Beyond Organic: Buy Regenerative!

Improving soil health is an overlooked key for nutrient-dense food and a healthier planet. We can support farming that has this focus through the products we purchase.

- By Melissa Diane Smith

Q I was blown away when I saw the documentary Kiss the Ground, and learned how important regenerating the soil is to so many things, including growing nutrient-dense food that keeps us healthy, efficiently absorbing both carbon dioxide and water, and positively impacting weather extremes. What are the best ways I can take action as a consumer to support regenerative farming?

Most people don’t understand how critical healthy soil is for supporting a web of health and environmental matters they care about—everything from producing nutritious food and conserving water when growing crops to stabilizing Earth’s climate.

As Kiss the Ground (now on Netflix) explains, in many areas of the world where crops historically have been grown, a process called “desertification” is occurring: Land has turned, or is turning, into desert or bare ground. Chemical fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, and other farming practices have killed off living organisms in the soil. The result is that living, fertile soil becomes dirt. Because it is depleted in nutrients and important microorganisms, dirt doesn’t efficiently absorb and hold water. It floods easily, leads to toxic runoff, can’t withstand weather extremes, and produces poor-quality food—or no food at all.