During a Summit hosted by Food Tank and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) during Climate Week NYC, panelists connected the dots between ecosystem health, food waste, and policy levers that can be utilized to protect the future of the climate.
Crucially, this future lies in soils. Any work we do now to strengthen soil quality will have lasting impacts for generations to come, panelists said.
“There is no life limit on a healthy soil,” says Gerardo Martinez, a farmer, the Owner of Wild Kid Acres, and CEO of Global Alliance of Latinos in Agriculture. “You can continue to build it and build it, and it will just become more and more productive.”
Just as humans have the ability to degrade soils—as we have, in a way that panelists said jeopardizes our future—we also can make an outsize impact on health by strengthening soils. Ecosystem well-being is deeply tied to our own well-being as people and communities.
“We talk about soil health like it’s something separate from our own health, but our health is dependent on the health of the soil,” says Dr. Daniel Rath, Agricultural Soil Carbon Scientist at NRDC.
Watch the full Summit on Food Tank’s YouTube channel.
When food grown in even the most nourished soils are not consumed or are wasted, it’s more than just edible food that’s lost. Rather, all the resources—people, animals, soils—that went into producing that food are moot.
The Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic has analyzed food waste across the world and documented various ways the U.S. in particular falls behind, especially on issues like food expiration date labeling, says Emily Broad Leib, Clinical Professor of Law and Founding Director of the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic. The problem of food waste is rooted in a cultural under-valuing of food, panelists said.
“The fundamental problem for us in the U.S. is we’re rich, and because of our wealth, we don’t value food in the way that someone who is more resource-constrained does,” says Sam Kass, a chef who served as President Barack Obama’s Senior Policy Advisor for Nutrition Policy.
It’s time to recognize the urgency of valuing regenerative ecosystems and low-waste supply loops, panelists said. Part of that broader cultural shift must be accompanied by actions that tie soil ecosystems, nourishing food production, food waste, and more to broader food and environmental systems.
As one example: “When we improve our irrigation practices, we automatically reduce runoff and emissions while still maintaining productivity,” says Karen Ross, Secretary of the California Department of Food & Agriculture
“The ability of farmers to learn from farmers is one of the most meaningful ways to make the transition,” Ross continues.
And solutions need to come from every angle. Policy regulations and public funding are certainly influential in reigning in destructive food industry methods and facilitating more widespread adoption of better practices, but, like any single solution, it’s not a silver bullet. In policy-focused conversations, panelists emphasized the importance of pairing policy advocacy with solutions that break down silos.
“Even though we have so many levers, the federal government doesn’t have every lever,” says Catherine Oakar, Special Assistant to the President for Public Health and Disparities at the White House. “Without academia, research, the private sector, we can’t do anything.”
When the climate movement does take a step forward, leaders can use this cross-sector approach to tell the story of the achievement and build off it in meaningful ways, says Manish Bapna, President of NRDC. When we’re reflecting, he says, we should ask ourselves, “Were we ready to win the win?”
“How do we reinspire the world that a better future is possible?” he asks. “How can we use food to reach the public and reimagine a food system that is truly compatible with human health, protecting nature, and tackling climate?”
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Photo by Ryan Rose for Food Tank.
