Book Review: “For The Love of Soil”
For those that weren’t able to join us for our last book club meeting, boy did you miss out! We read “For The Love of Soil” by Nicole Masters, which discusses, among other things, the connection between chemical agriculture and health ailments that Nicole herself experienced. From there, she dives into the soil health depths and helps other farmers along the way to transition from conventional farming to organics. This process isn’t always clean, and a lot of times comes with difficult growing pains, but the results are always worthwhile.
One of the most admirable qualities of Nicole’s work is her urgency. She recognizes that the state of the earth and our farmable land’s lifespan is dependent on our ability to make changes to the way we view soil. The world’s view on soil, which used to be solely focused on profitability and it being a matrix for holding roots in place, is starting to transition to recognizing soil as a living organism. This is a huge step in the world of organics. There is still so much that we still need to uncover in the realm of soil health, but we are moving in the right direction! We know we need to feed the soil, not the plant. The soil will then feed the plant, but our focus has to be on the SOIL. Nicole talks about the 5 M’s: Mindset, Management, Microbes, Minerals and Organic Matter. Of the 5, mindset is the one of the more difficult to adjust. As Gabe Brown, a key player in soil regeneration, says “Plan to fail once a year.” If you aren’t failing, you aren’t trying enough new things!
A scary reality is that the chemicals we are using on our fields, on our crops and in our food systems are creating generational health problems. We are compromising the health of our children and their children. The research is clear: increased auto-immue diseases, cancer diagnoses, reduced sperm count, and much more. Nicole has made it clear that changes need to be made, and she has answers. Not only answers, but systems that work! You can not only improve your own health and the future of our world, but also be more profitable in your farming or growing operation.
At the end of the day, we need to be in tune with nature. One of the teaching moments Nicole has throughout the book is that of the Moken people and their pure connection with nature. The Moken’s are nomadic sea people that prior to 2004 sustained themselves solely off the supply of the ocean. In 2004, when over 225,000 people died in the Indian Ocean Tsunami, the Moken people only lost one person because they listened to the signs of nature. They knew something was off. If we stay plugged into what the Earth is telling us, maybe we can reverse some of the damage we have done. This is a complex issue we are dealing with, but thankfully we have people in this world that have done the work, have solutions, and hopefully we can make systemic changes.
A glimpse into our last Virtual Book Club
