Bibliography for Healthy Soil, Healthy Plants, Healthy People
If you've attended our library talk and wanted to check our sources, here they are: some book-length treatments on the subjects we discussed, and some peer-reviewed papers for those so inclined.
Books
The Alchemy of Air
The fascinating history of the development of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer with a few notes on the long-term ecological consequences of its manufacture. We should note that we think the 19th century panic over available free nitrogen sources was needless and could have been avoided by sounder farming practices!
The Hidden Life of Trees
A lovely book that is hard to believe until you verify that the research he discusses is peer reviewed. Provides an introduction to the ideas of airborne chemical signaling amongst plants, kin detection in trees, mycorrhizal nutrient transfer, etc.
The Light Eaters
A bit more sensational than The Hidden Life of Trees and at times deliberately provocative (the author chooses to refer to squash plants as “bisexual” instead of monoecious). Nevertheless, this book includes biology that has passed peer review in the last handful of years, but that you might not read about in other books published for a general audience.
The Living Soil Handbook
An excellent introduction to no-till production methods for gardeners and small-scale farmers.
New Roots for Agriculture
Part history of the destructive force of modern agriculture (intensive tillage in particular), part manifesto for the the author’s life work: creation of perennial row crop agriculture. Wes founded The Land Institute, whose nearly 50 year-long plant breeding program has started bearing results. Their trademark grain, Kernza, is now available for purchase whole or in a variety of products, and in China, entire provinces are converting to perennial rice.
If Paul could have dinner with any living American, Dr. Jackson would definitely be in the top three.
Teaming with Microbes
This is a fantastic introduction to the soil food web and practical applications of the knowledge, such as compost tea.
Worms Eat My Garbage
The vermicomposting classic. We first read this about 15 years ago, an old edition that Nina’s mother had. This is what first got us interested in keeping worms.
Scientific Papers
Gut microbiota shift in layer pullets fed on black soldier fly larvae-based feeds towards enhancing healthy gut microbial community
Live insects in a bird’s diet directly correlate to diversity of gut bacteria. One of the many reasons that we raise and feed black soldier fly larvae to our ducks.
Mycorrhizal fungi control phosphorus value in trade symbiosis with host roots when exposed to abrupt ‘crashes’ and ‘booms’ of resource availability
There are a lot of papers demonstrating that there is effectively a biological stock exchange between plants and mycorrhizae. This one demonstrates that, when presented with a glut of phosphorus, the fungus will hoard it to control the “exchange rate” of C:P with the plants!
Rhizophagy Cycle: An Oxidative Process in Plants for Nutrient Extraction from Symbiotic Microbes
Plants do something like farm bacteria with their roots like sheep being farmed for wool! This is perhaps anthropomorphizing a bit, but the discovery is mindblowing. Dr. White has given numerous presentations on the rhizophagy process so if you’d rather watch than read, you have options. Worth viewing regardless as he presents the research of many others that have built on the discoveries in his lab.
Soil Health and Nutrient Density: Beyond Organic vs. Conventional Farming
An excellent and extremely thorough literature review spanning a century on the impacts of soil ecology, synthetic fertilizers, and intensive tillage on the nutrient content of vegetables.
Strength Lies in Diversity: How Community Diversity Limits Salmonella Abundance in the Chicken Intestine
The basic principles of ecology apply to animal innards as much as to the soil: it’s easier to crowd out pathogens with loads of competitors than it is to kill or control them directly.