Living Compost, Living Carbon
CONCLUSION
In all these laboratory methods and field activities, we come to recognize carbon as active
carbon: signpost of the living. The lab tests however do not deny the reality, nor falsify it, provided
the interpretive scientist is attentive to the context. Static lab tests do little justice to the phenomena
by themselves. We are not dealing in reality with the carbon of chemists (C) but the carbon of associated
life that is never alone but is constantly moving, seeking balance and transforming itself
and the environment around it whether soil, plant or atmosphere. We can easily accept the fact that
plants are the dynamic entities in the world that give carbon form. Yet it is just as plausible to consider
that soil and compost, by nature of their life, are also giving carbon a form. It is a dynamic
battle ground where formless, reactive CO2 is held in meaningful humus and microbe form, for the
benefit of plant productivity.