The short answer is yes.
The long answer begins with the dirt.
(photo taken via http://www.nigerdiaspora.net)
Humans have been farming for thousands of years now and somewhere in the last hundred years or so we have completely abandoned all of the knowledge we've gained of farming over our evolution. The problem is we may have became to smart for our own good but lost our sense of nature.
We stripped the soil of its nutrients by planting one crop over and over in the same place and wondered why after only a few cycles the plants weren't growing as quickly as they had the first grow. People were smart enough to realize the plant wasnt getting the amount of nutrients it used to because the previous grows had used up the main nutrients that the particular plant requires to flourish. However instead of quite literally getting to the root of the problem and focusing on the soil, big companies decided that they would bottle some of the nutrients that a healthy soil has naturally and then market it farmers as the bandaid to their wounds but they weren't figuring out what caused the wound in the first place.
When people started trying to add nutrients themselves we disrupted the living organisms in the soil and when this imbalance led to outbreaks in bug and fungi infestations. We again looked away from the root of the problem while we doused the dirt with harmful chemical pesticides to keep bugs and fungi from ruining our crops. The USDA will often claim that these pesticide are not harmful to humans in the low doses used but if i learned anything from environemntal science its that chemicals build up in those higher in the food chain ( such as us) through the process of bioacumulation. bascically a little bit one day wont hurt you too bad, but the more we eat the more poison adds up and a little bit everyday will quickly add up to a harmful dose. The question that arises is If it kills bugs in small doses how would these affect humans in larger ones?
To put this in perspective Can we just take a minute to look at this photo, these guys are spraying these plants with fertilizers for bugs and wearing full protective suits like something out of the movie E.T. they clearly don't want to breathe or even come into contact with these chemicals yet they are spraying food that they intend to give you and I to eat!?
(photo taken via http://www.pinsdaddy.com/spraying-pesticides_38E8hpEO1gQdp*KX31zBYrQNglJw0N95eDwAUFS8ClU/)
After spraying our large fields with pesticides it seemed to work. The bugs were dying, but there was a problem, so were the plants. Here is where things start to get even more sketchy. As our civilization developed and science continued to expand we got into the realm of DNA splicing. Genetically modifying foods by crossing them with traits taken from DNA of other plants or even sometimes animals became a new trend. Again we've made the mistake of not looking at our soil and we turned to our plants and mutilated them. We took Traits from different plants and crossed them with things like corn to created a plants unaffected by these poisons. now the idea was we could poison all the pests without harming the plants. Now with the combination of altered DNA and a salad dressing of pesticides these plants are now so unnatural that when they are introduced to our system our bodies do not recognize them and so have no idea how to break them down. I wont even get into the processing of these foods as i want to stay focused on farming in this post but almost all processing is just even further adulteration of our food to even more alien forms our body doesn't recognize such as high fructose corn syrup out of corn. Since our body doesnt know what to do with these substances they get stored in unnatural fat reserves or break down to compounds that could later cause cancers and other diseases we are only now beginning to realize where they are stemming from but part of it is our unnatural farming practices.
Now lets get to what farming practices were like before we implemented these "advancements" in agriculture and the truth behind bacteria and germs
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(Photo taken via https://unclejimswormfarm.com/product/composting-worms/2000-red-composting-worm-mix-sale/)
A healthy soil should look something like this, it should be full of worms and microbiodiversity that keeps everything in check.
What we didn't realize when we started adding our own chemical fertilizers to our soil is that we were disrupting the micro biology with in it, killing off the bad bacteria we also killed off the good stuff. In a healthy soil the good bacteria actually balances out the bad and certain "pests" are actually good for crops as they naturally go after the ones that aren't.
In healthy soil the good bacteria is finely webbed into the dirt so much so that it actually does a better job at collecting nutrients than any plants roots. By means of their extensive biological "web" the microbes can transfer nutrients from places of abundance to deficient areas thus naturally balancing out the nutrients based on the actual requirements of the plants and microbes within the soil. However there are some nutrients that the microbes can't get down there. The beauty comes in to view when it was realized that by living side by side each other, plants will give up extra nutrients they absorb and or create from the air to the bacteria that need it, and in turn the bacteria provides the nutrients the plants need by drawing from a place of more abundance. This symbiotic relationship between plants and the microbiology is one of the oldest relationships on Earth. The plants and microbes developed along side each other and their relationships evolved to benefit both organisms in such way we are only beginning to fully understand. the fact is the dirt was better before we started messing with it and who are we to think we could beat out the science behind mother natures experiments that took millions of years to carry out and perfect in just a couple centuries? The truth is we may never fully understand just how connected the soil is to the plants but if we go back to the Root of the problem and start focusing on our dirt we just might be able to start fixing the health of both our society and our planet. If you or someone you know works on a farm or even has a small one a backyard i highly suggest looking up organic farming techniques such as making worm farms, composting, and purifying water. I am currently reading about no till farming and the benefits of letting the microbes in the soil do all the work. Of course this is not the complete answer and i do not fully understand the concept or what exactly it would take to implement this large scale but perhaps people should start having more local gardens and veer away from relying on others to grow all their food. There will be new obstacles created in shifting back to nature but i believe poisoning the Earth is not the answer.
Happy farming.
remember, FEED THE SOIL NOT THE PLANTS!
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