I had a blog post written and ready to go. I was working on the visuals to go with the post when something happened. My husband had a friend over for a glass of wine. 

My husband is an extrovert. I am a homebody. He pulls me outside my comfort zone and I am grateful 99% of the time…after the fact. It’s a good thing he’s got tenacity.

ANYWAY! He texted me to come in and say hi to our friend, so I did. I asked him about what he’s been up to and asked how his wife is doing. He’s such a nice guy. I was happy to see him. See? 99%.

My husband, who’s excited about what I’m doing and is just as curious about where this will take me as I am, tells our friend about my journey into regenerative agriculture. We chat. 

Our friend asks great questions. 

Then he pauses and says, “This is what I really want to know. When I go into Whole Foods and there are strawberries, some are organic and some are not. What’s the difference?”

The What

Today I’m going to start with the basics, and we will use sweet, delicious strawberries as our example. I am going to give you a simple comparison of a conventional strawberry, an organic strawberry, and a regenerative strawberry. 

The Why

This is the basis of everything I’m trying to learn and share. If we can identify healthier food choices, we become healthier. 

If we know what’s missing, we know what to ask for.

Just the facts, ma’am

The table below shows a very rudimentary comparison of how strawberries can be grown. All 3 images look the same because you can’t tell how something is grown just by looking at it. But what’s on and inside it can be very different, for sure.

Conventional farms can use chemicals to grow the fruit and then coat the fruit with a chemical called an ethylene-action inhibitor to slow the ripening of the fruit so it can travel longer from farm to store without going rotten. Conventional strawberries are also grown in a way that kills soil life, life that would produce food richer in nutrients.

Organic farms that are certified organic (see the next image for the label) must resort to more natural methods to fertilize and ward off weeds and pests. They do not use any chemicals for growing or to slow ripening. Other methods can be used to do that.  They also farm in a way that does help the soil life to an extent, so the fruit produced there tends to have more nutrients than conventional fruits. In summary – no chemicals, and more nutrients.

Regenerative farms, there are only 3 in the world that are officially certified for strawberries (yes only 3), go to the next level. They are like Organic plus. They implement practices that regenerate life in the soil. The strawberries from these farms are chemical free and they cultivate even more nutrients per berry.  Amazing! We want more of these!

If you think you’ve read enough, jump on down to What you can do. But if you’re still curious…

Let’s go down the rabbit hole, shall we?

THE SOIL

Everything starts with how farmers treat their soil. Most of Earth’s soils are depleted. Depleted soils are soils devoid of a rich ecosystem of life – the life that unlocks nutrients for plants. Nutrients = minerals + vitamins + phytonutrients. Soil naturally has minerals present but in a form that is locked away from plants. By using farming methods that encourage soil life (fungi, bacteria, and more), the farmers unlock minerals and add organic matter that can feed plants the nutrients they need, in a form that is digestible. Some of those farming methods are listed in the table above – cover crops, rotation and less tillage or plowing. These methods lead to healthier soils, which in turn, lead to healthier food.

CONVENTIONAL FARMING

Conventional farming is like putting lipstick on a pig. It has, over time, depleted soil on a grand scale. The soil is devoid of bio-available nutrients? Dump on chemical nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium to grow a crop. The soil can’t hold water? Use a LOT of water, all the time to make sure the plant gets some before it dries up or gets carried away. The crops are getting weedy and have pests and diseases? Dump on chemical pesticides and herbicides. Results – a lot of plants that are mere shells of what they could be. This produces quantity, sure, but not quality.  

ORGANIC FARMING

Organic farming pays a lot more attention to the soil. They don’t dump on chemicals, which is huge because many of the chemicals kill the life in the soil. They rotate the crops as different types of plants invite life that makes all sorts of nutrients bio-available in the soil. One result is less fertilizing is needed. For example, legumes, like soybeans and chickpeas, make soils richer in nitrogen because when you plant them, a certain type of fungi that likes their sugars will make nitrogen, naturally occurring in the soil, bio-available for the plant and make an exchange. So the next crop rotated in will find more bio-available nitrogen in the soil.

REGENERATIVE FARMING

Regenerative farming is ALL about soil life. The healthiest of soils has more living organisms in one teaspoon than there are people on the planet. And it’s this soil that grows a more nutrient-dense and robust plant. It does so by taking minerals, like zinc, copper, and magnesium, and making them available for the plant to digest. Without that life in the soil, the plants are not able to “eat” those minerals. And then WE don’t get to eat those minerals. That life also delivers phytochemicals to the plants. Those phytochemicals help the plants fight disease, and guess what – they help US fight disease by strengthening our immune systems.  

I hope this begins to explain some of the differences in the food available for purchase at most grocery stores. If more of us choose to buy organic, more will become available. Consumers like us can influence markets – what farms and food companies provide us. So let’s vote with our dollar as much as we can!

What you can do

1. I’ll say this every time. Buy food with the certified organic alliance label whenever possible. If you can’t find it, buy food that is certified organic.
2. Organic can get expensive. Know which conventional fruits and vegetables tend to have the most chemical residue on them, so you know how to be selective. I understand that working on a budget limits choice. Here are links to the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen and Clean 15. I won’t make you guess – at the top of the list of the Dirty Dozen – Strawberries.
3. Sign a petition to encourage the government to pass a farm bill this fall that supports soil health. This will lead to healthier options at the grocery store.  https://regenerateamerica.com/petition/#/4/
4. Ask me questions in the comments section! I’ve mentioned some terms you might want me to explain (like tillage). I hope this has answered more questions than created them, but I won’t know unless you ask!