HelpfulGardener.com

Driving to lunch today, I heard part of a discussion on NPR about herbicides and pesticides. One of the panelists pointed out that all of these chemicals are quite toxic to the community of soil life (microbes, etc), thus causing severe loss of fertility and degradation of the soil. That forces farmers and other growers to use synthetic fertilizers, which aggravates the situation, leading to worse and worse results and more and more need for chemicals (kind of an addiction).

We know that here (at least those of us who were around for the book club discussion of Teeming with Microbes - discussion is still posted), but it was nice to hear the point being made to a general audience.

PS we need another book club book!

It isn't just the chemicals but also the tilling that changes soil structure and kills organisms.

You are right. The panel discussion was in the context of use of herbicides and pesticides, so they didn't discuss that, but certainly tilling disrupts especially fungal communities.