A Paradigm Switch to Regenerative Farming is Essential to the Preservation of Life on Earth
Regenerative Farming Practices at Terra Mater Farma
At Terra Mater Farma we are practicing what we preach. Recognizing that all life is interconnected and works best in cooperative communities, we strive to build plant communities on the farm that work collaboratively for the benefit of all. We employ regenerative organic farming practices, a current way of describing what humans understood for thousands of years, before Big Ag changed the culture from one of regeneration to one of degeneration.
In declining to till up the soil every year the way conventional farming practices dictate, we instead preserve the subterranean mycorrhizal network that enables plants to feed their fungal partners who then symbiotically provide the plants access to mineral nutrients facilitated by these networks. Along with other regenerative practices, eschewing tilling enhances water infiltration and retention as well as capturing carbon in the soil.
We surround our plants with an abundance of Calendula, Borage, Dill, Sweet alyssum, Nasturtium, Marigolds, Basil, Yarrow, Dill, Mallow, Cosmos, Queen Anne’s lace, Sunflowers, Tansy, just to name a few. In so doing we are putting out a welcome mat to all those beneficial insects, pollinating bees and birds to come and help us grow. Such a diverse plant community also helps build the richness of the soil nutrients and adds to the diversity of soil microorganisms. And because our invited guests, the insect community, further help us protect the crops from pests, we have no need for harmful synthetic chemicals.
We enrich the soil with generous amounts of on-site compost and a continuous planting of cover crops. Cover cropping with clover, vetch, oats, beans, buckwheat and other cover crops, restores the nutrients depleted by the last crop. Our plants are thus nutrient-rich with strong immune systems, another reason we have no need for synthetic chemicals to make them grow or to kill the pests.
The use of year-round cover cropping also serves to ensure that plants are always growing, pulling excess carbon out of the atmosphere and drawing it into the soil where it both feeds the underground community of microbes and removes excess carbon from the air, sequestering that carbon in the soil where it will stay as long as we don’t rip it apart by tilling. Carbon emissions have wreaked havoc with the earth’s health, but regenerative farming provides us with a new paradigm: Farming as a means to reverse global harm.[i] One report noted that if just 10-20 percent of agricultural production switched to regenerative systems, we could sequester enough CO2 to reverse climate change and restore the global climate.[ii]
Plants grown from such conscious caretaking in microbial-rich soil have been shown to be more beneficial for our bodies. Scientists have demonstrated that the vegetables and fruits grown decades ago - before industrial agriculture practices destroyed the soil in which our plants grow - were much richer in minerals and vitamins.[iii] As explained below, the depletion of these nutrients is responsible for serious health issues. It is imperative that we restore the nutrients and minerals to our soil and our food.
A Paradigm Switch to Regenerative Farming is Essential to the Preservation of Life on Earth which is Suffering from Modern Industrial Agricultural Practices
The expansion of industrial agriculture since 1950 has been eliminating life on earth by decimating the soil health, polluting the atmosphere and producing toxic and nutrient-poor food that leads to a myriad of health issues and fatal illness. Tilling up the earth annually to plant miles of monocrops, destroys the soil structure and fertility requiring synthetic chemical fertilizers in an effort to offset the degraded soil as well as noxious pesticides to try to compensate for the loss of diversity that previously had helped to keep pests in check naturally. Those chemicals soak into our soil, our water table and our food web- directly impacting our health as well as the planet’s. [iv]
The rate at which industrial farming is obliterating our soils is alarming. In the past four decades alone, a third of the world’s farmland has been destroyed.[v] As our soils degrade, they lose the ability to hold their vast amounts of carbon, releasing deadly amounts of CO2 into our atmosphere.[vi] But carbon is the primary element in soil organic matter. It is a food source for all soil microorganisms. Left undisturbed in the ground it contributes to the soil’s health and fertility, and is the most important foundation for healthy food and medicine.
Industrial agricultural practices have stripped the soil of its biodiversity, systematically destroying the biological activity of our soils. As we lose this biological activity, we also lose minerals and nutrients, not merely in our soils, but also in our foods, our plant medicines and ultimately our bodies. These degenerative practices rob us of the nutrients our bodies need to be healthy.
Scientists have been connecting the dots between mineral deficiencies from food grown in soil that’s been depleted of minerals and specific health issues. Mineral deficiencies have been linked to specific health issues, such as teenage depression,[vii] ADD [viii] and autism. [ix] Studies[x] are increasingly showing the key role that our gut health plays in cancer, asthma, allergies, various immune system dysfunctions and behavioral problems in kids and adolescents. Toxic pesticides only further exacerbate the development of these conditions. [xi]
Moreover, conventional agriculture’s excessive tilling of the soil not only pulverizes fungal communities underground, but contributes to increased CO2 emission by oxidizing huge amounts of soil organic matter and releasing that carbon into the atmosphere: a major contributor to our climate problems.[xii]
But by switching from industrial farming to regenerative farming practices, we could still have the opportunity to regenerate our degraded soil, restore the soil’s fertility and serve as one of the best solutions to carbon pollution. [xiii]
The Legalization of Cannabis is the Catalyst for Change, both to our Degenerative Agricultural System as well as the Impetus for Healing Our Planet and Ourselves
The last time cannabis was grown as a crop in this country, Big Ag had not yet taken over our food production. We are welcoming back this sacred plant after a century of illegality. In light of what we’ve learned of the ruination industrial farming has wrought to our soil, our air, our food and our bodies, cannabis presents an opportunity to start anew and grow all plants in a way that heals our planet and our health.
We can continue to learn from observing nature and from the wisdom of Indigenous people who understood our mutual interconnectedness and the responsibility to protect that which protects us, treating the earth and all of nature with the respect that comes from knowing we are part of and not separate from the natural world.
Given the extraordinary healing benefits of the cannabis plant, it is fitting that it be the inspiration and catalyst for how we grow all other plants. Beyond her physical healing gifts, this plant has the ability to alter consciousness. It is this shift in consciousness that is required to switch from degeneration to regeneration.
-- This post only contrasts practices of crops grown outdoors: Industrial agricultural practices vs regenerative practices. The cannabis plant was once grown outdoors like any other crop, but prohibition pushed growers indoors to avoid detection. The end of prohibition means there’s no reason for this plant to continue to be grown indoors and yet the practice predominates, contributing mammoth amounts of greenhouse gas pollution to an already polluted planet. In part 2 we discuss the new player contributing to the demise of life on earth- meet Big Canna.
[i] See Can Farming Help Fight Climate Change? https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hemp-cbd-multi-milliondollar-industry-climate-change/?mc_cid=4f3b5f1da8&mc_eid=980f4457a0
See also generally Regenerative Organic Agriculture, https://rodaleinstitute.org/why-organic/organic-basics/regenerative-organic-agriculture/
[ii] Reversing Climate Change through Regenerative Agriculture, https://regenerationinternational.org/2018/10/09/reversing-climate-change-through-regenerative-agriculture/
[iii] A landmark study from the University of Texas (UT) at Austin’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry was published in December 2004 in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition. They studied U.S. Department of Agriculture nutritional data from both 1950 and 1999 for 43 different vegetables and fruits, finding “reliable declines” in the amount of protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, riboflavin (vitamin B2) and vitamin C over the past half century. http://saveoursoils.com/userfiles/downloads/1351255687-Changes%20in%20USDA%20food%20composition%20data%20for%2043%20garden%20crops,%201950-1999.pdf
[iv] A report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change finds that about 30% of global emissions leading to climate change are attributable to agricultural activities, including pesticide use. See Pesticides and Climate Change, https://bit.ly/39fltOE.
[v] Humans have destroyed a third of Earth’s farmland in 40 years, Nala Rogers, https://www.sciencemag. org/ news/2015/12/humans-have-destroyed-third-earth-s-farmland-40-years
[vi] Pollution and Environmental Perturbations in the Global System, J. Maximillian, A.D. Matthias, in Environmental and Pollution Science (Third Edition), 2019, https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earthand-planetary-sciences/soil-degradation.
[vii] Metals and Mental Health: Deficiencies in zinc can play a role in depression and a new way to enhance lithium may hold promise for bipolar disorder. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/metals-and-mental-health/
[viii] Magnesium Deficiency Linked to ADD and ADHD in Children https://www.naturalnews.com/026782_magnesium_child_children.html
[ix] Nutrients for Autism and ADHD http://treatautism.ca/2010/12/08/nutrients-for-development/
[x] Our Bodies, Our Health, Our Gut Bacteria: Why are gut microbes so important to our health? What is their function in our bodies? https://research.cornell.edu/news-features/our-bodies-our-health-our-gut-bacteria
[xi] Wide Range of Diseases Linked to Pesticides https://www.beyondpesticides.org/assets/media/documents/health/pid-database.pdf
[xii] What is Regenerative Agriculture? https://regenerationinternational.org/2017/02/24/what-is-regenerative-agriculture/
[xiii] The science to back up these benefits of regenerative farming is both encouraging and abundant. While one study published by the US National Academy of Sciences claims that such regenerative farming can sequester 3% of our carbon emissions, an article in Science suggests it could be as much as 15%. Even more encouragingly, research from the Rodale Institute in PA has said sequestration rates could be as high as 40%. The same report contends that if we were to apply regenerative farming techniques to the earth’s pastureland as well, more than 100% of global emissions could be captured. Regenerative farming is by far our greatest chance at significantly cooling the planet. Our best shot at cooling the planet might be right under our feet, https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2016/sep/10/soil-our-best-shot-at-cooling-the-planet-might-be-right-under-our-feet
