Corn crops with heavy N use are a short term gain in yield but a long term loss in soil quality, but that can be said for a lot of farming techniques.

It is entertaining to see a discussion on farming techniques here. I gotta admit that I thought Secret Life of Plants was a bit hippie for me though.

“That’s why American farmers need to apply more than 6.6 million tons of nitrogen to their corn crops every year, in the form of chemical sprays and manure.”

American (and other) Farmers need to add nitrogen because they neglect the essential actions of natural decomposition.

Natural decomposition of previous matter, via the process of feeding by bacteria, fungi, enzymes, etc. is the principle source of nutrients (macro & micro alike), vitamins, natural antibiotics, antifungals, new “free” enzymes, etc. Even concepts like taste are affected/directed by this process. Nitrogen does not induce nor affect enhanced taste of foods.

For starters, Nitrogen is only one of a large number of nutrients, macro and micro alike.

Second, there is a very complicated process, even involving natural energies/electricity in the atmosphere, in the process of proper cellular growth and development.

Plants are not too dissimilar from human or animal bodies. Each need a wide range of nutrients, macro and micro, plus other natural actions/reactions, in symbiotic combination, to properly function.

Fritz Haber, inventor of the Haber-Bosch process of synthesizing Nitrogen, in his Noble Prize acceptance speech, warned:

“It may be that this solution is not the final one. Nitrogen bacteria teach us that Nature, with her sophisticated forms of the chemistry of living matter, still understands and utilizes methods which we do not as yet know how to imitate.”

Nitrogen, and Nitrogen-fixing bacteria, are only one of a multitude of processes required in new cell generation.

Add loads of nitrogen to a tomato plant and see what happens. The excess nitrogen will interfere with the uptake and usage of other nutrients, like Calcium, causing mutant & unusable fruit (as the fruit lacks the Calcium to form its body/cell structure correctly, essentially imploding upon itself).

In fact, numerous studies have shown that focus solely on N-P-K nutrients (especially the N) are responsible for the vast reductions of the other bacteria, fungi, enzymes, and other microorganisms that are necessary for proper growth & development.

Typically, an incrase in the rate of N applied, results in a decrease of numbers and variety of microbiota populations.

Author needs to read books like Enriching the Earth by Vaclav Smil, The Secret Life of Plants by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird, and others, and do a lot more research.

I have done years of intensive studying, vast numbers of experiments, and have done this stuff for a living….and I know for a fact how far off, and reductionist, studies or research like this really is.

The answer is so simple, and right in front of our eyes, yet we continue to be blind and ignorant to the facts and exhibitons of the wholeness of Nature.

“Researchers”, especially University “Researchers”, exist most solely to create IP for large corporations, for new products for profit.

This is becoming one of the biggest problems with the “organic” trend/fad. Just because we source certain specific (and limited) nutrients from natural sources, doesn’t account for the vast array of other necessary, natural processes.

Humans are so incredibly ignorant of Nature. The profit-motive has destroyed our capacity for understanding and enlightenment.

Now, combine it with the ability to grow in high-salt environments…? Now, you may have something.