Goodies and Baddies
So this is the good news of the wonderful world of living soil, but there is always a party pooper who spoils things and of course they exist in the soil.
There are many species of microbes that are essential for health. An even bigger number think humans are boring so they ignore us, but there are some that can make us really sick and even kill us.
They don’t mean to, but even bugs get things wrong and destroy their feeding and breeding homes.
So can we develop some magic spray which will kill off the harmful bugs while benefiting the good bugs?
The answer is yes, we did it ages ago. The water was so contaminated that people, even the kids, drank low alcohol beer, not to have a whoop up at breakfast but because the low alcohol content killed off most of the harmful bugs.
We have also produced some very effective disinfectants, which all seem to claim to kill 99% of germs, although I have a hunch that 99% was negotiated between the legal and marketing departments and has nothing to do with the technical department.
The Solution in Evolution
But we can take a lesson from evolution and make the harmful microbes become extinct by creating the conditions that favour the breeding of the beneficial microbes.
We quite reasonably have an instinctive fear of harmful microbes, the germs.
But the facts are reassuring. Healthy people have a highly effective immune system. The vast majority of the people who died in the recent Covid epidemic were in poor health for some other reason, while very few healthy people died — sick yes, but dead no.
This is a key principle underlying the Gbiota technology: we manage the conditions to favour the beneficial microbes so they outcompete and outbreed the harmful microbes.
The three conditions are the balance of nutrients, air and water.
It sounds, and is, very simple. For example, if the nutrient level is too low then neither the plants nor the beneficial microbes will grow well, but if the nutrient level is too high then the plants become over-saturated and die while the harmful microbes dominate.
The principle is very simple and in practice it is equally simple, but it has to be done right.
In the next newsletter I will get down to the business of how to grow food that will keep us healthy and is also sustainable.