You’ve heard it a million times: you are what you eat. What you probably haven’t heard is that your food is what your food eats. Researchers estimate that some of today’s fruits and vegetables have lost up to 80 percent of certain micronutrients over the last eighty years due to declining states of soil health, and that means you’re getting fewer nutrients, too.
Nutrient-poor foods are a sign of unhealthy, dead soils. Rich soils have an abundance of organic matter and soil microbes that help plants access the full range of nutrients they need in order to thrive. With proper nutrients, healthy crops are less vulnerable to pests and disease, and therefore can forgo the need for chemical inputs. Healthy soils mean you get more nutrients and fewer chemicals. Simply put, healthy soils = healthy crops = healthy YOU.