Soil Health = Human Health = Environmental Health
If we are to leave the world a better place than we found it, we must all support regenerative principles and this means “soil-first”. For many years, we have called Alegría Farm the “Green Farmacy” because of its powerful healing properties. We respect the healing value of produce grown in biologically-rich living soil, not to mention the intense flavors that result. Our Farmacy provides us with nutrient-dense healing foods that strengthen our human immune system (microbiome) by decreasing chronic inflammation, which is the primary cause of all auto-immune disease.
Regenerative Organic
Why Soil?
The Earth’s soil has been under assault the last six decades and this continued degradation is the root cause of most of the human disease we see today including numerous other environmental factors including climate change and ocean acidification. The soil is the “Earth’s gut” and just like our own human microbiome, how you feed soil determines how healthy the Earth is and how resilient it can be. Environmental health directly affects human health and soil is a place from which we can begin the healing process immediately.
We know more about the Moon than we know about the complex relationships of all the microbes in healthy soil. It is estimated there are over a billion microbes in a teaspoon. Similar to a biodiverse rainforest system, we know we need to create microbial diversity in soil so that plants can strengthen their immune system (increase resilience) and optimize their genetic potential (nutrient-density), just like in humans. Microbial biodiversity is found in humus, the critical organic matter component of living soil that protects the Earth as well as ourselves. The Alegría Farmacy employs its own soil blend using 100% certified organic inputs, including organic dairy and chicken manure and probiotics, plus a full-tank of minerals including probiotic clays, volcanic rock dusts with strong paramagnetism, kelp, sea minerals, and biochar comprising all the essential major, minor and trace minerals required for optimal soil health.
Carbon Farming – Taking into Consideration the True Cost of Carbon and the Benefits
We call ourselves “conscious nutrition farmers”, but what we are actually practicing is “carbon farming.” Carbon is our fantastic friend, but only if used properly and not wasted.
Carbon farming encompasses employing agricultural methods that sequester atmospheric carbon (CO2) into the soil and in the roots, wood and leaves of the plants themselves. Tilling and soil left uncovered without plants results in carbon being released into the atmosphere. Increasing the carbon content of soil increases plant growth and yield, builds soil organic matter and promotes water retention capacity. Reduced fertilizer use and recycling of organics (zero waste anaerobic digestion) lowers the associated emissions of other potent greenhouse gases methane (NH4) and nitrous oxide (NO2) and produces energy and valuable soil amendments. This is a full-circle, zero waste, carbon neutral food production process we need in order to reverse some of the damage done. We must all start taking into consideration the total “carbon cost” of our activities in order to truly understand the true cost of our consumption. The Alegría Farmacy is designed to be carbon neutral and we’ll strive to be carbon negative, which means we will not be releasing any more carbon than we are capturing within the system.
