“The basis of all Nature’s farming,” he said, was the Law of Return: “the faithful return to the soil of all available vegetable, animal, and human wastes.” When bacteria, bugs, and birds die, their bodies return to the soil and provide nutrition for other life. The same occurs for their wastes. Humans, too, must return the residues of their existence to the earth. Civilizations fall because societies forget this simple rule. We depend on plants, plants depend on soil, soil depends on us. The Law of Return embodies an insight: everything affects everything else.
