What Your Food Ate: How to Heal Our Land and Reclaim Our Health
We all know that diet matters and have heard the old adage you are what you eat. But dig a little deeper and the importance of what your food ate comes into focus. For how we treat the soil on farms ripples through to affect the amount of health protective micronutrients and phytochemicals in our crops, and what we feed livestock affects the mix of fats in meat and dairy products. Modern farming practices reliant on frequent tillage, excessive applications of soluble nitrogen fertilizers, and reliance on pesticides have both degraded agricultural soils and reduced the amount of beneficial compounds in foods. Yet in farms in both the industrialized and developing worlds improving soil health through adoption a combination of three transformational regenerative farming practices—minimizing soil disturbance, planting cover crops, and growing diverse crop rotations—offers a profitable way to rebuild the fertility of the soil and thereby reduce dependence on fossil fuels and agrochemicals. Combining ancient wisdom with modern science, regenerative practices can be good for farmers and the environment, translating into farms that use less water, generate less pollution, lower carbon emissions, stash carbon underground, and produce more nutrient-dense food to better support human health. It turns out that what’s good for the land is good for us too.
David R. Montgomery is a MacArthur Fellow and professor of geomorphology at the University of Washington. A geologist by training (Stanford and UC Berkeley), he studies landscape evolution and the effects of geological processes on ecological systems and human societies. His work has investigated the geological controls on the height of mountain ranges, how forestry practices affect landsliding on steep slopes, and how farming practices that degrade soils limit the longevity of human civilizations. An author of award-winning popular-science books, he has been featured in documentary films, network and cable news, and on a wide variety of TV and radio programs. He has written or co-authored award-winning popular-science books that have been translated into ten languages, including Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations, The Hidden Half of Nature, Growing a Revolution, and most recently What Your Food Ate: How to Heal Our Land and Reclaim Our Health. Combining ancient wisdom with modern science, his books show how regenerative practices are good for farmers, consumers, and the environment, and can help feed us all, cool the planet and restore life to the land.