Ventrua County Lighthouse Farm Network,Committee for Sustainable Agriculture and UC Cooperative Extension. Ventura County Lighthouse Farm Network Monthly meetings sponsored by the Community Alliance with Family Farmers for any grower interested in reducing chemical inputs and developing more biologically based methods of farming,with an eye to the bottom line. Soil Microbial Biomass Service A service of the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology,Oregon State University at Corvallis organized in 1984 to assay microbial biomass of forest,farm and prairie soils and manage a database to guide farmers and ecologists in soil restoration and improving plant health and agricultural productivity. Organized since 1982 to promote a sustainable system that is ecologically sound,economically viable and socially just. The 1997 Ecological Farming Conference is January 22-25,Pacific Grove,Ca.
Plants profoundly affect and are affected by soil organic matter and nutrient cycling.
Food web nutrient cycling starts with root exudates and the varying needs of carbon and nitrogen at each microbe tropic level. Composts,compost teas and mulches have different effects on plants. Good soil for each crop has measurable numbers and ratios of bacterial or fungal biomass or activity,protozoa and beneficial nematodes,and nematode maturity indices. The goal of soil ecologists is to develop bioassay techniques and an expanding database to manage soil foodwebs that maximize plant health and biological control. Good biological control below ground supports good biological control above ground.