For such a massive problem, the solution is actually microscopic. In healthy, symbiotic systems, plant roots feed these soil microbes sugars and give them a place to latch onto. In return, the microbes help the plants absorb nutrients in the surrounding soil. All life on Earth depends on this mutually beneficial relationship—but some agricultural practices can mess with it. Take tillers: those giant machines that look right at home on a large, open pasture. They break up the soil in preparation for the planting season, but in doing so they often disrupt underground microbial systems. Farms that use conventional tools like these typically have 60% less biomass from soil microorganisms1 than ones that are managed with soil health in mind. As such, our farms are producing food that isn’t as nutrient-rich as it could be. “We are destroying the ability of the soil to provide nutrition to the plant,” Mark Hyman, M.D., said on a visit on the mindbodygreen podcast. The functional medicine doctor estimated that the nutrient density of plant foods is 50% less than it was 50 years ago, thanks to the invasive way we’ve been farming. “Without plants being able to uptake micronutrients, our food is deficient; therefore, our health is deficient,” Engelhart reiterates. “Feeding soil life to encourage biodiversity and abundance means managing the farm so that there are living roots in the ground for as much of the year as possible,” reads a recent report by The Rodale Institute, a nonprofit that conducts farming research. To do so, regenerative agriculture uses methods like cover cropping, crop rotation, and reduced tillage to keep soil microbe communities intact. A global transition over to regenerative farming is underway, but it’s going slower than most nutritionists and environmentalists would like (though there are a few ways we can all get involved in speeding it up). In the meantime, experts are saying we should be extra diligent about getting the nutrients that are being farmed out of our food—one of the most important being magnesium. “In the modern diet, our magnesium intake is low,” says nutritionist and magnesium researcher Andrea Rosanoff, Ph.D. “And we have been a bit low generationally—our mothers were low, and our mothers before that.” Nearly half of Americans, around 45%2, don’t get the recommended daily amount of magnesium from food and drinks alone. Magnesium plays a role in around 600 body reactions, from bone development to digestion to sleep, making it important to stay on top of for optimal health.* Emma received her B.A. in Environmental Science & Policy with a specialty in environmental communications from Duke University. In addition to penning over 1,000 mbg articles on topics from the water crisis in California to the rise of urban beekeeping, her work has appeared on Grist, Bloomberg News, Bustle, and Forbes. She’s spoken about the intersection of self-care and sustainability on podcasts and live events alongside environmental thought leaders like Marci Zaroff, Gay Browne, and Summer Rayne Oakes.
