HEALTHY SOIL, HEALTHY PEOPLE by Eva Stricker

Healthy Soil, Healthy People Story by Eva Stricker, photos from the Quivira collection

Carbon Ranch Initiative work for various field trials. Left to right: Sol Ranch, Santa Ana Pueblo, Polk’s Folly Farm, Weaver Ranch.

While there is no question that the COVID-19 pandemic has This organic material helps build the essential soil structures that exposed and exacerbated present divisions in our society, a enable nutrient and water retention, and thus reduces risk of loss multitude of shared values have also become more apparent to leaching and erosion. The great thing about focusing on soil in this crisis. We all miss spending time with our families and health is that it enables us to both revive degraded soils and enhance friends because loved ones are important to us. We all miss travel already productive soils. Just picture the healthy fruits, vegetables, and exposure to new things because learning about the world is and animals that will benefit from the careful management we important to us. We all are alarmed by empty shelves at grocery undertake with the living components of the soil. stores because equitable access to healthy food is important to us. And while we can all feel healthy SOil principleS We have the tools to increase the uptake of carbon dioxide from the overwhelmed by the volume of information regarding which Keep soil covered air via plant photosynthesis and assist the microbes that transform activities are safe as we wait Minimize soil disturbance it into organic matter stored deep for a vaccine or treatment, scientific/technological Maximize biodiversity in the soil. These tools are part of a suite of activities that together innovation and a deeper understanding of this virus Maximize the presence of living roots fall under the five healthy soil principles. By matching are also important to us. In the regenerative community, in which I am a relatively new Integrate animals into land management, including grazing animals, birds, and beneficial insects management to these principles, we can also minimize the release of excess carbon dioxide into the participant, I have witnessed air by reducing external inputs strong affirmation of the shared values of responsible management (like inorganic fertilizers, which often take fossil fuels to produce and the protection of people, soils, plants, and animals in our food and transport). Specific soil management practices may look system. different for each producer depending on their various limitations The reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions over the last can lead to concrete steps that everyone, from backyard gardeners few months points to the possibility of expanding on practical, to multistate operations, can take. common-sense solutions that can help us protect our human and and opportunities, but understanding these healthy soil principles soil health at this critical time, as we forge a path forward from Here in New Mexico and the Intermountain West, we have the the pandemic. We at Quivira Coalition’s Carbon Ranch Initiative opportunity to be leaders in showing how diverse groups of people strive to champion these solutions and support agricultural can connect to shared values to enact change (at Quivira, we call producers who are managing for healthy soils that can absorb this the radical center). We must use this global pandemic to build atmospheric carbon and store it as organic material in the soil. and support programs and approaches that increase resilience and capacity for food, soils, and communities going forward. 41