Soil History Lesson:
Post-WWII Conventional Chemical Agriculture

Why is conventional chemical agriculture detrimental to our soils and to our soil microbes in particular?

Prior to WWII, North Americans weren’t doing too bad of a job maintaining soil health. We were tilling the earth, (which we now realize is not a best practice and should generally be avoided), but we weren’t using harsh pesticides and chemical fertilizers before the 1950s.
 
The practice of using these man-made products on our agricultural fields was a direct result of the second World War. During WWII, chemical companies focused efforts on producing chemical warfare weapons. When the War ended, these companies held the jobs of millions of Americans in the balance but had no use for the products they had developed. To address this issue the companies looked for other uses for these chemicals, one of which was the application of these to agricultural crops.
 
Because these toxic chemical weapons (such as Agent Orange) hold high levels of the nutrients NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium), when applied to the fields, the plants grew big quickly! What we know now is that these chemicals force-feed plants with only a few of the nutrients that they need, while destroying the microbial systems in the soil that would otherwise provide on-demand nutrition to the plant at the correct levels at the correct times.
 
Chemical fertilizers are easily washed away, which leaves the soil nutrient deficit and dead, so the cycle begins again of applying more fertilizer to fix the issue which really only causes further damage. The practice of regenerative agriculture and working to replicate Mother Nature's natural systems avoids this downward spiral and allows fertile topsoil to be built up over time by the soil microbes - the best systems that Mother Nature developed over millions of years to feed plants.
 
It can all start in your own backyard garden, by trading in your Round-Up and Scott’s Miracle Grow for a bag of Jocelyn’s Soil Booster Worm Manure. The buffet of diverse microbes in our product will immediately start rebuilding the biology in soil and reverse the damage of poor practices in the past! (no shame... the more you know!) So make sure you give Mother Nature a helping handful of Jocelyn's Soil Booster Worm Manure!