Earthing for Better Health

EARTHING: Reconnecting with Mother Earth

By Calvin F. Bey

“As often as possible expose any part of your body skin to the earth or grass or natural water, lake, stream or ocean. When in your garden use non-insulating shoes, or even as you sit and read or do other actions, stay grounded.” This is a 1969 quote from Matteo Tavera, a French Agronomist, farmer and naturalist. It comes from his series of letters where Tavera espoused his visionary hypothesis that all biological life, including humans, requires continued contact with “natural electricity, which governs us all,” and furthermore, that no biological life can exist in full health without such contact. He calls it the “Sacred Mission,” meaning that our mission for life is to reconnect to the Earth.

This grounding concept did not get much exposure until it was independently rediscovered during the past decade by Clinton Ober. It has now been developed into a health improvement phenomena called Earthing.

Earthing, sometimes called grounding, is a topic you will likely be hearing more about. It is an easy-to-use and powerful health-promoting tool, backed by research and many case studies. The best source of information on the subject is the 2010 book, Earthing: The Most Important Health Discovery Ever? by Clinton Ober, Stephen T. Sinatra and Martin Zucker. If you want to check the subject of Earthing out go on-line to earthinginstitute.net.

Most Americans are not in tune with the energy, biorhythms, and inherent values of Nature. Nor are they generally very sensitive to what is going on within their own bodies. For the most part, even the modern farmers and gardeners are quite detached from truly intimate association with Nature. Many farmers ride their tractors in air-conditioned cabs, and if on the ground, they walk around on shoe soles made of rubber or synthetic material that insulates them from the earth. The small-scale gardener, with hand tools, and on his/her knees, generally does a better job in being physically connected to the earth.

In short, Earthing is suffusing your body with negative-charged free electrons that are so abundantly present on the surface of the earth. Dr. Gaetan Chevalier, Director of Earthing Institute says that Earthing restores a lost electrical signal to the body that seems to stabilize the complicated circuitry of our essentially electrical bodies. As your body equalizes to the earth’s energy level, you may sense a warm, tingling sensation with a felling of ease and well-being. In the body the electrons are the source of power for antioxidants, which in turn satisfy and quench free radicals. In essence, it stops the free radicals from stealing electrons from healthy tissues, which can result in tissue damage and chronic inflammation which is at the heart of many serious diseases.

It doesn’t stop there. Observations and research show that Earthing can increase energy, reduce chronic pain, improve sleep, reset our biological clocks, relieve muscle tension and headaches, promote quicker recovery from injuries, and much more. Earthing can also decrease one’s exposure to the harmful electromagnetic fields (EMFs) that originate from wiring in our homes, computers, appliances, power lines, cell towers, and other sources.

The feeling of grounding is something to which we can all relate. It is the fresh, rejuvenated, and energetic feeling that we experience when we walk on the grass in the spring in bare feet. I feel it when I am on my knees in the garden pulling weeds or digging produce, and I now get that same feeling when I hook myself to a copper wire that is connected to a metal rod driven into the ground outside my house.

It is very easy to get grounded, or connected to the earth. You can get a complete description of how to get grounded, and sources of materials by going to www.earthinginstitute.net. For a reasonable price you can buy grounding sheets for your bed, foot mats, desk pads, and more for use in your home. These devices simply hook into the ground wire in the home electrical system. The kits for this are being distributed by Generations Chiropractic, in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

If you prefer to build your own grounding device, here are the simple steps. Drive a metal rod into the earth next to the house. Any good conductor like copper or iron will do just fine. Connect a metal wire to the rod and run it into the house. Almost any kind of electrical wire will do. Connect the wire to your foot or just hold it in your hand. You are now grounded.

To make the grounding process easier in your home, you can make a simple foot mat by weaving some bare electrical wire on to a small piece of wood board or even cardboard. A similar device can be easily made for the bed. The wire placement or design is not critical. You just need something that provides for easy direct body contact.

There is a plethora of individual cases showing the positive effects of grounding. As a dowser, I can say that the detectable energy field of every person I have tested expanded outward by 50 percent or more, after they were grounded. Some users have felt an immediate tingling effect, while some others felt nothing immediately, but then had sensations later. The good things that Earthing can do for you will likely occur whether you feel the tingling sensation or not.

This Earthing concept and practice will just seem too simple for many Americans. For those who think that modern science and prescriptions are the main solutions to better health, this simple practice will be puzzling. Its important to remember that this is not something man has invented or created. As part of the natural process of energy flow and balance in Nature, its been available for our use since the beginning of time. Its part of Nature, where health is the default position.

Doing our part to heal the land and the people of the world is a responsibility we all share. Among the many things that we do, I suggest we all add one more -- help promote the practice of Earthing. I take this “healing’ responsibility seriously, and I hope you will too

This simple homemade foot mat made with copper wire and a thin piece of plywood, and hooked to an iron rod driven into the ground is all it takes to experience Earthing.

Calvin F. Bey, Ph.D., is a retired agriculture scientist, living in Fayetteville, Arkansas, with a passion for teaching others about nutrient-dense gardening and better health. He and his wife, Doris, use their demonstration garden and energy-efficient home to help others understand the concept of sustainability. He can be reached at CFBey1936@cox.net or by visiting harmonygardens.blogspot.com.

The Roundup Story

The Roundup Story

Calvin F. Bey CFBey1936@cox.net

Few things in life are simple and gardening is no exception. Answers to questions on garden design, plant selection, soils, fertilizers, mulches, compost, cover crops, and rotations can become complex. To help simplify, I promote practices based on ecological rules. None of us would knowingly consume arsenic, simply because we know that poisons are bad for our health. A similar guiding ecological rule exists for gardening. “If a substance is toxic, i.e. not healthy for the soil, do NOT use it on the garden.”

What about the use of Roundup? Chemically known as glyphosate, Roundup kills almost anything that is green. Lawn, horticulture, and agriculture folks debate whether Roundup is safe.

At the recent AcresUSA meeting, Dr. Don Huber, spoke on the topic, “Understanding Glyphosate.” Huber is a retired Purdue University pathologist, who has researched the effects of Roundup for 20 years. His findings, and that of many others confirm the fact that Roundup is toxic and not good for the health of the soil or the plants.

Roundup was patented in 1974. The same product was patented 10 years earlier as a simple chelator, i.e. a substance that immobilizes or grabs and holds other compounds. So Roundup gets into the soil and grabs the elements, especially manganese and other micro nutrients.

Monsanto, the manufacturer, claimed Roundup was biodegradable. Oops. You don’t see that on the label anymore. In a French Court, it was proven that it did not fully degrade in the soil. Studies show that the negative effects of Roundup last for more than 10 years.

Worse than that, research studies from many places are showing reduction in vigor and yield, increased chlorosis, mottling, leaf distortions, bud and fruit abortion, plant infertility, increased attack by insects, and more. Other key consequences of using Roundup are:

1. It robs plants of nutrients, i.e. reduced uptake of manganese and other nutrients. This effect carries over to animals that consume the plants.

2. It reduces nitrogen fixation.

3. It increases the virulence of some pathogens and makes crops more susceptible to disease.

4. It kills beneficial soil organisms, and poisons the soil for all plants.

5. It increases lodging in crops.

6. It produces unfilled kernels in corn.

7. Weeds are becoming resistant and super-weeds are developing.

Huber showed examples in commercial production where glyphosate damage was severe, including crops where Roundup had not been applied for several years. In MN, 1000 acres of seed potatoes could not be certified because of excess glyphosate in the tubers, that came from growing Roundup Ready soybeans and spraying with Roundup the previous year. Lawsuits against Monsanto are in process in MN and ID regarding potatoes.

History teaches us that where societies have not taken care of the soil, the civilization fails. I don’t see the use of Roundup as a debatable issue. It is bad for the soil, our environment, our plants, our domestic and wild animals, human health, and our future. It’s a serious threat to the sustainability of agriculture and food production.

So what is the solution? We know Roundup should not be used! We know it is a serious matter. We know too that the answer begins with what we do in our own back yards. We owe it to our children and grandchildren to do what is right.

Have questions? Check out “Roundup” on the net and see for yourself. Read the 2010 Institute of Science in Society report, “Glyphosate Tolerant Crops Bring Diseases and Death.” It is replete with up-to-date references.

Winter Gardening and Season Extension Techniques

If you get serious about winter gardens, I suggest you see Eliot Coleman’s books, The New Organic Grower and Four-Season Harvest. He lives and farms organically in Harborside, Maine. His books are excellent sources for all the details about winter gardening. In the meantime, here are a few guidelines based on my knowledge and experience.

The basic concept is to mesh the technology of climate modification using mini-tunnels with the biology of the crops that are suitable. Of course you can get fancy with heating and lighting, etc and grow almost anything the year around. What I am referring to for our area simply allows you to grow a few cold-weather crops longer into the fall/winter and to start some spring crops earlier than normal. In this area, I have experience with lettuce, radishes, spinach, mache, onions, broccoli, carrots, and potatoes. I suggest you try some late fall sowing, under cover (described below and referred to as mini-tunnels) with these crops and then sow again in late January. You won’t need the tunnels in our climate until November. If you try to use them too early in the fall or too late in the spring, they will heat up too much with the plastic cover in place.

It is not difficult to set up a small bed for growing a few crops. Here is the design and system for a mini-tunnel that works in this area. Supplies needed to make a 4x25-foot bed include:

1. 6 mil clear plastic. It comes in 10 and 20-foot wide strips. I buy it in a 100-foot roll.

2. 18 reinforcing rods, each piece 24 inches long, 3/8-inch diameter.

3. 9 pieces of ¾- inch (inside diameter) plastic tubing, each piece 7.0 feet long. You can buy it in rolls and cut it. This 7.0-foot length of tubing is designed for a bed that is 4 feet in width.

4. Boards, bricks, rocks, and straw to hold down the plastic. Maintaining the tunnel in strong winds is the biggest problem, and anchoring the plastic is the key.

5. Optional, but very desirable: Heat absorbing material inside the tunnel. I use one-gallon glass and plastic jugs, painted black, and filled with paramagnetic rock. It works great. The jugs pick up a lot of heat during the sunny days and dissipate it into the soil and tunnel at night. Set the jugs a couple inches deep into the soil. I use about 15 jugs for my 100-square foot garden bed. The magnetic energy absorbed by the paramagnetic rock is also used by the plants for increased growth.

The construction is easy:

1. Lay out exactly where the 18 reinforcing rods will be placed. Use a string to line them up on each side of the bed. Be sure they are the same distance apart across the beds. Try for 4-foot spacing. Pound the reinforcing rods about 18 inches deep into the soil on each side of the beds. That leaves about 6 inches sticking out to “hook” the plastic tubes. 3-foot spacing of the rods, along the sides of the bed works fine.

2. Place the 7.0-foot plastic tubes over the rods, to make the semi-circle frame.

3. Adjust the tubes so you have a uniform height and shape for all the tubes. This will help to provide a uniform surface with the plastic cover.

4. Cut the 10-foot wide plastic to desired length. Allow about 5 extra feet on each end for good anchoring.

5. If you are doing this alone, choose a calm day to install the plastic. Lay the plastic over the tubes. Anchor the windward side so that no wind can get under the plastic! This is important! First lay down some boards, bricks, rocks, etc. on the plastic. 2x6 planks work very well. Then cover that all up with a heavy layer of mulch or straw (wood chips are fine). Don’t leave any place for the wind to get under the plastic. Anchor the ends in a similar manner.

6. Remember that you are going to periodically open this up to work in the garden bed. So on the lee side (East, if you have N-S rows), I just anchor the plastic with 2x6 planks, weighed down with a few cement blocks. It works well to have a 4-6-inch layer of straw down in the pathway on the lee (east) side also. It will help in the winter when the soil is wet and you want to open the tunnel.

According to Eliot Coleman, a tunnel of this type will effectively move you to a climate that is about 1.5 hardiness zones to the south. For us that means a climate like mid-Louisiana. The real advantage is the ability to get started at least a month earlier in the spring. I use the mini-tunnel to start early seeds for lettuce, spinach, onions, cabbage, broccoli, and tomatoes. Some of the plants can be left in the tunnel and others can be transplanted to other beds when the time is appropriate.

Transplanting, Thinning and Mycorrhizae

Thinning: We survived the heat and drought and now is the time to enjoy fall vegetable gardening. Hopefully your crops are growing and you are siting back and waiting....OOOOps! Not quite. I see a lot of gardens where carrot, beet, radish, spinach, lettuce, and turnip production is not good, simply because the crop was not thinned. The seeds are small and planted too close together, and then the plants are not thinned as required.

For the most part, the sooner you thin the better. Give the plants space to grow. I plant in 4-foot wide beds so I have blocks of vegetables. The number of rows is determined by the unique spacing required for each vegetable. In “How to Grow More Vegetables” by John Jeavons, there are spacing tables. This is an excellent guide, but I usually increase the spacing by an inch or two for the fall plantings. I want them to grow as fast as possible, and a little more space helps to get them to the market or table sooner. Here are a few spacings (in inches) that are good for the fall: Carrots - 4, Beets - 5, Radishes - 3, Spinach - 9, Turnips - 6, Lettuce - 6-12 (depends on variety).

Transplanting: Sometime I sow seeds very close together, with the idea that the small plants will all get transplanted. This works fine with beets, spinach and lettuce, and can be done at the two-leaf stage, when the plants are only an inch tall. Beets can be transplanted after they are several inches tall, but not as easily. Carrots can be transplanted but

the job requires a lot of careful placement and patience. With pelleted carrot seed, like I used this fall, the spacing is more uniform, and so little thinning or transplanting is needed.

Mycorrhizal Fungi: These are the good guys and you want them on your team. Over 90

percent of the plants known use them in a mutually beneficial manner. They are not visible with the naked eye, but are attached to plant roots. In a real sense they are root extensions -- bringing water and nutrients into the plant. A thimble full of healthy soil can contain several miles of fungal filaments.

An acre of healthy top soil can have 2500 pounds of mycorrhizal fungi. This is good organic matter.

Soil Tilth and Mycorrhizae Soil tilth is about good soil structure -- soils that work easily, don’t crust, and take in water and air. Soils with good tilth are said to be well-aggregated, with soil particles joined together in stable clusters.

A few years ago, A USDA microbiologist Sara Wright named the glue that holds the soil aggregates together. She called it “glomalin,” from the Glomales group of mycorrhizal fungi. This gooey protein comes from the tiny fungi filaments. Its a sticky glue that helps your soil in many ways.

Do you have the Glomales fungi species in your soil? Maybe, maybe not. They occur naturally in most undisturbed soil systems. But they can also be destroyed by some fungicides, and can be reduced by high rates of available phosphorus. If you are concerned your garden is lacking in mycorrhizae, go on line and order some. If you want some recommended sources, please contact me.

It goes without saying, but the organic route is an

excellent way to keep the good guys (Mycorrhizae) on your team.

Fall Cover Crops

Time to Plant Beets and Carrots

The August heat and dry weather have made gardening a real challenge. Don’t be discouraged. As the weather gets a bit cooler, it will be time for rejuvenating the garden. Fall gardening can be easy and enjoyable. I am getting excited about planting my fall carrots and beets. They do well and are easy to grow. I will be starting mine the last week of August. This year I am using pelleted carrot seed. Its basically an organic coating on each individual seed. The value of pelleting lies in the ease of sowing the seeds in a much more uniform distribution, thus minimizing the thinning process. The coating dissolves quickly when placed in the soil. Pelleted seed is about the size of turnip seed.

If No Fall Veggies -- Plant a Cover Crop

We know it is important to build a healthy soil i.e., a soil that is alive, full of microbes, adequate minerals, and a reasonable organic matter level. Cover crops can be useful for reaching these goals. There are many choices. For simplicity in the fall, I have settled on two crops --Oats and Austrian Winter Peas. The peas have the advantage of

surviving the cold winters, growing again in the spring and fixing nitrogen in the soil. The oats has the advantage of quickly covering the site, and dying in the winter, thus leaving a heavy mulch cover that helps to curtail the development of winter weeds. I plant my early spring crops where I have the oats.

Oats and peas can be planted together, but the timing of the combination planting is tricky. If you plant the combination too early, the oats smothers out the peas. If you plant the oats too late, it does not make a dense stand, and the effectiveness as a mulch is minimal.

I use oats and peas, separately. By planting in early September, you should have a stand that looks like the peas (on the left) and the oats (on the right), by early November. They make a pretty sight.

Both oats and the peas are available locally, but generally only in 50 pound bags. I buy a bag and repackage for small garden plots. If you want some oats or peas, or information on how to sow, send me an email. I would be pleased to assist. Once you try these crops you will be hooked.

August -- the time for Fall Gardening

PLAN AHEAD: Many summer vegetables are in full swing now, and it easy to forget that late August is a good time to plant some fall crops. Although the bugs can be a small problem in August plantings, I thoroughly enjoy the fall crops. Carrots and beets are my favorites. Fall carrots are generally superb and even sweeter than those grown in the spring/summer. Don’t forget about radishes, turnips, broccoli, kale, spinach, cabbage, etc. They will all do well.

If you are not planting a fall vegetable garden, then I recommend you plant a fall cover crop. This is an excellent step to help build a healthy soil, and to suppress winter weeds. It is very easy to do.

LEARNING MORE: Each year I do a few trials of new vegetable varieties. I have a nice loose, healthy soil and so this year I tried five varieties of carrots. The old standby Danvers did very well, as did Napoli and Mokum. I was not pleased with the carrot called Atomic Red. I really liked the flavor, smoothness, and length of a carrot called Sugarsnap, but it was the only one with a minor insect problem. I will try it again in August.

NEXT COURSE: I will be teaching an Organic Gardening course on August 14 and August 21. I do the summer course for those who want to do fall vegetable gardens and fall cover crops, or to get an early start for next spring. If you are interested please send me an email for the class announcement, and then get registered. I limit each class to 16 people, so they are likely to fill.

RAISED BEDS: As I write this we are getting what will be more than 7 inches of rain in the past 10 days. Although excess rain is rarely a problem in the summer, I have seen several gardens with problems, i.e. standing water. Raised beds have many advantages, and right now one of those advantages is very evident. My garden has not had any problem with the excessive rain. Raised beds saved the day.

Soil is a Living Organism

A healthy soil is a living system, replete with important, “good guy” organisms. Whether it is vegetables, fruit trees, flowers, or forests, a community of living organisms (microbes) will exist. This soil food web consists of bacteria, fungi, nematodes, arthropods, protozota, earthworms, insects, and small vertebrates.

These organisms serve many functions:

1. They decompose organic compounds, including plant residue, manure, and some pesticides.

2. They transform the minerals into the proper forms for uptake by the plants. Think of them as the digestive system (stomach) for the plants. Its like this -- the microbes are the servants but they eat first, then the plants are served.

3. They fix nitrogen, enhance soil porosity, and prey on crop pests.

4. They hold nutrients in reserve, improve soil structure, increase water holding capacity, and increase carbon sequestration

5 Earthworms can actually turn over the top six inches of soil in 10 to 20 years, often moving large amounts of soil up from the lower strata and organic matter down to deeper layers.

These advantages and more are strong reasons for gardeners and farmers to go organic. Strong pesticides and chemical fertilizers impact the soil organisms negatively and work against the development of a healthy soil.

The numbers of the various soil organisms in a soil will depend on the crop and past

management practices. Bacteria and fungi will generally make up the bulk of the organisms. Forest soils have more organisms than prairie soils, followed by agriculture soils. In agriculture and garden soils, the

numbers increase with increased organic

matter, minimum tillage, and with the use of organic amendments.

The numbers of living organisms in healthy soils is astounding. A teaspoon of agriculture soil can contain up to 1 billion

bacteria, several yards of fungi, several thousand protozoa, and 20 nematodes. Add to that 100 arthropods and thirty

earthworms per square foot, and you have an acre of soil with the living biomass that weighs a ton or more.

Tomato Time: Those 15 inch tall tomatoes (in 2 gallon pots), that I planted in early May are growing at phenomenal rates. They are now 5 feet tall, and loaded with tomatoes. I am trying a new cherry tomato called “Riesentraube.” It looks like it will be PROLIFIC. Here on June 17, I estimate 600 tomatoes already on the plant. Will keep you posted.