What a hope-filled celebration we had at our Seeds of Hope Celebration on November 4 at Taliesen! Our Seed Money recipients outdid themselves with wonderful slides and presentations. The room was abuzz from the minute people arrived to their final farewells - all reconnecting with friends and eager to connect with new faces. We basked in the energy that comes when surrounded by like-minds, all united by their love of the earth and its people. The occasion was exactly what our logo states “Connecting Community, Land and People”. The Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa can rejoice that we gave witness to the intent of their mission when they founded Churches’ Center for Land and People in the 1980s.
We thank our recipients for living their lives with purpose and a passion for rejuvenating the land and its people. We will soon have a link to the video of the event which we will share in a future newsletter and on our website.
By Roger T. Williams
Does soil have soul? The second annual Soul of the Soil Conference made a compelling case for this idea by weaving together that when soil, the basic building block of all life, is functioning properly, it leads to healthier plants, people, and communities. The conference was held September 5-6 at Sinsinawa Mound and was hosted by the Fields of Sinsinawa, a farmer-led learning center in far southwestern Wisconsin.
Anne Bikle, one of the first presenters and author of What Your Food Ate: How to Heal Our Land and Reclaim Our Health, stated that routine tilling and extensive use of chemicals and fertilizer is destroying our soil. Thus, the nutrient density in our foods has declined dramatically over time (copper down 76%, iron, 27%, calcium, 46% and magnesium, 24%). Bacteria, fungi and protozoa are out-of-sight, out-of-mind, yet they are essential for soil health. Integrating animals onto the land is one of the best ways to improve this “microbiome” of the soil.
Many of the other conference sessions focused on basic principles for soil health: 1) minimize soil disturbances, 2) maximize soil cover, 3) provide continual living roots, 4) increase biodiversity, and 5) integrate livestock on the land. Wisconsin farmer Peter Allen emphasized the importance of a paradigm shift: from farms as factories and humans disconnected from the land to farms as ecosystems with humans as a Keystone species, managing the land with these principles in mind. Monte Bottens farms in Illinois, without the use of fungicides, insecticides and GMO seeds, argued that farmers should not be morons (putting “more on” the land every year)! Kelly and DeAnna Lozensky agree. On their farm in North Dakota they have transitioned from a “conventional big ag farm” selling commodities. Now they “grow actual food” and sell it through their own food company as flour, pasta and grains. They emphasized that their mission now is to feed and protect the soil as well as to feed and protect their family and community.
The second annual Soul of the Soil conference would not be complete without a return visit by the Minnesota musical group Six Feet Deep. Their humorous, yet thoughtful lyrics added just the right touch to a wonderful thought-provoking conference. Here are the opening lines of their song “Back to Soil:”
Well, if you study history, then you’ll know.
The empire falls when the topsoil goes.
The signs today are pretty clear to read
Soil’s looking bad and we’ve lost six feet.
But here’s the news, we could build it back
And I heard about farmers with a plan for that.
So, I paid one a visit, we sat to chat’n and that
one cup of coffee set me on a whole new track.