3 ms·

There's a ton individuals can do. The societal solutions to this has been around from decades, if not centuries. Look up the documentary called Kiss the Earth

by hosh 5y ago

There's a ton individuals can do. The societal solutions to this has been around from decades, if not centuries. Look up the documentary called Kiss the Earth for a good intro that covers this and more. As far as individuals goes, you can look for food sourced locally using regenerative agriculture -- agroforestry, permaculture, etc. The farm is usually operated as a diverse ecosystem that is designed to grow the soil as part of an integrated effort. They usually have livestock raised with the crops. None of this stuff is really new and doesn't require bleeding edge technology. We've had people practicing these things for a very long time. There are also other things you can do to take more direct action as an individual: grow your own food, participate in communities that are planting and growing a food forest in parks, participate in composting, or better yet, compost on-site for your garden.

nitrogen 5y ago
They usually have livestock raised with the crops. People stopped doing this because of parasites, prions, and other pathogens like salmonella.
- hosh 5y ago
  They stopped doing that because feed grain was subsidized and it was easier to put the livestock all together. It was a race to maximize yield by specializing on one cash crop or one livestock. Can’t do much about prions. That wasn’t even discovered until after broad use of synthetic fertilizers. Parasites can be an issue. Salmonella can also be an issue. But I think they are still an issue on ranches where livestock have to live with each other’s waste. As far as salmonella getting into the crops ... it can’t survive more than a few hours outside of a host.
  - nitrogen 5y ago
    As far as salmonella getting into the crops ... it can’t survive more than a few hours outside of a host. If that's the case, then why have there been multiple recalls of produce and peanut butter for salmonella contamination?
    - hosh 5y ago
      I don't know why. I had looked it up once because I have backyard chickens. I had found an article talking about the few hours thing, but when I looked for it again, I found these: https://www.reference.com/world-view/long-can-salmonella-live-surfaces-70d62a8b3daa60e2 https://www.reference.com/world-view/long-can-salmonella-liv... This one talking about salmonella surviving on surfaces for months. https://news.cornell.edu/stories/1997/12/salmonella-fact-sheet https://news.cornell.edu/stories/1997/12/salmonella-fact-she... This one has more specifics: > Salmonella bacteria love wet environments shielded from the sun. They have the remarkable ability to survive under adverse conditions. They survive between the pH’s of 4 to 8+, and can grow between 8 and 45 C. Salmonella are facultative anaerobic bacteria that can survive under low oxygen tension such as in manure slurry pits. Salmonella are known to survive for long periods in soil and in water. Salmonellae spread onto fields in the form of manure may survive for long periods; it is best to spread the manure onto flat land (to prevent runoff problems) where it is exposed to the drying effects of wind, and to the bactericidal effect of UV irradiation from the sun; manure should be spread onto cropland rather than onto pastures for grazing. I think the article I got was talking about how long salmonella can survive in the sun. (I live in Phoenix). I was wrong about salmonella surviving only a few hours outside the body, though it seems there are circumstances where exposure to UV light from the sun and drying out can kill the salmonella faster. In that same paragraph, it also mentions the best practice is to spread it onto cropland rather than pastures for grazing. In the regenerative practices I was talking about, the grazing animals are frequently rotated through sections of pasture. It might be a full year before they are rotated back onto the same section again. On other farms, the pasture is actually no-till cropland that have cover grown on it, and probably sectioned off as well. On feedlots, the livestock all confined together. You have to keep up with clearing the manure, and I think it is more likely for pathogens to infect the whole herd, than when you are rotating the livestock to new pastures.
mikehotel 5y ago
I found this map/lookup tool linked from their website to be useful for finding local farms to support: https://regenerationinternational.org/regenerative-farm-map https://regenerationinternational.org/regenerative-farm-map

by hosh 5y ago

nitrogen 5y ago

They usually have livestock raised with the crops. People stopped doing this because of parasites, prions, and other pathogens like salmonella.

hosh 5y ago
They stopped doing that because feed grain was subsidized and it was easier to put the livestock all together. It was a race to maximize yield by specializing on one cash crop or one livestock. Can’t do much about prions. That wasn’t even discovered until after broad use of synthetic fertilizers. Parasites can be an issue. Salmonella can also be an issue. But I think they are still an issue on ranches where livestock have to live with each other’s waste. As far as salmonella getting into the crops ... it can’t survive more than a few hours outside of a host.
- nitrogen 5y ago
  As far as salmonella getting into the crops ... it can’t survive more than a few hours outside of a host. If that's the case, then why have there been multiple recalls of produce and peanut butter for salmonella contamination?
  - hosh 5y ago
    I don't know why. I had looked it up once because I have backyard chickens. I had found an article talking about the few hours thing, but when I looked for it again, I found these: https://www.reference.com/world-view/long-can-salmonella-live-surfaces-70d62a8b3daa60e2 https://www.reference.com/world-view/long-can-salmonella-liv... This one talking about salmonella surviving on surfaces for months. https://news.cornell.edu/stories/1997/12/salmonella-fact-sheet https://news.cornell.edu/stories/1997/12/salmonella-fact-she... This one has more specifics: > Salmonella bacteria love wet environments shielded from the sun. They have the remarkable ability to survive under adverse conditions. They survive between the pH’s of 4 to 8+, and can grow between 8 and 45 C. Salmonella are facultative anaerobic bacteria that can survive under low oxygen tension such as in manure slurry pits. Salmonella are known to survive for long periods in soil and in water. Salmonellae spread onto fields in the form of manure may survive for long periods; it is best to spread the manure onto flat land (to prevent runoff problems) where it is exposed to the drying effects of wind, and to the bactericidal effect of UV irradiation from the sun; manure should be spread onto cropland rather than onto pastures for grazing. I think the article I got was talking about how long salmonella can survive in the sun. (I live in Phoenix). I was wrong about salmonella surviving only a few hours outside the body, though it seems there are circumstances where exposure to UV light from the sun and drying out can kill the salmonella faster. In that same paragraph, it also mentions the best practice is to spread it onto cropland rather than pastures for grazing. In the regenerative practices I was talking about, the grazing animals are frequently rotated through sections of pasture. It might be a full year before they are rotated back onto the same section again. On other farms, the pasture is actually no-till cropland that have cover grown on it, and probably sectioned off as well. On feedlots, the livestock all confined together. You have to keep up with clearing the manure, and I think it is more likely for pathogens to infect the whole herd, than when you are rotating the livestock to new pastures.

mikehotel 5y ago

I found this map/lookup tool linked from their website to be useful for finding local farms to support: https://regenerationinternational.org/regenerative-farm-map https://regenerationinternational.org/regenerative-farm-map