Soil to Soul

photo: D. Firestone’s permaculture farm in Costa Rica - by Krofter

 Most people are eating from a modern agriculture system that considers the soil something to be treated like an open pit mine - lay waste to it.  It’s increasingly apparent that this irreverent attitude toward the medium that provides us with life is having devastating effects. As our soils become ever more degraded by the poisons and tillage systems that modern agriculture calls “farming”, the complex web of life that we call soil is dying in massive swaths.  Conversely, with the decline of our soils has been an increasing inability to deal with the pressing issues of our time.  Is there a connection?  I think so. How can our soul be nourished if our bodies are not healthy?  How can we be healthy if we’re eating food grown in depleted soils? How can we be happy if we’re not healthy?  How can we enjoy life's pursuits and make clear decisions if we’re not happy?  As my friend Obe likes to say, “There are more dots out there with broken connections between them than we think”. 

It does seem that our ability to perform technological feats far surpasses our ability to understand their consequences. Modern technology has brought us to that gray point where we can do something of a questionable nature just because the technology exists to do it.  Doing so ignores a primary component of any functional society - ethics.  Genetic engineering of food is a good example of a technology that is totally unnecessary, has unknown consequences, and yet was undertaken anyway - just because the technology exists to do so. 

A middle way seems best. 

Soil To Soul (STS) is a program - currently under development - that will utilize the internet to bring together businesses and organizations that are striving to improve how our food is grown and how we utilize it.

Because food and its production lies at the heart of any society, a primary focus of STS will be to act as a platform for taking the pulse of readers to determine where you stand on issues like; regenerative farming, genetically modified food, alternative medicine, nutrition, vitamins and global warming (to name a few).   Any topic that touches us in ways that effect how our soils and souls are either nourished or depleted, will be fair game for this forum.

You, dear readers, will be the driving force behind this movement.  Information regarding the various topics will be gleaned by your participation in surveys and polls via the numerous business and ngo web sites out there that are doing great work in these arenas.  The results will be made available on a new STS website (coming soon).

The real power of this platform will be made manifest when  political candidates are asked to respond to our polls and surveys.  Given the numerous web sites and businesses that deal with these topics, the potential for reaching millions of people seems realistic.  For a candidate to turn down an opportunity to respond to millions of voters would be as newsworthy as a candidate who responds favorably. This could be a very big deal indeed.

Another aspect of STS will be to countermand numerous laws passed by states and congress with the help of lobbyists from Big Pharma, Big Food and Big Agriculture.  Many of these laws are keeping nutritionally dense, locally produced food from being avaible.  They also prevent small farmers from getting started or force existing small farmers to pursue second or third jobs off the farm to make ends meet. The economic repercussions that these laws have had on rural economies has been devastating.

STS will also help promote helpful bills that go before congress, like the PRIME Act (https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/114/hr3187).  No, STS has no plans to set up shop on K street in DC to go head to head with the powerful, unethical lobbyists there.  We have no interest in playing their game.   STS will be a grass roots organization using the efficiency of the internet to achieve effective results.

We understand your time is valuable so in an effort to make surveys and polls quick and easy, merely click yes or no on surveys, or click for or against to vote on proposals.  Most surveys and polls will take less than a minute to complete.  If you wish to make a comment there will also be a forum for doing so.

Lets reconnect some dots.