Nutrition Farming involves a hard science-based approach to reduce the need for chemical intervention in commercial crop production, while increasing productivity, profitability and farming fun… There is a now a global movement embracing a more regenerative approach to food production and this comprehensive, problem-solving game plan (Nutrition Farming) is spearheading that change in over 50 countries.
Some of the largest farming companies in the world are now moving in this direction, including Greenyard Farms, Driscolls Berries and the Dole Corporation. In fact, the sheer scale of the movement suggests a revolution is underway.
The drivers of this change include:
1) The chemical, extractive model has resulted in an annual increase in global chemical use, every year for ten decades. The fatal flaw in this model relates to the fact that, every one of those years has also seen an overall increase in pest and disease pressure. There is a growing recognition that we cannot continue to apply more and more chemistry for less and less response. This amounts to the definition of “unsustainable”
2) Consumers are increasingly demanding nutrient-dense food with forgotten flavors, greater shelf-life and less chemical contamination. The rise and rise of farmers markets relates to this new hunger for accountability and the associated desire to “put a face to the food we feed our family”.
3) The strategic advisors of every major food producer and retailer are noting this growing consumer concern regarding extractive, factory farming and the impact upon community health. There is a growing body of research linking an ongoing loss of nutrition and an increase in chemical contamination, to the declining health of our children. The ever increasing demand for organic good in every developed country is testament to this concern.
4) Some of the world’s leading climate change scientists, including the much acclaimed, US researcher, Professor Rattan Lal, have now concluded that the single most productive strategy to reverse global warming, lies in the soil. When we change the way we farm, and build, rather than lose organic matter, we are directly sequestering carbon that would otherwise have entered the atmosphere, as CO2 (as part of the carbon cycle). It is now widely recognised that the loss of 2/3 of our humus, with the industrial agriculture model, represents the lions share of the CI2 that has thickened the blanket of greenhouse gases enveloping us. We are now trapping more heat, warming the oceans, and dramatically impacting our likelihood of long term survival. The French, 4-in-1000 initiative, where farmers are now being incentivized to build humus, is evidence of the recognition of the critical role of humus in the climate change equation
Nutrition Farming represents the ultimate win/win scenario. There is no sacrifice in becoming more sustainable. In fact, you become more productive, more profitable and much less stressed in the process.
