When I say natural nourishment here, I mean it in the most literal way possible: nurturing through the natural world.
Natural World: all of the animals, plants, and all things that are existing in nature and are not made or caused by humans.
Last year I had the opportunity to go to the Eco-Farm conference in Monterrey, California with the Evergreen State College program Ecological Agriculture: Healthy Soil, Healthy People.
Dr. Daphne Miller
was the keynote speaker the second night of the conference. Her book Faramcology has initiated a conversation about how the health of the soil can gift our bodies with health and well-being. Miller takes us a few steps beyond “food is medicine” and offers the idea that the farm where the food is grown is what can offer us the real medicine, not just the food. And not only does this nutritious food from this nutritious soil heal us, but being on the farm heals us as well. Miller covers the many aspects of farming and how these aspacets have a direct and powerful impact on our health. From seed choice, soil management, to actually doing the physical labor yourself…they all have the ability to heal us or not. Dr. Miller brings up this idea that farm-to-body is an important relationship and deserves our attention. When we heal the soil, we heal ourselves.
I recently came across a video on Upworthy where a man shared his abusive and isolating experiences in the foster care system as a child and teenager, which eventually led him to becoming a foster parent, and eventually permanent parent to four children with his partner. Their new youngest son was born with fetal alcohol syndrome, and when it was time for him to attend school, the school was calling his dad every day to come and calm him down. Doctors told the couple that being around animals and nature would help their childs frontal lobe develpop, and so the couple decided to buy a farm for their family of six. They lived with pigs, goats, and chickens. The chickens were the animals that the youngest son grew closest too. He was known to always have a chicken in his arms.
Here is the link to the video below:
https://www.facebook.com/Upworthy/videos/1643680139006171/
Both of these sources really got me thinking about our physical and mental relations to our environment and all of the living creatures that live with us. What does a truly symbiotic relationship between humans and the soil look like? Which microorganisims in the soil do good things when they are inside out bodies? Is eating dirt a good idea? I’ll get back to you about it.