Mimic Nature

My work in natural foods

My work in natural foods has always been very satisfying. The people who work in this business are genuine and with no pun intended, very much grounded and down-to-earth. The general point of view amongst those who work in this business is that we should be kind to the planet, and if and when needed, do our part to help heal the planet.

That attitude manifests itself in the push for organically-grown, chemical-free ingredients on the food side of my business; and even in supplements, there is growing emphasis on deriving raw materials that go into the manufacture of nutritional supplements from food-based sources rather than synthetic ones.

One of the pioneer food-based vitamin companies was MegaFoods. A promotional sign in my store shows the distinctive yellow MegaFoods label next to a rural farmscape with the words:

“We’re ‘besties’ with farmers because you don’t buy 500 million tons of produce from strangers.”

And now, a new supplement company known as True Grace is taking MegaFoods’ lead a step further. True to the “healing the earth” sentiment among natural food enthusiasts, True Grace is emphasizing that their raw materials are not just food-based, but come from farmers who practice biodynamic farming, otherwise known as regenerative agriculture.

You see, there is increasing evidence that organic farming is not enough. That even with organic farming our foods are becoming nutritionally deficient because over time our soils are losing their nutritional foundation. In their promotional material, True Grace talks about how America’s top soils could become completely depleted of nutrients in 53 years unless American farmers change course. Hence the need for this new kind of biodynamic farming that works on retaining and replenishing the nutrients in our soil.

For those who want to learn more, I refer you to the best overview of regenerative agriculture and its contrast to organic farming I have seen.

There is one key takeaway in this piece. It sums up ‘regenerative agriculture’ like this:

“It’s growing food and agricultural products in a way that mimics nature.”

Just like the design of my healing homes, and just like the discipline of Building Biology, regenerative agriculturists’ work is built on the notion that the optimal environment for human health and ecology can only come about when our work emulates nature. In short, we need to look no further than the natural environment to find paradigms we can follow to ensure our homes are healthy.

More about that in my next post.

Wishing you Health, Happiness.

Mark Ahlheim