By James Skeet
From the inception of Covenant Pathways and Spirit Farm, Joyce and I have long been concerned about the future of our health. As we studied it, especially from policy, medical field, and dietary stances, the more we felt a disconnect between food and food-as-medicine. But it goes deeper than this; the problem is rooted in our soil. Our soils are lifeless because of industrial farming techniques, including overgrazing, plowing, fertilizing, and chemical spraying.
We tried looking at things from a reductionist, AMA perspective but found it wanting. In the end, these modern approaches are contrary to the indigenous ways our ancestors taught us, and we are worse off for following them. So we developed the Indigenous “bio-cosmology” concept, which treats the spiritual and physical realities as one. The word “indigenous” means incorporating local materials and concepts, rather than relying on external inputs. We began to understand soil biology—the microbes, fungi and bacterial—and how it relates to desertification and climate change here in New Mexico. A recent research project helped us confirm our beliefs and allowed us to show the connection between soil health and nutrition levels in the produce. We confirmed that those using local, indigenous materials, (compost and amendments from the local environment) increased the microbe biomass in the soil. We also determined that produce grown in these soils had higher nutrient levels than grocery store and certified organic produce. So you might say, we are often eating junk food, even though we think eating vegetables is healthy. How can food be medicine when it is devoid of nutrition? We return to the fact that microbes in the soil create nutrients that the plants draw up and give to us. As we eat these nutrient-rich foods, the soil microbiome transports to our gut, improving our immune system. Healthy gut microbiomes protect us from the inflammation, cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and food intolerances that cause ill health. We can reconnect with the earth and bypass our industrial food system.
There’s a lot more that has to be done and the one thing we stress at Spirit Farm is that Indigenous Cosmology is our native science. And it produces some of the best vegetables. We believe indigenous people have the answers to get us out of this mess of ill health. More on the research that compares the quality of the soil with foods grown on land amended with microbial rich compost can be found in a blog on our website.
