The answer is soil: the question is irrelevant! That’s our deepest belief at Finca Luna Nueva. How do we satisfy the bottomless hunger of the mounting human population? How do we remedy the loss of up to 70% of the planet’s topsoil? How do we maintain productivity in the face of climate extremes, including drought and flooding? How do we grow food with enhanced flavor and nutrition? How do we farm with respect to both human society and the ecosystem? In each case, the answer is soil.
And that’s the essence of regeneration. We produce food in a way that year after year increases soil carbon, soil levels, and biodiversity. There are probably as many ways of doing this as there are crops, soil types, human cultures, and growing zones, so we don’t profess to know all the techniques. Working with experts, like our founder Steven Farrell, our long-time friend Rafael Ocampo, and our new colleagues from Porvenir Design and Terra Genesis International, we’ve found some ways that work in our ecosystem with the crops we wish to cultivate.
The accompanying photo is of a newly established cacao field. Note the diversity – cacao, poro trees, a bush called Flemingia, turmeric, ginger, citronella, and coconut palm – situated near our Sacred Seed Sanctuary. These plants will grow handsomely in our already rich soil, and some will be pruned hard to provide nourishment, some will be harvested with minimal soil disturbance, many fix nitrogen, each captures solar energy, and all together they will regenerate soil carbon and the soil itself. This is regenerative agriculture.
And in this way we’ll teach farmers around the world how to grow abundant food while also reversing climate change. This is what we do every day. This is what we live for!
