Microbes are an unseen workforce that is key to nutrient availability and uptake into the food-chain, unlocking the path to Nutrient Density. A natural symbiotic relationship exists between microbes that live in the soil upon plant roots and in the air upon plant foliage. Our wild ancestors would eat these microbes every time they picked and ate plants or the animals that ate those plants and have evolved with this symbiosis. Modern agricultural practices such as chemical fertilisers, clean cultivation and over grazing have disrupted this symbiosis and a movement towards restoring these biological relationships signposts the pathway towards Balanced Biological Nutrition Farming.

At the turn of this century DNA research into the ‘Human Genome’ found that a large percentage of our DNA was in fact from Microbes, our “Microbiome”, effectively a second us. There are more microbial cells than all of the other cells in our body and they are as unique as our fingerprint. Microorganisms live upon us (eg. on our skin, under our finger nails and ‘yes Grandma’ behind our ears) and within us (eg. on the mucous membrane lining our gut, lung, spine, brain etc). We now understand that it is perfectly normal for microbes to live in between; upon; and even within; our very own cells.

Epigenetics show how our Microbiome plays a key role in the expression of our genes and therefor, contribute significantly to the healthy functioning of our Immune system. Research is beginning to understand the potential for a Bio-Control of pathogens with insight into how microbes communicate (eg. Quorum Sensing) and behave (eg. Quorum Quenching). This is driving a paradigm shift in the way we Farm leading us to look for ways of providing Ballanced Biological Nutrition that support the Microbiome to grow a healthy functioning immune system that displays a naturally robust Epigenetic resistance to pests and disease!