Post by kimmsrđź•Š on Mar 7, 2017 6:48:51 GMT -5
ACT BY MIDNIGHT MARCH 9: Tell the USDA What You Want Food & Farming to Look Like in 50 Years
farm fence 1000x523Dear Anon,
On Thursday, the Organic Consumers Association took advantage of a unique opportunity to present our vision for the next 50 years of food and farming to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in Washington, D.C.
Now, it’s your turn—the USDA wants to know what your vision is for the U.S. food and farming system over the next 50 years.
TAKE ACTION BY MIDNIGHT MARCH 9: Please sign our petition telling the USDA you want a regenerative food and farming system. After you’ve signed the petition, please also add your comments here.
When we heard that the USDA was going to hold a “listening session” on the Visioning of U.S. Agriculture Systems for Sustainable Production, we saw a great opportunity to address the three interrelated challenges facing agriculture over the next 50 years—soil loss, diet-related disease and climate change. Each of these problems has a common solution: healthy soil.
The best way to reverse soil loss, sequester carbon and grow lots of nutrient-dense food is to continuously cover the soil with a diverse array of living plants. This feeds the microbial communities that perform 90 percent of soil function, including carbon storage.
The plants that we (or grazing animals) eat give the carbon those plants generate through photosynthesis to soil microorganisms, which in turn provide plants with water and nutrients. This process works best when there are lots of different plants exchanging lots of different nutrients with lots of different microbes.
Plant biodiversity is the key to soil carbon sequestration. It’s also a great way to grow more food than you ever thought possible on less land than you can imagine (to quote John Jeavons, author of several books, and director of Grow Bio-Intensive). Plus, food from healthy soil is flavorful, aromatic and so nutritious that it could cost-effectively reverse diet-related diseases.
We think this is the future of agriculture—not GMO monocultures that strip soil of nutrients, and of its natural ability to draw down and sequester carbon. What do you think?
Please sign our petition telling the USDA you want a regenerative food and farming system. After you’ve signed the petition, please also add your comments here.
Thanks!
- Alexis for the OCA team
farm fence 1000x523Dear Anon,
On Thursday, the Organic Consumers Association took advantage of a unique opportunity to present our vision for the next 50 years of food and farming to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in Washington, D.C.
Now, it’s your turn—the USDA wants to know what your vision is for the U.S. food and farming system over the next 50 years.
TAKE ACTION BY MIDNIGHT MARCH 9: Please sign our petition telling the USDA you want a regenerative food and farming system. After you’ve signed the petition, please also add your comments here.
When we heard that the USDA was going to hold a “listening session” on the Visioning of U.S. Agriculture Systems for Sustainable Production, we saw a great opportunity to address the three interrelated challenges facing agriculture over the next 50 years—soil loss, diet-related disease and climate change. Each of these problems has a common solution: healthy soil.
The best way to reverse soil loss, sequester carbon and grow lots of nutrient-dense food is to continuously cover the soil with a diverse array of living plants. This feeds the microbial communities that perform 90 percent of soil function, including carbon storage.
The plants that we (or grazing animals) eat give the carbon those plants generate through photosynthesis to soil microorganisms, which in turn provide plants with water and nutrients. This process works best when there are lots of different plants exchanging lots of different nutrients with lots of different microbes.
Plant biodiversity is the key to soil carbon sequestration. It’s also a great way to grow more food than you ever thought possible on less land than you can imagine (to quote John Jeavons, author of several books, and director of Grow Bio-Intensive). Plus, food from healthy soil is flavorful, aromatic and so nutritious that it could cost-effectively reverse diet-related diseases.
We think this is the future of agriculture—not GMO monocultures that strip soil of nutrients, and of its natural ability to draw down and sequester carbon. What do you think?
Please sign our petition telling the USDA you want a regenerative food and farming system. After you’ve signed the petition, please also add your comments here.
Thanks!
- Alexis for the OCA team
