Today is World Soil Day, and here at OWC we are taking time to identify the incredible power of our world’s soil and the need for soil regeneration.
Restoring soil regenerative practices across agriculture and livestock offers incredible benefits that reach far beyond the ground. Our local water and water needs are better met, coastal ecosystems and fisheries thrive, air quality is improved as are the health and wellbeing of the farmers who feed us and the nutritional value of our foods.
Better soil means better life and a better planet. These practices can even help reverse greenhouse gas accumulation and global warming.
At the core of the concept of regenerative agriculture is the idea that there is an extremely complex natural technology within the soil beneath our feet that is more than enough to feed crops sustainably without the need for extra inputs like fertilizer. Instead of relying on added inputs, regenerative farming requires practices like cyclical cover crops to naturally replace the nutrients soil needs to feed a specific crop.
“What’s beneath our feet is about the most important resource on our planet, after water,” says OWC Founder, Larry O’ Connor. “Keeping on our current path leads us to crises few imagine today. About five decades left—little more than 50 harvests—before we we don’t have the soil needed to keep feeding the world. It seems incredulous, but it is true to say—save the soil and save so much more.”
In the video below, O’Connor explains the importance of soil regenerative practices and why sustainability causes—like those championed by Kiss the Ground—are at the core of OWC’s values and processes. To learn more about the restoration of regenerative soil practices, visit KissTheGround.com.