Is Our Food Making Us Sick | Let's Talk About Nutritional Density | Why Farmers Should Plant Trees
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- Опубліковано 17 кві 2021
- The overarching vision for Gubb Farm is to produce organic food that has a high nutritional density.
In America, the USDA has been tracking the nutritional density of food since the 1940s. The data indicates that there has been a significant drop in minerals such as Potassium, Magnesium, Calcium, Copper and Zinc in produce. Some researchers attribute the increase in ailments such as Asthma, Heart Conditions and Obesity to this decline in minerals.
The big question is why are we seeing a decline in the mineral content of food? Some researchers blame the increase in the levels of carbon dioxide in the air. Others suggest that plant breeding programmes are selecting varieties based on calorific yield, which is diluting the mineral content. Another line of thought is that the decline is due to intensive farming practices, impacting the natural mycorrhizal associations that provide plants with the nutrients they need.
What can we do to help address these issues? Firstly we can work on sequestering carbon to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide to make it easier for plants to absorb nutrients. Secondly, we should be selecting plant varieties that have a better balance between calories and mineral density. We then have to focus on develop farming practices that provide the plants with the nutrients they need.
Food packaging currently states the energy, fat, carbohydrate, fibre, protein and salt content of food. We need to take the next step on that journey and include the mineral content and its contribution towards our daily recommended intake. We have too many people suffering from ailments that could be reversed if people had a healthy diet.
Based on research by Professor Jim McAdam at Loughgall, trees will play a pivotal role in our agrosilvopastoral strategy on Gubb Farm to provide nutritionally rich food in a permaculture orchard setup. Hazelnut trees have been selected to dry out the ground and increase the livestock grazing window, with the added benefit of potentially producing a cash crop. Soft fruits, herbs and cover crops will then be interplanted between the trees to produce cash crops and provide forage for poultry. The hazelnut trees were selected over larger canopy trees to reduce light competition and provide more coverage for poultry, which ideally will be able to graze outside all year round if the trees dry up the ground as expected.
If you are interested in regenerative farming; soil biology; farming equipment; farm life; the highs and lows of trying to establish an organic permaculture hazelnut orchard, on an island in County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland - then hit that subscribe button.
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Contact Details:
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55 Galloon Road, Gubb, Newtownbutler, Co. Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, BT92 8HS
Good luck!
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My maiden name is Gubb, Suzy Gubb Scuderi. I'm happy to learn about what other Gubbs are doing to make this a better planet!
Very good Suzy. 👍
I hope all is well.
Very interesting statistics Dary .. hadn’t thought about nutrients in this way.
It is interesting Chris and unsettling. If we don't act to change current farming practices where does this end?
Very best of luck with all of this 🍀
Thanks Craig.
Another thought in the shrub/bottom layer - Goumi bushes (if Ireland has access, hard to find good varieties like Carmine/Tillamook in the U.S.) and Comfrey, lots and lots of Comfrey. The latter would have less economic benefit unless processed and wouldn't be super helpful as chop-and-drop at large scale unless you maybe had it in the mowing path for natural fertilizer.
Hello Todd. I haven't heard of Goumi bushes and I'm going to go and research them.
Thanks for your comment.
All the best.
A really thoughtful discussion. Here in Northern Ireland it would be an improvement if people generally cooked and ate even less nutrient dense produce. We have such a long way to go. Subscribed.
Hello Gail. Thank you for your comments. I hope all is well with you.
Sounds like a great plan! Fingers crossed :)
Thank you Lizalfos. I hope it works out as planned.
Excellent video and really interesting theories brought together in one place. Intrigued to see how your pastured layers enterprise comes along. I feel people don't understand that organic is just as you said no chemicals, but can still mean intensive in a way that regenerative never can be because it won't work in the regenerative way of doing things. Videos like these make me believe that my father's rushy 30 acre farm in Cavan could be farmed in a profitable way for the first time in decades! Must have a look next time I'm up there to check to see if there are rush margins along hedgerows with trees. Keep up the good work!
Hello Birdie. Thank you for your comments. I agree with you on organic food production and I recently read some research on nutritional density that confirmed the view that organic food does not equal nutritional density. On the plus side, organic farming does remove the *cides from the equation, so nutrient absorption and well being should be improved. I hope all is well with you and let me know what you observe when next in Swanlinbar. All the best.
I read somewhere, years ago, as an completely obscure reference to what I was studying, that trees as they exist cannot actually exist and feed themselves without the existence of fungi, specifically the type that produces hyphae, because the trees roots (and plant roots in general) aren't actually fine enough to create the surface area required for nutrient absorption from the soil. Plants rely on fungal hyphae because of the massive surface area they produce due to their cellular scale structures, and that all plant life on earth is basically only possible because of this mutualistic arrangement.
Pretty amazing that people like you are now farming with that concept in mind! I've never heard about it talked before.
Hello Chimpdongs. Thank you for the feedback. Despite all the advances in agronomy over recent years, I feel as if farming has taken a step backwards and lost touch with what is important - the soil. Hopefully, what I and other regenerative farmers are doing, will help reverse that trend. Not only will it help produce healthier food but it will also reduce the environmental impact of intensive farming. I'm still working it all out and keep making mistakes, but the more I learn, the more I realise how important it is to keep pushing ahead to help myself and others learn. I hope all is well with you.
Very interesting
Thank you Veronica.
Adding chickens will be quite an experience. You'll need to get or make yourself an egg mobile built to run down your rows of trees. Movable electric fencing will be a must. You likely have looked into this already but Richard Perkins has videos covering aspects of what you want to do.
Hello Steve. I will try and get some this year to see how it goes. It will be a big step up in workload, but it should provide a steady source of income if I can sell them! Richard Perkins has some great content and there is another man about 100 miles from me who does it and his channel is Heather Hill.
I hope all is well.
@@GubbFarm Research your market for selling the eggs. Would you buy chicks or get chickens that are close or at egg laying age? My biggest concern with raising egg layers would be getting them through winter. My avg winter low is -15 F (-26 C) but we can get -25 F (-31 C) for a full week. I would need to have a space in the garage where I could put them up during the extreme cold. I don't think you hit low temps like that so for you it will be more about managing them and the egg sales. I will take a look at Heather Hill.
Hello Steve. I am currently talking to a mix of shops and egg packaging firms to see what the demand is like. It is still early days, but it looks like there is some interest, at least from two shops and possibly a local packager.
As for the age of the chicks, that will depend on whether or not I can source chickens that have been organically fed. If not, then I will go for chicks. My Dad used to raise thousands of turkeys from chicks every year, so we have plenty of experience to draw on in that area.
As for temperature, I am going to use the same insulated cladding that commercial chicken houses use in my area, so hopefully, that will help keep their heat regulated throughout the year. My brother and Dad produce around 30,000 eggs per day in free-range units, so plenty of knowledge to draw upon for lighting, feeding and health care.
The biggest issue slowing progress is the time it is going to take to get organic certification (2 years for eggs, 3 for nuts). During the conversion period, I have to use organic inputs but I can't sell produce as organic food. The cost of chicken feed makes it difficult to ramp up production until you can get the price premium for the eggs. For example, organic feed is coming in at almost twice the price of non-organic feed, which is the biggest cost component when producing eggs. No doubt I will find a way forward and it should be fun piecing it together.
@@GubbFarm wow. That is really something. It's great you have such valuable experience right in family. I don't know much about becoming certified organic other than there being allot hoops (and cost) to go through....at least over here. In the US, pasture raised eggs can go for $4 to $5/dozen. (Not necessarily certified organic either) vs say $1.35 to $1.55/dozen for "regular" extra large eggs. (US dollar)
No Doubt we are what we eat 👍🏻
I couldn't agree more.
Fair play to you dary, you’re not just plodding along with money loss beef like a lot of us. God loves a tryer
Setting aside the issues around beef, that comment has put a big smile on my face as I'm reminded of what these Irish statements really mean:
What we say: “God loves a trier.”
What we mean: “Well you made a complete and utter balls of that, didn’t you.”
www.dailyedge.ie/irish-understatements-3033291-Oct2016/
Very good ;-)
I hope all is well.
Haha no I didn’t mean it that way. If it all goes belly up then I’d have to say “wasn’t he some gobshite after I watching all his videos”! I can’t see you not making a go of it, you’re too motivated and interested in it.
Out of curiosity, before taking on such a venture do you do your homework regarding getting sale of your produce and marketing it? I think as Irish people we don’t try enough things with fear of failing.
All good here thanks, hope the shoulder is on the mend
😂 very good 👍
I did look into the demand for hazelnuts. RoI imported 137,000 kg of hazelnuts last year at an average price of £5.13. The UK imported 2,100,000 kg at an average price of £5.33. This time next year Dellboy...
As for shoulder, thank you for asking. Greatly improved and currently I am out standing underneath the bucket of a digging doing a bit of fencing.
@@GubbFarm that sounds like a plan so! Glad you’re shoulder is on the mend.
Once you’ve the hard hat on under the digger bucket you’ll be fine!!
Looking forward to what you do and hope it goes well for you. Despite agreeing with your overall point and wishing you well, I think linking the diseases mentioned solely to nutritional density in foods is a bit simplistic. There's a lot of woo in permaculture that I think we all would do well to be skeptical of, I like Richard perkins for his practicality but he isn't afraid to cut through the woo sometimes.
Would be interested in the McAdam trial, any info available?
Hello. It is highly likely that some of the research that I used will be proven to be misguided, but then again it is only by putting forward ideas for debate that we progress and evolve as a society.
There is research to back up the theory that pasture-fed chickens have a higher nutritional output when compared to conventional poultry eggs. The pasture fed chickens had "50% more Vitamin A", "21 percent less fat", "30 percent less saturated fat", and more "omega-3 fatty" acids etc:
homeguides.sfgate.com/nutritional-differences-between-pasturefed-chickens-vs-non-79222.html
www.healthline.com/nutrition/pastured-vs-omega-3-vs-conventional-egg
With regards to Professor Jim McAdam, I was looking for slides that captured his research but I couldn't find any. Here is a video that he is in from the CAFRE site (Department of Agriculture training centre in Northern Ireland) that you might enjoy:
ua-cam.com/video/4RaBl5Sh9OY/v-deo.html&ab_channel=CAFREtv
If you are in Ireland, check out the recent NOTS Agroforestry videos from their recent event as he covered the points on a presentation there.
Dary, the diversity seems like a very sound idea. (Bio-diversity should also produce _financial_ diversity.) As well, battery hens produce a very different kind of egg from the free range eggs; there's a noticeable difference in how they cook I'll be interested to see how the eggs turn out.
Hello Bob. I am hoping that biodiversity results in income diversity.
There was some research by the USDA into pasture fed hens very barn hens and from what I recall there was a noticeable difference in the nutrient content. Fingers crossed I get the project over the line.
I enjoyed watching your video and I can’t wait to see what is coming up next. I also have a channel so if you check it out be sure to drop a comment and let me know if you enjoyed it...
Have a good day!!
Thanks Jeff.
Was that your farm shown by the drone?
Yes it was. We are on Galloon island in Fermanagh.
Are you aware of the Johnson sue bioreactor composting system. If not check it out and check out Diago footer's 6ft circular version
Hello Denis. I am and I've even had a go at making one (ua-cam.com/video/nNLcYVYQ3vo/v-deo.html). I do like Diago's many experiments.
Unfortunately, my first attempt at making the bioreactor has run into a design flaw! The sump was higher than the ground pipes used to let the bioreactor breathe. I need to do a follow-up video at some point as I try to rectify the problem.
All the best
Dary
@@GubbFarm You could use the frame of an IBC tank which has a metal pallet attached. This could be placed over a sump to catch runoff. That is what I used and so far so good.
That sounds like a good idea@@denisdorney4178
Did you punch any holes in the side or leave it as is?
@@GubbFarm Here is a link to a video on how to use the IBC frame
ua-cam.com/video/OSP4G0ircTA/v-deo.html
That is a nice design.