Healing Grounds Intro and Chapter 1 - Sorrel

    Reading Liz Carlisle’s Healing Grounds has me think about many of the big ideas about climate, race, and land - and how deeply intertwined they all are. The book starts with a powerful critique of how we’re trying to “solve” climate change. One idea that really stood out to me was the use of negative emissions technology, like building artificial trees to pull carbon from the air. It’s almost laughable when you think about it - why build fake trees when real ones already do the job, and so much more? It feels like a band-aid solution, a shiny distraction from the deeper changes we need to make.

    Carlisle points out something simple but brilliant: if we’ve learned how to pull carbon out of soil, shouldn’t we also be able to figure out how to put it back in? That’s where regenerative agriculture comes in - working with the land instead of against it. It’s not a flashy solution, but it’s rooted in real care and connection with the Earth. And often, those practicing these techniques are Indigenous, Black, Latino, and Asian American farmers whose ancestral knowledge has been overlooked or dismissed for centuries.

    That brings me to another key thread: racial justice. Carlisle tells stories of Native American and Asian displacement and African slavery, tying together how deeply racism is embedded in U.S. history - and how it's still shaping who owns land and who gets to heal it. I grew up in a diverse school and was lucky to learn about these histories from a young age, but many people never have. They don’t realize how much of our modern systems were built on these foundations - and still carry those inequalities today.

    Even something as seemingly simple as fences made me pause. Carlisle talks about how land used to be open and communal before colonizers imposed property lines. When you think about it, fences are kind of a weird concept - drawing invisible lines to claim pieces of the Earth as "mine." It makes you wonder what was lost in that shift.

    One of my favorite things I was thinking about while reading this chapter is the fact that bison used to roam across Pennsylvania. It’s wild to imagine that! And even more wild to think how different our landscapes - and diets - might be today if they hadn’t been hunted to near extinction. I didn’t realize bison meat is actually healthier than beef, either. It's another reminder of how much knowledge was erased or pushed aside.