Australian food writer-turned-food activist Matthew Evans was in North Canterbury last weekend talking to local growers about what keeps the earth, and us, healthy.
"Soil has an impact on our immune system and it inoculates us," says Evans, who also stars in the SBS series The Gourmet Farmer.
"We've got to remember that it's alive, it's utterly teeming with life."
Photo: RNZ / Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
Evans was hopeful that the local farmers and growers gathered for his event at Greystone Winery were inspired by his message.
"Most farmers see soil as important but they may not understand how imperilled it is, like globally we're losing a soccer field's worth of usable land every five seconds.
"We've lost something like half our agricultural land in the last 150 years because of human activities that have damaged soils."
Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
Evans believes regenerative farming techniques can provide farmers with a practical solution for building long-term soil health.
On a smaller scale, it's the same as what many growers do in their home food gardens, he says.
"It is possible to scale it up, we have the technology, but there's not enough people doing it all at once to turn this big ship around, of losing topsoil at crazy rates."
There's a groundswell of fresh awareness amongst Australian farmers, Evans says.
"Farming for a long time was seeing soil as a way to grow plants and animals, but now there's a new breed of farmers who are saying hang on, how do we use plants and animals to build soil."
Celebrating Soils, discovering soils and landscapes Photo: www.flickr.com
Photo: RNZ / Cosmo Kentish-Barnes
Evans wants to see our diets change with a focus on greater crop diversity and more land rotation within farming systems, which in turn would benefit soil health.
"If [farmers] need to grow a crop to look after soil, then they need to be able to sell that crop at a price that's worth their while."
He quotes American farmer and environmental activist Wendell Berry:
"Eating is an agricultural act so when you eat, you determine what the farmer will grow.
"If you choose to put more varied grains in your diet, your local farmers will grow more varied grains."
Head Chef Niccola Mudge with a cabbage from the market garden at Fat Pig Farm Photo: Supplied
Evans lives with his family at Fat Pig Farm near Hobart where he proudly practices on the land what he preaches.
He loves it when fellow farmers come and see how things work on the property, which is home to dairy cows, goats and pigs, as well as a large market garden, a heritage orchard and beehives.
"We're not a showcase farm for feeding the world, but we try not to dig or turn earth over, and we try to have a diversity of green plants on the soil all the time."
Fat Pig Farm provides a lot of the food for Evan's popular onsite restaurant.
"We actually produce 10,000 meals a year. We employ 10 full-timers, about 40 percent of the farm is for wildlife, and this is a viable system."
Fat Pig Farm Photo: Supplied
Fat Pig Farm Photo: Supplied
