It blows my mind every time: if you look at current estimates of the amount of genetic information in a person, only about 1% of it is human.  The rest belongs to microbes (bacteria, archaea, fungi, protozoa) and viruses, co-operating in groups to form “symbionts.”  These symbionts perform the functions needed for human life and group together to make a “holobiont”.  That’s us.  A group of co-operating organisms.  And the same goes for plants.  Except whereas the microbiomes that handle our digestive and immune functions are mostly inside of us, when it comes to plants these functions are mostly performed by microbiomes on the outside.  

Plants and microbes in the soil have been connected for a very long time, up until only quite recently in the scheme of things.  Selective crop breeding programs since the chemical farming revolution have delivered us varieties of seeds that are used to being separated from their microbiomes – generation after generation of seed propped up by artificial fertilisers and kept “heathy” with an arsenal of fungicides, pesticides, and herbicides.   We’ve ended up with crops that do very well under chemical management, but are forgetting how to partner with soil microbes.  And this, folks, can now be linked to the well-documented declining nutrient density in our food.

We didn’t know what we didn’t know when those breeding programs and management practices came about, but we do have enough information now to make different decisions.  Plants that remember how to connect with their microbial allies need less inputs, less water, and are better able to protect themselves from pests and diseases.  We cannot separate a plant from it’s microbiome – and beware the applicability of any study that doesn’t take this into account!  

If you missed the Seedy Saturday and Sunday events last month, you can find seeds that remember their symbiotic senses – heirloom, organic and locally adapted –  at www.cow-op.ca.  And if this topic excites you as much as it does me, look up the “Farming with Fungi” part 1 and part 2 webinars put out by the Soil Food Web School. They are well worth the watch.