Do you know that we have only sixty years left of viable soil in which to plant our food?[1] If the factory farms keep destroying our soil with pesticides, chemical fertilizer, monocrops and GMO seeds, we will die from a lack of food. Mono-crops and the chemicals put into the soil of factory farms deplete the vital nutrients that we need for health. Crops grown in those environments do not contain the same nutrients as crops grown on regenerative farms.

Do you know that the CAFOs – Confined Animal Feed Operations – are responsible for more global warming than the three top oil producers?

Do you know that regenerative farms and trees are carbon negative, contributing to air quality by pulling carbon out of the atmosphere? Yet factory farms keep cutting down the very trees and destroying the soil we need to save our planet.

Factory farms are also responsible for producing the toxic food that destroys our immune systems, which is why 88% of our population is suffering from insulin resistance. These 88% are much more vulnerable to COVID-19 than the 12% who eat healthy food and consciously support their immune system. Factory farms produce pesticide-filled soy, wheat and corn that Big Food uses to product the the junk food that is consumed by so many, and especially poorer people who can’t afford real food. It’s been clearly established that junk food is largely responsible for the underlying health issues, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and cancer that make people vulnerable to dying from COVID-19. For more in-depth information about this, see “Food Fix” by Dr. Mark Hyman.

Compared to many other countries, the US is one of the unhealthiest. So, it’s no wonder that we are surging in COVID-19, with so many deaths. If we had healthier immune systems, we might have been able to manage this virus without destroying our economy.

COVID-19 shows us that we need to drastically change our ways.

We need to support small local regenerative farmers and urban farms, rather than subsidizing huge factory farms. We need stop destroying the trees that are a vital part of our eco-system. We need to access our food locally so that we are not burning so much fuel in the transportation of food. It’s time to turn our lawns into gardens to feed our families and utilize the water we now use for lawns to water our produce.

When I take my daily walk among trees, I listen to what the trees are telling me. All living things have a language if you listen with your heart and soul. Today the trees were saying, “Yes, yes, yes. Yes, we love you. Yes, we are doing our best to protect our beautiful planet. Yes, we do communicate with each other and with you and we wish you would listen to us. Yes, we contain ancient wisdom that you desperately need right now. Yes, we have many cures for illnesses that you haven’t even begun to discover.” I feel such joy when I listen to the trees.

Then I went into my little garden to pick berries for my breakfast and lettuce for my lunch, and I felt so grateful that I can grow this delicious organic food and eat it fresh from my garden. Almost everyone can do this, even if it’s in pots. Community gardens need to become the norm so that people can feed themselves locally and inexpensively.

We embody great power when we stop purchasing factory farmed and junk foods and start caring about our inner terrain as well as our outer terrain. And, how we treat ourselves is reflected in how we treat our planet. We will continue to junk up our planet if we continue to junk up ourselves with junk food, junk thoughts, and junk actions. The great news is that we have a choice.

I encourage you to go to https://www.evergreenaction.com/ and download their Evergreen Action Plan – and get involved! There is so much each of us can do to create a healthy planet and healthy lives.

It’s time for each of us to learn to love ourselves and love each other – and love the soil, the trees, the oceans, and the animals. It’s time to focus on love as our guiding light.

[1] Food Fix, by Mark Hyman, MD