CleverRoot

9 4 | t h e c l e v e r r o o t TAKING ROOT AS ORGANIC GARDENERS AND FARMERS KNOW, soils are healthiest when they teem with a great diversity of microorganisms. We call their work decomposing dead organic matter "decay," but it can be thought of more accurately as dismantling organic matter into the kinds of nutrients that plants absorb through their roots. In other words, it's nature's recycling system, which uses leftover organic matter from the past to nourish the living plants of the present. Something very similar happens when we eat food. Food is, after all, organic matter. After getting a strong acid bath in the stomach to soften it up, food passes into the small intestine and into the hands (so to speak) of our gut bacteria. Nine out of every ten cells in our bodies are these intestinal microorganisms. They do the same job within us as soil bacteria do in the garden. They dismantle the food into its con- stituent nutrients that are then absorbed through the intestinal wall and into our bloodstream. When our intestinal flora are plentiful, diverse and healthy, we tend to be healthy, too. As the name of this magazine says, roots are clever. They form symbiotic relationships with nitrogen- fixing bacteria, and with mycorrhizal fungi that that scavenge the surrounding soil for water and nutrients and feed them back to the root's hair-like structures called, aptly enough, root hairs. The tips of a plant's roots are covered with root hairs that extend outward into the soil. Similarly, our intestines are lined with villi—hair-like structures that extend inward into the rich mix of gut bacteria busily dismantling our food and feeding its nutrients to us. In fact, an intestine is very much like a root pulled up out of the earth and turned inside out so the animal that owns it can walk around. ROOTS AND INTESTINES HAVE SOMETHING IN COMMON—THEY'RE BOTH CLEVER story and illustration by Jeff Cox "WHEN OUR INTESTINAL FLORA ARE PLENTIFUL, DIVERSE AND HEALTHY, WE TEND TO BE HEALTHY, TOO." On the left is a plant root tip, showing emerg- ing root hairs. On the right is a section of small intestine, showing the interior lined with villi. Both root hairs and villi greatly increase the surface area where nutrients are absorbed. Recycling Systems Nature's ■cr

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