When Olympia Brewery at Tumwater Falls was running strong the famous slogan for its beer was “It’s the Water!” And there was truth in that.
However, what few people realize is that a similar slogan, “It’s the Soil!,” applies equally to the nutritional quality and taste of food produced in this part of the state. Good soil will yield good food and poor soil will yield inferior food. The quality of crops cannot be gauged by the quantity grown. Furthermore, inferior food will lead to poor health and high medical bills. It’s that simple. Yet, we shamefully are disregarding these basic, inescapable facts and consequences.
How Healthy are Thurston County soils?
What most people living in Thurston County, including most farmers and gardeners, also don’t realize is that our local soils suffer a big handicap compared to soils in many other parts of the United States, such as in eastern Washington. And it has always been that way. This is because of an overabundance of that natural ingredient that made Olympia beer so great tasting, namely the water that has fallen on our soils over the centuries and millennia, thereby leaching and washing away the critical minerals (faster than they are replaced) necessary to grow healthiest nutrient-dense crops and livestock forage. The ramifications of this are huge, though seldom considered.
(See linked Chart for Comparative Soil Mineral Composition of Washington Soils)
Mismanagement and neglect of farm soils over the past century, due to ignorance or disregard and false economic thinking, compounds the problem. But, this can be fixed, and must be, for the sake of Thurston County residents’ food supply, health and well-being into the future.
We don’t usually think of County government having a role and responsibility to correct and protect agricultural soils and look after their real capacity to produce food that truly nourishes the consuming citizenry. This has always been left to the discretion and judgment of the farmers to handle as they see fit.
But what if most farmers are operating on the basis of outmoded thinking and practices shown to be failing based on the evidence of rapidly deteriorating soils, worsening economics for farmers and sky-rocketing increases in degenerative diseases largely traceable to declines in the nutrient content in foods, including livestock? Do we just accept that and make no attempts to correct those faults?
Ordinarily, such a posture would be seen as short-sighted. At the very least the County could go to work on providing greater guidance to farmers and the public, including sound dietary advice touting nutrient-density advantages. Instead of looking for catchy phrases to market their produce, farmers need to market health.
The Benefits of Restoring the Soil
For the sake of food security and sustainability of agricultural practices with minimal adverse environmental impacts we need to think differently, adopt new and enlightened food policies and agricultural practices and get started on them right away. Bold actions and programs are needed if significant advances are to be made with regard to improving food supplies, soil health and people’s health. It is not enough to consign these matters to certain departments and agencies and treat the matters as settled or out of sight and out of mind.
Education of the public and farmers themselves, including new and well-trained prospective farmers, needs to get underway guided by a new, science-based, ecological approach. A great benefit of ecological agriculture methods (that actually go back to the 1930s) is that they can be successfully implemented without using synthetic pesticides and polluting forms of fertilizers, but also greater sophistication than has been employed for many years in organiculture.
In addition to superior taste, a surprising number of benefits come out of supplying correct and full fertility and improving soil conditions. These include better “shelf life,” rot resistance and high resistance to diseases and pest insects as a consequence of immunity provided by superior nutrition in and from proper soil fertility treatment via professional soil test prescriptions. If the public wants superior, health-protective foods, they must accept that they have to pay farmers for it.
Additionally, if we want to guarantee real sustainability for our soils and our society, effectively reducing pressure on the limited land availability and fertilizer supply, we will implement biochar incorporation on both backyard gardens and large-scale farms. The beauty of biochar is that it can be made with scrap materials nobody has any use for. Furthermore, the production of biochar makes a sizable contribution to reducing adverse climate change by sequestering carbon (from CO2 emissions) for centuries. Such a large-scale biochar making facility could be set up at the County landfill site, turning waste wood disposal into a bonanza for farm soils, farmers and planetary healing.
Achieving Food Security in Changing Times
There is no getting around the fact that abused and depleted soils will have to be restored if we wish to have quality food in adequate supply beyond the near term. While enough fossil fuel supply currently exists it will remain possible to source “foods” of questionable quality from California, Mexico and elsewhere, but it surely is preferable to rely on fresh, local foods of known nutritional quality, as much as possible, should the long-haul transportation system get disrupted or discontinued. Self-sufficiency in food supply makes much sense, particularly if that food is superior in what it can do to maintain our health.
There is a heightened concern for preserving our County’s remaining agricultural lands which will certainly be needed for food production in the near future. A major charge of the Agriculture Advisory Committee is to monitor and curb the loss of agricultural lands in the face of development pressures. This is a very big job and hard to stay on top of.
However, if we place the emphasis on upgrading the nutrient quality capacity of existing agricultural lands, we could ensure a continued adequate food supply in the face of rising population growth and food demand. It is a fact that those who consume highly nutritious foods require less food to satisfy their hunger and their body’s needs for health maintenance.
If we adopt favorable policies, like loans, financial incentives and taxation measures, for farmers to employ the needed management practices, we could assure farmers stick to farming rather than selling their farms with the likelihood those farmlands will get converted to other uses.
Farming that prioritizes healthy soil and nutrient dense foods will require the re-education of current farmers and the recruitment and training of new farmers, another major charge for the Advisory Committee to address. New and reimagined teaching materials and persuasive programs with special incentives will be needed to ensure widespread participation. A majority of today’s farmers are 60 and older. Young would-be farmers are confronted with overwhelming obstacles to getting into farming and on the land. This is a situation that can no longer be allowed to continue.
On the consumer end, an equally intensive campaign will be needed to get people aware of the benefits of buying locally produced and more nutritious foods. It is a fact that those who consume highly nutritious foods require less food to satisfy their hunger and their body’s needs for health maintenance. Presently, more than 75% of “foods” consumed by Americans are refined and fake foods and junk “food” and we wonder why degenerative diseases have sky-rocketed up along with “healthcare” costs.
College level classes and courses, workshops and demonstration farms will be needed to educate food system providers and consumers resulting in a healthier population and a strengthened local economy.
Taking our Agricultural Future by the Horns
Changing all of this would be a very big undertaking. We have to start somewhere. Where would the funding come from? State and Federal grants or allotments may provide for some of it. The public needs to be informed of the critical need to prepare. We all have to eat every day. We must assure that enough good food will always be available, preferably of highest quality. Thus, radical changes are needed to get us off the stagnant status quo, no-action assumption that it will all work out. Thurston County government needs to be aggressively pro-active. A sustainable future will not arise from indifference and perpetual postponement. Money for conservation in the form of a Conservation Futures tax assessment presently exists. If the public realizes that the loss of farmland is almost inexorable (the way things are going), that food produced by ecological agriculture methods is nutritionally superior to what is mostly available presently, and that local farmers will benefit long-term the more they buy such foods, it is very reasonable to expect they will support the creation of an Agriculture Futures program as being in their best interest. We have little rational choice but to go for it.
Gary L. Kline is an owner of Black Lake Organic Nursery and a member of Thurston County’s Agricultural Advisory Committee
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