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Dr. Ingham's June E-Zine



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Dr. Ingham's Talks on the Soil Foodweb
    ------------------------------
     E-Zine Issue #8    June, 2000
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*******************************************
NEW CD RELEASE!    READ BELOW FOR DETAILS!
*******************************************





Greetings Folks!


Here's Dr. Ingham's E-zine for June, 2000

Okay, as I promised...we've got a great piece from
Dr. Ingham this month on Compost Tea...see below.


On with some news from our email inbox and some
other information...

Samuel
www.unisun.org





*************************
Shorts, Clips and Links:
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__________________________
1.)  Building the Network
**************************
Link exchanges are an incredibly efficient way for people
to help each other spread ideas and business contacts.  We're
currently on a mission to expand the interest in Dr. Ingham's
works by ACTIVELY pursuing this type of relationship.  If you
have a website that you would like to submit to us for a link
at http://www.soilfoodweb.com and http://www.unisun.org we would
like to hear from you!   

In return, we would simply ask that you help us spread the word
and place a link on your site.   It doesn't have to be a "commercial"
site where either.   It could be any sort of website...personal, 
informational, educational OR commercial....   We even have an exciting
Affiliate Program which allows you to receive residual income if anyone
that follows a link from your site actually purchases something from us.

For more information on the Affiliate Program:

***********************************************
http://www.unisun.org/affiliatesignuppage.html
***********************************************

To view an example of an active partner in our Affiliate Program
go to the following page and scroll to the bottom to see the 
SFI Link that they have set up for us:

********************
http://www.humus.org
********************

If you'd like more info or have questions or want to submit a link
for us to post, please contact me:

Samuel Ettaro
sfi@unisun.org
541-367-8980





__________________________________________
2.) Get your Soil Biology Primer...ONLINE!
******************************************
REMINDER-----------
Now THIS is great news!   For all of you who wanted to order
the Soil Primer but missed the latest printing, much of the 
publication is now available online!

http://www.statlab.iastate.edu/survey/SQI/primer/index.htm

For farmers, ranchers, ag professionals, resource specialists, 
conservationists, soil scientists, students and educators.

The Soil Biology Primer is an introduction to the living component 
of soil and how it contributes to agricultural productivity, and 
air and water quality. The Primer includes units describing the
soil food web and its relationship to soil health, and units about
bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes, arthropods, and earthworms. 

About this version:
The Soil Biology Primer was originally published as a 52-page booklet.
The on-line version you see here includes all the text of the original
but not all the images of soil organisms. The full story of the soil food
web is more readily understood with the aid of all of the photos and
illustrations in the original. 

How to order: 
The booklet is currently out of stock, but will be reprinted. We will post
ordering information when it is available. To have ordering
information sent to you, send an e-mail request with your phone number and
full address (include NRCS or district office name, if applicable)
to: landcare@swcs.org. 


Soil Biology Primer. NRCS Soil Quality Institute, Ames, IA.

NRCS Soil Quality Institute home page:
http://www.statlab.iastate.edu/survey/SQI/




___________________________________________________________________________
3.)  Broadcast News From The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods
***************************************************************************
Here's an interesting article that was sent to me by Dr. Ingham....
The entire article as well as much more great reading are available at
The Campaign's website....just follow the link below.



Part of the marketing hype coming from the biotech industry has been that
genetically engineered crops will grow more food on the same amount of land.
Farmers were told they would make more money with these larger harvests.
However, recent research from the University of Nebraska indicates that
genetically engineered soy plants are producing from 6 to 11 percent less
yields.

The report of this research was printed in the Sunday edition of the British
newspaper, The Independent (posted below).

The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods wanted to verify the
accuracy of this report since we realized this news could have significant
negative impact on the biotech industry. As we did further research, we
could find no references to this University of Nebraska study in the
American press. So we decided to contact Dr Roger Elmore of Nebraska
University's Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources who was in
charge of this research study.

Dr. Elmore had not seen the article in The Independent, but after we
e-mailed him a copy he wrote back and verified the news report. He also sent
us a copy of a May 16, 2000 press release they issued (posted below). And he
sent us a copy of an article from the June 8, 2000 issue of the Agronomy
Journal that reported on his study.

Naturally Monsanto has "denounced the research as scientifically invalid"
and said their own studies show the genetically engineered soy has the same
yields as conventional crops.

At any rate, the earlier indications of larger crops yields from genetically
engineered crops seems to be another false promise from the biotech
industry.

Craig Winters
Executive Director
The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods

The Campaign
PO Box 55699
Seattle, WA 98155
Tel: 425-771-4049
Fax: 603-825-5841
E-mail: mailto:label@thecampaign.org
Web Site: http://www.thecampaign.org

Mission Statement: "To create a national grassroots consumer campaign for
the purpose of lobbying Congress and the President to pass legislation that
will require the labeling of genetically engineered foods in the United
States."

***********************
GM crops don't deliver
***********************
Startling new research in the heart of the American grain belt seems set to
settle the royal row over whether genetic modification is needed to feed
the hungry.

The study at the University of Nebraska has found that GM soya actually
produces less food than conventional crops, handing a timely weapon to the
Prince of Wales in his argument with his sister and father. 

[more]

Read the rest of the article at:
*****************************************************
http://www.thecampaign.org/newsupdates/june00k.htm#GM
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_____________________________
4.)  Dr. Ingham in Australia!
*****************************

The good Doctor is making another trip to see our friends Down-Under as 
we speak...she leaves tomorrow!

Here is a clip from the website of RCS, who is hosting a conference:

Resource Consulting Services is hosting Dr. Ingham this time around.   RCS will be 
holding another round of workshops when Elaine Ingham returns from the US in June. 
These will introduce the Bio-BusinessFarming School with an outline of some of the
latest advances commercial farmers in the US are using to improve the ecology of the
their farming systems. Dr Elaine Ingham, President of the Soil Foodweb Inc. Laboratory
in Oregon, is a world authority on monitoring and evaluating soil micro-organisms for
improved crop production. Dr Ingham has established clear correlations between different
cultural practices (fertilisation, chemical usage, etc), micro-organism populations
and plant growth.

For more information and to register online:
**********************************************
http://www.rcs.au.com/products/bbf/SFW_WS.html
**********************************************




******************************
5.) Plant Production Overview
******************************
NOW AVAILABLE!

The second CD in the series, Dr. Ingham explores the effect 
chemically intensive agriculture has had on soil life, 
why pesticides are effective initially, but with continued
use, result in the destruction of beneficial soil life, with
direct negative impacts on sustainable agriculture. 

Visit this link to listen to a substantial FREE Real Audio Sample:

*******************************************
http://www.soilfoodweb.com/multimedia.html
*******************************************


We're also finishing up the second run of Dr. Ingham's Multi-Media slide
collection...  We found that the first short run had some problems... So,
we'll be re-issuing the new and improved version in June.
Back orders will be filled then.   We're not taking any more orders on 
this product until we sort out the past issues and get fresh stock.   
When we have product ready to ship, we'll let you know!   There's 
some information for you on the multimedia page above on this project.


*********************************************************




That's it for me this month... As always, you have our full permission to 
forward this E-Zine and spread it around as you see fit.

And yet again, thanks for listening!



Peace,
Samuel A. Ettaro II
Unisun Communications
Dr. Ingham/SFI Publisher
http://www.unisun.org
sam@unisun.org
(541)367-8980










JUNE ARTICLE:

*********************
Update on Compost Tea
*********************
by Dr. Elaine R. Ingham


We're getting ready to update the compost tea manual - yeah, right. We've
been getting ready since January to work on it, and somehow Michael Alms
and I just don't seem to get any time to actually work on the Manual.

So, I'm going to start collecting my thoughts about what I'm going to write
over the next couple months and hopefully you all can supply me with
comments and questions to round-out the explanations, making them really
relevant to the things you need to know!

The biggest issue with compost tea is whether or not the tea contains the
set of organisms that will compete with, inhibit and consume the pathogens
on the leaf surface, or in the soil. The factors we've been investigating
this last year are:

C+OMPOST QUALITY - 
If the organisms aren't in the compost, they can't get extracted into the
tea. You do want to test the compost for active bacteria and active fungi
at the very least. Smell the compost too - if it has even a whiff of
off-odor (acidic, vinegary, putrid, vomit smells), it's probably anaerobic
and you'd want to let it set a day or two, while aerating it a couple times
with your hands, before you use it.

COMPOST MOISTURE -
Pick up a handful of the compost and squeeze it. If you can squeeze water
out of the compost, it's too wet and you need to let it dry out for awhile,
hopefully growing good aerobic organisms that use up the anaerobic
decomposition products while putting the anaerobes go to sleep. You don't
kill the anaerobes, they just go to sleep.

Let the compost dry until the point where you can squeeze the compost as
hard as you can and JUST GET A DROP of water coming out. If you squeeze
the compost, and nothing comes out, maybe the compost is too dry.
Certainly if you open your hand and the material falls apart, not holding
together at all, you should be concerned. If you blow on the material and
you get dust, all your active organisms are no longer active. Get water
back in there quick!

COMPOST COMPACTION IN THE BREWER -
This is an interesting aspect of brewing we've discovered. There appears
to be an interaction between compost aggregate structure and whether it
compacts in the brewer basket. (The "appears to be" phrase is a clue that
we haven't got this entirely figured out however). We found that sometimes
during the brew cycle, the compost gets so tightly packed that there is no
flow of water through the compost. This means extraction is nil in that
material. Sometimes the compost stays fluffy and floats and then
extraction of organisms and soluble foods is great. These make the most
disease-suppressive teas.

So, what do you do to figure this one out, or prevent this your self?
There seems to be a relationship to moisture. The compost has to be moist
enough to let just barely a drop of water drip out when you squeeze it.
The Goldilocks Principle - not too much, not too little. One drop, but not
much more. 

Then, check the compost in the brewer about an hour or so after you start
the brewing cycle. Put your hand into the compost. If you can push your
hand into the compost easily, then things are fine. You want it to be
"floating" in the brewer basket if the compost is immersed in the water.
You want ot be able to feel the water moving easily through the compost. 

If the compost is packed, then things are not good. You aren't going to
get a good tea. It may be that you packed too much compost into the
container. Remove some of the compost and stir the compost up, hopefully
getting it to fluff and let water move through it. Check the compost in
another hour. If the compost didn't have good structure, it will have
packed down again. This is a clue to get better compost, grow more fungi
in the compost, for next time. But you aren't going to get the fungal
component you need unless you add more fungal food NOW! This isn't as
important if you are making a foliar tea, because for foliage, bacteria are
the most important component. BUT fungi are still needed, even for foliar
teas. Some fungal foliar pathogens are best out-competed by other fungi! 

FUNGAL TEAS
What do you add to get more fungi growing in the tea? You need a good
complex of wide C:N ratio, humic-acid, complex proteins and sugars. The
operative word is complex - avoid simple sugars, because those are
bacterial foods. We're testing LASE, Dominator, ZAP, and other products
from Huma-Gro as I write this, so in a few months we'll be able to tell you
dose rates and which things work best under which conditions for those
materials fairly soon. I can't tell you about other products, because we
haven't tested them in the tea. We'd love to test other products, but
testing requires money.

We need to test different kelps as well. We've been using a combination of
kelp, fish hydrolysate, and LASE on our lawns at SFI, as well as some
bloodmeal additions. The lawn here is a ryegrass lawn (it's what the
developer choose because it was inexpensive), and it's a real joy to keep
enough N on the stuff. Yes, that was sarcasm. We have to convert this
lawn to bentgrass, and we will do that - in fact have started, but you have
to be careful. If we move the foodweb too far too fast, we can lose the
ryegrass before we get the bentgrass seeded in. Patience is important.

Oh, one important point to add is that with the improved basket design on
the Microb-Brewer, you don't need to put rock dust or rock powder in the
tea recipes. With the cloth bags, the fungi needed a surface to grow on,
and the rock powders provided that. With the better design on the baskets,
you'll get great extraction of fungi from the compost - IF THE FUNGI ARE
IN YOUR COMPOST! 

Be aware that wet soppy compost will NOT have beneficial fungi growing in
it, and you won't get the beneficial fungi growing in your tea, no matter
how much fungal food you add.

But you can drop rock dust from the tea recipes in the manual. If you need
rock dusts to foliar feed mineral nutrients to your plants, then it is
easiest to add the rock dust to the sprayer or the drip/irrigation tank
after the tea has been brewed.

TEA QUALITY -
When using tea, you want to test it's quality at least the first time or
two that you use/make it. The easiest (and least expensive) test of
QUALITY is to test the leaf surfaces before and then after you apply tea.
Remove about 5 leaves from the area you are going to apply tea onto BEFORE
you spray (maybe you already have perfectly fine leaf coverage!). Then
collect another set of 5 leaves AFTER you spray from the same general place
in the tree, for example inner leaves, as before the spray. Put each set
of leaves in sealable plastic baggies and close them up, but be sure to
label the BEFORE and AFTER bags clearly. Each LEAF ORGANISMS assay costs
$30. We want leaf coverage to be a minimum of 60% after spraying. If it
is, you kknow the tea is great. If the coverage is lacking, then we have
to figure out where the problem lies. We typically are going to work with
you to figure that out.

Typically, for LEAF ORGANISM assays, we FAX the data back to you the
morning afte rwe received the samples. Of course, you have to give us a
FAX number on your submission form. 

There is a LEAF ORGANISM submission form for teas on the web site that asks
the questions we need to know about the plant, tea, etc. We can help you
so much better if you tell us information about the tea brew - where, how,
when the tea was made, and how it was applied. 

SPRAYER PRESSURES
Some of the newer sprayers have really high pressures - if I remember
correctly, one has 300 pounds of pressure per square inch on the water
being sprayed. This does not kill the organisms in the tea, but when they
hit your leaf surface at 300 pounds of pressure per square inch, there
isn't much left of the organism except slime, which is just food for
someone else, unfortunately, perhaps the pathogen that just blew in.....

FOLIAR TEA
I sometimes chuckle a little what compost tea brewer makers put in their
handbooks. One "handbook" that comes with a brewer recently added a line
that says something to the effect that foliar teas should not be
fungal-dominated. 

So what should foliar tea be then? 

Bacterial dominated, but even bacterial-dominated tea for foliage REQUIRES
beneficial fungi! Just because it is bacterial-dominated does NOT mean
there are no fungi present. If you want botrytis control, you have to have
the beneficial fungi in the tea as well as the bacteria. 

TEA QUANTITIES - OR HOW MUCH TO SPRAY?
The only brewer that we've done a reasonable amount of testing on here at
SFI is the Growing Solutions Microb-Brewer. We have not done replicated
testing on other brewers. We have had people send in samples from other
brewer systems, and I do have to say that no other commercially-made
tea-making system comes close to the Microb-Brewer in terms of organisms or
soluble materials extracted from the tea. 

Thus, the Microb-Brewer material can be used at 5 gallons of tea per acre.
Any other tea that we've looked at has to be used at 10 or 100 times as
much tea per acre in order to gain the same benefits. PLEASE be aware of
this when you consider buying or using teas. You have to use more of
anything else, at least in our experience. Now, there may be a brewer out
there that equals or is better than what we have tested, but I can't talk
about things for which I have no data.

BREWING TIME
We've been looking at this question too. If you open your brewer and it
still smells strongly of molasses, brew longer! The aroma suggests the
compost wasn't really active and your organisms didn't wake up rapidly, and
haven't used the sugars yet. Brew longer. How long? In the
Microb-Brewer, generally only an extra hour or so. In the bucket method (5
gallon bucket, half-filled with compost, water added to the top of the
bucket, three to five aquarium bubblers in the bucket - see the latest
issue of Kitchen Gardener for a full pictorial step-by-step explanation of
how to do this), you need to brew until the molasses smell is gone,
generally a total of three to five days. 

TEA TEMPERATURE
Anne Lovejoy (Bainbridge Island, WA) pointed out a really important factor
when making compost tea. The temperature needs to increase during the brew
cycle, or you most likely aren't getting the growth of the organisms you
want in the tea! There are some conditions where the outside temperature
is so cold, or so warm, that you don't notice the increase in temperature.
A thermometer is always useful so you can check the actual increase in
temperature. Generally, a five to ten degree increase in temperature is
normal. 

The temperature increase is from metabolic heat generated when bacteria and
fungi reproduce. Consider that bacterial numbers go from about 0 per
teaspoon in the water when the tea starts to perhaps 4,000,000,000 per
teaspoon at 18 to 20 hours! Quite some metabolic heat being generated
there! I've never seen a tea go above 110 F, although the organisms can do
just fine up to 145 F. Temperatures of 110 F are no problem for the
organisms extracted from the compost.

DISEASE-PREVENTION WITH TEA
We've been working on testing the ability of compost tea to prevent
colonization of the foliage by a number of different pathogens this last
year. We have data on reduction in botrytis, mildew, Phytopthora blight,
and anthracnose. Steve Scheurell should have data on black spot and mildew
on roses later this winter as well. We'll add that data to the compost tea
manual. 

A number of growers and us as well have noted "anecdotally" that compost
tea application reduces sap-sucking and leaf-feeding insects. Pretty
interesting, but we need to quantify and replicate this data before we can
get too excited about these observations. So, hopefully, we can do some of
that work this summer.

Well, that's probably enough for now. Please ask questions about anyplace
I have not been clear enough! (But be kind, it is Monday after all).

Elaine




*********
June Q&A
*********



Q-1)  

Hi Elaine et all,
 
I farm in Central California, in the Santa Cruz area, and have been 
troubled by symphylans. When I pull out a tomato seedling there are several 
on the rootball and no new growing tips. Other crops have been affected as 
well and in some areas I cannot get a decent stand. Do you have any ideas on 
how to deal these pests? Are there sources to find the latest research? I 
have searched the web extensively.

I also help organize the Ecological Farming Conference and would like to 
find a speaker that has some approaches to this persistant problem.

Thank you,
Thomas 





A-2.)  

Hi Thomas - 

There is no funding of symphylan research that I am aware. what we have
done is rather anecdotal because of that problem.

Our observations have been that symphylans eat fungi. If you have adequate
fungi in your soil, symphylans will not attack your plants. 

But, fungi are extremely sensitive to oxygen level in soil. When soil
becomes compacted, water-logged, or if pesticides or high concentrations of
inorganic fertilizer are used, or if urea is used (dose level remains
variable here though), soil fungi are killed and the symphylans, if
present, have nothing to eat. In that situation, they attack the roots of
the plants. They generally don't have a significant impact, unless the
plants are young and have minimal root systems, such as in the seedling stage.

Some people have noted that application of "compost" (the quotes should let
you know that it wasn't really compost, it was putrefying organic matter,
stunky, smelly as all get-out) increased symplylan problems. It had
nothing to do with the application of organic matter, and everything to do
with the fact them aterial was anaerobic, killed the fungi, and let the
soil anaerobic. I like to make certain the real culprit is fingered here.
Stinky, smelly piles of anaerobic organic matter is NOT compost.

There are several possible approaches for dealing with the problem, but
which will work for you depends on your conditions. Again, we don't have
replicated field studies that have been performed, so this is look-see
stuff, and you have to hope we were paying attention to all the important
information. I would love to do good science on these questions. If you
want to write a SARE grant on this, I'd be happy to help you write the
proposal!

First, make sure you have plenty of fungi in your soil. Fungi are the
critters that MAKE visible soil structure, i.e., the macro-aggregate
structures that you see as crumbs in the soil. No crumbs, no fungi, no
structure, hello poor water infiltration, puddling, water-logging,
symphylan attack of the roots of seedlings. 

Check your soil for fungal biomass - no fungi, then an inoculum is needed,
and GOOD compost (i.e., aerobic!) usually has the fungi you need. 

If you have fungi but the biomass is low, then you just need to add fungal
foods, like humic acids/complex protein mixtures. LASE is good (Huma-Gro
out of chandler, AZ), REMIT (Helena Chem Co out of Fresno, CA), fish
hydrolysate & humic/fulvic acid mixes (find local sources, check pH of
materials and make sure near neutral), woody compost, wood-based compost tea.

Typically, ag soil has some fungi, but the biomass is too low. All those
chemicals have knocked them out. So, fungal foods are typically the solution.

Even if you plow the soil to get air into it, the soil will not stay
"fluffed" if you don't have bacteria and fungi. So, if you plow to give
immediate relief to the water-logged or anaerobic, compacted conditions,
you need to get the fungi, and foods to feed them, back into the soil so
the soil doesn't just collapse again as soon as you get water on it....

Hope this helps! I would enjoy coming to Eco-Farm again. I could talk
about the recent work we've been doing, but again, it's anaecdotal on this
topic. We have done a great deal of work in the last two years, when I
have not been invited to Eco-Farm, on compost tea. I think your audience
would enjoy hearing about the science behind compost teas.

Elaine




***************************************************************************



Q-2.)  

Dr Ingham,

I have read in the various vermicomposting forums that you either produce a
"worm tea" brewer or have the information as to how to set one up. If this
is true please forward the information to me. Any information you may have
on this matter will be greatly appreciated. 
Thank You. 
Lonnie 






A-2.)  

Hi Lonnie - 

We test vermi-compost, soil, leaf surfaces for the set of organisms. I
work with many of the folks who make brewers, but we don't make any machines.

However, I have co-authored a publication with Michael Alms of Growing
Solutions called the "Compost Tea Manual" that goes over just about
anything you want to know about making tea, from the 5 gallon bucket method
to machines that cost $13,000. Spendy, huh?

In the next issue of "Kitchen Gardener" there is a simplified version of
the 5 gallon bucket method, with step-by-step pictures, that might be the
perfect thing for you to read. 

Otherwise, order the brewer manual from  http://www.growingsolutions.com

Hope this answers your question!

Elaine


***************************************************************************



Q-3.)  

Dr Ingham,

I want to know if I can make "good" compost using recycled residues that
may have come from GE plants or been "contaminated" with GE materials e.g.
salad bar and produce trimmings, vegetable kitchen wastes. 

Secondly I'd like to know if processed residuals of GE plants may make
"good" organic >feedstocks to the soil foodweb e.g.Roundup Ready soybean
meal, Bt cornstarch weed >preventers... 


Thirdly I'd like to know if I can make "good" compost from the manures
of animals fed with residues of GE plants e.g. manure from horses fed
with Roundup Ready soybean meal. This is the same problem as the first
but with a different compost feedstock. 

Duanne




A-3.)  

Hi Duanne - 

With respect to good compost, I tend to define "good" as whether the
organisms required are present, and the required sets of organisms needed
change with the plant you are growing. Presumably, if there is complete
oxidation of the organic matter, even if it is GE, the genetic material
will be completely converted into carbon dioxide, water and organism
bodies. If this were true, then there would be no worry. Complete
oxidation in compost heaps, in sewage treatment plants, in biosolid
reactors, or whatever is what the biotech companies would like to have us
believe, but as we all know, organic matter will not be completely oxidized
in any of these treatment facilities. Therefore, some of the genetically
engineered DNA has the possibility of surviving these treatment facilities.
this is the information that Beatrix showed in her data about GE DNA
surviving through a sewage treatment plant. 

Based on the sets of organisms alone, however, yes, you can make compost
with normal microbial composition from CERTAIN TYPES of GE plant material.
I would not make that statement about BT-corn, cotton, etc., because the
BT-containing plant material kills beneficial fungi. So, that compost
material will not likely contain the most beneficial fungi, and there fore,
the compost cannot be counted as "good". But compost from Round-up ready
plant material will most likely make good compost. However, as in all
other things, having real data about exactly what occurs is much preferable
only the "mostliekly" statements of even the best of scientists.

Round-up ready soybean meal is probably not going to make a difference to
the beneficial organisms in soil, but Bt cornstrach used as a weed
preventer will, in the longer term, be much more detrimental to your plants
than the presence of a few weeds. However, Round-up ready soybean meal
will contain a few of the genetic sequences that code for round-up
resistance. So, there exists a possibility, minor but measurable - that
you will develop round-up resistant weeds. 

So, the "dangers" must be considered on a a case-by-case basis. We cannot
make across-the-board-statements about the genetically engineered material. 

Again, some of the gene sequences coding for plant resistance to Round-up
will come through the animal feed these materials since some of the plant
cells come through the digestive system intact. Therefore, the same danger
exists of transfer of Round-up resistance to weeds. If you don't use
Round-up, then why not speed up the loss of Round-up as a useful weed
control measure? As far as we know, there is not danger of toxicity from
plants containing the Round-up ready genes. There is no product from
Round-up ready genetic material made in the plant cells that I am aware of
- but as I said in my last e-mail, I have not researched this as much as I
have BT plants.


Elaine





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*******************************************
NEW CD RELEASE!    READ BELOW FOR DETAILS!
*******************************************


Unisun Communications is proud to announce the release of....

Dr. Elaine Ingham Talks on the Soil Foodweb---An audio CD Lecture Series.

The first two double CD Sets in the series of 8 lectures are now 
available!  We hope you decide to purchase these wonderful products and
continue to learn about the Soil Foodweb.  If you have an interest in helping
us distribute this line of products we'd love to chat with you further... 

Please read on!


********************************************
DR. ELAINE INGHAM's CURRENT PUBLISHED WORKS
********************************************

These are not live recordings.  All of the CD's are recording in a state
of the art digital recording studio and are of the highest quality.
Diagrams accompany the CD on the inside jacket.


*****************************************************************
CD Series #1--"An Introduction to the Soil Foodweb" NOW AVAILABLE
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Compact Disc:   Dr. Ingham Talks on the Soil Foodweb Series
Speaker:        Dr. Elaine Ingham
Publisher:    	Unisun Communications
Format:         Double CD Set (Audio Only)

Dr. Elaine Ingham discusses the important functional groups of organisms
that live in soil, how and why they enhance plant growth and production.
This is the introductory talk about the Soil Foodweb. All other CD's assume
an understanding of this introductory material.

Included in this Double CD set:
        -The seven benefits of a beneficial soil foodweb.
        -Who starts the process? Soil organisms or plants?
        -Disease suppression: Working together.
        -Nutrient retention: Bacteria and Fungi
        -Production of plant available nutrients: Protozoa, nematodes
         and microarthropods
        -Getting rid of toxic compounds.
        -Soil structure: Bacterial bricks, fungal walls, protozoan,
         nematode and microarthropod engineers.
        -Some considerations about plant health




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CD Series #2--"A Plant Production Overview" NOW AVAILABLE
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Compact Disc:   Dr. Ingham Talks on the Soil Foodweb Series
Speaker:        Dr. Elaine Ingham
Publisher:    	Unisun Communications
Format:         Double CD Set (Audio CD)
 
Dr. Ingham explores the effect chemically intensive agriculture has had on soil life, 
why pesticides are effective initially, but with continued use, result in the destruction
of beneficial soil life, with direct negative impacts on sustainable agriculture. 

 
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For more information, to order, and to even PREVIEW these CD's for FREE please
visit http://www.soilfoodweb.com/multimedia.html
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If you wish more to get information on distribution, wholesale/reseller
pricing, and press opportunities with Dr. Ingham and other Unisun Communications
please let us know and we'll give you a direct phone call!

Peace,

Samuel Anthony Ettaro II
Unisun Communications
http://www.unisun.org
(541)367-8980