Might You Be Living At This Time To Save the World?

So, what went wrong?

Humans by nature are constantly looking for easier ways to do things.  Easier of course is not always better.  In the effort to grow more food more cheaply agriculture has become very industrialized and more and more dependent on adding manufactured chemical products.  We have a very resilient system that has stayed in balance for centuries.  Today, we are discovering that getting bigger and more specialized has reached the point of seriously diminishing returns.  Heavy duty farm tilling equipment tearing away the natural integrity of the soil along with fertilizers, weed killers and insecticides are killing off the trillions of micro organisms essential to healthy soil.  It is this destruction of soil that has created the non-sustainable place we find ourselves.  Science is now realizing that healthy soil is the most important component of a healthy planet.

While some fear it could be too late, organizations like “Kiss the Ground” have formed with the mission of letting consumers, producers, farmers and ranchers know that there is a solution to the catastrophic path we have been traveling for a few generations.  If this generation can shift course to simply get us “back to nature” we can save the world as we know it.  Not only will it mitigate temperature rise and the effects of drought, healthy soil will restore the nutrient value of our foods.  Plants will once again be able to pull all the nutrients out of the soil instead of needing increasing amounts of chemicals to thrive.  Those trillions of little creatures that live and die in healthy soil regenerate its nutritional value for plants that can then pull a full nutrient load from the soil.  While farmers may have a bit less yield, the nutritional quality of their produce increases and the cost of growing decreases (cost of added chemicals and possible need for more irrigation).

It also turns out that cows are not the problem.  In fact with managed grazing, the cattle can aid the regeneration of soil health.  If cattle are not allowed to “overgraze” an area, adequate ground cover can be maintained and the animal waste products provide a natural fertilizer adding nutrients directly to the soil.  If you are not aware of how by going “back to nature” we can save the world, just go to YouTube and search for “Kiss the Ground” videos.  If we are going to be successful we need a critical mass of people determined to make this happen.  Here’s a great video to start with: https://youtu.be/nvAoZ14cP7Q

The key question you should have now is what can I do? 

Here’s a scenario we can work on that can allows everyone to play a part in the solution to the dangerous situation we are in.

 Seek out produce coming from farms practicing regenerative farming and insist on “organic” produce which is free of most hazardous chemicals.  These farms should ideally utilize “no-till” or limited till cultivation, have diversified crop planting, maintain ground cover to help protect surface soil from heat and erosion and encourage diversification of species on the property.  This is the path to healthy fields because healthy crops require a healthy community of organisms under the surface. 

Composting to the rescue:  Food waste filling trash dumps is a big culprit in the degradation of the climate caused by emissions.  Everyone can be part of the solution through composting. Compost is organic material that can be added to soil to help plants grow. Food scraps and yard waste together currently make up more than 30 percent of what we throw away and could be composted instead. Making compost keeps these materials out of landfills where they take up space and release methane, a potent greenhouse gas.   Learn more:  Composting At Home | US EPA

Well over half of our farmable land worldwide has been turned into desert or suffers from seriously degraded soil not capable of growing healthy produce without ever increasing amounts of fertilizer and other hazardous chemicals.  Regeneration of healthy soil – full of microorganisms, worms and mycorrhizal fungi – is our best and possibly only real path to restoring the balance and health of the planet.  What’s the best part?  There is NO downside.  Food may be a bit more expensive during the transition to this as a standard of operation but it will have significantly better nutrient value leading to improved health.  We don’t have to wait for new technology.  We don’t have to make painful changes to how we live.  

What’s the next step? 

Picture a world where everyone is composting all of their appropriate food waste instead of putting it in the trash – restaurants and supermarkets too.  Like trash collection, food waste or compost is picked up regularly.  Compost centers finish composting process and transport it to areas where soil is being regenerated or to help maintain already healthy soil.  This process can be monetized with land owners purchasing the compost instead of fertilizers and other chemicals for which there will be less need as soil health is regained. 

This is the story we should write because it can be the #1 solution for restoring balance and health on a multitude of levels.

John A. Brodie for The PositiVibes Network, August 2021

Press Release link https://www.prlog.org/12881823-healthy-future-can-be-achieved-but-it-is-up-to-us.pdf

Farmers are more than producers of food. They are the stewards of the soil—who know that today’s conventional farming practices need to change.

But farmers can’t accomplish the transition from the existing conventional farm of today to the regenerative farm of the future on their own.

They need a support system—a solid, scalable marketplace platform and community that provides the infrastructure necessary to connect with other knowledgeable, values-aligned players across the Regenerative Ag ecosystem who share their passion for working the soil and their mission to nourish the world. 

Please use this link or the QR Code to the left to watch The Soil Story video:  https://tinyurl.com/3r94ut8m

Good luck!  The future really is up to us – please watch video

Sending you PositiVibes,  John A. Brodie

https://www.positivibes.net/

jbrodie@PositiVibes.com (please send a note to me with thoughts or questions)

Dear Friend, I have an important story for you…

For a long time our species has been acting like school children.  Some of us are still naïve, curious and playful elementary school students (as social beings).  Most of us are more unruly, self important or insecure middle schoolers.  In the last few decades a growing number of us have been emerging into the adult stage of species development. A growing number of people have begun to experience a more evolved consciousness, realizing our species is much more than a few billion separate beings.  We are a world community of mutually dependent living things.    

We humans are creative beings and we are story tellers.  This sets us apart from all of the other creatures we share our Earth home with.  Most of the inhabitants of our planet simply respond to the world around them, following embedded basic programming.  We humans are “Creators” making it up as we go along.  Some play out old stories they feel safe with over and over while others are the thought leaders searching for new and improved ways to tell our story.  By nature we are curious beings with our emotions and desires determining the path we take.  As a young species we have been focused on the basics of self preservation and self satisfaction.  This story has taken us a great distance through the centuries with the stories we tell ourselves mainly about our individuality and uniqueness.  Early humans and the other living things on this planet have not been focused on “individuality” and personal achievement because they believed themselves to be part of a whole of which they were an integral part.  Like the cells of our physical body are part of the “whole” we think of as me and you, we are parts of a planetary body that is as dependent on the functioning of its parts as we are on the functioning of those cells. 

If you look to the Bible or other guidebooks offering ideas for having a satisfying visit to this planet, you may recognize a “prime directive” given to us.  We have been told that we “have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth” (Gen. 1:26).   With great power comes great responsibility.  The challenge that now faces us is to go from trying to make Nature serve us as the “masters” of the world and become the “guardians” of this world that has always been our responsibility.  Living the lives of rugged self interested individuals has served us well for a long time as a species but we have forgotten our fundamental responsibility:  Be the caretakers of our Garden of Eden home.   Our failure in this regard has resulted in a plot twist that threatens everything we hold dear.  While this could spell the doom of our adventures here on Earth, this is a gift.  It is a gift because we are faced with a challenge that no one can solve alone.  We must remember our dependence on each other and the awareness that dis-ease anywhere in the system affects the whole.   This is a life or death story – an adventure that will either bring out the best in our species or leave us divided and barreling down a road to increasing chaos and eventually extinction. 

We are here at this time to be healers. 

A crisis is arising because of the imbalance we have inadvertently unleashed in rapidly expanding areas of our adventure world here on Planet Earth.  This is a life or death situation and our challenge is to figure out how to solve the puzzle.  Many of us recognize the problem but have either succumbed to fear and hopelessness or simply have no idea what to do. Luckily, as with ever challenge that arises in this game of life we are playing, there is always a solution, a new improved story we can write.  The story we are here to write is one of being born again into a new human age by restoring our planet’s wellbeing. 

The good news is that we have a map to the future most of us hope for.  Earth is a magnificent being that we all share as home for this adventure in time and space and it has been injured.  We humans are the cause of that injury.  It is only recently that we have recognized that our failure to appreciate the interconnectedness of everything and act accordingly is causing systemic failure.   We have failed to realize that there is a crucial part of our home’s ecosystem hidden under our feet that we have failed to protect.  It is the “skin” of the planet.  We call it “soil” and when it is healthy it is the home of more organisms than live above ground.  These creatures and their world serve as the environmental control system for spaceship Earth. 

The energy to operate the system is drawn from the Sun.  Through a process known as photosynthesis green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water.  These foods feed the world beneath the surface.  As these creatures live and die they provide the nutrients supporting healthy plant life.  This process does two key things to make the planet livable for us:  pure oxygen is a byproduct of photosynthesis as is the transfer of carbon from the air to the soil.  We need that oxygen to live and it is too much carbon in the air that is causing our planet to run a fever.  We have named that “fever” global warming and it will get high enough to kill us all. 

The planet will survive as it has in the past when thrown out of balance.  However, our species and most other life forms living on the planet’s surface will no longer be able to survive here if we do not fix what we have accidentally broken.  The good news is that we can rejuvenate the biosphere to full health.  To be successful we will need to accept that we are all part of one human family that must work together to make the repairs that are needed. 

This is the place in the evolving tale we find ourselves today.  While we face many challenges small and large, the challenge of healing the planet, if not solved, is “Game Over” for us.  Regardless of what you think or believe about anything, you need to accept that there is a path forward and we can still protect our future. 

There are many who have focused on the symptoms looking for a solution.  Those strategies are mostly about not making things worse – the path of seeking “sustainability”.  We must wake up and recognize that sustaining where we are now will only slow the destruction of our way of life.  The solution is in the ground, we must heal the “skin” of this planetary being. 

Social disagreements are one symptom of our growing distress but other symptoms are becoming obvious.  Storms are getting more intense in some areas and draught and fires are spreading in other areas.  It has been discovered that the root of our problem can be found in something so basic most of us have never thought about it.  As I write this, 75% of land worldwide has already been degraded and an average of 30 million acres of farmable land is being lost each year.  We will not be the first civilization to perish because we did too much damage to the soil world beneath our feet.  Over 20 major civilizations have collapsed due to soil loss.  The good news is that we know how to fix the system.  Systemic health and balance can be regained by regenerating the health of the soil on a global scale.  Your responsibility and mine must be to make the healing of the soil the number one priority for all of us. 

There are many sources of information to explain why soil health is the key to climate stability as well as our ability to feed ourselves and have the air we need to live.  People have many different causes and things they believe important but we are faced with a problem that makes them all secondary.  The gift we have been given is the choice of put aside our differences as we come together to heal the planet or not.  A house divided will fall but with shared purpose we can all be reborn and reclaim our role as the caretakers of this world.  I hope you are agreeable to accepting this mission as your own – how could we have a more valiant quest than restoring the natural balance to the world on which we depend.  The evidence is overwhelming and the path we need to take is clear.  For all of our sakes please learn more about this and get involved. 

A good place to find the map you need is at Kiss the Ground.  You will find clues you can use to discover how to play your part as a caretaker and healer for Earth.  Don’t think you can leave it to others to get the job done; everyone will benefit immensely as we regenerate our Garden of Eden world.  It’s not too late and we can do this without massive casualties.  It is urgent that you get involved right away because no one really knows how long we have to heal the planet and avoid a miserable end to our story here.  The crucial responsibility you have is to take action – discover the part you have been cast to play.  You are also invited to join me at the PositiVibes Network where we will share ideas and news. 

THE TOP 10 REASONS – QUICK SHEET REASONS FOR REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE

1. Revive Farmer Prosperity Reduce input and irrigation costs,
increase yields/stocking rates
2. Reduce Flooding & Drought Rebuild the “soil sponge”,
increase soil moisture, limit costly flood damage)
3. Replenish Fresh Water Sources Increase water absorption &
infiltration allowing aquifers & springs to return
4. Reduce Fire Hazards Increase soil moisture, sustain plant
growth, more local rainfall, less brittle environments
5. Reverse Global Warming Drawdown 200 million tons + of
CO2 and cool land by keeping covered with living plants
6. Recreate Regional Access to Nutrient-dense Food
Restoring soil fertility means reliable food supplies
7. Reduce Toxic Pesticides & Fertilizers Healthier soil means
less toxic chemicals in food supplies
8. Reduce Dead Zones & Water Pollution Less fertilizer, less
runoff, less underground water contamination
9. Reverse Extinction Restore the biodiversity & abundance of
animals, plants, microbes, & insects-pollinators
10. Reconnect Humanity & Nature Work with nature to rebuild
soil & grow our food, create local food sheds
What would that be worth in your region — and across
the nation?

WHAT IS REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE?

Long Definition: “Regenerative Agriculture is a system of farming principles and practices that
increases biodiversity, enriches soils, improves watersheds, and enhances ecosystem services. It
aims to capture carbon in the soil and above-ground biomass (plants), reversing current global
trends of atmospheric accumulation of CO2 causing climate change. At the same time, it offers
increased yields, resilience to climate instability, and higher health and vitality for farming and
ranching communities.” – Terra Genesis International

Short Definition: Agriculture that is causing regeneration (increasing landscape function
overtime and while in production).

“An ecological approach of farming that enables landscapes to renew themselves” -Charles Massy
The 6 Principles of Regenerative Agriculture

Least Disturbance: No/low till, no/reduced chemicals, less compaction

Living Roots: Maximize photosynthesis, continue pumping liquid carbon sugars into the
ground to feed microbes

Soil Armor: Keep the soil covered with living plants or crop residue, wood chips, or mulch.

Bare soil gets much hotter at midday & more vulnerable to wind/water erosion
Animal Integration: Animals big and small play a pivotal role in nutrient cycling and
regenerating landscapes
Increased Biodiversity: Biodiversity of plants increases beneficial biodiversity below and
above ground as well as increases the functionality and resilience of the ecosystem
Context: No two farms are alike. From brittle environments to more moist ones, from
different crops to livestock, from no funds to extensive funds, context is key. How you
will go about regenerating land will vary and depend on many key components. A holistic
framework is necessary to successfully transition to regenerative.

“Start by learning how our lands and water are actually meant to function – always tailor to specific
climates, topographies and human capacities. This allows us to generate food while working with rather
than against the ways these lands and waters were intended to work.” – Nicolette Hahn Niman.
Regenerative VS Sustainable: Why this is not a “sustainability” movement
1. 75% of the land on earth is degraded: the soil system has been broken and is no longer
functioning as it is meant to – like a broken cup that can no longer hold water) IPBES
2. We cannot “sustain” our way out of the current crises: we must regenerate.
3. Sustain means: to be maintained at a certain rate or level.
4. Regeneration means: Restore to a better, higher, more worthy state.
5. Regeneration at any scale: individual farms, regional watersheds, and vast areas of land
can and have been regenerated (take the Loess Plateau in China for example – an area the
size of Denmark moved from the “most eroded” to flourishing and abundant.
6. Sustainable is a part of a scarcity mindset: many of us have been handed or taught
a linear, and mechanical thinking paradigm. Regenerative thinking is emergent and
abundance-based and combines ancient wisdom with pioneering holistic thinking and
cutting edge scientific discoveries.

Converting Conventional-degenerative to Regenerative (common changes)

1. Heavy Tilling → No-till/low-till
2. Bare Ground → Multi-Species Cover Crops
3. Heavy Chemicals → No/reduced Chemicals or Compost/biological amendments
4. Overgrazing/over rest → Planned Grazing
5. CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation) → 100% Grass-Fed Planned Grazed (Adaptive
Multi-Paddock, Holistic, Regenerative)
6. Annual System → Perennial System
7. No Windbreaks → Windbreaks and Riparian Zones
8. Mono-Cropping → Interspecies or crop rotation
9. No Trees → Agroforestry or Silvopasture.

WHY IS REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE SUCH A BIG DEAL?

We can build back soil faster than we ever thought possible. Therefore, we can literally regenerate
the earth.
1. “We didn’t really know how the soil worked” – Ray Archuleta 25 years NRCS
2. Recent cutting edge science, combined with ancient indigenous wisdom, and pioneering holistic
thinking, has allowed us to understand the opportunity of rebuilding soil that we didn’t know
existed before.
For 10k years, farming (in most cultures) has degraded land over time.
1. In the US, on average, we lose 4 tons of topsoil per acre per year on our farmland. That means 4
pick-up trucks full of soil taken off our land every year.
2. At the current rate of soil loss, the UN Estimates we have less than 60 harvests left. No topsoil, no
food security.
3. In the last 40 years we have lost ⅓ of farmable land to land degradation.
4. Land degradation is a driver of climate change through the emission of greenhouse gases,
breaking of small water cycles & recharge, increased heat islands, and reduced rates of landbased carbon uptake.
5. Regenerative Agriculture changes that. It increases ecosystem carrying capacity over time while
in the production of crops or livestock.
6. Half of the topsoil in the planet has been lost in the last 150 years
Soil is the reason life on land exists as we know it.
1. Healthy soil is the reason for food, freshwater, and biodiversity
2. 95% of our food comes from the soil.
3. Rebuild the soil, restore the life and fertility of the land.
Matching the crises we face.
1. In the face of the extent of climate change and the myriad of catastrophic situations we face,
regenerative agriculture is one of the only solutions that actually match the gravity and addresses
the whole and totality of the crises.
2. In the book Drawdown, 11 of the top 25 solutions to reversing global warming are land
management and agriculture-related (Restoration/Regeneration)
a. Drawdown is a term signifying the point when the level of CO2 in our atmosphere begins
to move downward. Biosequestration (carbon into soil and biomass) is the biggest and least
expensive opportunity to draw down carbon/reverse global warming.
®

HOW IS SOIL BUILT?

Note: while some (8-30%) of soil is built, as science has taught for years, from plants and other living things decomposing at the
surface and mixing with sand silt and clay, the breakthrough understanding was that the other large portion of soil is building from
root exudates (see below process).
How soil is built basics (“liquid carbon pathway”):
1. Simply: plants pump carbon from the air into the ground, sharing it with microbes that
build it into healthy soil (full of carbon).
2. Plants share (exude/leak) approx 30-40% of the liquid carbon sugar (diluted glucose
molecules) they make from photosynthesis out of their roots to feed microbes in the soil.
3. Microbes, like bacteria and fungi, feed on those sugars and in return make minerals, nutrients,
and water available for the plant
4. The glues created by the microbes are made of carbon and aggregate the soil particles
together forming soil’s structure.
5. The glues are carbon-based (over 50% carbon).
6. This is how a majority of soil is built and how carbon can be stored long-term (50-500) years in
the soil.
7. The more carbon in the soil as soil organic matter, the more life in the soil, the more water
holding capacity of the soil, and the more nutrients available for the plants. This increases
photosynthesis, which pumps even more carbon into the soil. A regenerative feedback loop or
a self-generating and expanding carbon pump.

THE SOLUTIONS

Note: Kiss the Ground feels that carbon sequestration is not the ultimate purpose or end unto itself but rather the means to
planetary regeneration. Carbon sequestration to form healthy soil is the primary driver of restoring landscape function and
ecosystem regeneration.
Addressing Climate Change – Key facts about carbon sequestration potential: More carbon in the
atmosphere and ocean is a problem. More carbon in the soil is the solution. NOTE, below are several
statistics on the carbon sequestration capacity of soils.
1. The soil is the most logical place to put excess carbon. Soil is the second biggest carbon sink
after the oceans
2. Most soil on cultivated land has lost 50-70% of its carbon stock
3. The atmosphere and ocean already have too much carbon (over 415 ppm of CO2 in
atmosphere creating warming and CO2 is being absorbed in the ocean causing ocean
acidification)
4. Based on high rates of recorded carbon sequestration. Just transitioning 10-20 percent of
agricultural production to best practice regenerative systems would sequester enough CO2 to
reverse climate change and begin drawdown (Dr. David Johnson)
5. Many regenerative farmers are putting over 3 tons of carbon per acre, per year, into their soil.
6. A .5% increase of Soil Organic Matter means nearly 21 tons of carbon (which many regen farms
do)
7. We can and should be paying farmers to build carbon into their soil (instead of paying them
not to grow or subsidizing degenerative practices).
8. Carbon can stay locked up as humates and glomalin (stable soil carbon) for 50-500 years or
more
9. Some cases, In the top 12” of soil, are showing 4.76 tons (short US) C/acre/year and 17.46 (short
US) tons CO2/acre/year.
10. Of 80 ways to mitigate climate change assessed in Project Drawdown (Hawken, 2017), those
associated with agriculture make up the biggest portion: sustaining tropical forests (5),
silvopasture that combines forestry and grazing (9), regenerative agriculture (11), sustaining
temperate forests (12), conservation agriculture (16), tree intercropping that combines growing
trees with annual crops (17), and managed grazing (19)
11. Nitrous oxide emissions are agriculture’s largest contribution to GHG and, “occur via the
circulation of nitrogen among microorganisms that live in the soil and water, plants and
animals, and the atmosphere. The application of nitrogen fertilizer to soil accounts for most
agricultural emissions of nitrous oxide. That can be reduced by managing soil in ways that
decrease the need for nitrogen fertilizer, applying fertilizers more efficiently, modifying
manure management practices, and integrating livestock back into farming systems.”
Risk Mitigation (flooding, drought) & Resiliency
1. “Poor land leads to poor people. Poor land leads to increased frequency of flooding and
drought.” – Allan Savory
2. Most flooding is a symptom of degraded/broken soil that has been turned to dirt and isn’t
infiltrating water correctly.
3. Rainwater that doesn’t infiltrate into the soil, runs off the land causing erosion, more soil
compaction (perpetuating this issue), and taking with it sediment and harmful chemicals that
pollute our water.
a. In many ranches in TX, for example, they are infiltrating only a ½ inch of water in over an
hour.
b. Compare that to ranches that transition to regenerative and in under 3 years ½ inch rainfalls
are infiltrating in 10 seconds or less.
4. Drought has to do with “ineffective rainfall”. Meaning, if the water isn’t absorbed into the soil
and leaving through transpiration of a living plant, it is running off or quickly evaporating off
the bare hot soil surface.
5. Bare soil is the number one “cancer” that causes massive drought and flooding.
6. Regenerating soil and keeping land covered with living plants can drastically reduce flooding
and drought conditions all over the globe.

Food Security

1. 30 million acres of farmable land (nearly the size of England -32 million acres), is lost to soil
degradation annually UNFAO
2. The UN estimates that at this rate of soil depletion we have less than 60 harvests left. UN
3. You often hear, “We need chemical large scale agriculture to feed the world”. No we don’t.
Smallholder farmers make up 90% of farms and by far grow the lion’s share of food eaten by
humans.
4. Chemical Fertilizers (as groups like the Gates Foundation are pushing) won’t bring our land
back but only mask the problem of degraded soil for a short time. And, they almost always
lead to more land degradation as was proven from the “Green Revolution”.
5. “Chemical Fertilizers mask the problem of degraded soils” – Ray Archuleta
6. Regenerative Agriculture can rebuild soil from heavily degraded and desertified areas.
7. Regenerative Agriculture can make the world’s degraded land fertile again on large or small
farms, and rangeland.
8. Regenerative Agriculture is the only answer for true, long term, local and regional food
security, and sovereignty.
Food Nutrition
1. Plants don’t digest the soil, microbes do.
2. Over 50% (sometimes 85% in healthys soils) of minerals are made available by microbes and
other organisms in the soil food web.
3. Regenerative Agriculture restores soil biology
a. Restoring soil biology means plants are able to access minerals and nutrients that keep
them healthy and strong so they can protect themselves from attacks of pests. This also
means the food has more minerals and nutrients for us.
4. Food produced from mostly dead soil lacks many trace minerals.
5. The nutritional content of our food has drastically reduced in the past two generations
(“some crops have lost 38% of their nutrients in the last 70 years” – Rodale institute)
Farmer Prosperity & Rural Economics
1. Currently in the U.S. farmers are adding 4% agricultural debt per year.
2. Under our current system, even with high yields, most farmers are losing money or barely
breaking even because they are spending so much on input costs.
3. Over ⅓ of farm income in the US is subsidized by the government.
4. Farmers can access market demand of Regenerative and diversify what their farms produce
so they are less susceptible to market swings for one crop.
5. Half the farms in the United States are losing money, and farming is the profession with the
highest rate of suicide in the United States (and many other countries).
6. Regenerative farming allows farmers to reduce their input costs year after year. Bringing
back the life in the soil does the work of providing essential minerals to the plant for growth
and defense against pests and disease.
7. Regenerative farming and ranching increase the carrying capacity of the land. In the case
of ranching, this means more animals can be raised and fed on the same amount of land
(increased biomass and forage production based on regenerative grazing methods).
a. “Evans and Addison Hooks, who grass finish our cattle in Georgia, saved approximately
$100,000 in input costs during their first year of conversion to Regenerative Farming.”
-Ron Joyce of Joyce Farms
b. “Compared to our neighbor, We have easily three and a half times more forage growing
per acre. I can carry three and half times more cows on the same five thousand acres.”
–Dr. Allen Williams, rancher.

Chemicals & Human Health

1. Healthy living soil means less harmful chemicals are needed to fight pests which means
fewer pesticide residues on our food.
2. In the US, 3 pounds of toxic chemicals are sprayed on our food per person, every year.
3. Glyphosate is so over sprayed it is now showing up in most drinking water.
4. Chemical industrial agriculture has a huge impact on the health of our air and water.
a. The San Joaquin Valley, one of the most agriculture centered areas of CA, has the worst
air quality of the U.S.
b. Counties in the San Joaquin Valley have the highest asthma rate for children in the
nation. Over 550,000 Valley residents have asthma, and of those 105,000 are children.
Extinction and Biodiversity
1. In one teaspoon of healthy soil, there can be more organisms than there are people on
planet earth.
2. When we regenerate the life in the soil, we give the basis and conditions for the increase of
more and more life. Bringing species, small and large, back from the brink of extinction.
3. Life begets life.
a. More life in the soil means more biomass production which means more
microorganisms, which means more large organisms, which means more life above
ground, and on and on.
Meat vs. No Meat
1. Ruminants and grasslands co-evolved together to regenerate (increase carrying capacity
and biodiversity) of landscapes
2. Grasslands make up over ⅔ of our land surface. Regenerating them to their fullest
potential and restoring perennial grass and biodiversity of native plant cover requires that
animals (such as cows) are properly managed on the land
3. Regeneratively grazed animals offset more GHG emissions (CO2 equivalent) they create
and can regenerate the land to absorb and retain water and increase biodiversity
4. “It’s not the cow, it’s the how” – Unknown
5. CAFOs Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations are degenerative and create a lot of
GreenHouse Gas emissions.
a. Mainly due to soil erosion, conventional cropping contributes more (13.7%) to GHGEs
than does domestic ruminants (11.6%) (Teague et al., 2016).
b. Nitrous oxide and CO2 emissions (over nitrogen application) from the cultivation of
feedstock
c. Monocropped degenerative farming for cow feed creates biodiversity loss
d. Transportation of feedstock and water creates CO2
e. Cow excrement in CAFO conditions creates methane gas.
The Global Finances of Regeneration
1. Time Magazine actually put a price on what it would take to halt climate change through
land management and regenerating our soil. Only 300 billion Dollars. This is just 50% of the
annual US military budget.

KEY QUOTES

“A nation that destroys its soil, destroys itself.”
-FDR

“A nation that rebuilds its soil, rebuilds itself.”
-Call Rose Osrtrander

“Soil is queen and there is no king.”
-Paul Hawken, Author (on solving global warming)

“Carbon, that is currently one of the biggest problems in the atmosphere, can be
the biggest solution in the soil.”
– Ryland Engelhart, Co-Founder Kiss the Ground

“A covered planet is a cool planet.”
-Ray Archuleta, The Soil Health Academy

“It’s not the cow, it’s the how.”
-Unknown

“Plants don’t digest the soil, microbes do.”
-Dan Kittredge, Founder Bionutrient Food Association

“One carrot grown in healthy soil can have as many polyphenols (micronutrients
high in antioxidants) as 200 conventional carrots.”
– Dan Kittredge, Founder Bionutrient Food Association.

“It’s not drought that causes bare ground, it’s bare ground that causes droughts.”
-Allan Savory

“Food is the nexus of most of our world’s health, economic, environmental, climate,
social and even political crises.”
-Dr. Mark Hyman, Physician and Bestselling Author

“When the soil sponge fails on a small scale, local farms and small ecosystems
collapse. When it fails on a large scale, whole regions and societies collapse. Yet
when the soil sponge is intact and healthy, multiple beneficial feedback loops kick
into high gear. Regions that regenerate the health of their soils can expect fewer
floods and wildfires; less need for irrigation; better air quality; cleaner and more
abundant water supplies; more moderate temperatures; less erosion and silting of
dams; more biodiversity; less spending on infrastructure repairs; and less spending
on public health and disaster recovery.”
– Didi Pershouse, Author

“Building back healthy soil is the most cost-effective regional, state, and national
investment. From risk mitigation to farmer prosperity, to human health, to carbon
sequestration, it’s a win, win, win, win.”
– Finian Makepeace, Co-Founder Kiss the Ground

“Is the condition we call drought something other than the absence of rain?”
– Judith Swartz, Author

“Compared to our neighbor, we have easily three and a half times more forage
growing per acre. I can carry three and half times more cows on the same five
thousand acres”.
-Dr. Allen Williams, The Soil Health Academy

“By reconnecting with soil, we heal the planet and ourselves.”
-Leah Penniman Farmer, Author (Soul Fire Farm)