Getting The Dirt On Who's Really Behind It All

So here’s the thing: dirt isn’t just dirt, it’s soil. And soil is where you, me, we, all start and end… 

Whichever word we use, I find it kinda funny - because we’re never talking about one thing. Dirt, or soil, is a heaving marketplace where fungi swap nutrients with plant roots in exchange for sugars made from the sun way up in the sky, a world away from this pitch-dark universe deep down below where any human eye could meet. Then these damp, deeply earthen nutrients get taken by the plant roots up, up, up and away to become the molecular building blocks of any and all nourishment that ever gets pollinated and put on a dinner plate and called “food”. 

Only this morning I was lying on the grass when a butterfly caught my eye and took it past the quince tree towards a knotted thicket of blackberries. My mind swirled to the miracle that every tiny bud and berry on that bush was thanks to the stuff underneath my feet. Dirt, or soil - the food that feeds my food. And I gotta be honest, feeds my soul too. 

What if I told you that 25% of the world’s biodiversity lives where our eyes can’t see? Not beneath the sparkling blue waves of salty seas, but under the earthen crust below our feet. Well, that’s the number we’ve been - understandably - impressed by for a number of years. But guess what, soil is home to much, much more of the world’s life than we previously knew! According to Anthony et al, 2023 “soil is likely home to 59% of life including everything from microbes to mammals, making it the singular most biodiverse habitat on Earth”. 

Ever since I started to learn the uncountable amazing things that soil does and is made up of and gives forth, the way I see the world started changing. I mean, I always dug the good stuff - the muddy, squelchy, can’t-quite-get-it-out-from-under-your-nails stuff; because the grubby life started early for me as a gumboot wearing, cattle-grid grazing little kid. With paddocks from the back fence to the horizon, or on our grandparents’ farm, my sister, brother and I made mazes through cane sugar that towered above our heads and instead of ducking and diving water balloons, we threw cow paddies at each other and laughed in the sun (cow paddies is polite for “poo”...). Mum was collecting the cow poo to make manure the vegetable garden which sat next to the chicken coop; another reliable source of poo to make the soil where our food grew healthier. Both home and Grandpa’s farm were on the abundant and beautiful land near where Bundjalung meets Yaegl meets Gumbayngirr Countries and Sea Countries, and I watched what happens when you close the loop on nutrients in the land, composting, mulching, sowing, listening, always listening more… versus what happens when you just take and take until nothing’s left. 

The truth is, if we’re going to have soil to grow our food in the future, we’ve all gotta learn to dig it! I am grateful to listen to a range of teachers - Traditional Custodians with Millenia Old and evolving legacies of caring for Country. Resilience experts, community members who dedicate themselves to preparing for and recovering from disasters. Western Medical doctors. All of these knowledge holders have been sharing similar threads of wisdom for some time now - that it is upon us all to connect with the stories of land and food where we live. Everyone, everywhere, all at once… 

So, here’s a checklist for you to know if you’re doin’ your best dirty work for the future at your place! 

Dirty and diggin it’ for the future

[   ] Grow - There’s two joyous things I’ve learnt about growing. 1) grow something you like to eat! And that you know how to cook or munch on. Wanting to eat what we grow is super motivating, especially when the path to learning and harvesting can be a bit windy sometimes. 2) Learn the needs of your chosen plant. Like us, plants have things they need to be healthy. Some plants like full sun, others hate too much wind. Some need to stay really moist while they’re sprouting. Most of it’s not a mystery, and if we do even the tiniest bit of research, or ask a local greenthumb elder, we can set ourselves up for a smoother ride and possibly more yummy stuff! Whether we grow in a pot on a sunny window sill, in a bucket on a verandah or full scale, deep down in a veggie patch - it doesn’t really matter. This is about doing the doing. Start where we are - that’s the most impactful, hopeful thing we can do today!

[   ] Compost - there are nutrients in the peels and scraps of our food. When we compost, we keep these nutrients in the food cycle - preventing them from becoming “waste”, as well as harmful gases in landfill. Whether you decide to rock a compost tumbler or set up a ground compost at your place, my best tip is to take a compost lasagna approach - it’s all about layers: green, then brown, then green, then brown. Green is your ‘wet’ layer, brown will be your ‘dry’ layer. If you can’t compost at your place, donate your precious food scraps to a local community garden or school. This places you well within the fabric of your local community, too - which is super cool and resilient for the future. 

[   ] Know your producers - food, fibre, “medicine”. Who we buy from matters. Local and “big” businesses all have a responsibility to ensure that the growers of raw materials used in their products are being cultivated in increasingly life-supporting ways. Another way to describe this type of growing and farming is “regenerative agriculture”. 

Words that indicate your purchase was likely grown in life supporting ways:

• First Nations owned
• Locally grown
• Spray free or ‘organic’
• Minimal tillage / input (tillage = turning the soil, which can disturb the fine and intricately wise food web that the soil community has expertly spun)
• Cover cropping / intercropping
• Syntropic / Agroforestry 

Greenwash is real (like what does “natural” written on a bottle even mean anymore?) and so is the oversaturation of advertising we’re all bombarded with. We’re constantly hearing that more is more and that there’s a new silver bullet to answer all our worries. For me the simplest way to cancel out all that noise and overwhelm - is to have suppliers and brands who I know and trust and go back to, time and again. It makes buying groceries, skin care, loo paper, bed sheets… everything, on the reg, a lot easier. Plus, I feel a little burst of joy when I buy something I love that is good for everyone involved in making it, as well as good for me. Like - what’s not to love?? 

This is honestly why I was a loyal lover of Dr. Bronner’s and why I then said yes to working with them when they asked me. There is not one single part of their supply chain or work place culture that I can’t joyously espouse and sing the praise of. Dr. Bronner’s is 110% committed to life supporting ways.