"Symphony of the soil" is a documentary which offers the viewer a better understanding of the miscellaneous properties and functions of all kind of different soils and furthermore portrays various farmers who have converted their way of agriculture away from artificially produced fertilizer. This can be achieved by harvesting the fields in a more sustainable way and giving back the essential nutrients in the form of compost produced organically by the very same products of the farm. It almost sounds to good to be true. So what are the downsides of this approach?
Unfortunately this question is not intesively analyzed within the movie but the viewer has to consult other sources on his own and will encounter some possible obstacles at least. For example organic farming usually requires a longer time period to regain the investments which might be an issue for many small farmers without the required security for future planning. A whole different factor can be the market. Whereas some western countries notice a trend of demand for organic vegetables there are yet many places where this is just not a relevant criteria of sale. Consequently in these markets organic farming has to convince by other properties like price, quantity or maybe taste.
But would it be possible to harmonize industrial mass production with the concepts of organic farming? If so, this could be a great chance to promoting this agricultural approach. But to my knowledge up to date organic farming remains restricted to a smaller scale of production and typically higher prices. This could be just the usual particularity of a niche development being in a transition cycle which has not yet reached its established form. In this sense organic industrial farming would be an interesting possibility. Nevertheless one might worry this could easily lead to nothing more than an industrially produced vegetable in a "green disguise".
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