The Invisible Things

What lies beneath the soil is generally invisible unless we stick our hands into it. It doesn’t take much sifting of American soil before you run into one invisible thing: Race.

Unsurprisingly, I learned about race from a very distant, middle-class, white perspective. Growing up in the upwardly-mobile suburbs of St. Louis, the son of a pharmacist and a lawyer, I had many privileges only now I can fully appreciate. There was always food in the fridge. Always a parent at home when I was home. And so, so many more.

None of the buildings in my hometown were even old enough to have witnessed the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. There are no visible reminders of acrimonious race relations. But, as I've come to see, the reminders of the past are all around us.

It’s easy to get lost in the interwebs looking for good food.

You have enough to worry about between your job, bills to pay, going Beast Mode during CrossFit, soccer practice for the kids, and date nights with your spouse. Finding a directory of quality food so you can nourish your family AND support the local economy shouldn’t be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

What else are you going to do? Ask a farmer who their competitors are so you can browse their products? Yeah, I didn’t think so either.

Regenerative Agriculture is farming with nature rather than against it. Farmers who work regeneratively treat nature like a dance partner rather than a sparring partner.

It’s mimicking on a small, human-directed scale what nature does on a large, wild scale. Regenerative farmers focus on building healthy ecosystems by replenishing the humus which has been lost by centuries of extractive and shortsighted farming methods. They focus on:

Organic matter, hydrology, mineral cycling, ground cover, and plant spacing

NOT

Yield, weeds, disease, pests, artificial inputs, and chemicals

These are seven regenerative farmers who you should know about (or even buy food from).