It’s Time: A Regenerative Revolution
How Regenerative and Biodynamic Agriculture are the Future We Need
As people are returning to the simpler things in life, one of these movements is towards the soil. People have, for decades now, become more and more conscious of the benefits of quality food, principally through the organic food movement. Now there is an agricultural revival happening, a homecoming to homesteading, if you will. A revival of healthy soil. Healthy soil, after all, provides healthy food, healthy clothing, healthy guts, and, of course, healthy plants.
The moniker that is probably best known for this soil revolution is “regenerative agriculture.” Biodynamic agriculture through @demeter_usa, which you know we’ve spoken at length about, is, in a way, certified regenerative agriculture. Soil is the basis of all life on Earth, just as we humans depend on the quality and health of our gut microbes to keep us strong and healthy, it is the biology of the soil that supports the health of all ecosystems. In a teaspoon of healthy soil, you have more different microorganisms than people on the planet!
And it is a necessary revolution. According to the European Commission’s World Atlas of Desertification, a study on land degradation as a result of human land-use that is threatening our ability to maintain critical global environmental goods and services, about 75% of the world’s land is ALREADY degraded. This means that we are destroying most of our land through the use of mechanized farming, overuse of pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides, and monocultures (using land, usually large chunks of it, to grow one single crop). It isn’t a stretch to see that the eradication of biodiversity is killing our soil.
If we learn anything from this pandemic of our generation, it should be that industrial feed-lots and the agricultural industrial complex is bad for our health, both in the short-term (leading to viruses like the current COVID-19) and in the long-term (weak immune systems and poor overall health). We are told by health officials that a lifestyle of low-stress, sufficient exercise, quality foods, and strong immune systems are the best thing we can do to combat coronavirus, but the way we treat our agricultural plants and animals is the exact opposite. These viruses almost always jump from animals to humans, and it’s no wonder they do when we consider how the animals that become our food are raised.
Thankfully it does seem that opinions and perspectives are, finally, shifting. As we mentioned, health through food is gaining steam. And properly managed regenerative, or certified Biodynamic, farms are the future. If we care about what lies beneath our feet, look at our farms from a holistic, single-entity approach, we can begin to heal entire ecosystems. Healthy soils give us healthy plants that actually nourish us, while also sequestering carbon, ensuring that our grandchildren’s grandchildren can continue to thrive on this planet, in a better, more evolved way. It’s time to think beyond simply “organic,” it’s time for Biodynamic and regenerative farms, and the food supply-chain they serve, to shine.
It’s time for planetary regeneration. Join us.
