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There’s a whole lot of discussion around what ‘regeneration’ means, and like anything, it probably means different things to different people. My perspective is that that ‘regeneration’ is not a top-down prescriptive formula, but a bottom-up emergence of greater abundance and equilibrium which happens through the restoration of reciprocal relationships.

Whether we’re talking about relationships within the body, such as the gut-brain axis; or restoration of the reciprocal relationship we have with nature; or culture; or community, or soil microorganisms, or each other… I believe relationships are at the heart of optimal health and true regeneration.

Nutrient density as an example of a reciprocal relationship done well.

Just as beneficial bacteria help to make nutrients available to us in our digestive tracts, soil microorganisms are responsible for making nutrients biologically available to plants. Root symbionts have a profound capacity to increase the nutritional quality of food — on just about all levels — from macro to micro minerals, to a wide spectrum vitamins and beneficial fatty acids. Plants also produce a bewildering arsenal of powerful phytochemicals, and the production of these plant secondary metabolites is triggered by a thriving microbial community. Healthier soil biology = more beneficial secondary plant metabolites.

It is indeed thriving microbial communities in a reciprocal relationship with plants that determines how nutrient dense are food or plant medicine will be, impacting the entire ecosystem, including the animals that forage on those plants (whether that be ruminants, native fauna or us).

How the magic happens…  

When healthy communities of microorganisms are present the in soil, they search for nutrients and act as intelligent filters. As they move through the soil, they are actively seeking out, selecting, and absorbing essential nutrients in the right concentrations, in the right forms, in the right ratios and in the right balances.

Plants THEN have the ability to consume these living microbes whole. These microbes move through the plant to specific places of nutritional need. The nutritional requirement of the plant is then communicated back through these microbes to other microbes, and as a community they work together to extract and deliver what the plant needs to survive and thrive. WOW.

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“Soil Life” – Credit Katie Scott

What happens to nutrients when soil biology is lost?

The nutritional integrity or ‘fitness’ of foods grown in a setting where nutrients can be taken up from the soil in this selective, intelligent way is fundamentally different from the nutritional integrity of food that has been produced without this intelligent filter and process in place. The nutrient profile becomes extremely unbalanced, not only lacking the full spectrum of vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, amino acids and phytonutrients; but also favouring the uptake of potentially harmful constituents (such as cadmium, pesticides, nickel, heavy metals and nitrates for example).

When you consider food and health from this perspective, it becomes clear that both the problems AND solutions to our many of our nutritional and health problems, lie in the paddocks of our producers.

We cannot have nutrient dense foods that contains the full spectrum of micro and micronutrients, or beneficial and medicinal secondary metabolites, unless we have soil that is alive and thriving. We cannot minimise the impacts of harmful environmental contaminants, unless we have soil that is alive and thriving. We cannot have dietary diversity, an incredibly important element of a health promoting diet, unless we have biodiversity.

There are many ways to support farmers who are producing healthy food and regenerating landscapes. Even a little bit of support can go a long way. As healthy ecosystems both above and below ground shows us, a little reciprocity goes a long way!