Soil is alive. One key to having a crop that is bursting with healthy plants, well-balanced insects, and thriving wildlife is to fill the soil with as much life as possible. The greater the number and diversity of soil organism-the more plants will be supported by the soil. In turn, an extensive array of plants will attract a copious assortment of insects, and those plants and insects will provide food and shelter for a more diverse collection of animals at the top of the pyramid. Diversity builds diversity. Vegetarians may be appalled, but much of growing and producing edible plants is actually raising animals: the tiny ones under the earth’s surface. Let’s call them “micro-herds”. Without soil life, earth just dries up and blows away, or clumps together after a rain and forms clay-bound, root-thwarting clods.
Hemenway, Toby. Gaia’s Garden A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, 2001.