Issue link: https://cp.revolio.com/i/1483837
Page 24 | Abby's Magazine | www.AbbysMag.com How Soil Health is Climate Health By Bethany Davis Director of Advocacy and Government Affairs for MegaFood How Soil Health is Climate Health Administration. any disease. ©Foodstate, Inc. 2020 What does the word hope mean to you? The dictionary defines it as 'to cherish a desire with anticipation'. I think this is a beautiful way to put it. I am an optimist, naturally. I'm generally a happy person and have a positive outlook. A glass is a half-full type of person. But, I have to admit that over the last decade I started getting weary and worried. I feel like I've been watching planetary collapse happening in slow motion. • Ecological decline • Global warming • Extreme weather causing droughts and floods • Reliance on unsustainable means of transportation • Plastic production • Fast fashion • More chemicals everywhere • Copious EPA rollbacks on protective environmental laws from the previous administration The last few years have been tough all around, and it's easy to feel helpless about the state of so many things. And for me talking year after year to our farm partners and hearing about how challenging things are from a climate perspective, it's been a bit overwhelming at times. All that to say, I have good news for you! But first, I want to tell you the most hopeful, exciting thing I've learned over the last decade. "We have about 60 harvests left" About seven years ago I went on a trip to an eco-farm in Costa Rica with one of my best friends to her family's property. I had been with MegaFood for years and was working on organic and non-GMO agriculture in our supply chain. I went for a tour of the farm with her dad, Tom Newmark. We walked through the jungle, and he showed me tons of trees and food that had been planted along the small pathway that we had been following. He explained biodynamic farming strategies (it wouldn't be until years later that I'd become a full-blown Selenophile, but this was definitely the start of it), and highlighted how strategically they had used agroforestry to protect the soil. We have about 60 harvests left until we have decertified the majority of the topsoil on planet earth and will no longer be able to grow food" he said to me. It stopped me in my tracks. I felt my stomach sink. (Don't worry, I promise the hopeful part is coming, just hang in there). "What are you talking about?" I replied with disbelief in my voice. At this point I got the most valuable and direct download of information that I have ever received. I remember where I was standing on the farm, the clothes I was wearing, and the look on my face and his. He soberly explained how the industrial, monoculture-focused, chemical-heavy style of agriculture that we largely use globally is damaging to the soil, and it releases carbon into the atmosphere that is supposed to be underground, keeping our soil healthy. That if we don't change our ways, we will continue to release carbon from the soil into the atmosphere making climate change worse. The World Health Food and Agriculture Organization had confirmed in a recent talk that they estimate topsoil desertification had on average about 60 years before we will turn most of our soil globally into nothing more than dirt. I think he could see me starting to panic. I thought of my children, who I certainly hope live longer than 60 years and ideally, I want there to be food available for them to eat. "Tom, what are we going to do?" There is Hope Through Regenerative Agriculture Here is the hopeful part. He explained the concept of regenerative agriculture. A style of agriculture that is focused on