"There is not to be found in chemistry a more wonderful phenomenon, one that confounds all human wisdom, than is presented by the soil of a garden or field" Justus Von Liebig 1859. Letter II. Letters on Modern Agriculture.

Soil quality lies has long been though to lie at the heart of sustainability and it's maintenance or enhancement is one of the primary tenets of organic production. Growers achieve USDA, IFOAM, or JAS certified organic status only after complying with standards that seek to improve or maintain soil's inherent fertility by building or enhancing organic matter. Such practices are thought to promote the efficient cycling of matter, water and energy and increase soil's ability to resist and recover from disturbance. It is surprising then that even though organic production standards are the only legally defined system of sustainable agriculture, organic production is not well supported or promoted by public research or by agricultural policies. This is may be the result of the size of the organic industry- which has not been perceived to be large enough to have 'effective demand'- and may reflect an institutional bias towards 'modern' methods. It may also reflect the controversy over whether or not organic production practices are better than or worse than conventional strategies; this argument has gone on since we first discovered how to manipulate soil mineral nutrition by amending soils with inorganic fertilizers. The recent coverage of organic production in Nature (no 6985; April 2004) is informative as it simultaneously touts the benefits of organic methods to soils and then later suggests that use of organic methods is degrading soil fertility. Organic production practices are in this coverage, pitted against no or low-till production systems. That discussion has not progressed far from, or has even degraded, since the debate began when Justis (Baron) Von Liebig disproved the humus theory by demonstrating that plants obtained only their mineral nutrition (and not key constituents of their organic mass C, H and O) from soils. The resulting Law of the Minimum launched modern fertility management. He explained this law by describing the elements required for mineral nutrition as individual planks in a barrel, where the shortest plank (limiting nutrient) constrained the volume of water (aka mineral nutrition) available to plants. The resulting conventional management strategies that have ensued forgot, what Liebig appreciated well, is that physical and biological fertility of soils are the foundation upon which the barrel rests (Fukuoka, 1987).

Differences in the way in which soil fertility is conceived of have frustrated the discussion of fertility (and testing and programs designed for fertility management) and made it extremely difficult for organic producers to benefit from tools or programs targeting mainstream systems. The purpose of this project then, is to develop and adapt/expand soil testing, management, assessment and regulatory tools that influence soil stewardship so that they can be effectively/successfully used by organic farmers.

Project will address OREI goals

On-farm experiments will address goals 1 and 6

* by conducting on farm research on organic fields to quantify the biological, physical and chemical fertility of post transition soils that are performing well or poorly based on farmers perceptions and after conducting a farm and management assessment;

* by using those soils to document functionally significant aspects of soil metabolism, which is a product of soils physical and biological fertility, which regulates nutrient use efficiency by affecting the availability of nutrients and the root's ability to obtain them;

* by using this information and component trials conducted at University/Illinois Natural History Survey sites to develop soil testing/ management strategies suitable for organic producers that permit them to assess and adapt their soil management programs to enhance attributes of particular importance to their farm scenario. (Ed) Economic analyses will assess goal 2

* by evaluating the costs and benefits associated with a series of soil testing approaches including budgeting and tissue testing strategies; (Michelle, Ed, Dave)

* by estimating producer's costs and benefits of production systems by developing economic budgets for intensive and extensive organic vegetable production systems, for organic cash grains systems, and for the crop production component of diversified systems with integrated livestock; (Dave)

* by estimating societal benefits derived from organic production systems by estimating impacts on externalities including pesticides, N and P leaching losses, erosion and C sequestration. (Dave, Michelle, Others?) An extension/educational project will address goals 5 and 6

* by conducting a participatory a pilot project with NRCS personnel and organic consultants/certifiers to adapt/develop widely used assessment tools (RUSEL 2, the soil conditioning index (SCI) and BMP/nutrient management plans to accurately reflect or reasonably accommodate organic systems; (Brett, Michelle, Dave)

* by conducting a workshop in the north central region to identify policy constraints to organic production, effort will lead to future work that will inform policy development or program implementation- participate in USDA-CSREES's annual National Public Policy Education Conference; (Deborah, Brett, others)

* and by producing a guide book to NRCS programs developed for organic certifiers and a similar FAQ guide for NRCS. (Brett, Deborah, Michelle, Dave)