Just being Editor in the field of Agriculture and neither an environmentalist nor a psychologist, I am quite disturbed to read “Human Connection To Nature Has Declined 60% In 200 Years, Study Finds” by Monique Moate (03 April 2023, End Time Headlines, wd  cnews6.com). That explains many bad/sad things to me!

I say”
“Not BAD” – If you “simply commune with nature” by “being there” in the open, you are not influencing Mother Nature, simply enjoying what she has or is for you.

“BAD” – A farmer is trying to play God by trying to influence the relationships of living beings that God created in the world and on his field – that he must appreciate, not exterminate.

I believe, given those examples, directly my well-being depends on me, primarily on me, not the Creator, not God, not Mother Nature.

Considering that, I say the well-being of a farmer depends primarily on him, not the Supreme Being. His behavior in the field greatly influences the outcome of what he does as a farmer, the Laws of Nature having been declared long before the farmer was born.

Farmer or not, according to Ms Monique:

“Computer modelling predicts that levels of nature connectedness will continue to decline unless there are far-reaching policy and societal changes – with introducing children to nature at a young age and radically greening urban environments the most effective interventions.”

Ah! Along with radically greening urban environments, I would insist on radically greening all those rural environments, especially the farms!

And how do we green the farms? Simple: Prohibit the farmers from burning anything on it, from spraying any chemicals on any “unwanted” species, We show them how “dead leaves turn into life-giving materials” by adding life to growing plants, farmer crops or not! In short: Natural Fertility.

And how do we get the farmers to obey such a command? Simple: Teach them to produce their own organic fertilizers!

In fact, I know of 13 ways by which we can farm successfully without using chemicals – without having to follow the strict rules in producing organic fertilizers that some environmentalists dictate. These 13 practices are called, collectively, Regenerative Agriculture (RA):
(1) Cover Cropping,
(2) Crop Rotation,
(3) Farm Crops + Tree Crops (Agroforestry),
(4) Green Manuring,
(5) Intercropping,
(6) Multiple Cropping,
(7) No-Till Farming,
(8) Organic Fertilization,
(9) Ratooning,
(10) Rotational Grazing,
(11) “Three Sisters” Planting,
(12) Trap Cropping, and
(13) Trash Mulching.

My personal list, I must point out. With such a list, not a single farmer has any good reason for avoiding Regenerative Agriculture.

Farmer, if you love Farming, you must love Mother Nature and not Chemicals loving Mother Nature!

The heart of the matter lies in connecting with Mother Nature, I Agriculturist say. If there is no such connection, there is no obedience to the laws of Mother Nature! (No, I did not learn that in school, at UP Los Baños College of Agriculture, now UPLB. It’s personal observation.) Mother Nature knows best!@517