If topsoil disappears, so do we.

 

According to a paper in the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, soils have lost 30-70% of their organic carbon thanks to the plowing up of fields for crop production.

 

Soil holds 80% of the earth's carbon; 4X more than trees, 3X more than the atmosphere itself. If someone is concerned about climate change, food sustainability, or the human race at all, they should be concerned about our soil as it is the biggest opportunity to sequester carbon and continue to feed ourselves. 

There was an article in TIME a number of years ago that calculated we have 60 years of topsoil left at the current rate of degradation. While I don't think this number is accurate, I do think the implied urgency is. 

Food production is a biological process that has turned into an industrial and chemical one at the cost of our health and the soil's. 

Soil is like a bank, and crops cost a lot of “money” (in the form of nutrients from the soil). You can’t just keep withdrawing, you need deposits or debt...

Chemical fertilizers are like debt. And you need more and more to keep the party (high yields) going. But when the music stops you're left with devalued money (and degraded soils).

To restore the soils we need to restore biological food production where grazing cattle can generate soil (add "deposits" to the bank – a.k.a. manure). And as a bonus, they convert grass we can't eat into the most nutrient dense food that we can eat. 

Well-managed animals contribute to food security, ecological function and livelihoods...Heavy reduction of livestock may lead to a fragile food system and societal damage.

Animal source foods in healthy, sustainable, and ethical diets.
March 2022 Review (highly recommend this!)

 

Last weekend I fell down a rabbit hole and reviewed the last 2 decades of obesity research. Like most nutritional research it's heavily confounded, conflicted, and confusing.

 

Here's a sample of what this 20 year period looks like:

 

You go from one paper showing "it's all about calories" (eat less, move more!)! But wait. The next study shows that doesn't work. So you move on from calories to types of calories: It's all about carbs and insulin. Well maybe it's not all carbs but just fructose...No, it's the saturated fat! Wait...it's the PUFAs! Or maybe it's not fat or carbs, but the lack of protein causing us to overeat! Then you start to wonder, "Is it food at all?" Maybe we just aren't moving enough? Could it be the plastics or maybe the preservatives? The microbiome? Is it more about neurology and food "addiction" or is it all about endocrinology and hormones? 

 

After swimming (drowning?) in this research, I ended up pretty much where I started as far as conclusions:

Obesity is complex - it's a web of endocrine, neurologic, and metabolic interplay.

Obesity is simple - it's the ultraprocessed food, with notable roles played by refined seeds and sugar. Not meat.

When researchers showed this picture in October, most people saw a duck. During Easter, most people saw a bunny.

 

What you see is influenced by what you expect to see.

 

Here are 39 other concepts worth knowing like the Shirky Principle:

Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution. It’s the best way to ensure their survival and growth.

 

Oh, and check out "Gibson's Law" (#7) it explains many of the frustrations with my obesity research (and #9 explains why that isn't likely to change)!

 

 

How do you stop beating yourself up when you make something that doesn't live up to your expectations? This 5-minute video helps explain how to cope with the gap between your current skill and the quality of work you wish to create.

 

 

– Sahil Lavingia

 

 

Inflation came in at 7.5%. This means you lose half your savings in 9 years. What else does this mean? Well I read an interesting article on the parallels between the world today and the inflationist period of Weimar Germany where between 1918 and 1923 the paper Mark got devalued to the point of becoming effectively worthless. 

 💊 Who I tried to "orange pill":

A Saturday morning roundup on health and wealth, art and science, creativity and innovation, laughs and life by Kevin Stock.