To Revitalize SOIL means to:
Replace till-and-kill corporate agribusiness practices with
thrive-and-flourish regenerative farming practices
By choosing foods that have been produced using practices that Revitalize SOIL,
we choose food that's good for us, and good for Mother Earth.
we choose food that's good for us, and good for Mother Earth.
So what do thrive-and-flourish Revitalizing SOIL practices look like?
They mimic Mother Nature's systems.
Imagine the Great Plains of North America before the colonizers came.
The grass and other plants were astonishingly robust, in most cases taller than a man on horseback. Millions of bison roamed those plains, grazing on the abundant, healthy plants. The bison didn't just stay in one place. They were kept moving by large predators --- wolves and cougars and bears (oh my!) In so doing, they didn't overgraze any one area or leave huge piles of their dung in one place. The plants nourished the bison and the bison gave back to the plants and soil life in the form of their dung and urine. This exchange and interdependency between the bison and the plants is what enabled the soil to grow to be 10 feet thick!
After 150 years of till-and-kill 'corporatized' farming practices, the soil of the Great Plains of North America is barely 10 inches thick. Wouldn't it be awesome if we could Revitalize the Soil of the Great Plains. Perhaps we could even restore bison to their previous splendor. Our slogan for doing so could be, "Make the Great Plains Great Again!"
They mimic Mother Nature's systems.
Imagine the Great Plains of North America before the colonizers came.
The grass and other plants were astonishingly robust, in most cases taller than a man on horseback. Millions of bison roamed those plains, grazing on the abundant, healthy plants. The bison didn't just stay in one place. They were kept moving by large predators --- wolves and cougars and bears (oh my!) In so doing, they didn't overgraze any one area or leave huge piles of their dung in one place. The plants nourished the bison and the bison gave back to the plants and soil life in the form of their dung and urine. This exchange and interdependency between the bison and the plants is what enabled the soil to grow to be 10 feet thick!
After 150 years of till-and-kill 'corporatized' farming practices, the soil of the Great Plains of North America is barely 10 inches thick. Wouldn't it be awesome if we could Revitalize the Soil of the Great Plains. Perhaps we could even restore bison to their previous splendor. Our slogan for doing so could be, "Make the Great Plains Great Again!"
In fact, all the degraded grasslands
on all of Mother Earth's magnificent continents
could be 'Made-Great-Again'
This could be done by using the managed grazing techniques developed by Allan Savory.
He explains in this TED talk:
on all of Mother Earth's magnificent continents
could be 'Made-Great-Again'
This could be done by using the managed grazing techniques developed by Allan Savory.
He explains in this TED talk:
Allan Savory's 'discovery' of how to holistically manage grazing animals such that they don't degrade soil
but rather revitalize SOIL might just be one of the most important discoveries ever made for humanity!
Most past civilizations have gone by the wayside because they degraded and deleted the soil that sustained them.
Revitalizing SOIL practices that mimic Mother Nature's way of doing things are:
but rather revitalize SOIL might just be one of the most important discoveries ever made for humanity!
Most past civilizations have gone by the wayside because they degraded and deleted the soil that sustained them.
Revitalizing SOIL practices that mimic Mother Nature's way of doing things are:
- Cover cropping --- don't leave the soil bare. Always have some kind of plant growing on its surface. All that bare, tilled soil you see in farm country is a big no, no!
- Managed grazing --- keep the herd moving so that it doesn't overgraze any one area. This also ensures that the herd's nutrient rich manure and urine will get spread evenly over the landscape.
- No poisons on the soil, plants, or animals.
The 'Corporatized' Food industry has really muddied-the-waters around the issue of food.
But the choice is really very simple --- ask yourself the question ---"Is the food / fiber that I'm purchasing produced by farmers / ranchers who employ the 3 above mentioned practices that Revitalize SOIL?"
Worldwide, real farmers are finding ways
to help people ascertain if the food / fiber they're purchasing
is obtained from farmers / ranchers who Revitalize SOIL.
The Savory Institute is one organization that has
recently established a program to do just that.
It's called Land to Market.
This video explains:
to help people ascertain if the food / fiber they're purchasing
is obtained from farmers / ranchers who Revitalize SOIL.
The Savory Institute is one organization that has
recently established a program to do just that.
It's called Land to Market.
This video explains:
Kendall Cook, owner of Napa Valley Naturals sums it up so beautifully and succinctly
explaining how, when Team HUMANKIND chooses to Revitalize SOIL,
everybody and Mother Earth wins.
"When you buy Organic Foods, you help keep the Earth's air and water
free from pesticides and chemical fertilizers.
You help preserve a piece of the Earth's past for future generations.
You help support small entrepreneurial farmers who are committed to building
the living soils of their farmland and the living souls of their employees.
You help lay the groundwork for agricultural diversity that has always been the
backbone of cultural individuality.
You help make the commitment to
renewal that sustains the Earth's ability to nurture life.
And you help others embrace the gratifying taste that can come not only from eating good foods,
but also from doing good things.
When you buy Organic Foods,
you make a conscious choice to eat well
and to treat the Earth well.
Thank you for making that choice."
- Kendall Cook, Proprietor, Napa Valley Naturals
free from pesticides and chemical fertilizers.
You help preserve a piece of the Earth's past for future generations.
You help support small entrepreneurial farmers who are committed to building
the living soils of their farmland and the living souls of their employees.
You help lay the groundwork for agricultural diversity that has always been the
backbone of cultural individuality.
You help make the commitment to
renewal that sustains the Earth's ability to nurture life.
And you help others embrace the gratifying taste that can come not only from eating good foods,
but also from doing good things.
When you buy Organic Foods,
you make a conscious choice to eat well
and to treat the Earth well.
Thank you for making that choice."
- Kendall Cook, Proprietor, Napa Valley Naturals
Enjoy this Moment!
In the United States, the production of food has been 'corporatized' to the max. This corporatization of our food system has relentlessly replaced the small-family-farm with heartless-agribusiness-legal-entities that poison our food and Mother Earth
and torture the beautiful animals we eat.
and torture the beautiful animals we eat.
The Organic Valley Cooperative website throws a light on this subject:
"Since 1960, more than 600,000 family farms have been bought up by big agriculture companies. Each of those farms was part of a community, usually a small town. And each of those farms was part of a larger ecosystem that too many of us took for granted."
"Since 1960, more than 600,000 family farms have been bought up by big agriculture companies. Each of those farms was part of a community, usually a small town. And each of those farms was part of a larger ecosystem that too many of us took for granted."
But now, so many good hearted farmers around the world are coming together to bring back, as Organic Valley Cooperative calls it,
'The Soul of Farming'. These farmers are putting in so much love and extra effort to bring us healthy, nourishing food.
And so, we can support them by requesting of our grocery stores and restaurants that they carry these foods.
In so doing, we can vote for these foods with our dollar.
'The Soul of Farming'. These farmers are putting in so much love and extra effort to bring us healthy, nourishing food.
And so, we can support them by requesting of our grocery stores and restaurants that they carry these foods.
In so doing, we can vote for these foods with our dollar.
Enjoy this Moment!
Right now, most cattle in the U.S. are raised in those wretched places called CAFOs / Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations.
Tens-of-thousands of them are confined together, forced to stand shoulder-to-shoulder, and knee-deep in their own excrement, eating corn, soybeans, and other 'feed' grains. These feed grains are foods which they can't properly digest (it would be like forcing us to eat grass). The cattle are fattened up, but they also become very sick from eating these feed grains. So they're pumped full of antibiotics to keep them alive just long enough to fatten them up for the slaughter. And the same is true for most other farm animals raised by corporatized agribusinesses in the U.S. --- chickens, pigs, sheep, turkeys, etc.
Can you imagine the impact if Team HUMANKIND encouraged McDonald's to offer hamburgers made only from cattle raised
using Revitalizing SOIL practices? We could get those cattle out of those CAFOs and put them back on green grass pastures where they belong. And imagine how much carbon those cattle would sequester while grazing using Revitalizing SOIL practices. McDonald's could become responsible for sequestering beaucoup carbon. Every time you ate a McDonald's hamburger you would be helping to reduce global warming ... way cool!
Tens-of-thousands of them are confined together, forced to stand shoulder-to-shoulder, and knee-deep in their own excrement, eating corn, soybeans, and other 'feed' grains. These feed grains are foods which they can't properly digest (it would be like forcing us to eat grass). The cattle are fattened up, but they also become very sick from eating these feed grains. So they're pumped full of antibiotics to keep them alive just long enough to fatten them up for the slaughter. And the same is true for most other farm animals raised by corporatized agribusinesses in the U.S. --- chickens, pigs, sheep, turkeys, etc.
Can you imagine the impact if Team HUMANKIND encouraged McDonald's to offer hamburgers made only from cattle raised
using Revitalizing SOIL practices? We could get those cattle out of those CAFOs and put them back on green grass pastures where they belong. And imagine how much carbon those cattle would sequester while grazing using Revitalizing SOIL practices. McDonald's could become responsible for sequestering beaucoup carbon. Every time you ate a McDonald's hamburger you would be helping to reduce global warming ... way cool!
Enjoy this moment!
Many of you will say, "Food raised using Revitalizing SOIL practices is so much more expensive than food produced by 'Corporatized' agribusiness. I just can't afford it." Actually though, food produced by 'Corporatized' agribusiness is cheap only because it's heavily subsidized by the U.S. taxpayer. Take away those subsidies and that food would be much more expensive to produce than food produced using Regenerative Farming practices.
Big-Ag and Big-Food corporations lobby for these subsidies, and the politicians who are their puppets willingly oblige them.
Basically, the policy of subsidizing commodity crops (corn, soybeans, wheat, rice, cotton, etc.) is a form of
Corporate welfare.
Big-Ag and Big-Food corporations lobby for these subsidies, and the politicians who are their puppets willingly oblige them.
Basically, the policy of subsidizing commodity crops (corn, soybeans, wheat, rice, cotton, etc.) is a form of
Corporate welfare.
Enjoy this Moment!
Let's focus on corn here since it is the most heavily subsidized commodity crop and therefore the most grown by
'corporatized' agribusinesses.
Simply removing the subsidy to corn would remedy so many problems.
Cheap corn (cheap because it's subsidized) leads to:
'corporatized' agribusinesses.
Simply removing the subsidy to corn would remedy so many problems.
Cheap corn (cheap because it's subsidized) leads to:
- A worldwide health crisis --- Because subsidized corn is so cheap, food processors use some version of this cheap ingredient in most all processed food. High-fructose corn syrup / HFCS is the most infamous incarnation of corn. This one unhealthy ingredient has contributed more greatly and gravely than any other to the epidemic obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer we're experiencing worldwide today. If you suffer from one of these conditions, you probably have cheap corn (cheap because it's subsidized) to thank for it.
- A worldwide environmental crisis -- A mind boggling amount of toxic chemicals are being dumped on corn. These toxic chemicals are poisoning our ground water and rivers, and creating dead zones in the oceans. Many forms of life are collateral damage in this insane 'chemical warfare' ... birds, fish, pollinators, etc. And then there's all the beautiful habitat destroyed ... millions upon millions of acres of forests felled and prairies plowed under ... just to put in another field of corn. Yipes!
- A worldwide social crisis-- Cheap corn (cheap because it's subsidized) muscles its way into world markets via 'free trade' agreements. 'Free trade' agreements should really be called 'forced trade' agreements because poor countries are forced to sign them by Big-Agribusiness Corporations. The poor countries are forced to allow Big-Agribusness Corporations to sell their cheap corn (cheap because it's subsidized) to them. The farmers of the poor countries can't compete with this cheap corn (cheap because it's subsidized), so they go out of business, sell their land to land grabbing giant corporations, move into the slums of big cities where they provide cheap labor for other System GRUNCHERY Corporations. Or in their desperation, they relocate (oftentimes illegally) to richer countries in order to make a living. Much of the social unrest that occurs worldwide today can be attributed to the desperate position people find themselves in when their communities and cultures are dismantled in this way by these unfair 'free trade' agreements. It's no coincidence that the World Trade Center was targeted for the 9/11 attacks.
Enjoy this Moment!
So, if there's one request that we ask of our politicians, let it be:
End corn subsidies.
This one action would level the playing field for real, non-corporatized farmers,
thus allowing them to get a good foothold worldwide.
Actually, on second thought, and while we're at it, let's ask our politicians to
End subsidies to all commodity crops.
End corn subsidies.
This one action would level the playing field for real, non-corporatized farmers,
thus allowing them to get a good foothold worldwide.
Actually, on second thought, and while we're at it, let's ask our politicians to
End subsidies to all commodity crops.
Enjoy this Moment!
Right now, humans have two choices when it comes to food:
- Food that's cheap --- but unhealthy for us and damaging to Mother Earth, or
- Food that's expensive --- but healthy for us and revitalizing to Mother Earth.
- Food that's affordable, abundant, and healthy for us and Mother Earth.