It is very interesting that the food we consume now is all about convenience; growing enough food to feed the hungry world population.
But growing food is not just about producing quantities of food but it should also be about producing healthy food - food that will grow a healthy population. Hippocrates once said –
“Our food should be our medicine and our medicine should be our food”.
This is just as true today as it was all those years ago. Yet, statistics show that the nutritional value of our everyday food has dropped significantly since the 1950’s. One only needs to google this to get the facts. This leads us to eat more to get the required amount of nutrients to satisfy what we require to be healthy.
Besides all this, our food will probably have a range of other toxins that will not be healthy for a thriving population. Again, for more information look at google, for example herbicides and food.
Now back to growing healthy pasture and crops for animal or human consumption. Is there a way to reverse the trend and grow a more nutrient dense crop, either for ourselves or for our animals? The short answer is yes, we can, but we will not find the answer anywhere near the established farming practices. So, what to do?
It all starts in the soil which is the power house to everything that appears above the ground. The roots are in the soil/connected to the soil and fed by the soil. So, starting with the soil makes a lot of sense. Soil should hold the same number of livestock in it as there are animals above the soil. In other words, there must be several tonnes of earthworms, microbes and fungi in the soil to be alive. These creatures are doing a range of amazing activities.
They aerate the soil, making it porous so that moisture can penetrate deep into the soil for lasting water for the plants. Better still, is to have a really good amount of carbon built up in the soil. This will act as a reservoir for water and holds hundreds of litres for future use.
Then there is the root system which people seldom look at. This not only holds the plant in the ground but also sends out feeding roots that find the nourishment that the plant needs to thrive. Aside from the roots, there should also be fungi that are quite clever in searching out the exact nutrients that the plant needs to grow at optimum levels.
Also, there is the plant that either feeds us or feeds the animals that ultimately feed us. Here again we can look after the plant by feeding it a foliar fertiliser that will bring the plant back to where it should be – full of nutrients as it once was. This means we need to use a variety of methods to create the very best environment. So that what the animals eat is nutritious and will ultimately produce food that is beneficial and healthy for all.
We are what we eat eats