Before You Buy a Microbial Product, Ask Better Questions
By Bronwyn Holm
Natural History Educator | Lifelong Observer of the Living World
Founder, Earthfood®
There are more microbial products appearing in agriculture and horticulture than I have seen before. That should be a good thing. After decades of treating soil largely as something to which we add fertilisers, chemicals and water, people are finally becoming interested in the living biology that makes soil function.
But there is a problem.
You cannot see microbes in a bottle.
You cannot pick up two containers, look at the liquid and decide which contains the biology your soil needs. You cannot judge microbial diversity, viability, consistency or function from the label. And price per litre tells you almost nothing.
So how does a farmer, grower or gardener know what they are buying?
Ask better questions.
Don't simply ask, “Does it contain microbes?”
Ask what microorganisms are present and what they are expected to do once they reach the soil.
Don't simply ask, “Do you have a laboratory?”
Ask what testing is actually carried out, who carries it out, how samples are selected, whether testing is independent and whether the product is checked for consistency between batches.
Don't simply ask, “Is it organic?”
Ask who certified it. Look at the certification. Check it with the certifying organisation.
And don't take Earthfood's word for any of this either.
Ask us the same questions.
Earthfood has been built around the principle that commercial confidence has to be earned.
Our soil scientist remains actively involved in production, helping ensure that the quality and quantity of biology are maintained as Earthfood grows. At the farm there are laboratory facilities, while independent third-party testing provides another level of scrutiny.
Importantly, that includes unannounced random testing.
We are not simply preparing a bottle especially for a laboratory and asking somebody to tell us what is in it. Samples are taken from different production batches and from different stages within a batch — from the beginning, through the middle and toward the end.
Why?
Because consistency matters.
If biology is unevenly distributed through production, one container could potentially be biologically richer than another. Checking different points within a batch helps establish whether the microbial diversity and consistency we expect are being maintained throughout production.
A grower buying the first container should be able to expect the same biological integrity as the grower buying the last.
For commercial agriculture, that matters enormously.
A farmer may be treating hundreds or thousands of hectares. Decisions have consequences measured in crops, pasture, water, time and money. “Trust me” isn't an adequate quality-control system.
Earthfood didn't appear yesterday
Earthfood wasn't created because somebody noticed that microbial products had become fashionable.
My own work with living systems stretches back more than forty years, through natural history, conservation, scientific illustration, environmental education and agriculture.
Over those years the subject may have changed — birds, wildlife, plants, farms, food or soil — but the question underneath it has remained remarkably similar:
What makes a living system function, and what happens when that function is lost?
That is why Earthfood has never been simply about selling bottles of microbes.
We work with farmers, growers and landowners to understand what is happening in their soil and plants, why the system is behaving as it is, and what needs to change if biological function is to return.
Living soil biology is involved in nutrient cycling, decomposition, aggregation and soil structure, plant–microbe relationships and the processes that allow functioning soils to support plants and the wider living system.
That is much bigger than making something green.
Not all microbial products are the same
This should be obvious, yet increasingly it isn't.
Two products containing microorganisms are not automatically equivalent.
The organisms matter.
Their diversity matters.
How they were produced matters.
Their viability matters.
Their intended function matters.
Their ability to survive storage and establish in the environment where they are expected to work matters.
And the evidence behind the claims matters.
There may be other excellent microbial products in Australia. This isn't an article telling you there aren't.
It is an article telling you not to buy any of them blindly — including ours.
Ask questions.
Ask for evidence.
Ask about manufacturing.
Ask about testing.
Ask about certification.
Ask what happens between one production batch and the next.
Ask whether the people selling you biology understand the living system they're asking you to put it into.
A bottle can carry a wonderful story.
The biology has to carry the result.
That is the standard I believe this emerging industry should be held to, and Earthfood is quite prepared to be held to it too.
I am quite happy for our work to stand on its record.
Observe. Understand. Honour. Preserve.