Culture of Care: "Annadana" and Regenerative Agriculture

 

For the last blogpost, I would like to expand more on “Annadana: The Gift of Food” by Vandana Shiva, included in the anthology Spiritual Ecology. I will also be drawing from my own experience, working on a regenerative farm, and how my experience upholds what Vandana Shiva speaks on. 

In her talk titled “Ecofeminism and the Decolonization of Women, Nature and the Future,” Shiva gave a different definition to the term “agriculture” than the one most people think of when hearing the term. Shiva referred to agriculture as “The culture of care.” She went on to say that agriculture is “the culture of love. Good agriculture cares for the land. Chemical agriculture is a war against the land. And we are connected to the Earth and to other species through the circulation of nutrition and food.” I will use this quote as a preface for this blogpost. 

Most people, especially in the United States, do not view agriculture as a caring practice because it is being done wrong. Land used for conventional agriculture is simply over used, over processed and overworked. Conventional farmers are being forced to find the solutions to combating dead soil, as we only have “60 harvests left in the world.” Unfortunately, most conventional farmers are looking for the answers in areas that do not give back to the Earth; resorting to harmful chemicals and fertilizers, which only strips the land of organic matter even more. This has been done before and has brought us to the climate crisis we are in now. 

Alternative solutions such as urban farming are also receiving more attention, especially in large cities. However, a recent article from the Anthropocene Magazine explains the troubles with urban farming. Overall, I would like to argue that indigenous farming techniques, regenerative agriculture and permaculture deserve the titles “culture of care” and “culture of love”. These methods are not only practices that contribute to the web of life, but they are forms of prayer. Regenerative agriculture and permaculture are landcare practices that rehabilitate the land and soil. These practices were derived from indigenous practices. Indigenous people have been known to work with the land and not against the land. Diversity is a crucial aspect in preserving land and cultivating food. Read more about Indigenous and regenerative agriculture here and here. 

The food we eat, the food that nourishes us, is a gift from the earth, from the sun, from millions of years of evolution. … It is also a gift from the farmers, livestock herders, fisher folk, who till the land, care for animals, and harvest fish. When we forget the earth from where we receive our food, food becomes non-sustainable. Food is life. Food is not just our vital need: it is the web of life. 

I agree with these words of Shiva’s, but I also believe that there is no one solution or format for an entire community or world of people. I believe diversity to be a crucial factor in “the web of life.” I believe that regenerative farming is a major solution for all land, but a diverse range of methods and practices are needed for specific weather climates and landscapes. Hence my belief that there is no one solution for the world. Soil all over the world continues to be unique to its specific environment, which means the ecosystems that uphold a healthy soil quality are vastly diverse and different from each other too. What is able to grow in one place, may not be able to grow in another. That should be respected, and in no way altered or manipulated by the human hand. 

There’s a specific connection that humans can build with nature over a period of time, a pure and karmic connection that one can create if and only if one respects the web of life, if and only if one gives more than he or she takes, if and only if one not only plants and waters the seeds to grow, but regenerates the soil from which that seed is growing. This connection can also be a form of spirituality. I would argue that working with the land is the greatest spiritual practice. 

 I've recently had the opportunity and time to work on a mostly regenerative farm. Regenerative agriculture has the power to reverse climate change by rebuilding soil organic matter and restoring degraded soil biodiversity, resulting in both carbon drawdown and improving the water cycle. But I think it’s important to understand/appreciate that regenerative farming is nothing new. It is an indigenous land care practice, as I stated before. The time I spent working on the farm and with the soil, was a consistent spiritual practice and form of prayer or meditation. 

Above is a photo I took at the farm I worked on. It shows a soil quality test I did as a little experiment. Both soils are organic. But can you guess which soil is from 100% regenerative farming practices? The hand on the left displays the regenerative soil. By the darker shade you can tell that this soil looks (and is) richer; it is better able to retain water and organic matter. The hand on the right displays the non-regenerative soil; it is clumpy, dried out, and unable to retain water or uphold organic matter. Which soil would you prefer your food to come from? To me the answer is obvious just by the looks! I want to highlight my time on the farm as well as the experiment done to show the difference between both soils. The soil that had organic matter added to it, ultimately was richer. My point is this: giving back to the land is giving back to not just ourselves, but all diverse ecosystems within and without. 

In a talk at the 2016 Indian Summer Festival, in Vancouver, Vandana Shiva highlit Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. She mentioned that Silent Spring was a huge inspiration for her and the ways she defines how war chemicals were introduced to the land. Chemicals were added to the land in hopes to increase crop yield. While crop yield increased, the soil was and is slowly dying as a result. The use of chemicals in agriculture operates under misguided ideas. 

“What is called industrial farming, is a continuation of war…” is a heavily powerful quote by Shiva. Agriculture based on war chemicals freaks me out. It scares me because ultimately humans are inflicting pain and suffering upon themselves by adding toxic chemicals to the land from which we eat. Humans are at war with not only nature and the ecosystems involved, but with our own gut biome and our futures. 

Humans are part of nature. That may not be obvious to many of us given our circumstances and how we have abused our power in relationship to the environment, but humans have an important role to play. Humans have an advantage over many other species. Because of that advantage and privilege, we must use our hands for the good of the Earth and contribute mindfully to the web of life. Instead of being an invasive species that threatens entire ecosystems, we have the choice to be a species that will uphold and help ecosystems thrive. 

(JD)