We see those symbioses of algae and fungi all around us still. They’re called lichens. And wherever you go where there are rocks or rotting logs or whatever, you’ll see those lichens. And they’re still doing that today. They’re simply there, gone AWOL on a raw rock, totally exposed to the environment, and solubilising that rock. The powerful thing is, as they solubilise that rock and as they grow over that rock, they leave behind organic detritus – dead sort of living bodies of lichens or the dead detritus from the living bodies – and that’s organic matter. See, once they leave some organic matter behind in that rock, it’s that organic matter that is then extremely powerful because that organic matter allows you to hold extra water, it allows you to hold extra nutrients, and basically for the first time create soil.
So it was really pedogenesis – the formation of soils – that enabled life to start developing on land. And it’s the formation of soil, this pedogenesis with microbes solubilising minerals and creating organic matter, which is really the building block, the single thing that we’re in the business of – growing healthy soils – soil restoration farming.
This is a clip from “Walk the Talk” with Walter Jehne: Local Solutions With Global Implications filming available for Farming Secrets Members.
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Very good information. Please give a look to what I am doing at my tropical agroforesry project in Guatemala at Facebook’s profile: Finca El Manantial, Taxisco.