Tending the Soil Within and Without

When a growing field has been poisoned with overuse of pesticides and herbicides, we eventually find no healthy microbial life left to continue supporting our intended use of the field. The soil is essentially dead and must have rest and recovery time.

         So too our Earth bodies. When we have accidentally poisoned them by eating genetically modified foods that were grown or raised in fields where Roundup or a form of Roundup was used we have taken in a chemical called glyphosate. Glyphosate is known as a probable human carcinogen, meaning an ingredient that likely causes cancer. According to the Environmental Working Group, Monsanto/Bayer do not want consumers to know that glyphosate is linked to cancer, even though they’ve agreed to pay more than $10 billion to settle tens of thousands of lawsuits by cancer victims and their families. Another Monsanto weedkiller that works with newer forms of GMO’s is Dicamba. It too is considered a toxic chemical along with 2-4-D. Unfortunately, it is going to take a massive campaign by you and I to get these ingredients regulated by the EPA and FDA. There are grossly capitalized firms behind these toxins that have fought tooth and nail to make certain they are not regulated, but one thing you can do is sign the foodandwaterwatch.org/act/petition to ban Roundup and Dicamba. That is a meager start but we must get the new leads at the EPA and FDA to respond as if our lives depended on it because, of course, THEY DO!

         And not only our lives. According to The Sustainable Food Trust, the EPA estimates that 10,000 to 20,000 farmworkers are harmed each year by acute pesticide poisoning. (That doesn’t account for their long-term exposures). The same herbicides and pesticides US farmers use are neurotoxins, carcinogens, and hormone disruptors that are banned in many countries other than the US.

         Another secret area where we can be taking in poisonous chemicals such as glyphosate are the new synthetic burgers and bratwurst from GMO soy such as those made by Impossible Foods.Their key component is said to mimic heme (a compound in hemoglobin) called soy leghemoglobin. Beyond Meat too makes a chicken taco meat with GMO soy protein but their burgers are without. Instead the burger includes pea, mung bean, and rice proteins along with plant-based fats, binders, flavors, and colors. Odd to discover that there are no “actual vegetables” in their ingredient list like in other ‘veggie burgers.’ With no ingredients labeled as “organic,” I find it does include many ingredients I’d never choose to consciously eat like – Dipotassium Phosphate:

         The question is – what are we really eating and how are their “bindings” affecting the microbial life of our guts? Seth Itzkan, co-founder and co-director of Soil4Climate, an advocacy group for soil restoration as a climate mitigation solution, wrote, “Impossible Foods should really be called ‘Impossible Patents.’ It’s not food; it’s software, intellectual property – 14 patents, in fact, in each bite of Impossible Burger.”

         The International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) documented in a UN 2009 report incontrovertible evidence demonstrating failure of the GMO lovers – Gates/Rockefellers – “Green Revolution” to improve on traditional agriculture. From a team of 900 leading scientists, agronomists, and researchers studying world hunger, their comprehensive and definitive report showed GMO crops are not the answer to food shortfalls or rural poverty. And certainly not for healthy bodies. I would also encourage staying away from eating foods grown by other dangerous practices beyond GMO’s and chemical-intensive agriculture, like factory farming on land or water.

         Of course, our strength is that we each hold control over what we put in our bodies. We have the ability to research, read labels, to choose more vegetables, to demand government accountability such as forbidding toxic foods to be used in school lunch programs or to encourage organically grown fruits and vegetables to be part of every food bank. By making our voices heard thru our spending habits we become a part of the answer; along with growing or raising a portion of our own food and/or joining CSA’s to support local farmers.

         The alternative is not pretty – we can continue to experience all manner of ill health: cancer, diabetes, obesity, heart-disease, asthma, arthritis, and increased susceptibility to levels of inflammation and infection with dire results. The food we put into our bodies, including toxic pharmaceutical drugs, make a difference in our health as well as the health of the soil where we live. It makes a difference to the plants and animals both wild and domestic. What we excrete comes out into the soils and water tables around us. This is where the now infamous slogan -“We are all in this together” – really finds solid ground. What you do, what I do, or don’t choose to do, makes a difference in the health of ALL of us.

         As we begin to understand that the answers for growing healthy food, are also related to healing climate change issues, and again for natural health, labor, peace, and justice, we discover we are key to being a part of the solution. It lies in each step we are willing to take. Maybe your step is re-assessing what you eat so soil and farmworkers don’t die from pesticide poisoning. Let’s begin by remembering another world is possible, a healthy world for All Our Relations.

Blessings on your healthy habits,