The Healthiest Food Comes from Healthy Soils

/by

Author: Dr. Mercola

Dr. Maya Shetreat-Klein, a pediatric neurologist in New York and an instructor at New York Medical College, had a frightening experience that is becoming all too common among parents today. After her son turned 1 year old, he began experiencing wheezing, rashes and signs of delayed cognitive development.

After visiting multiple doctors she found an allergist who uncovered her son’s severe allergy to soy. Returning her son to health meant removing soy foods from their diet, so she eliminated processed foods and set out to reconnect with nature.[1]

The journey led her to write the book “The Dirt Cure: Growing Healthy Kids With Food Straight from Soil.” In it, she explores the intricate links between food and children’s health as well as why so many children are facing allergies.

Her research brought her back to healthy soil, and the dirt cure involves three strategies she believes may improve the health of today’s kids (and their parents):

1. Eating nutrient-dense food from healthy soil
2. Being exposed to certain microbes
3. Spending time outdoors in nature

The Healthiest Food Comes From Healthy Soil

There’s no question your health and that of your children is directly related to the quality of the food you eat. The quality of the food, in turn, is dependent on the health of the soil in which it is grown. Shetreat-Klein told The New York Times.[2]

“The organisms in soil have an impact on the health of our food. Part of what makes fruits and vegetables good for us is the phytonutrients in them — the things that make cranberries red or coffee bitter.

Phytonutrients are part of the plant’s immune systems. Organisms in the soil that we might think of as pests actually stimulate plants to make more phytonutrients.”

Many American diets are based on foods grown in mineral-depleted, unhealthy soils. This is certainly the case with genetically engineered (GE) processed foods and meat and dairy products from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).

One of the more insidious aspects of the industrial food system is that, as soil becomes sicker and less able to perform its functions, farmers become increasingly dependent on the chemical technology industry — they become trapped.

The use of glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup herbicide) begins a downward spiral, making it necessary for farmers to use more and more herbicides, pesticides, and synthetic fertilizers that kill soil microbes — especially if they’re using GE seeds.

Weeds and pests become resistant to glyphosate, so farmers must use more weed and insect killers. Crops become nutrient-deprived, so they’re forced to increase their use of synthetic fertilizers.

Weeds and bugs become superweeds and superbugs, and all the while the food becomes less and less nutritious. It’s a vicious cycle.

In her quest for healthier food, Shetreat-Klein began growing her own, frequenting farmer’s markets and even raising her own chickens, an impressive feat considering she lives in the Bronx, New York, but one she said wasn’t as difficult as she’d thought it would be.

Keep Reading on Mercola Health

Stories From A Fertile Earth #1 : El Paraiso Dairy

/by

Author: Syd Woodward

All across the world, people are embracing the concept that regenerative agriculture can restore ecosystems, produce abundant and healthy food, and reverse global warming. With this knowledge, we teamed up with Regeneration International and the Organic Consumers Association to learn why these farmers have chosen to pursue regenerative agriculture, and what they are doing to build a brighter future for all of us. Join us to explore these Stories of a Fertile Earth.”

Watch More Videos from Overgrow the System

Epic Drought and Food Crisis Prompts South Africa to Ease Restrictions on GMOs

/by

Author: Lorraine Chow

In the face of a food crisis and a devastating drought, South Africa is planning to relax its rigid laws over genetically modified (GMO) crops and boost imports of its staple food, maize, from the U.S. and Mexico, government officials told Reuters.

Government officials said that South Africa needs to import about 1.2m tonnes of white maize and 2.6m tonnes of yellow maize from the U.S. and Mexico.

Despite being the world’s eighth largest producer of GMO crops, South Africa has very strict regulations over GMOs. The nation requires that GMO food carry a label, strains entering the country must be government-approved and imported GMO crops are not allowed to be stored. Instead, the crops must be transported immediately from ports to mills.

Makenosi Maroo, spokeswoman at the Department of Agriculture, told Reuters that the country is planning to allow importers to temporarily store consignments of GMO maize at pre-designated facilities, to allow much bigger import volumes.

“In anticipation of the volumes expected to be imported into South Africa, the (GMO) Executive Council has approved the adjustment of a permit condition which relates to the handling requirement,” Maroo told the news agency. “There is therefore no intention to relax safety assessment or risk management procedures prescribed.”

Keep Reading on Ecowatch

March 9: Is Healthy Soil the Solution to Global Warming?

/by

[ English | Español ]

What: National Press Club event with French Ministry of Agriculture to discuss soil carbon sequestration
When: Wednesday, March 9,  8 a.m. – 11 a.m.
Where: The Holeman Lounge at the National Press Club – 529 14th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20045

In December, at the COP21 Climate Summit in Paris, the French Ministry of Agriculture launched “4 per 1000: Soils for Food Security and Climate,” an initiative to mitigate, and eventually reverse, climate change by increasing soil carbon worldwide by 0.4% per year. So far, 26 countries and more than 50 organizations have formally signed on to the initiative.

Is healthy soil the solution to global warming? Is the 4 per 1000 initiative realistic?

On March 9, Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle, Director General for the Economic and Environmental Performance of Enterprises of the French Ministry of Agriculture, will join soil scientists and others to discuss the science behind soil carbon sequestration and how to drive the rapid, worldwide adoption of regenerative agriculture techniques that sequester carbon.

Regeneration International would like to invite you to join the conversation about this shovel-ready solution to global warming on March 9 at 8 a.m. at the National Press Club.

PLEASE REGISTER HERE
DOWNLOAD THE PROGRAM HERE
SPEAKERS WILL INCLUDE:

* Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle, Director General for Economic and Environmental Performance of Enterprises, French Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry
* David C. Johnson, Ph.D., New Mexico State University
* Tim LaSalle, Ph.D., Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
* Andre Leu, IFOAM – Organics International
* Kris Nichols, Ph.D., Rodale Institute
* Richard Teague, Ph.D., Texas A & M

MEDIA KIT

Press Release
Speaker Bios (PDF)
Soil-Climate Fact Sheet (PDF)
Media Advisory (PDF)
Program (PDF)

How Forest Loss Is Leading To a Rise in Human Disease

/by

Author: Jim Robbins

A growing body of scientific evidence shows that the felling of tropical forests creates optimal conditions for the spread of mosquito-borne scourges, including malaria and dengue. Primates and other animals are also spreading disease from cleared forests to people.

In Borneo, an island shared by Indonesia and Malaysia, some of the world’s oldest tropical forests are being cut down and replaced with oil palm plantations at a breakneck pace. Wiping forests high in biodiversity off the land for monoculture plantations causes numerous environmental problems, from the destruction of wildlife habitat to the rapid release of stored carbon, which contributes to global warming.

But deforestation is having another worrisome effect: an increase in the spread of life-threatening diseases such as malaria and dengue fever. For a host of ecological reasons, the loss of forest can act as an incubator for insect-borne and other infectious diseases that afflict humans. The most recent example came to light this month in the Journal of Emerging Infectious Diseases, with researchers documenting a steep rise in human malaria cases in a region of Malaysian Borneo undergoing rapid deforestation.

This form of the disease was once found mainly in primates called macaques, and scientists from the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene wondered why there was a sudden spike in human cases. Studying satellite maps of where forest was being cut down and where it was left standing, the researchers compared the patchwork to the locations of recent malaria outbreaks. They realized the primates were concentrating in the remaining fragments of forest habitat, possibly increasing disease transmission among their own populations. Then, as humans worked on the new palm plantations, near the recently created forest edges, mosquitoes that thrived in this new habitat carried the disease from macaques to people.

Keep Reading on Yale Environment 360

Crisis Response: When Trees Stop Storms and Deserts in Asia

/by

Author: Kathleen Buckingham 

This is the first installment of our Restoration Global Tour blog series. The series examines restoration success stories in Asia, Latin America, Africa, Europe and North America. Tune in over the coming months for additional installments, or check out our Restoration Diagnostic for more information.

A history of deforestation has made Asian nations like Vietnam, China and South Korea especially vulnerable to coastal storms, floods and sandstorms. Yet just as these nations have experienced similar crises, they’re also all pursuing a solution—restoring degraded landscapes.

In fact, reforestation, afforestation and changing agricultural policies have played a large role in bringing these countries from the brink to prosperity. WRI recently analyzed Asia’s restoration practices to inform the design of our Restoration Diagnostic, a method for evaluating existing and missing success factors for countries or landscapes with restoration opportunities.  Here’s a look at how these countries overcame disasters by restoring degraded land:

Protecting Mangroves in Vietnam

Vietnam has lost more than 80 percent of its mangrove forests since the 1950s. During the American War with Vietnam (1955–75), the U.S. military sprayed 36 percent of the mangroves with defoliant in order to destroy strongholds for military resistance. Since then, extensive areas have been converted into aquaculture, agricultural lands, salt beds and human settlements. More than 102,000 hectares (252,000 acres) of mangroves were cleared for shrimp farming from 1983 to 1987 alone.

With diminishing mangroves, the country’s coast became increasingly vulnerable to natural disasters like tropical cyclones.  Over the past 30 years, more than 500 people died or went missing every year due to natural disasters, thousands were injured, and annual economic losses totaled 1.5 percent of GDP.

Keep Reading on World Resources Institute

View the Map of Restoration Case Examples

Born to Rewild

/by

Author: Eli Kintisch

In April 2011, Nikita Zimov climbed into a heavy duty truck with six elk in the back and set out from Novosibirsk, a major city in southern Siberia, on a 4000-kilometer trek to the edge of the world. Time was not on his side. He had to reach the Arctic town of Cher-sky, where he and his father, Sergey, run a hardscrabble research outpost called the Northeast Science Station (NESS), before the spring thaw melted the frozen rivers that serve as winter roads in northern Siberia. White wooden crosses marked spots along the winding road where unlucky drivers had perished. Two weeks into his journey, just 40 kilometers from home, Zimov hit a snowbank—his brakes were shot—and the truck tipped over. Unscathed, he phoned his father and spent the next 4 hours, cold and exhausted, leaning against a flimsy tarp hat covered the truck’s roof to keep the elk, also uninjured, from bolting. “I was miserable,” he says. “Almost literally insane.”

Sergey swooped in to rescue Nikita and the elk, and the animals finally reached their destination: Pleistocene Park, a 14,000-hectare reserve near Chersky founded by the elder Zimov 19 years ago. It’s a grand experiment to test whether large herbivores—elk, moose, reindeer, horses, and bison—can, simply by grazing, bring back a grass-dominated ecosystem called the mammoth steppe. That biome dominated the northern reaches of Eurasia and North America for 2 million years, until the end of the last glacial period some 13,000 years ago, when  the landscape turned to mossy tundra and sparsely forested taiga.

If the Zimovs are right, a brighter future for the entire globe may hinge on the experiment’s success. A decade ago, Sergey and colleagues estimated that permafrost encircling the upper Northern Hemisphere contains a whopping 1 trillion tons of carbon—twice earlier estimates—and that this vast pool may be on the brink of leaking into the atmosphere. The finding was a clarion call to climate scientists to take the arctic carbon threat seriously. “This is the most dangerous territory in the world in terms of climate change,” Zimov declares.

Keep Reading in Science Magazine

San Francisco Is Now Using Firefighting Goats

/by

Author: Lydia O’Connor

Nestled between railroad tracks and a cement recycling plant in San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood lives a little herd of urban goats with a big appetite for one of the only things that flourished in the the California drought: dry, fire-hazard brush.

Since 2008, City Grazing has been herding mixed-breed goats in the unlikely meadow and sending them on freelance assignments to eat up overgrowth everywhere from San Franciscans’ backyards to federal land in the Presidio. The landscaping goats are a green alternative to heavy machinery and pesticides and can easily graze steep hillsides, all while leaving behind a biodegradable fertilizer.

Starting last year, California’s driest year on record and host to the devastating Rim Fire, the company was inundated with calls asking about goat landscaping as a way to protect the land, City Grazing’s Genevieve Church told The Huffington Post.

“There’s been a definite increase in thoughts of, ‘How do we reduce fire hazard?’” she said. “When the number of wildfires increased in California in 2013, we began to get a lot more phone calls asking if goats were a viable option here … They’re the tried and true traditional method. Grazing animals have always been a wonderful way to keep grasslands and brushy areas reduced in that dry material.”

With triple the call volume, City Grazing decided to grow its goat family, and since January, around 50 baby goats, or kids, have been born into the herd and doubled its size. On Sunday, the company held an open house at the meadow where the public could watch a ceremonial “running of the goats” out to pasture.

Keep Reading in The Huffington Post

Unless It Changes, Capitalism Will Starve Humanity By 2050

/by

Author: Drew Hansen

Capitalism has generated massive wealth for some, but it’s devastated the planet and has failed to improve human well-being at scale.

• Species are going extinct at a rate 1,000 times faster than that of the natural rate over the previous 65 million years (see Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School).

• Since 2000, 6 million hectares of primary forest have been lost each year. That’s 14,826,322 acres, or just less than the entire state of West Virginia (see the 2010 assessment by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN).

• Even in the U.S., 15% of the population lives below the poverty line. For children under the age of 18, that number increases to 20% (see U.S. Census).

• The world’s population is expected to reach 10 billion by 2050 (see United Nations’ projections).

How do we expect to feed that many people while we exhaust the resources that remain?

Human activities are behind the extinction crisis. Commercial agriculture, timber extraction, and infrastructure development are causing habitat loss and our reliance on fossil fuels is a major contributor to climate change.

Keep Reading in Forbes

Carta abierta a Su Santidad el Papa Francisco con motivo de su visita a México

/by

[ English | Español ]

16 de febrero de 2016

Contact:

Ercilia Sahores, ercilia@organicconsumers.org, +52 (55) 6257 7901

Suscrita por grupos religiosos, indígenas, ambientalistas, de salud, de justicia, de consumidores y agricultores

Por la presente le damos la bienvenida a nuestro país, y damos también la bienvenida a su mensaje de “clima como bien común”. Creemos que es importante que aquellos encargados de la toma de decisiones, como así también los ciudadanos en general, honremos su llamado a una “solidaridad nueva universal” que aborde la crisis ética, económica y ambiental que aqueja a la humanidad.

En México, centro de origen del maíz, se encuentran en peligro de extinción aproximadamente 60 razas y cientos de familias del grano básico, que han sido desarrolladas y cuidadas a lo largo de los siglos por los habitantes originarios de la región y aquellos que aman esta tierra. Están amenazadas por grandes corporaciones que pretenden sembrar el país con maíz genéticamente modificado. La población ha reaccionado interponiendo en 2013 una demanda civil encabezada por 53 personas de la comunidad científica, campesina, indígena, consumidora, artística, medioambientalista y 20 organizaciones civiles.

En esta región del mundo, el maíz se siembra en un sistema holístico llamado milpa, que integra diversas variedades de granos y verduras y constituye la base de una dieta saludable, posee la habilidad de reconstruir la fertilidad del suelo y apoya la agrobiodiversidad. Le pedimos respetuosamente que continúe apoyando y protegiendo este tipo de sistemas de agricultura orgánica regenerativa, y el derecho de todo campesino de “poseer un lote racional de tierra donde pueda establecer su hogar, trabajar para la subsistencia de su familia y tener seguridad existencial.”

Para proteger a los pequeños campesinos, debemos en primer lugar ser conscientes de la conexión existente entre alimentos, agricultura y cambio climático. Dado que es el mayor emisor de gases de efecto invernadero a nivel global, es necesario que cambiemos la forma de cultivar que plantea la la agricultura industrial si es que queremos solucionar esta crisis climática[1]. De acuerdo a la ONU, una transición global de una agricultura de tipo industrial a una agricultura ecológica es nuestra mejor y quizás única opción de mitigar los impactos del cambio climático sobre la seguridad alimentaria[2]. Como lo expresara usted tan acertadamente, “el cambio climático es un tema moral.” También le sugerimos que la agricultura como fuente mayor de emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero y la principal fuente para alimentar el mundo, es también un problema moral de igual importancia.

En este país, tal como en muchos otros, la introducción de la agricultura industrial y su dependencia de fertilizantes en base a petróleo, agrotóxicos y transgénicos ha destruido la salud, la biodiversidad y la sagrada belleza de este mundo. Un ejemplo claro de esta devastación puede observarse en el estado de Michoacán, el santuario de invierno de la mariposas monarca. En las últimas dos décadas, la población de mariposas monarca ha disminuido un 90 por ciento, principalmente debido al aumento del uso en los Estados Unidos del herbicida con glifosato Roundup Ready,los cultivos transgénicos, la tala ilegal y pérdida de hábitat[3].

Las pocas mariposas monarca que quedan ahora se enfrentan a un desafío mayor ya que los científicos indican que el aumento de las temperaturas por el cambio climático amenaza con destruir más del 70 por ciento de lo que queda del hábitat invernal de las monarca para finales de este siglo[4]. Afortunadamente hay investigaciones que demuestran que al implementar sistemas regenerativos orgánicos podemos revertir el aumento de las temperaturas al capturar mas del 100 por ciento de las emisiones de CO2 anuales de vuelta en el suelo, restaurando a su vez la agrobiodiversidad. (Rodale,2014)[5]

Compartimos vuestra convicción de que todo en el mundo está conectado, y que “buscar sólo un remedio técnico a cada problema ambiental que surja es aislar cosas que en la realidad están entrelazadas y esconder los verdaderos y más profundos problemas del sistema mundial.”

Mandatarios y representantes de todo el mundo se preparan para reunirse en México en el mes de diciembre para participar de la COP13, la Convención sobre Diversidad Biológica. En este espíritu, lo instamos a que continúe informando acerca del rol que la agricultura industrial ha tenido en la destrucción de nuestro suelo y agua y ha fallado en su falsa promesa de aliviar el hambre del mundo.

Existe una solución a este problema de inseguridad alimentaria, cambio climático y pérdida de biodiversidad. Debemos optar por la agricultura regenerativa orgánica. La urgencia de este problema implica aunar esfuerzos y voluntades para lograr este cambio. Le damos gracias por su coraje y su compromiso hacia los más pobres y aceptamos su desafío de acercarnos a esta compleja crisis del calentamiento global buscando soluciones que no solo protejan la naturaleza sino que también combatan la pobreza y devuelvan la dignidad a aquellos excluidos del sistema.

Respetuosamente,

La Asociación de Consumidores Orgánicos

Lista de firmantes

Agua para la Vida, México
Agua para Tod@s, México
Anec, México
Asia Pacific Network for Food Sovereignty (APNFS), Philippines
Becket Films, USA
Beyond GM, United Kingdom
Beyond Pesticides Network Canada, Canada
Biodentistry, México
Biodiversity for a Liveable Climate, USA
Bosque Sustentable AC, México
Carnaval del Maíz, México
Cedar Circle Farm, USA
Center for Sustainable Medicine, USA
Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Francisco de Vitoria, México
Centro de la Tierra, México
CILAS, México
Circle Squared Foundation, The Netherlands
COBOSPO, México
Colectivo Zacahitzco, México
Colectivo Zócalo, México
Comunidades Campesinas y Urbanas, México
Cool Planet, USA
Dr. Pablo Jaramillo López, Ph.D. UNAM, (National Autonomous University of Mexico), México
FAT, México
Favianna Rodriguez Artist, USA
FIAN, México
Fundación Semillas de Vida AC, México
GEA, México
GMO Inside, USA
Greenpeace Mexico, México
Grupo Ecologico Sierra Gorda IAP, México
Grupo Vicente Gutierrez, Tlaxcala, México
Guereni Vendie, México
Kids Right to Know, Canada
Kiss the Ground, USA
LATINDADD, México
MAELA México, México
MaOGM, México
Milliones Against Monsanto, USA
Millones Contra Monsanto, México
NTC-SME, México
Nutiva, USA
Organic Consumers Association, USA
Pasticultores del Desierto, AC, México
People’s Lobby, USA
Programa Ambiental de la Universidad Autónoma de Chapingo, México
Rainman Landcare Foundation, South Africa
RASA, México
Red Nacional de Género y Economía, México
Reg Maíz, México
Regeneration International, USA
RMALC, México
Shumei International, Japan
Sin Maíz No Hay País, México
SME, México
Spiral Farm House, Nepal
STUNAM, México
SUEUM, Michoacán, México
The Hummingbird Project, USA
The Rules, USA
UCCS, México
Valhalla Movement, Canada
Vía Orgánica AC, México
Viva Sierra Gorda, México
El Maíz Más Pequeño AC, México
Caminos de Agua AC, Mexico

 

[1] https://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/ditcted2012d3_en.pdf

[2] https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?LangID=E&NewsID=16702

[3] https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/10/141010-monarch-butterfly-migration-threatened-plan/

[4] https://e360.yale.edu/feature/to_protect_monarch_butterfly_a_plan_to_save_the_sacred_firs/2942/

[5] https://rodaleinstitute.org/assets/RegenOrgAgricultureAndClimateChange_20140418.pdf