January 2022 Newsletter

Xīnnián hǎo! Happy Lunar New Year to all who celebrate. We have so much to celebrate this month, in January we prepared and delivered an incredible 636 meals and donated $3003.50 in pantry items and dry goods. Thank you to all of our donors and volunteers. We are seeing growth in our donations month after month because of the hard work and kindness of community members like you. We wish you all a wonderful Year of the Tiger.

We are particularly thankful this month to the Delaware Community Foundation. With our grant application approved, we were able to purchase new equipment for our kitchen which will allow us to utilize even more of the donations we receive. We are delighted with our new equipment and we know that the community members we serve will be delighted as well. 

We are so thankful to the Unitarian Universalists of Southern Delaware for allowing us to speak with our friends and neighbors about who we are, what we do, and where we are headed. We invite you to watch the prerecorded service and we hope that it can inspire you to take the first steps toward change in your part of the world.  You can watch the video here: https://vimeo.com/671560962

Go-Go Organic!

When you walk into any grocery store, you’re greeted with chirpy signs that read “Certified Organic” in bold and fancy letters. But what does it really mean to us, to our bodies and to our environment?

During the 1990s, the USDA first standardized the meaning of the term “organic” — meaning that farmers do not use any form of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides to grow their produce.

Organic farming is widely considered to be the far more sustainable alternative when it comes to food production. The lack of pesticides and wider variety of plantlife enhances biodiversity and results in better soil quality, as well as reduced pollution to local water supplies from fertilizer and pesticide run-off. Organic farming works with Mother Nature instead of fighting her. Conversely, conventional modern farming methods cause biodiversity loss, soil erosion, and increased water pollution due to the rampant usage of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. We simply cannot continue to poison our own water. 

Organic agriculture places an emphasis on creating healthy soil with each passing season, often by recycling organic material back into the soil or utilizing no-till methods that allow root and fungi systems to develop naturally without continuous irrigation. By caring for the soil in this way, organic farmers create a system that is more resilient to the effects of drought, as soil full of organic matter and increased biodiversity such as worms and composted material, has the ability to retain more moisture over longer periods of time without constant irrigation. Less irrigation means less consumption of a precious resource and greater water retention means that a farm will have a better chance at surviving unpredictable weather emergencies such as droughts caused by climate change. 

Modern agricultural methods have stripped increasing amounts of nutrients from the soil for decades. Sadly, each successive generation of a fast-growing, pest-resistant carrot is less good for you than the one before it. A USDA analysis of nutrient data from 1975 to 2020, found that average calcium levels in 12 fresh vegetables had dropped by 27%; iron levels by 37%; vitamin A levels by 21%, and vitamin C levels by 30%. Another study concluded thatone would have to eat eight oranges today to derive the same amount of Vitamin A as our grandparents would have gotten from one. The key to healthier produce is healthier soil.

Over the last four decades, 75% of insect species have gone extinct due to extensive use of pesticides and herbicides in modern farming. Organic farming encourages and supports the pollinators’ environment. While soil is technically a renewable resource, it can take between 100 and 1,000 years to naturally redevelop soil depleted by modern monocropping practices. Hardly what we normally think of as “renewable.” 

There will be nearly 10 billion people on Earth by 2050, that’s 2.5 billion more mouths to feed. We urgently need to cut greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural production and halt the conversion of remaining forests to agricultural land while simultaneously increasing the nutritional value and yield of what we’re already growing. Reducing food waste, shifting to a more sustainable diet, and improving soil quality are all integral and achievable paths to reducing our footprint on this Earth. 

Read More on the depletion of nutrients in our soil and what you can do to make your home garden happy again.