75% of the world’s food comes from just 12 plant and 5 animal species.
Standardization of the world’s food has terrible implications for our diets, for the agricultural industry and for the earth.
By minimizing the number of foods we eat we are minimizing the number of nutrients available to us.
The current agricultural model encourages mono-cropping of these 12 plants and 5 animals and generally supports large scale producers who often rely on pesticides and toxins to create high crop yield, durability for long shelf life and product resilience.
This system may increase immediate financial reward for a select few but the costs to most of the population are heavy. Our bodies, our environment and our minds are suffering greatly. Our soils are depleted, our waters polluted with pesticides, and our bodies are ill from overconsumption of the nutritionally vapid foods.
Selecting heirloom varietals questions the very foundations of this ill designed system of agriculture. It encourages small scale farmers, boosts nutritional variety and availability and promotes a greater connection with our precious soils.
Image from http://grassrootsgourmet.net/2008/11/18/holy-heirloom/