compost rap

aight, yall,
so i was sittin in class this morning, and my man ethan was spittin some heavy shit about soils, some really deep stuff, and i thought to myself, damn, this is important shit, people need to know this, ya know. so i said, aight, i gotta write some rhymes, let the town know whats goin down down in the earth. so this is for yall, i wish i could kick it for you live, but i guess youll have to make do. much love, jah bless.


soil, dirty subject,
weve got to protect
that thin skin wrapped around the earth
a living being, womb giving birth
not a dead, harsh cold, and static ground,
but a breathing growing changing place where life abounds.
a billion living beings in a teaspoon of ground,
50 million kinds of fungi holdin it down.

feed soil
build it
help it grow
ponds swales and ditches dont let it flow,
away prevent erosion
to leave it for the children of our children's children's, children's children.

let me tell you a story about farmer joe,
wakes up one morning says its time to sow
a thousand acres of soy, try to hustle some dough.
first thing ill do is to till the ground,
move all of that good topsoil around,
make it easy for me to plant my beds,
but he doesn't know that that means his soil is dead.
so he plants his field in long straight rows,
all the same seed he bought cheap from monsanto.
he wants to grow big quick, throws down npk
but that mineral salt sucks all the water away.
but the plants seem to love it, on the outside at least,
nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium feast.
all that soy looks good to inects flying about
they come from miles around to check it out.
damn these pests, says farmer joe,
ive put too much in this crop to let it go,
im gonna kill all these insects with insecticide,
doesnt leave a single bug alive
once again, he doesnt know that not all bugs are bad
didnt know how to make use of what he already had,
so hes just killed the bugs when the fungi come in,
start eating soy leaves, and so he begins
with the fungicide spray, kill the fungus away,
destroys his mycorihzal network in a single day.
now his soils got no structure, no resistance to erosion,
nothing holds it together so itll soon be gone

and thats why weve got to
feed soil
build it
help it grow
ponds swales and ditches dont let it flow,
away, prevent erosion
to leave it for the children of our children's children's, children's children.

now momma nature knows how to heal herself when shes bleeding,
medicine is waiting beneath the soil to be needed,
every weed has a function, ready to repair,
damaged ground, left dry, compacted, and bare.
so the weeds come in quick in farmer joe's fields,
damage, danger, disaster, its time to heal,
but farmer joe doesnt know, wont let them grow
too much invested for his crop to fail
so herbicide completes his biocide cocktail
a vicious cycle of death and destruction
robs his soil of its ability to serve its function
his soy looks green, but its sadly malnourished
hes made a swath of death where their could have been a forest.
here to save the day comes compost man
with his earth healing, soil creating plan
with compost we can easily make dirt,
humble humans make humus to heal the earth
berklee method eighteen days, hot pile of shit
nice dirt quick, thermophillic
just get the proper ratio of carbon to nitrogen,
25 to one, bacteria will thrive again,
one part green, one part brown,
plants living and dead grown from the ground,
one part manure, or other stinky stuff,
and a little bit of water, just enough,
that you squeeze a handful and you get one drop
four days later, time to flip flop
turn that pile upside down
and let all those living things mix around
bacteria orgy, its a party in there
turn it every two days to let in air
in eighteen days life has done its job,
nothing in there is as it was,
just beautiful, life giving, healthy dirt,
to put on your ground and regenerate the earth.

thats how we
feed soil
build it
help it grow
ponds swales and ditches dont let it flow,
away, prevent erosion
to leave it for the children of our children's children's, children's children.

so what about farmer joe, why do we care?
well the thing is that this happens everywhere.
this is how we grow almost everything we eat,
and if we keep on doing it the future looks bleak.
were destroying the soil, poisoning the land,
and you and me and all of us have got to take a stand,
if humans on this planet are gonna pull through,
then i think that you know what were gonna have to do,

weve got to
feed soil
build it
help it grow
ponds swales and ditches dont let it flow,
away, prevent erosion
to leave it for the children of our children's children's, children's children.