Regenerative Soil
Today I am eating black lentils that were grown in regenerative soil.
What is soil
Soil is mostly broken down rock, mixed with dead plant and animal material, water, air, and living things.
The living things in the soil are called soil organisms. Soil organisms are bacteria, fungi, worms, insects, and other small living things, most of them too small to see.
What is regenerative soil
Regenerative soil is soil that has intentionally been given back organic matter. Organic matter is dead plant material, compost, and manure.
Soil organisms break down the organic matter. This process produces nutrients in a form that plant roots can absorb, and creates a structure in the soil that holds water and air. This is how the soil is regenerated.
Why nutrients have to be changed into another form
The nutrient nitrogen is one of the elements that creates amino acids, and amino acids linked together create protein. Therefore, all protein contains nitrogen.
Every living thing contains nitrogen: you, trees, plants, fish, and the organisms in the soil. Even when a living thing dies, the nitrogen stays in that thing.
For example, a dead leaf on the ground still holds the nitrogen that was in it when the leaf was part of a living plant.
But a plant root cannot absorb the nitrogen from a dead leaf, or other organic matter, while the nitrogen is locked inside protein.
Soil organisms break the protein in that leaf apart. Other bacteria change what is left into ammonium and then into nitrate. Roots can absorb ammonium and nitrate.
Without soil organisms, nitrogen stays in the leaf and the plant cannot absorb the nutrient.
This process is happening with every nutrient in the soil. The organisms are working to make sure nutrients can be absorbed by plants.
Why the soil structure matters
Roots need water and roots need air.
A root takes in oxygen and uses the oxygen to release energy, the same way your cells do. A root without oxygen suffocates and dies. This is why a plant given too much water can die. The water fills the spaces in the soil and pushes the air out.
Roots also need water that stays in the soil rather than running straight through it. Water moves up through plants and out through their leaves all day long. Also, the nutrients in the soil have to be dissolved in water before a root can absorb the nutrients. Moist soil means nutrients can be absorbed. Dry soil means nutrients cannot be absorbed even when the nutrients are there.
Fungi and bacteria in the soil produce substances that glue soil particles together into small crumbs. Those crumbs create spaces. The spaces hold air and hold water.
Soil without those spaces is packed tight. Water runs off the soil and roots cannot take in oxygen.
When soil stops being alive
Soil can be used in a way that kills what lives in it.
After food is harvested, the whole crop is taken away and nothing is given back. Dead plant material is not put back into the soil to be broken down. Other organic matter like manure or compost is not put into soil. No nutrients that the plant and food absorbed while growing and the soil lost is given back to the soil. The soil organisms end up having nothing to eat, and they die off.
Also, plowing breaks apart the structure the organisms had built and exposes the organic matter. The structure that was built to hold air and water can be blown away or dried out.
When the living part of the soil is gone, the soil can no longer make nutrients available. So fertilizer is added to feed the plant directly because the soil cannot do it anymore.
I grew up traveling up and down California where a lot of food is grown. Now that I know what is required for soil to grow plants, I know what I saw was not regenerative soil. What I saw was bare ground, no trees, no leaves, nothing that was once alive with nutrients being given back to the soil. What I saw were large aqueducts bringing in water from far away. What I saw was a mass production of one single crop separated from everything else in nature. What I saw was dirt holding up plants that were watered by machines and sprayed chemicals by little planes. I saw nothing that looked like alive or living soil.
Where I live now, the land is dense with life. Food, leaves, sticks, and animal droppings are constantly on the ground. There is an abundance of organic matter for soil organisms to break down constantly. And the plants and trees require no fertilizers to grow food with nutrients because the nutrients are in the soil.
What does soil have to do with what I eat
When plants grow, they pull nutrients out of the soil. When I eat food from a plant, I receive the nutrients that plant pulled out of the soil. Food from a plant can only give me what the soil gave the plant.
I can put together a meal of real food, food I would call nutrient dense, yet that food only has the nutrients the soil the plant grew in had available to give.
For example, tomatoes grown in soil given fertilizer and tomatoes grown in soil alive with organic matter and soil organisms both produce similar looking tomatoes. The difference is the nutrients absorbed while growing. Don’t judge a book by its cover. You have to know what’s inside.😂🤪😁
So eating well is not only about what I choose to eat. Eating well is also about the soil the food is grown in. What nutrients did the plant and food absorb while growing?
Regenerating soil takes years to create. Using fertilizer works to grow food this season. What kind of soil do we want growing our food? What kind of food do we want to be feeding ourselves, our families, and the younger generation?
This is why where your food comes from matters, and this is why how your food is grown matters.
You are welcome to be more aware of soil regeneration.
Stacy 🌺
Information in this post comes from my learning and research.
https://youtube.com/shorts/72Ah8_XVRiw?feature=share
I share my experiences and my perspective. Eating and healing look different for everyone. If you are struggling with food or your relationship with your body, please find support. You don’t have to do this alone.