Growing Solutions for Healthy Soil
Stop Turning Your Compost Composting offers a terrific way to culture native microbes that benefit your soil. However, there is more to a good compost than simply building a pile of manure and yard waste. Proper aeration is important to prevent overheating and to ensure that aerobic bacteria-bacteria that consume oxygen, dominate the mixture. While … Read more
1. Doctors Don’t All Take the Hippocratic Oath. I learned about the Hippocratic Oath from my parents, who believed all physicians took a Hippocratic Oath that bound them to serve the patient and “do no harm.” Only recently did I revisit this information. I learned that only about 11% of contemporary physicians even take the … Read more
Thinking Beyond Opioids and Street Drugs Chemical dependency is often viewed narrowly, as dependence on drugs. The phrase itself conjures up images of meth labs in trailer parks, and homeless addicts shooting heroine in dark alleys. But most of us know deep inside that this is only one tragic aspect of a much deeper problem. … Read more
Most of us claim we want freedom to do as we please. Yet throughout history we see examples of individuals and civilizations alike fighting for freedom only to gravitate back to states of oppression. Whether we describe the Hebrews asking Moses to be their king after leading them out of Egypt, American revolutionaries asking … Read more
Changing Times are Troubling We often hear about challenges we are facing in modern times. Real and/or perceived effects of climate change, globalization, big data, and the largest human population ever are undoubtedly stressing contemporary society. Some of these have been put into perspective with the popular YouTube Video, Did You Know. I’ve inserted … Read more
Fungal superhighways operate underground to decompose minerals and nutrients from soil and deliver them to plants. For this reason, fungi are powerful, yet too often overlooked additions to plant production. Many industrial agricultural techniques damage these fungal communities, resulting in less than optimal crop yields, reduced crop nutrition, and increased need for agrochemicals. As a result, … Read more