Dirt!

We watched Dirt last night. Wow. I feel like standing on the tallest building and shouting to everyone to take note, listen, act, make a difference. Why don't people see? But I understand. I wasn't ready for the message 2, 3 or 4 years ago. I evolved.
I want to write a profound post, a post that everyone reads and the lightbulb goes on, but I'm not such a writer....
Taking care of our dirt is so important.....the dirt is the basis for everything. It is the cause of wars and mass migration. When dirt dies, there is no food. Africa. The film footage we have to watch of starving people we try not to look at. The french scientist Pierre Rabhi went to the African country Berkina Faso (I'd never heard of it either) and turned a desert into farmland that supports 100,000 farmers. By taking care of the dirt, so much can be done. An informative interview HERE.
Monsanto and Monoculture destroys the dirt.
Monsanto claims that their gm seeds are the answer to world hunger but they neglect to mention the downside of their technology. Instead of diverse, sustainable farming methods monoculture crops such as canola, wheat, soybeans, corn and rice require not only the purchase of their seeds but also expensive equipement to apply the pesticides and then to harvest. (Not to mention the long term health implications of pesticide use....) They also don't address all the nutritional needs of starving peoples.....Some crops, such as GM cotton require more fertilizer than regular cotten, which led to the suicides of many bankrupt farmers in India = they were never told they had to not only buy the seeds but also extra fertilizer....

Hundreds and thousands of acres of forest are being cut down, the land farmed out and then more forest being cut down. With proper farming techniques the land could be utilized properly and forest could be saved. Why is this so hard to understand and implement?

The dirt dies with monoculture. Diversity leads to flexibility with changes in the environment from year to year. Organic and sustainable farming builds the dirt. The dirt is protected from erosion and thrives providing for us.

Why is there no labeling if GM is no big deal?

The big deal is that people may not buy GM out of principle, even if the food proves to be the same......which is debateable....

I feel so helpless when I see where the world is heading.


The movie particularly hit home for me as our farm was as described....an overfarmed, overfertilized, overpesticided monoculture with decreasing yields and increasing pestification......read our story here.

"Africa is not poor. Ethiopia alone, if properly cultivated, could feed the entire African continent." - Pierre Rabhi, Dirt! The Movie