Regenerative farming provides healthier food from healthier soil –

You are what you eat – eat healthy!

From here:

RFK Jr. Visits Ohio Farm That Shows Regenerative Methods Grow Healthy Food | The Epoch Times

“A multi-generational farm operated by the Jones family, The Chef’s Garden, survived near extinction and crafted a niche serving chefs and restaurants.”

There re are so many “feel good” items in the article, I urge you to click the link and read the entire story.

Here’s few extracts:

“Bob Jones directed an early May tour of The Chef’s Garden, a 400-acre spread that supplies chefs around the United States and the world with “nutrient dense” microgreens, heirloom vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers while serving consumers through direct shipments and a local farm market.”

“Kennedy’s tour of The Chef’s Garden represented his agency’s focus on educating consumers and farmers about the benefits of regenerative agriculture and providing “an off-ramp to farmers who want to transition away from the use of chemicals.”

“Researchers at The Chef’s Garden have discovered that degraded soil biology produces plants that are calorie-rich but nutrient-poor.”

“They had no choice, he recalled, but to grow for flavor and not volume, and grow without chemicals to conserve on costs.”

“Bob Jones describes regenerative agriculture as a group of practices focused on rebuilding soil biology and reducing dependence on synthetic inputs. This includes multi‑species cover crops, more diverse rotations, reduced tillage, and a sharp reduction in pesticides and herbicides, he explained.”

“The Chef’s Garden cultivates more than 600 varieties of produce sourced from seeds across dozens of countries.

The farm’s signatures are microgreens, heirloom vegetables, specialty herbs, and edible flowers. Produce is harvested at its peak and is directly shipped to restaurants and consumers in all 50 states and several countries, Lee Jones noted.

Researchers at The Chef’s Garden’s lab test vegetables for vitamins, antioxidants, and mineral density.”

“Researchers use microbiome-focused tools to analyze soil biology and then places harvested vegetables through chemistry analyzers to measure antioxidants, mineral density, and nutrients.

As soil biology has improved, The Chef’s Garden has cut pesticide use by around 80 percent while maintaining quality and yield, Bob Jones said.”

“We’re very fortunate because in the restaurant business and in the vegetable business specifically, we get to rotate the crop cycles often,” he added.

“Farmers who grow corn and beans will get 40 to 50 crop cycles if they stay in business for their entire life. With lettuce being a 12-week crop and some of the microgreens being a seven-week crop, we get 50 cycles a year. We discover our mistakes, and we learn a lot faster.”

“We happen to believe, and many others believe, that regenerative agriculture can be that tide that raises all ships,” Bob Jones said.

“The healthier soil becomes, the healthier the plants become. The healthier the plants become, the healthier people become. It’s just that simple.”

““Someone told me several years ago that the best way to understand regenerative agriculture is when you understand that you didn’t inherit the land from your grandparents. You’re borrowing it from your grandchildren,” Bob Jones said.

This echoes the NZ Māori belief system that I wrote about several years ago(h/t Barbara).

Here’s a link for those wanting to start their journey into this form of farming:

Regenerative Farm Design Course — Mastodon Valley Farm

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