“Once You See, You Can’t Unsee”

Hey friend - happy Wednesday.

Welcome to the 4 new subscribers this week. I appreciate you all being here.

Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to volunteer at the Rodale Institute’s first-ever Regenerative Healthcare Conference, organized & produced by my partner, Nadine Clopton.

For those of you that don’t know her, she’s amazing & inspiring on many levels.

In this case, she served as the lead organizer for this project– bringing together some of the nation’s leading minds in healthcare and unifying them around Rodale’s mission of:

Healthy Soil = Healthy Food = Healthy People

The conference was the first medical conference to ever be hosted on a farm, and over the course of the four days, we explored this powerful thesis from many different angles and perspectives.

At the beginning of the conference, Rodale Institute CEO, Jeff Moyer’s words struck a deep chord within me and the entire audience:

“Once you see, you can’t unsee. And once you know, you can’t unknow.”

That simple idea set the stage for our experiences in the days to come– the education behind a much-needed paradigm shift in our healthcare & food systems.

We heard from Dr. Mark Hyman, a leading functional-medicine doctor and author, about the importance of biodiversity in the microbiome of both the soil and our guts.

Dr. Rupa Marya and Benjamin Fahrer taught us about the healing nature of farming– how living in proper relation to land & one another can be used as a tool towards deconstructing colonialism and unlearning outdated systems.

Dr. Uma Naidoo shared about the fundamental role that food has on our mental health and how we can utilize nutrition to improve outcomes of all types– medically & otherwise.

And we learned about the science and dangers behind Glyphosate (the active chemical in Roundup), thanks to the work of Dr. Michelle Perro.

I feel so lucky to have taken part in this incredible event, and more importantly, I feel incredibly proud of Nadine & the Rodale Institute for bringing this idea to life.

Let’s dive into some of my biggest takeaways and lessons.

If you’re a person with a pulse, you have probably recognized that food is central to our lives and nearly every industry in the world. From tourism to healthcare, to work and entertainment– food is at the center.

Somehow though, even while front and center, our food system manages to directly contribute to nearly every one of the nation’s biggest problems.

As explained by Dr. Mark Hyman in his groundbreaking book, “Food Fix,” and summarized in this short video, our broken food system adversely affects:

Our Health: Obesity has increased 400% since the 1960’s and 6 in 10 American adults have a chronic disease. (Food Fix)

The Economy: 90% of the national biannual health spending is spent managing chronic disease. (Food Fix)

The Environment: How we grow and produce food is the #1 cause of environmental harm. (Food Fix)

Moreover, food widens the already massive education & socio-economic gaps within our culture.

For example, the most prevalent nutritional deficiency in childhood, Iron Deficiency Anemia, has been linked to mental deficiencies and poor school performance (Dallman et al., 1984; Lozoff et al., 1998).

More generally, however, quality whole-food nutrition has been shown to positively impact a number of variables including: mental health, physical performance, and health outcomes.

By no means am I saying you shouldn’t eat the foods you love.

On the contrary, I hope this serves as an invitation to think deeper about our food system and its impacts on our health, happiness, culture, and planet.

4 Lessons I Now See & Cannot Unsee:

Soil Health is Deeply Interconnected with Human Health & Planetary Health

Did you know that many crops these days are far less nutritious than the same crops just decades ago? That’s because conventional farming focuses on yields over everything else.

When farmers engage in what’s known as mono-cropping – the practice of growing a single crop year after year on the same land – it strips the plants of nutrients and thus delivers less nutrition to the end customer. That’s us.

On the other hand, when farmers practice crop rotation and avoid synthetic pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers, the soil has the ability to restore itself.

New plants and microbes pop up and this new, biodiverse soil can store more carbon through CO2 sequestration and dramatically offset the progression of climate change.

Rodale Institute's Farming Systems Trial has found that "organic systems use 45% less energy, release 40% fewer carbon emissions, improve the health and quality of soil over time, and actually have the potential to produce yields up to 40% higher in times of drought than conventional systems."

Our DNA is Not Destiny: Food & Lifestyle Affects our Epigenetics

Epigenetics is the study of how genes are expressed. Science used to say that our genes were our destiny, but now, epigenetics reveals that we are an extension of our environment.

The foods we consume, the products/chemicals we use, the actions we take, and the company we keep can have gigantic effects on our health.

For example, more biodiversity within our body's gut microbiome plays a crucial role in the development or avoidance of inflammation-based (chronic) diseases.

The science here is both ground-breaking and widespread, so I'm excited to dive deeper on this topic in the newsletters to come.

Making the Healthy Choice the Easy Choice is Fundamental to Success

A common through-line of many of the conference's presentations and conversations was the question “how can we make this information accessible?”

As you’re well aware or would realize after 10 minutes inside Whole-paycheck (Whole Foods), organic foods cost much more than foods grown conventionally.

While this will hopefully shift in the years to come, the price barrier is a very real part of today’s reality. That is why it’s absolutely crucial to honor where we’re at and start making small shifts toward greater health that's accessible to all. Sleep, breath, the outdoors, etc.

“Agriculture is the Culture.”

One of the most notable sayings of the conference came from Christa Barfield, founder of Farmer Jawn– a Philly-based non-profit that focuses on urban agriculture and food access.

These four simple words illustrate the immense power food has across society. It touches nearly every aspect of culture, and for that reason - “Agriculture is the Culture.”

Over the next four newsletters, I will unpack these lessons and explore the implications they have on our health and our planet.

Through this upcoming newsletter series on Regenerative Healthcare, it is my hope to explain these topics in a succinct manner and invite you into a new way of living.

The food system lies at the heart of nearly every one of our nation’s biggest problems– obesity, chronic disease, crime, education, and the widening economic gap.

Food is the great equalizer. The thing that brings people together and simultaneously affects the health of our culture and planet.

It’s time we start reimagining the future of food.

I hope you join us.

With gratitude,

Aidan

PS. Moving forward, the newsletter will be released on Fridays.

PPS. Here are a few pictures from the conference last week.