Soil Part 2: A Farming System Focused on Healing

How can we align agricultural practices and conservation with human health? Regenerative agriculture could be the way! Diversity of crops in the field and diversity on our plates are part of the solution. Let’s explore ways to grow food that give back to the soil and help nourish people and communities too.

California’s Salinas Valley is known as the “salad bowl of the world,” because it’s such a highly fruitful agricultural region. Nearly 70 percent of all lettuces in the U.S. are grown on farms here, along with strawberries, spinach, cauliflower and many other types of produce.

But when family physician Daphne Miller started working in this area during the 1990s, she said most of the ailments she treated could be traced back to soil. Many of her patients at the local community hospital worked in the fields or in food packaging plants, and most of the farming happening then was conventional.

Helping those patients inspired her to look more deeply into the connection between human health and soil health.

Connections To The Land

For the past fifteen years, her work has focused on aligning agriculture and conservation with human health. She started by talking to farmers, and many of their stories made it into her book, Farmacology: Total Health from the Ground Up.

While writing the book, she visited several family farms, looking at everything from seed choice to soil management, uncovering clues about the impact those choices have on our health. She discovered principles that apply to both healing the land and healing human bodies.

When you increase life in the soil, you can also increase the nutrients of the plants. Diversity on a farm can also act as a reservoir of health that extends beyond the property to the surrounding community. When the land is healthy, the people get healthier too.

In her book, she tells the story of philosophy-professor-turned-farmer Erick Haakenson, who bought Jubilee Farm in 1989, situated in Carnation, Washington, near Seattle.

The soil on his land was depleted, and he knew that nutrient-dense food could not grow in nutrient-deficient soil. So he tested the dirt and started amending it with various minerals and vitamins. He added more than 50 tons of minerals but the health of the soil barely changed.

Eventually, he started researching more ways to help his soil thrive. He found some traditional books on farming that discussed looking at the most fertile places in the world and imitating the nature there. After several years, his soil tests started to improve and his fruits and vegetables started to look more vibrant.

Photo by Adalia Botha / Unsplash

By creating a more complex system on the land with all those different plants and animals, he helped multiply the macro and micro life on the farm.

Dr. Miller compared the approach Haakenson took at Jubilee Farm to patients in her own medical practice. Rather than taking one supplement to try to boost it in the body, she told patients to eat a variety of farm-fresh foods. Dr. Miller says that the best predictor of a healthy gut is actually dietary diversity, as in eating many different types of fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes.

In fact, the more diversity humans have in their diets, the lower they experience rates of various chronic disease, autoimmune disease and even childhood asthma and allergies.

PS: This is why if you struggle to eat the recommended 5–9 servings of fruits and vegetables each day, juicing can be a big boost to help you get there.

Enter Regenerative Agriculture

Many advocates are now calling for a better system. They say the future of farming is regenerative, which is a type of farming that goes beyond organic to help replenish our soil, which in turn, helps nourish us too.

This farming philosophy centers on healing the land, just as we might work to heal our bodies.

The main principles for regenerative agriculture are:

1. Soil: Working to improve soil fertility and health.
2. Water: Increase water percolation, retention, and promote clean and safe water runoff.
3. Biodiversity: Enhance and conserve a variety of species.
4. Ecosystem health: Create an environment for self-renewal and resiliency.
5. Carbon: Manage the land so that the soil can absorb and hold more carbon.

Artwork by thescribblist.com

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, about a third of the world’s soil has already been degraded. Many human practices such as chemical-laden farming techniques and deforestation are contributing factors.

A Soil-Rich Ranch

One of the most outspoken soil health pioneers is Gabe Brown, a farmer near Bismarck, North Dakota, who owns Brown’s Ranch.

Since 1993, he’s put soil health first and practiced no-till farming. He uses a diverse cropping strategy, which utilizes cover and companion crops. He’s eliminated the use of synthetic fertilizers, fungicides, and pesticides and does not employ GMOs or glyphosate.

Today, making nutritious food choices goes beyond what will fuel your body, but also what’s healthiest for the planet and the soil.

Read the first article in this series: Soil Part 1: How Soil Impacts Our Health—and the Health of Our Planet