Subject: Re: Life in soil video

From: Steve Diver <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1999 16:52:44 +0000

> Does anyone know how to get ahold of the video tape "Life in soil" (not sure
> I have the right titles).  This was made in Japan.
> 
> Dale

This is the contact/address I'm pretty sure is current for 
the award-winning "Life in the Soil" video.  Cost is $50.

World Sustainable Agriculture Association 
3510 Nuuanu Pali Drive
Honolulu, HI 96817
(808) 595-6344
(808) 595-8014 FAX 
E-mail: [email-masked]
URL: http://www.igc.org/wsaala/wsaa.html 

This is the video that has been shown at dozens of sustainable
farming conferences and seminars around the country, wowing
farmers and composters with its incredible pictures of soil life. 
It is particularly effective at demonstrating how agricultural 
practices influence soil biology as well as soil tilth. 

One example worth noting: 

In one sequence in the "Life in the Soil" video from the Nature 
Farming movement in Japan, there is a comparison of two plate counts.
The first agar plate is taken from a soil managed by conventional
methods and it illustrates a low diversity of soil microorganisms. 

The second agar plate is taken from a soil managed by Nature Farming
methods and it illustrates a high diversity of soil microorganisms. 

The importance of soil organism diversity becomes more apparent 
through the video, when soil health and disease suppression are 
correlated to higher microbial diversity.  

The soil microbial plate counts illustrates a fundamental 
principle of sustainable agriculture:  diversity = stability & 
ecosystem health. 

Fyi, these microbial plate counts are now offered by some of
the innovative labs here in the states (e.g., Agri-Energy Resources 
Lab in Illinois as one example), so that farmers can test their 
soils and composts or compost teas, as an indicator of 
microbial diversity and population quantity. 

Steve Diver  

To Unsubscribe:  Email [email-masked] with the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg".
To Subscribe to Digest: Email [email-masked] with the command
"subscribe sanet-mg-digest".

All messages to sanet-mg are archived at:
http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail