Growing Food Like A Forest continued...
Tom Newmark: This is a neotropical regenerative farm. And the whole idea of being a regenerative farm is that after every after every harvest, the soil is richer. There's more organic matter in the ecosystem than there was before the harvest. We're not here giving "achtung" demands to Mother Earth. We're here to have a conversation with Mother Earth. Not a one way conversation, but a two way conversation with Mother Earth. We're exploring with Mother Earth what we can produce in a way that will nourish her.
Téana: There’s a deep spiritual component.
Tom: In a way, everything here is done spiritually. It's done as an offering to Gaia. It's done to nourish the ecosystem. And so we're not here with the plow, rip apart the body of mother earth as you sometimes might see in a national organic, linear, bare earth certified organic farm. That's what those people do. That's not what we do. That's not the way we think you should farm.
Téana : Yes. My herbal medicine teacher, Susan Weed once said, as we were walking in the forest in upstate New York, "what would happen if we cleaned the forest?" And we all thought for a second, "clean the forest ... I think it would die." She said, "yes, that's right. If we cleaned the forest, it would die." And that's something I've noticed walking around your farm: leaves that fall from the trees are able to stay there and be used as mulch, as ground cover. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Tom: Yes. So we're here in the human tropics. So when when leaves fall they will decompose very quickly and leaves are constantly falling between one to two percent of the canopy of the rainforest actually comes down every year creating light gaps. And there was a constant contribution of organic matter that falls onto the surface of the soil. And then there are decomposing micro-organisms in the forest and on our farm that are breaking down that organic matter and creating what I think you could call "fast food." The breaking down of organic matter creates a quick blast of nourishment for the farm and for the forest. And then the slower food would be the carbon storage that occurs in the top soil, in the structure of the soil organic matter. And that's not created by decomposing micro-organisms, by the fungi and bacteria that, that breakdown the soil, those are created by the composing micro-organisms, the soil food-web that will take the sunlight and the root exudates and the sugars that are pumped into the soil by the plants to create more complex long term structures of organic matter. And that's the slower food.
Téana: There’s a lot going on under our feet.
Tom: Right, and then as you go deeper into the soil, you get the really slow food that might be resident in the soil for hundreds or thousands of years. And then ultimately what you get the slowest food of all, which would be the more inorganic structures of carbon, which basically never breakdown. So you have, as in the ocean, trophic levels, there's fast food at the very surface, the O horizon of organic matter breaking down very quickly. And then you have in the A horizon, which is very deep and rich. Here you have the rich soil organic matter, which is contributed to the ecosystem by the sun, pulsing through the photosynthetic processes of the plant, creating carbohydrates, which then are exuded out into the the the living soil by plant roots feeding and nourishing the structures of the soil, creating the slower food, which is the domain of an infinite variety of life.
At the root tip, there are literally countless millions of micro-organisms in every thimble full of soil and healthy soil. There could be six billion micro-organisms and at the root tip there will be one hundred times that number in an infinite variety of life. We're not looking to dummy down this ecosystem to grow one thing. We are looking to support that infinite expression of life because life begets life. Life flows from life and everything that grows on our farm is an expression of that infinite display, that playfulness of the variety of life that we have here.
Téana : I love that word that you use often: playfulness.
Tom: This is a neotropical playground and when you walk through the rain forest and the howler monkeys came to greet you, when you saw the basilisks scurrying across the surface of the water when you have the scarlet macaws and trojans and the mama sloth and the sloth baby. And we have two-toed and three-toed sloths here. it's always joyous us here. It's always the National Geographic project right here.
Téana : It's been such a pleasure to visit Finca Luna Nueva and to get to know you Tom and learn about your important work on regenerative farming -- establishing that as a key component that we can all use to help us reimagine the future. To reimagine a world that works for all creatures, all sentient beings, including the plants, the flowers and, and humans.
Tom: Beautifully stated.
Téana : For our listeners who may want to know more or visit Finca Luna Nueva, how would they find out more?
Tom: They could come visit our website, and thank you for asking, at www.fincalunanueva.com.
Téana : Great, thank you. And then let's also direct them to the carbon underground website to learn more about regenerative farming.
Tom: Wonderful. And that's the not for profit that a few of us are founded to help nourish the regenerative agricultural revolution worldwide. And our website is www.thecarbonunderground.org.
Téana : Okay, fantastic. Thank you so much, Tom. It's been a delight speaking with you.
Tom: Con Mucho Gusto. Pura Vida.
Tom Newmark: This is a neotropical regenerative farm. And the whole idea of being a regenerative farm is that after every after every harvest, the soil is richer. There's more organic matter in the ecosystem than there was before the harvest. We're not here giving "achtung" demands to Mother Earth. We're here to have a conversation with Mother Earth. Not a one way conversation, but a two way conversation with Mother Earth. We're exploring with Mother Earth what we can produce in a way that will nourish her.
Téana: There’s a deep spiritual component.
Tom: In a way, everything here is done spiritually. It's done as an offering to Gaia. It's done to nourish the ecosystem. And so we're not here with the plow, rip apart the body of mother earth as you sometimes might see in a national organic, linear, bare earth certified organic farm. That's what those people do. That's not what we do. That's not the way we think you should farm.
Téana : Yes. My herbal medicine teacher, Susan Weed once said, as we were walking in the forest in upstate New York, "what would happen if we cleaned the forest?" And we all thought for a second, "clean the forest ... I think it would die." She said, "yes, that's right. If we cleaned the forest, it would die." And that's something I've noticed walking around your farm: leaves that fall from the trees are able to stay there and be used as mulch, as ground cover. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Tom: Yes. So we're here in the human tropics. So when when leaves fall they will decompose very quickly and leaves are constantly falling between one to two percent of the canopy of the rainforest actually comes down every year creating light gaps. And there was a constant contribution of organic matter that falls onto the surface of the soil. And then there are decomposing micro-organisms in the forest and on our farm that are breaking down that organic matter and creating what I think you could call "fast food." The breaking down of organic matter creates a quick blast of nourishment for the farm and for the forest. And then the slower food would be the carbon storage that occurs in the top soil, in the structure of the soil organic matter. And that's not created by decomposing micro-organisms, by the fungi and bacteria that, that breakdown the soil, those are created by the composing micro-organisms, the soil food-web that will take the sunlight and the root exudates and the sugars that are pumped into the soil by the plants to create more complex long term structures of organic matter. And that's the slower food.
Téana: There’s a lot going on under our feet.
Tom: Right, and then as you go deeper into the soil, you get the really slow food that might be resident in the soil for hundreds or thousands of years. And then ultimately what you get the slowest food of all, which would be the more inorganic structures of carbon, which basically never breakdown. So you have, as in the ocean, trophic levels, there's fast food at the very surface, the O horizon of organic matter breaking down very quickly. And then you have in the A horizon, which is very deep and rich. Here you have the rich soil organic matter, which is contributed to the ecosystem by the sun, pulsing through the photosynthetic processes of the plant, creating carbohydrates, which then are exuded out into the the the living soil by plant roots feeding and nourishing the structures of the soil, creating the slower food, which is the domain of an infinite variety of life.
At the root tip, there are literally countless millions of micro-organisms in every thimble full of soil and healthy soil. There could be six billion micro-organisms and at the root tip there will be one hundred times that number in an infinite variety of life. We're not looking to dummy down this ecosystem to grow one thing. We are looking to support that infinite expression of life because life begets life. Life flows from life and everything that grows on our farm is an expression of that infinite display, that playfulness of the variety of life that we have here.
Téana : I love that word that you use often: playfulness.
Tom: This is a neotropical playground and when you walk through the rain forest and the howler monkeys came to greet you, when you saw the basilisks scurrying across the surface of the water when you have the scarlet macaws and trojans and the mama sloth and the sloth baby. And we have two-toed and three-toed sloths here. it's always joyous us here. It's always the National Geographic project right here.
Téana : It's been such a pleasure to visit Finca Luna Nueva and to get to know you Tom and learn about your important work on regenerative farming -- establishing that as a key component that we can all use to help us reimagine the future. To reimagine a world that works for all creatures, all sentient beings, including the plants, the flowers and, and humans.
Tom: Beautifully stated.
Téana : For our listeners who may want to know more or visit Finca Luna Nueva, how would they find out more?
Tom: They could come visit our website, and thank you for asking, at www.fincalunanueva.com.
Téana : Great, thank you. And then let's also direct them to the carbon underground website to learn more about regenerative farming.
Tom: Wonderful. And that's the not for profit that a few of us are founded to help nourish the regenerative agricultural revolution worldwide. And our website is www.thecarbonunderground.org.
Téana : Okay, fantastic. Thank you so much, Tom. It's been a delight speaking with you.
Tom: Con Mucho Gusto. Pura Vida.