No. 29 | Regenerative Agriculture and Glyphosate

The Between Meals Podcast

This week’s Episode of the Between Meals Podcast was created in partnership with MegaFood®. I’m proud to work with brands who care about the health of their consumers and the planet. As always, all opinions are my own.

When it comes to climate change, to combat the catastrophic impact on the health of the earth and humans, it starts from the ground up. Literally -- we are talking about SOIL! While farming and herbicides may not seem like a conversation that is relevant to most of you, I urge you to stick around. We need to be looking at how we are feeding our soil, so it can continue to feed us. Just like the human body has the microbiome of the gut, the soil has its own microbiome and without a healthy microbiome, the rest of the organism - the earth - it cannot thrive!

In this episode of the Between Meals Podcast I am joined by Sara Newmark, VP of Social Impact at MegaFood. We are chatting about regenerative agriculture and the impact it has on climate change and the environment, our health and why you should care. Additionally, I have shared on the website in the past, about the impacts of glyphosate on the health of our body and the health of our soil and we touch on the efforts being made to ban the use of glyphosate, what you can look for and all the many ways you can get involved both in supporting regenerative agriculture and banning glyphosate.

In this Episode We Discuss:

• What regenerative agriculture is and why it matters.
• How is agriculture and farming related to climate change?
• How will regenerative agriculture improve soil health?
• What will happen if nothing is done to improve the health of our soil
• What are the impacts this can have on the environment and our health?
• The most common regenerative agriculture practices.
• How regenerative agriculture can help companies meet sustainability goals.
• Pending legislation supporting regenerative farming practices.
• What is the Healthy Farm Standard?
• What are some of the things MegaFood is doing to support regenerative agriculture?
• MegaFood’s efforts to ban the use of glyphosate and how this initiative relates to regenerative agriculture
• How can you get involved in the regenerative agriculture movement and in banning the use of glyphosate in your food
• and so much more!!!

More about MegaFood’s Commitment to Social Impact Initiatives:

MegaFood is B-Corp certified, which enables the company to make progress in solving the needs of a world in nutritional crisis. While MegaFood has always aligned with the social impact standards, with the formal B-Corp Certification in 2017, MegaFood has also implemented the following strategic social impact initiatives:

• Revised corporate bylaws to include social, environmental and economic diligence, ensuring the company stays on course, regardless of short-term and/or financial factors.

• Established its Healthy Farm Standard program, aimed at improving our agricultural system by building carbon-rich soil and increasing the nutrient density of food. This new open standard will help farmers track and improve outcomes and help reach shared goals to ultimately support the health of our soil and build thriving communities.

• Began development of a global verification standard for food grown in a regenerative way in partnership with The Carbon Underground and Green America, that results in improved soil health, improved human health, and a reduction of the threat from climate change. This work builds upon the Regenerative Agriculture Initiative that has over 150 companies, organizations and scientists as signatories.

• Became the first supplement brand to obtain glyphosate residue free (GRF) certification for its entire line of products. The certification was granted by The Detox Project, an independent research and certification organization, after MegaFood submitted its products to an independent, third-party laboratory for testing and was found to have met The Detox Project’s stringent standards. More recently, the brand has partnered with Environmental Working Group (EWG) and several additional food and nutrition brands, including Ben & Jerry's and Stonyfield, to petition the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ban the use of glyphosate as a desiccant before harvest. With this petition MegaFood aims to raise awareness of the potentially unsafe levels of glyphosate residue found in our foods today.

• Integrated social impact as a crucial role in company-wide performance evaluations.

Additional Resources:

http://tasty-yummies.com/what-is-glyphosate/

You can learn more about Megafood’s social impact work and efforts to ban glyphosate: https://www.megafood.com/category/activism/glyphosate-free-what-about-food.html

Learn more about MegaFood’s farm partners: https://www.megafood.com/meet-our-farmers/friends-of-megafood.html

Learn more about the petition to ban Glyphosate:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/megafood-seeks-ban-on-use-of-glyphosate-as-a-desiccant-through-epa-petition-300722355.html

To read and learn more about the Healthy Farm Standard:https://www.megafood.com/healthy-farm-standard.html