How can we save the soil, therefore save the planet?

What are the few things that we need to address to see a change?

Photo by Aniket Deole on Unsplash

After watching “Kiss the Ground” on Netflix, I’ve got a larger perspective about our soils, how we exploit them, and what changes we need to make to see some results. Agriculture and overconsumption of food make us hurt the Earth by constantly harrowing the soil every year and hunting down animals until they disappear. That made me fall into the rabbit hole a bit…

Part 1: Vegetation

By plowing the land every year, we leave it wide open and push the carbon dioxide out into the atmosphere. The plants that we use to see on the ground, even if we talk about cereals, vegetables or weeds are a necessity in this matter because they absorb CO2 and keep the temperature at a normal stage. By cutting all of them down (when is the time to clean the land), we see how the air begins to burn (in the figurative sense of the word). That’s why we’ve seen dramatic changes in the past decades when it comes to season. They’re a mess! They’re not aligned anymore. All of this is because we’re not in a so good relationship with nature.

Agriculture is a big part of our lives even though not so many people practice it anymore. Some people truly hate to see mud or to spend time barefoot on the ground, to be around animals and insects or other creatures (not only in large countries). I think because of their need to see order and the fact that they’re used to cities, instant gratification (it’s easy to just buy food at almost any part of the year) they forget that food comes from the ground, and such, we’ll drop our bodies on the ground when we leave this world. It’s funny and sad at the same time how I also live in the countryside but I don’t really partake in agricultural activities and don’t spend a lot of time outside, even if I wish I do.

There is love for nature between us, but our methods of growing plants have changed over the last centuries. Since World War II, the use of pesticides has increased, resulting in nutrient-deficient food, diseases, and other negative aspects. Sadhguru states that 1 orange in 1930 is equivalent to 8 oranges today. That’s not all, there is also a good part. We found methods in which we can still grow plants without harming the ground, by working side by side with animals (those methods were used hundreds of years ago). We let them care for the plants and also we don’t dig the ground anymore. It’s called “permaculture” and if you’re interested in it, here is a link (not sure if is the best resource, but is a start) to help you find out more. They also talk about it in the documentary.

Besides that, someone told me that this year, the Jews leave their soils at peace. That means no plowing, no cultivating. It can be a good idea, but then comes the question: What would I eat? I don’t have an answer for this yet, but my advice for the civilization is to learn how to grow and cook their food. It’s way healthier, it makes you feel good and also gives you different energy when it comes to how you see yourself and the world.

Part 2: Fauna

Animals make a huge part of our diet. I’m not for or against eating meat, I think you should eat whatever you like, without over exaggerating. Food is good for us, even if is animal or vegetal, but I’ve seen some terrible things in other documentaries (links at the end of the post).

We basically steal fish from the oceans, but we don’t take only fish, we also take ocean plants, once more, pushing the CO2 out into the atmosphere. Our mark of plastic in the water is huge, no doubt, but because of those giant trawls, the percentage of plastic skyrockets. The people who fish, can’t catch only a species of creatures, they catch everything that gets in a net, from here results in a huge gap between the small and the big fish. The predators remain empty if their prey is not anymore, so they will disappear. Fish will slowly disappear if we go at a fast pace.

I don’t hate this as much as the fact that we get a lot of food, but we simply can’t eat all. We throw a lot of food every year that we consider rotten and in other parts of the world, people are dying out of starvation. I know we can’t make everything perfect and maybe we can’t help everybody, but at least we can change a bit what we eat and how much we buy because you can’t throw everything out the window.

The cows are another aspect that it’s seen as a problem of global warming. In some other documentaries, they exemplified that deforestation is so high because we need more space to build farms, but not those “permaculture” farms where animals live there on many acres and there are trees and plants (speaking of trees and cows, it’s very healthy for the soil to have trees around and animal excrement on it), but that kind of farms where the animals are sad, and very close to each other. What kind of energy do you think the meat from that cow will give to you? After all: You are what you eat because the food that fuels you become part of you…

As a conclusion

There are more things to be discussed here. That was just a brief scenario of what I had in my mind in the past few weeks. I know things could go wrong sometimes, but there’s always a way to change the direction and the future that we’re facing.

I’m not an expert in any of these fields, I just watched a few documentaries and gained a sense of knowledge about the topics. The opinions are many, I just encourage you, even if you watch or not the materials, to eat better, more nutritious foods, move your body, calm your mind, stay outside for a much longer period, reconnect with nature and with your true self.

Information can be easily misunderstood or hidden. Some people may promote something, while others say something completely different about the same story. Don’t be fooled, a coin has two sides, make your research before jumping to conclusions.

Extra

I hope you enjoyed reading this. It’s my very first blog post. If you strive for more and you’re hungry for knowledge, feel free to watch or listen to: The Joe Rogan Experience #1791- Sadhguru, Kiss the Ground, Cowspiracy, Seapiracy, and Breaking Boundaries: The Science of our planet.