Save Our Soil!
The Verge of Human Extinction?
In the last 40 years, 40% of the worlds topsoil has been lost. The United Nations says we only have enough soil for approximately 80 – 100 harvests, or 40 – 60 years. After this time frame we will not have enough soil to produce our food, a truly catastrophic event. There is hope however! Continue reading…
6 Methods To Save Our Soil!
1) Organic, organic, organic.
If you want to preserve the soil organic content must go into it. The 2 easiest ways of ensuring our soil has a steady supply of organic content is through the conscious implementation of: plant life and animal life.
Plant life: there must be a constant and vast array of living plant life on our land at all times. This means moving away from our current single crop agriculture methods, towards a system where many different plants are grown together on the same piece of land. Among these plants there must also be many ‘cover crops’, being trees/plant life that are not necessarily fruit bearing but remain living on the land all year round. These cover crops will fertilise the above ground through the leaves they drop and keep the soil intact and living through their root systems below. Further, these cover crops provide the necessary shade to ensure the soil is not dried out through direct sunlight and turned into desert (this is known as the process of desertification).
Animal Life: You cannot keep soil alive simply with fertiliser and a tractor, you need animals. In all past times we have used animals not just to eat, but as faithful labourers. Animals should be implemented in agriculture processes not as food but as a means to feed our soil through the ‘waste’ material they produce. Plus, they can also be trained to help humans in all stages of agriculture.
2) Tree Based Agriculture
We cannot easily or quickly create a new rainforest, as this is a natural process requiring hundreds of years, but we certainly can create tree cover. Tree based agriculture involves the integration of cover trees alongside edible crops, the trees offer necessary shade as well as a steady supply of organic input. This will ensure the soil remains living all year round, including between harvests. One current problem is that a large portion of our land is held by farmers, the current perception among many farmers is that trees are a waste of money and will lead to a decrease in profits. Although, this perception is starting to change, as many farmers who have already integrated ‘tree-based agriculture’ have seen a huge spike in their income.
3) Reduced consumption of meat
Nearly 77% of the land, about 40 million square kilometres is used to raise animals and their food. One of the simplest things anyone can do to have a positive impact on our world, is to stop, or at least reduce their consumption of meat. If we reduce our meat consumption by just 50% 20 million square kilometres, or twice the landmass of the USA, will become available for tree-based agriculture. If we were to achieve this we would see a drastic improvement in not only our soil, but our overall health. It is becoming more and more apparent through science and ancient wisdom, that our bodies function optimally on a plant-based rather than meat-based diet.
4) More Fruit in our diet
When somebody is sick you do not bring them a steak or fried chicken, you bring fruits or vegetables. There is a great seed of truth in this statement, something most intuitively know, yet many unconsciously push aside. The truth being, living fruits and vegetables are better for our system than dead meat, when I say ‘system’ I mean both the system of our body and the body of earth. Our body and the body of earth is over 70% water, thus, what we put into it should also contain more or at least close to 70% water, the more water it contains the more easily it is digested. When we eat raw vegetables the water content is over 75% and fruit is generally over 90%, so this is our optimal diet. All of us could do with eating or drinking a little more fruit.
5) Becoming more Conscious as a Species
If any other species had caused even close to the damage we as humans have done, we would have long ago ‘dealt’ with them. The problem is, this damage has not been caused by another species, this damage has been cause by us, by you, by me, by humans.
Since we are the source of the problem, we must also become the solution. When we look deep enough, we eventually reach the route cause of all our destructive tendencies, this route cause being our unconscious and compulsive mode of action. If we were conscious, we would automatically become the solution, we are destroying our earth simply because we are in chaos inside ourselves.
Becoming truly conscious is an individual process requiring practice, stillness, and reflection, this is not something I will touch on in this article. What I will say is, to find a solution to any problem you must first recognise the problem.
6) Recognising the problem
Right now, over 95% of the global population have absolutely no awareness of the ecological disaster building up around us, meaning, if you have gotten this far in this article you are now more educated than 95% of the population. It is now your duty to pass this information forward, to bring awareness to the issue, once there is enough awareness, global solutions will begin to manifest.