the Soil Hack network be interested in coming up that
weekend?  It would be great to have a session on Actively Aerated Compost
teas and/or biochar kilns, or we could have a chat about other ideas.

We're making some decisions about the programme next Monday night so would
be good to know if you are free.

Cheers

Clem

*Clementine Sandison*
*Artist, food activist and **member of Open Jar Collective*

Tel: +44 (0)7971027963
Email: clem.sandison at gmail.com
Web: www.clementinesandison.co.uk
Twitter: @clemsandison

On 12 May 2016 at 14:43, Adam Ormes Court <ormus23 at gmail.com> wrote:

> I usually wouldn't post this sort of thing on here but thought this was a
> sufficiently monumental piece of information to merit doing so...
>
> From a post by Toby Hemenway on FedBook:
>
> Some amazing news on the soil science front. Humus doesn't exist. Several
> recent articles are showing that humic and fulvic acids and many of the
> other humic components of soil are artifacts of the alkaline treatment
> that is used to measure humus content, and don't, in fact, exist in
> untreated soil. When OM is measured using non-destructive methods such as
> NMR spectroscopy, no humic compounds can be found. Organic matter does not
> degrade into "stable" humic components, it simply decomposes into a
> continuum of smaller and smaller carbon compounds. There is constant, slow
> turnover of carbon in soils, not a semi-permanent trapping of carbon into
> "humus." Humus, meaning a stable form of carbon visualized by alkaline
> extraction, seems not to exist. It's an artifact of the lab method. This is
> kind of blow-away news for those of us who teach soil science--and it's a
> good lesson on how the methods we use determines what we see. Teachers,
> start revising how you teach soils, and stop talking about humus.
>
> Most of the articles on this are behind journal paywalls, but some of the
> abstracts are available. One article is Lehmann, J.; Kleber, M.
> (2015-12-03), "The contentious nature of soil organic matter", Nature
> 528:60-68. There is a short video based on that article linked below.
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n6emCNEmKg
> --
> *In order to change an existing paradigm you do not struggle to try and
> change the problematic model /* *You create a new model and make the old
> one obsolete /* *That, in essence, is the higher service to which we are
> all being called. //* Buckminster Fuller
>
>
>
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