Breaking Down Silos

Last week I travelled to glorious Orange, where I had the opportunity to learn from one of the best in the business of soil health & systems thinking, Nicole Masters from Integrity Soils Ltd. To be in a room with Nicole and 120 food producers, discussing everything from minerals to microbes, compost to calcium, mindset to manure, epigenetics to Earth worms, and biology to the Bristol stool chart… was an absolute JOY!! I caught up with many friendly familiar faces, and made lots of wonderful new connections. 

I also had the absolute pleasure of speaking with the group about human health principles, regenerative mindsets, monitoring tools, microbiome health, the gut-brain axis (and it's mind-blowing similarities to the plant root-shoot axis) and the concept of reciprocity as being at the heart of regeneration. I also touched on some of the topics I've previous blogged about, such as Weeds & Gut Health, Soil & Gut microbiome, Reciprocal relationships and Climbing the Nutrition Staircase.

On the way home, I was reflecting on my time in Orange and WHY, as a health practitioner, it was so wonderful to be involved. As I've said before, nutrition starts from the soil, not the plate or packet, which means that many of the answers to our nutritional problems lie in the paddocks of our producers. It never ceases to excite me to learn how regenerative farmers are producing nutrient-dense food in a way which regenerates ecosystems and landscapes. The ripple effects are often subtle, but profound.

I'm so grateful for the ever-growing army of passionate, intelligent and curious farmers who care deeply about country, soil and the food they produce. I believe that those in the health and nutrition sectors, have a whole lot to learn from our food producers and soil experts, and vice versa. So, here's to continued collaboration and breaking down sector silos!