This is part 1 of a 2-part series.
Part 2 will cover how biologicals can help improve your soil health in order to help you reach a sustainable future.
There are many ways to describe agricultural sustainability. Think of it as practices that can be continued over time without losses or negatives that would prevent their practice in the future.
Agriculture is a tough case because it is a process that, by definition, adds and removes elements to/from the environment. Conventional farming is a practice that constantly takes nutrients out of the soil by growing plants intensively on the soil year after year. Fertilizers, mainly inorganic, pesticides, and herbicides are applied several times during the season, leading to these compounds’ potential to build up in the local environment.
