[robinsoh]

I think the latest research was showing that soil and mycorrhizae networks are very critical to the nutritional content of various plants. The sad thing is that same study (need to find it again) showed that applying conventional fertilizer actively reduced mycorrhizae and biological diversity in the soil. The scary thing is there's not much awareness of this in mainstream media. The only thing I've seen in mainstream media about this soil problem was from a hermit Indian guru type on a spotify podcast.

[jillesvangurp]

There's a no-dig movement in organic farming that is based on the notion that tilling or otherwise disturbing soil is a bad thing because it disturbs the fungal ecosystem. Interesting if you are growing some stuff at home because practicing this actually means doing less work. Once established, a no-dig bed requires very little maintenance. You basically just leave it alone. You top it up with some compost once a year or so and you grow whatever you want. Even weeds stand less of a chance because those are what show up when you disturb the soil. So, if you don't do that, there are less weeds to deal with.

Sadly, I only have a balcony and no back yard but I try to grow lots of herbs there. Very tasty addition to my food. I have lots of Cilantro growing right now and my rosemary bushes are waking up from the winter as well. And I've planted out some basil cuttings from a cheap super market plant that in a few months will turn into a nice little basil jungle.

[mellavora]

Also that modern ag uses heavy equipment which compacts the soil, reducing its ability to breath. Basically suffocates it, and unless you run a plow to 3m depth this is unfixable in less than say 10K years.