Words always know how to go straight to the heart. So when we talk about fertile soil or ground, we talk about humus. And "humus" shares the same root as "human".
"Human beings must act with respect towards humus, showing humility; the word 'humility' has also been associated with the root of 'humus', as has 'humidity'. Soil is nourished through moisture, and the soul is honoured through humility". This is the thinking of Satish Kumar, peace and environmental activist, Editor Emeritus of the magazine Resurgence & The Ecologist, co-founder of Schumacher College and the inspirational soul behind "Humus", the event created by Quintosapore, an innovative agricultural project in Città della Pieve, set amid the magnificent and lush Umbrian countryside. With many prestigious guests.
"The soil — the earth beneath our feet — is the foundation of life on our planet. All living beings come from the earth and to the earth they return". Satish Kumar
"Humus" set out to explore and deepen the inseparable relationship between nature and humankind, starting from the soil, by "putting our hands in the earth" — without dirtying them. Because the earth doesn't dirty your hands, as Satish Kumar argues; rather, it nourishes us, sustains us, it is a living organism — and therefore sacred — that connects us to the environment, and thus to ourselves, of which we are a part. Nature as a living organism thus becomes a source of respect, not exploitation, because it is deeply and intimately interconnected with us, with life. Getting your hands "dirty" with the earth becomes an act of profound connection with nature.
"By cultivating the earth, by caring for Nature, we reconnect with the natural elements and thereby also cultivate our own soul. It is in this way that soil and spirit, humus and the human, enter into relationship". Satish Kumar, 'Radical Love'
In this loving perspective, respect for the earth, for the soil, is a deep and natural human need, a spiritual act and a way of restoring the balance between humanity and the planet. Satish Kumar, the Unione Buddhista Italiana, and the many passionate supporters and guests of "Humus", each through their own experience, explored this delicate and ancestral human relationship by rediscovering and giving renewed strength to the idea of an ecology as a movement that brings together the deepest human needs — such as nourishment and the environment, art and spirituality — with those of our Planet. A movement to rediscover the profound connection between the soil, humankind and the Earth. Because, returning once more to etymology, even the word "culture" is linked to the soil: "it derives from the Latin còlere, 'to cultivate', just like coltura and agricoltura", Kumar points out.
"Soil is the great connective tissue of life, the beginning and the end of all things". Wendell Berry
We must start, then, from the awareness that "many of the urgent problems we face today have their roots in the way we treat our land and our sea, how we grow our food and what we eat. It is time that we, as investors large and small and as consumers, begin to pay far greater attention to the ground beneath our feet", argues the team at Toniic, RegenEarth and the podcast Investing in Regenerative Agriculture and Food. It is about acknowledging, for example, that so-called conventional agriculture, by altering the chemical structure of the soil, causes its depletion and, consequently, its erosion. The increasingly extreme fury of natural elements such as wind and water will then trigger the resulting hydrogeological disasters. And it is time to recognise that intensive agriculture and monocultures are drivers of deforestation and habitat loss, which in turn further impoverish the soil. To counter all of this, the regeneration of the land becomes essential, by recognising and rediscovering biodiversity in the soil as the primary source of life and nutrients.
A blend of techniques — organic, regenerative, biodynamic and agroforestry — effectively used to grow food, as practised by Quintosapore, becomes a powerful integrated pathway for helping to restore biodiversity and soil health with a remarkable agroecological advantage. "Our fields are structured differently, with uncultivated strips where grass is left to grow and with the cultivation of plants whose root systems help prevent weeds. Their biomass is then worked back into the soil, enriching it with organic matter and making it lighter, crumblier and easier to work before planting," explains Nicola Giuggioli of Quintosapore. "Conventional agriculture produces, but food is not produced — it is cultivated, it is grown, it is a living being. Regenerative agriculture does not produce; it cultivates according to the principles of nature, as in a forest or an uncultivated field, where everything must be in balance, where nature helps itself. There is no single solution to a single problem — there are many problems that, taken together, ensure that no single problem actually exists," adds Alessandro Giuggioli of Quintosapore.
To rediscover harmony and contact with the land, the first step is to develop awareness of the extreme necessity and urgency of this holistic vision — one capable of bringing the elements into harmony for the sake of the Planet and of human health itself. Starting from the soil as a foundation thus becomes indispensable for sustaining (literally) the present with a hopeful gaze towards the future, weaving a web of interconnection among the different elements of life. Because "entering into a relationship with nature builds trust," says Ruchi Shroff of Navdanya International, the Indian organisation founded by Vandana Shiva that works at the intersection of ecology, society and economics to transform agri-food systems and build regenerative communities. Giving voice to young people makes possible "the indispensable regeneration of thought, for a global sustainability that harmoniously embraces every sphere of life. The present is already telling that story — we simply need to become aware of it, because alternative agriculture already feeds the majority of the world's population," explains Barbara Nappini, President of Slow Food Italia. An important contribution can come from finance, a powerful tool, because "economic resources make it possible to invest in research. Companies, educational institutions and university faculties would have greater capacity to focus on the quality of the land, and hence on that of the ingredients it produces," explains Dario Fornara, Research Director of the Davines Group – Rodale Institute European Regenerative Organic Center (EROC).
