There is a growing movement by small-scale organic farmers who are on the cutting edge of this technology to establish new standards by growing food with high levels of vitamins, carbohydrates, minerals, antioxidants and trace minerals that match or exceed pre 1940 USDA mineral levels. This no till organic revolution is being pioneered by visionaries like Dr Zach Bush who understands where humanity is headed. His Farmers Footprint movement is committed to regenerating five million acres of farmland by 2025. Watch the film here to learn how. They clearly outline the problem as “a century of mono-crop farming and reliance on pesticides has  damaged our nation’s once-fertile soils and the health of every American. 

Other farmers like Gabe Brown tell the story in his book, Dirt to Soil, of his amazing journey of becoming a regenerative farmer. His model developed over twenty years of experimentation and refinement, focuses on regenerating resources by continuously enhancing the living biology in the soil. Using regenerative agricultural principles, Brown’s Ranch has grown several inches of new topsoil in only twenty year and his 5,000-acre ranch profitably produces a wide variety of cash and cover crops as well as grass-finished meat and pastured laying hens, all marketed directly to consumers. The innovative solutions from farmers like Brown address our most pressing and complex contemporary agricultural challenge of restoring the soil. 

This “overall industrial pollution in the food supply” as David Steinman outlines in his book Diet for a Poisoned Planet has resulted in “a significant incursion of industrial chemicals one would not typically expect in their foods – toluene, a reproductive toxin; syrene, a carcinogen, and benzene, a low-dose carcinogen. All of these are prime petrochemicals involved in manufacturing processes.” There are basic inherent rights in the world: the right to breathe clean air, drink uncontaminated water and eat real food that does not poison us. Mother Earth is a living database with solutions to remediate some of the environmental crisis we face today. Basic building blocks – biochar (charcoal used to restore soil), algae (prominent, abundant possibility for biofuel), enzymes (complex protein molecules found in nature and used to break down waste), mycelium (networks of mushrooms that remediate soil) and sea minerals right from the ocean – help facilitate the process as we halt our toxic practices and take room to breathe. 

It is absolutely essential that we begin to implement regenerative farming practices to counter the trajectory of destruction we are on. Fian Makepeace, co-founder of Kiss the Ground, urges each of us to become “soil advocates” and teach others that there are solutions to reverse our current situation with regenerative agriculture.  Kiss the Ground is an education and advocacy nonprofit advancing initiatives across four distinct programs: Advocacy, Farmland, Education, and Media. In addition to our program work, we bring impact projects to life—convening key players in the regenerative agricultural movement and catalyzing collaboration, action, and innovation. Everything we do as an organization is aimed towards achieving our overarching mission: inspiring participation in global regeneration, starting with soil. Soil is our common ground and we are building a movement to regenerate it. Become a soil advocate, learn how to adopt a  regenerative lifestyle and connect with others who are interested in true climate solutions.

My book The Absence/Presence of Soil is an exploration of the lies we have been told and the stories we have been sold. The generational programming and intentional manipulation of humanity in the last century has a repetitive monologue of self destruction. I am posing the question: what if we got it all wrong? And even more importantly, how did we become active participants in our own enslavement? This is the question that many of us are asking ourselves on the precipice of The Great Awakening that is happening right now on our planet. And it can only go one of two ways – we evolve or die. Download my book for free to learn how I transformed the intense despair I felt over a decade ago into the immense hope I feel today.