Regnerating Soil To Change Human Health

My best friend who lives in Italy and I have a pact - every decade we take a sabbatical - to travel, to meet new people, to experience life through different eyes.  To many it sounds indulgent, but for me it has been an essential part of continually widening my point of view and reinvigorating my zest for life.

The restriction of the covid era was challenging, and more than ever I felt the need to get off our beautiful little island and see what the rest of the world was up to.  So 2022 was a year of travel, firstly in South America, specifically Peru, then into the States.  

In the last few years, watching the exponential rise of chronic disease, I have become very passionate about the earth’s soils, and the destruction that is wrought by modern agriculture.  They say if we keep going along our current trajectory, we only have sixty years of harvests left, before we will have destroyed the soil beyond repair.  Sixty years.  That’s well within the lifetime of our babies.  

Moreover, the food we are growing today is making us sick.  Chemical and pesticide residue in our food is damaging our microbiome.  Affecting our digestion, our immune system and our nervous system, and greatly impacting our capacity to make a positive contribution to this world as we battle chronic disease that effects our wellbeing.

It can all feel a little hopeless at times.

Then I came across Dr Zach Bush.  A thought leader and visionary who  teaches about how we can turn around ecological and human health through regenerative agriculture.  As we regenerate our soils, restoring microbial diversity on the earth, we create food that restores our gut microbiome, regenerating human health.  Best of all, we don’t need to wait for someone to invent new technology or for major progressions in science, we know exactly the principles required to regenerate our agricultural systems, and there are divine humans all around the world who are on the bandwagon. Check out www.farmersfootprint.us for inspiring farmers who are changing the trajectory of our planet.

I now feel as though I have a dual mission.  Help humans reconnect to their blueprint of health, and help to regenerate the earth’s soils and biodiversity.  We are deeply connected to the earth.  While the earth is struggling, it is very difficult for us to thrive as a species, as human health and planetary health are deeply intertwined.

So as I travelled in the States I volunteered at a number of community gardens.  Looking to learn and connect with others who were similarly passionate.  I learnt so much!!! And in 2023 I was offered the opportunity to go back to the States and volunteer at a very special urban farm called LEAF, in the Bay Area near San Francisco.  

LEAF is an urban regenerative farm that grows food for local food banks, and educates the local community about growing, beekeeping, composting and sustainable living.  While there I taught regenerative agriculture practices, herbal medicine and mushroom farming, and had a ball being part of a little organisation doing inspiring work.

Check out www.fremontleaf.org or @fremontleaf on instagram.

Now I’m back in New Zealand, and I’m bringing all that passion back home.  I’m growing food and herbs and regenerating soil so our food becomes our medicine and our way of growing food becomes a medicine for the earth.