 So much of the health issues that our society has are based off of a broken food system and what has passed off as food. Our current food system is built on forcing the planet to grow what we want when we want. Jesse Smith and his partners at the Casitas Valley Farm are developing regenerative ways of farming with the planet instead of against it. You apply chemical fertilizers on the scale that conventional ag has for as many years as they've been doing it. It's harmful to the environment and the extraction of soil nutrients without its replenishment. Lack of biodiversity which results in reduced native pollinator habitat. Commercial ag put a high premium on the input of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus, which are the three elements that make up fertilizer. We now have food products that are almost impossible to segregate from the chemicals in the soil that they were growing in. The value of permaculture principles and their scalability within our food system is they can be implemented as appropriate. A better understanding of natural patterns or biomimicry is key to understanding how to best harmonize with nature. One example that sets Casitas Valley apart from other farms is how we build soil and how we increase biodiversity. What we have here is a system of expediting the natural process of degrading organic material. We need to actually be regenerating all of the systems that have been broken for a long time and not just sustaining them the way they are. It's something that we feel is necessary for the long-term viability of this operation. By interacting with your local food system, by interacting with your local landscapes, by observing how that can benefit your brothers and your sisters and your neighbors and the world, the natural world that's around you, then you're going to benefit not only your system but all the other systems that are intertwined with it.