Building soil with wood chips (online)

The Hidden world that feeds us: the living soil

Every one involved in agriculture sooner or later comes to the same conclusion: we must make soil. Chemical fertilizers, pesticides and ploughing destroy the fertility of the soil; organic farming maintains its fertility but cannot replace lost soil. The most fertile agricultural regions were once hardwood forests, especially oak forest. This research paper proposes that, contrary to conventional practice even in agro-ecology, the way to build soil is by the addition of chipped hardwood twigs and small branches to fields.