In this workshop you will learn the detailed interactions of the soil food web, how they enhance plant growth, clean up toxic residues from pesticides and chemical fertilizers and how to manage your soil's fertility by enhancing their numbers and their diversity.

Dr. Ingham will share with us her knowledge and research about the basics of the soil food web and a way forward for sustainable farming, landscaping and gardening by improving the soil and keeping it healthier without damaging any other eco-system. She will also discuss compost and compost tea as methods for enhancing soil biology which can protect plants from pathogens, build good soil structure, cycle nutrients in the soil, and break down toxic compounds.

Dr Elaine Ingham is President and Director of Research at Sustainable Studies, Inc. and founder of Soil Foodweb, Inc., a biological testing and consulting laborabory with worldwide locations. Fifteen years of working on microbial analyses of soil, compost, leaf surfaces and compost tea at her labs has brought a greater understanding of how to properly manage plant growth through the use of compost, compost tea and other sustainable products and practices.

Dr. Ingham earned her Master of Science in Microbiology in 1977 at Texas A & M University and her doctorate degree from Colorado State University in 1981. Elaine’s doctorate is in Microbiology with an emphasis on soil. In 1985, Elaine accepted a Research Associate Fellowship at the University of Georgia and in 1986, moving to Oregon State University, she joined the faculty in both Forest Science and Botany. Much of Dr. Ingham’s published research and links to related information are maintained on her web site at: www.soilfoodweb.com under the title "about us". She is a passionate advocate of organic/sustainable growing systems with a dynamic and friendly lecture style and a seemingly endless aray of research, hard data, and real life successes in the field to illustrate her findings.