Introduction
“We Are Not Faced With Two Separate Crises, One Environmental And The Other Social, But Rather, One Complex Crisis Which Is Both Social & Environmental.” – Pope Francis’ encyclical
Only a soil-centered farming system can meet human needs going forward. Food security, environmental sustainability and the global health crisis requires that we restore the microbial, fungal and mineral constituents to soil. The soil must be reconstructed in a precise way using all available scientific methods to create humus in the soil as plants grow.
Sir Albert Howard, the father of the organic farming movement, saw nature as “the supreme farmer.” He encouraged farmers to follow nature’s model. Nature’s farm is the forest; it is planted intensively, is high-yielding and nutrient-dense. This is possible because the forest makes its own humus. Everything that goes into making the forest returns to the soil over time.
He further observed that in nature, the presence of pests indicates low soil fertility or other unhealthy conditions in the soil. He found that when the undesirable soil conditions were corrected the crops were virtually immune to disease and insect attack and the health of grazing livestock was greatly improved.
Healthy soil will also increase yields by more than double those of our farming methods now. Additionally, sound soil will require only half the water and fertilizer to produce higher yields and the food will be nutrient dense, containing more than enough vitamins and minerals to sustain human health.
Farmers must be informed, supported, and empowered to bring their soil back to its balanced biological mineral-rich baseline. Only an ecological agricultural system can produce this result in the soil and the food, yet it must be economically sound for growers. The good news is that this soil-centered model also helps farmers realize higher profits since plants grow faster and the yield per plant is significantly higher. To support the transition to the soil-centered model, farmers must realize higher profits.
Our grower consulting programs, based on 30 years of our own organic farm research, will assist farmers in restoring the essential minerals, organic material and biological lifeforms to depleted soils and result in increased production and nutrient-dense food. We will facilitate the introduction and implementation of advanced organic soil science technology to stop the loss of topsoil, restore and remediate the soil, and assure growers’ ability to produce high value nutrient-dense food.