In my mind, the short answer is yes! Let me explain.
Everywhere we look today we see the word sustainability, at the grocery store, farm groups are using it, businesses talk about it with their employee’s, transports have it written on the side of them in trucks driving down the Highway. We see it everywhere, and it seems as if it is the catchphrase of the day.
What is Sustainability?
Sustainability means “the endurance of systems and processes” but we have been on a crash course with many of our systems for many, many years. Mainly Particularly, farming, food and rural communities. And to reserve this process, we need to move the discussion from sustainable to regenerative terms.
Some call it AgroecologyAgro Ecology, permaculture, forest farming, some biodynamic, but it all flows back to one principle. Instead of mining the soil, feeding people and animals nutrient dense food that produces healthy eaters and instead of our rural communities becoming ghost towns, where only older generations live we need to start talking about reversing the process.
Enter Regenerate – Farming, Food, Communities
From Sept 29th to Oct 2nd a collaborative group of stakeholders is coming together in London and Ridgetown Ontario to begin the conversation on Regenerative farming practices, Regenerative food, and Regenerative Community bBuilding because if we don’t start now, we are going to have a major problem that no government can solve!
Regenerative Agriculture
Farming for years has only taught farmers how to mine the soil and take nutrients out of it and not replace them or even rebuild the soil so that healthy plants and animals can be created. This is the fundamental difference between the thinking on conventional agriculture and organic agriculture. Healthy plants and animals can fight off pest and disease with a strong immune system and don’t require synthetic fertilisers and chemicals-contrary to what is being taught in most agriculture- related schools.
Regenerative Food
Hippocrates said, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” How much value do we put on real good, nutrient dense food.? It seems like every grocery store you walk into these days has phrases like “food for less”, “why pay more?” as slogans as we walk in. Why don’t we value good food as much as we do health professionals and the long lines at the doctor we are all fighting against these days? Maybe we should start paying our farmers as much as doctors, as they work as hard, if not harder to produce our food.
Regenerative Community Building
Have you ever taken a drive through some of the smaller rural communities many of us grew up in? Ever notice how many stores on the main street are vacant or for lease? We have been losing our youth to the larger urban centres for multiple generations, and we are soon going to have a real problem because who is in these small towns to produce the food on local farms? Nor are there the supporting businesses these communities need to function and thrive.
Join the conversation, learn about these topics as government respond to problems and not plan for the strength of our nation’s. We have been unsustainable for way too long and way outside our means in North America; unless we reframe the questions and start thinking of how to rebuild our soils, food and rural communities chances are we are going to have a HUGE problem on our hands no government can solve.