This is an extraordinary compilation led by Ute Scheub and contributed by Haiko Pielow, Hans-Peter Schmidt. & Kathleen Draper.

The notation on the front cover:

“….How the World’s Most Fertile Soil Can Help Reverse Climate Change and Reduce World Hunger…”

The back cover provides the enticement to read the contents of this book:

“…..More than 2,500 years ago, the original inhabitants of the Amazon Basin made terra preta, or “black earth,” the world’s most fertile soil. They created this potent substance by taking regular soil and adding biochar–charcoal made from organic wastes. This ancient cultivation method has the potential to solve two of our greatest problems; climate change and hunger crisis.

This sound instruction manual proves anyone can make terra preta and includes inspiring examples from around the world. Passionate and practical, this book offers indispensable advice to all those who feel strongly about creating a better world from the ground up….”

I plunged into this book and, although I am an Applied Scientist, I found examples after examples of basic information that I lacked and did not even comprehend was taking place around me.

Page 6 is one of these:

“….In the topmost 30 centimeters (1 foot) of 1 square meter (11 square feet) of healthy soil there is an incredible abundance of living creatures:

• an estimated 1 trillion bacteria,
• 500 billion flagellates,
• 100 billion rhizopods,
• 10 billion actinomycetes,
• 1 billion fungi,
• 1 million algae,
• 1 million paramecia
• 50,000 furculae,
• 25,000 rotifers,
• 10,000 polychaetes,
• 300 polypods,
• 150 insects,
• 100 dipteran larvae,
• 100 beetles and larvae,
• 80 earthworm,
• and 50 each of spiders, snails and wood lice.

Microorganisms are the oldest form of life on Earth; incredible numbers also live on our bodies–10 times the number of our body’s cells. We are inundated with them, but without them we could not live. They occupy all our surfaces, they protect the skin from pathogens, and they live in our intestines and control our digestion. We are constantly accommodating new microorganisms and dispensing others. They ensure that infectious organisms don’t develop, and even pathogens have their function. When life expires, they create the prerequisites of a new beginning……”

“…..Researchers….have projected that up to now only 5 to 10 percent of all soil organisms are even known, With such limited knowledge, it is impossible to clearly know and recognize their diverse reciprocal effects, coexistences, and symbiotic relationships. The use of metabolic wastes is one of the secrets of living, fertile soil…”

One does not have to be technically educated to appreciate the message in this edition of many books on the subject. As a person born and raised in Saskatchewan, I now find that most farmers cannot drink water from wells on their lands because of pollution from fertilizers and various sprays that control weeds and various infestations. Only sixty years ago I enjoyed that water. What happened since?

The book took me on journeys where it is possible to make your own terra preta as well as biochar and reverse the process of climate change in a positive fashion.

A must read!

Elmer Verigin September 03, 2016