18 As for soil, living soil is a complex food web teeming with life. One cubic meter can hold more than 5,000 earthworms, 50,000 insects and mites, and 12 million roundworms. One gram can contain 30,000 protozoa, 50,000 algae, 400,000 fungi and billions of bacteria. This life in the soil is what rejuvenates soil fertility and makes nutrients available to the plants that support our agriculture. Yet the agricultural industry adopted the myth that synthetic fertilizers can increase food production, independent of soil life, as they remove the ecological limits to food production. This myth is supported by the construct of yield – a measure of the weight of the commodity that leaves the farm. It is not a measure of the nutritional value of food produced from the land, nor does it take account of the condition of the land after harvest. The use of artificial fertilizers has resulted in the death of soil life, and therefore in the reduction of soil fertility. Meaning that nutrition per acre has decreased. The cycling of carbon and nitrogen through the soil has been disrupted. The hydrological cycle is negatively affected. Industrial agriculture is inherently water intensive. It uses ten times the water to produce the same amount of food as ecological agriculture. This is the primary reason why water is being mined, leading to water scarcity in large parts of the world. Chemicals and synthetic fertilizers also destroy the water holding capacity of previously living soil. All humans have the same rights to food and water, clean air and a safe and healthy environment. Human beings, as part of the Earth, have the natural rights to be alive, well and healthy. The right to life means the right to breathe and have clean air, the right to water and freedom from thirst, the right to food and freedom from hunger, the right to a home, to belonging, to land, to the sustenance and livelihoods that soil and land provide. Since we depend on nature for sustenance, destruction of nature translates into violation of human rights to food, water, life and livelihood. All ecological problems have common roots in the denial of the Earth as a living system, and in the violation of the limits of her ecological cycles and processes. The violation of the integrity of species and ecosystems, the breaking of ecological limits, planetary boundaries, cultural integrity and diversity are at the root of multiple ecological emergencies the Earth is facing, and of social and economic emergencies humanity is facing. Industrial agriculture is responsible for the destruction of soil, water and biodiversity of the planet. At this rate, if the share of fossil fuel-based industrial agriculture and industrial food in our diet is increased anymore, we will have a dead planet. Biodiversity, the diversity of species, their mutuality and interconnectedness create the web of life, maintain the living planet and the infrastructure of life. The emergencies humans face in terms of hunger and thirst, disease and pandemics are rooted in the ecological crises and in the crises of injustice, inequality, and inhumanity. The multiple crises and pandemics we face today – the health pandemic, the hunger pandemic, the poverty pandemic, the climate emergency, the extinction emergency, the emergency of injustice, exclusion and inequality, dispossession, and disposability of large numbers of humanity – are all rooted in a worldview based on the illusions of separation and superiority which deny the interconnectedness and oneness of all. The anthropocentric assumption that humans are separate from nature and superior to other species who have no rights is not just a violation of the rights of our fellow beings, but also a violation of our humanity and human rights. Scientists are now finding out that cooperation shapes evolution, not competition. From the molecules in a cell, to organisms, ecosystems and the planet as a whole, cooperation and mutuality are the organizing principles of life. Indigenous cultures have always organized themselves as members of the Earth community working in cooperation to maintain the infrastructure and well-being of life. As for technology, in a mechanistic paradigm, chemical, mechanical and genetic technologies become the measure of the sophistication of a health system. But technologies are tools. Tools must be assessed on ethical, social and ecological criteria. Tools and technologies have never been viewed as self-referential in Indian civilization. Instead, they have been assessed in the context of contributing to the well-being of all. Food systems need to regenerate biodiversity4 in order to provide more food for more species and more people so no one is hungry, no one is malnourished, and no one is sick with chronic diseases. We need to rewild our minds, our food, and our food systems. Rewilding also means regenerating biodiversity on our farms and forests, and rewilding our gut microbiome, our bodies, and our minds. Rewilding food also includes undoing the historic injustices perpetrated against indigenous people and tribals. It includes bringing people and food back into the forests, and trees and animals back on farms. 4 www.navdanyainternational.org/rewilding-food-rewilding-our-mind-rewilding-the-earth/
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