Under our feet, is a resource that can change the world, halt climate change, reduce sickness and ensure food security for future generations. There is an urgent need to rejuvenate the soil by turning back the clock and looking at natural sources of food that will nourish the soil rather than degrade it. While people don’t think much about soil, it quietly and continuously services life on earth.

The Western Andes Range has one of the richest mineral deposits of volcanic origin in the Andes Mountains. This is where Daniel Giraldo, coordinator for Remineralize the Earth (RTE) in Colombia and owner of Agrempacados E.U., obtains the raw material for the rock dust that he offers to local farmers for soil remineralization.

Don Weaver, co-author of The Survival of Civilization and long-time ally of Remineralize the Earth, has released a new e-book entitled Regenerate the Earth!: Nature's Call to Remineralize Our Soil, Re-Green Our Land, Rescue Our Climate and Restore Our Health. Don has compiled and edited a diverse collection of writings on topics such as remineralization, the benefits of raw food, organic gardening, soil fertility, and climate change.

In the middle of the fertile Willamette Valley in western Oregon, farmer Bob Wilt walks the rows of his 75-acre organic blueberry farm critically plucking ripe fruit for analysis. What he’s looking for is not sweetness or pest resistance (though these factors are certainly involved), but the fruit’s nutrient density. Thus far, his berries measure up. Test.

Tso-Cheng Chang is a small-scale farmer in Amherst, Massachusetts. His popular restaurant, Amherst Chinese Food, attracts people from all over the Pioneer Valley to its fresh, organic, delicious Chinese food. Dr. Chang is a strong believer in soil remineralization; he has been using rock dust on his organic farm since 1995 in his determined quest to eliminate the need for pesticides and to grow nutrient-dense food. At this point, his soil has become so rich that he has not felt the need to add rock dust in the last five years.

Among organic methods of pest control, rock dust is one of the safest for people, soil, and plants.

Beginning in the 1950s, America’s farmers were told to get big, or get out. It wasn’t just a slogan, it was USDA policy, a mantra recited by several secretaries of agriculture. That mindset, combined with a post-WWII explosion in chemical fertilizer use, made our farms larger and more productive than ever — but at a high price, with many small farmers vanishing and the introduction of new kinds of environmental challenges.

“When we’re flying at 40,000 feet and we look down, we see a marvelous amount of innovation in agriculture, environmental restoration, green architecture, in systems design and in renewable energy development,” Dr. John Todd tells Organic Connections. “The news on the ground has never been richer, more diverse or in some respects more global. There probably isn’t a continent on which we don’t have something happening, and that just wasn’t the case 20 years ago.”

Is it possible to grow food with exquisite flavor, beautiful shine, extraordinary nutrition, and extended shelf-life? According to growers who have done it, not only can farm-sized growing operations do it, but with the right tools and knowledge, people can do it in their own backyards. Practitioners of this kind of growing say their goal is to maximize crop nutrient density - the amount of nutrition per volume of crop - and that this can be done in a manner entirely consistent with certified organic growing practices.

Barre, MA – When more than 100 farmers converge this February in Barre for a 3 day seminar, they'll be focusing on a topic of serious concern to a growing number of consumers: the nutrition and taste of our food. The Northeast Organic Farming Association, Massachusetts Chapter has arranged for the worldwide farmer consultant, Dr. Arden Andersen, to give this intensive seminar to farmers on how they can increase the nutrient density, taste, and yield of their crops.