I grew up on a farm and there are tried and true methods
that are required to maintain and preserve the long-term heath of the farmland
and the livestock. Similarly there are stages in the development of a child
that must be honored for them to experience robust health as an adult.
Unfortunately, these time-honored methods of tending to our land and children
are being ignored in favor modern practices that are leading us all down an
unsustainable path.
Environmental pollution is a significant problem. But while
most of the focus is placed on polluting industries, toxins like mercury and
small particle traffic pollution, a major source of environmental devastation
is caused by modern food production. Far from being life sustaining, our modern
chemical-dependent farming methods:
Strip soil of nutrients
Destroy critical soil microbes
Contribute to desertification (happens when we create too
much bare ground by plowing under grasslands in favor of commodity crop fields)
[1]
Saturate farmlands with toxic pesticides, herbicides and
fertilizers that then migrate into ground water, rivers, lakes and oceans.
Unfortunately, the Earth's soil is now being depleted of
nutrients at more than 13 percent the rate it can be replaced. Not only that,
but according to some, we may also be facing looming shortages of two critical
fertilizer ingredients: phosphorus and potassium.
Phosphorus and potassium cannot be synthesized, and our
aggressive large-scale farming methods, which deplete soils of nutrients that
then must be replaced, are quickly burning through available phosphorus and
potassium stores.
Monoculture (or monocropping) is defined as the high-yield
agricultural practice of growing a single crop year after year on the same
land, in the absence of rotation through other crops. Corn, soybeans, wheat,
and to some degree rice, are the most common crops grown with monocropping
techniques. In fact, corn, wheat and rice now account for 60 percent of human
caloric intake, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. [2]
By contrast, polyculture (the traditional rotation of crops
and livestock) better serves both land and people. Polyculture evolved to meet
the complete nutritional needs of a local community. Polyculture, when done
mindfully, automatically replenishes what is taken out, which makes it
sustainable with minimal effort.
The evidence tells us that forging more sustainable
alternatives is imperative if we hope to survive. Yet proponents of factory
farms and genetically engineered crops argue that monocropping, or crop
specialization, is the only way to feed the masses and that it's far more
profitable than having small independent farms in every community.
But is this really true? A number of studies show just the
opposite! In fact, studies are showing that medium-sized organic farms are far
more profitable than ANY sized industrial agricultural operation.
For example, researchers at the University of Wisconsin's
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Michael Fields Agricultural Institute
(results published in 2008 in the Agronomy Journal) found that traditional
organic farming techniques of planting a variety of plants to ward off pests is
more profitable than monocropping. [3]
Not only that, but organic farming practices use natural,
time-tested techniques that naturally prevents soil depletion and destruction,
and doesn’t use chemical fertilizers and other agricultural chemicals that
pollute our soil, air, and waterways.
Even the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is starting to
question our current path of monoculture. It recently released a report titled:
"Climate Change and Agriculture in the United States." According to
the report, our current agricultural system, which is dominated by corn and
soy, is unsustainable in the long term.
Speaking of unsustainable methods… The current youth sport
culture with its heavy emphasis on early specialization (monocropping) and
nearly year round single sport participation are devastating the American
athletic landscape. A single-minded focus during what should be the “sensitive
period” for global movement skill acquisition has left developing young
athletes with soil that is of poor quality for elite athletic skill to grow and
flourish.
The building blocks of advanced athletic skill are never
fully refined because they were never experienced at the “grassroots” or basic
level. You want to see desertification look at the athletic foundation of a
single sport young athlete! This is what happens when we plow under playgrounds
and neglect seasonal sport play in favor of elite sport training facilities and
nearly year round single sport participation. When the windows to attain these
athletic building blocks are missed they shut and it’s very difficult to go
back and try to “re-open” them. Just as you can’t synthesize potassium and
phosphorus you can’t synthesize the athletic qualities that spawn from crawling
and skipping.
While kids are not being saturated with pesticides and toxic
run-off (depending upon where you live) they are certainly being saturated with
the repetitive motions, developmental imbalances and ultimately injuries that
result from a one-dimensional athletic experience.
Contrast this with a polycropping approach to athletic
development. Expose children to as
many different sport and activities as possible the more and varied their
experiences are the better. This enriches their soil (overall athletic base)
and makes it very fertile to grow whatever seeds (sport) they decide to
plant. This diversification also
serves to make their athleticism more sustainable. Like monocropping a single
minded sporting approach depletes the body and actually robs it of athleticism.
Playing sports seasonally allows the body to recover and
develop new skills. Each sport or
activity contributes foundational athletic qualities that compliment one
another and eventually allow the young athlete to develop their own unique
“brand” of athleticism. This “brand” can only be fully realized if the soil is
fertile.
I think we can all agree that broccoli is a very nutritious
food but if that was the only crop we planted and harvested we would still be
malnourished. Playing one sport exclusively from childhood into the teen years
may seem like a good idea but in the long run your athleticism will be malnourished.
Overall athleticism is the essential foundation upon which all sport specific
qualities are based. Moncropping and sport specialization will likely produce
high yields early on but in the long run these practices will deplete the
landscape of what it needs to flourish.
Reference:
[3]http://www.thetechherald.com/articles/Organic-vs-Monocropping-Age-old-questions-answered-by-study
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