Healing Grounds Intro and Chapter 1

 In the introduction of Healing Grounds the author, Liz Carlisle, explores and talks about racial injustice and agriculture. She mentions that true environmental healing is inseparable from social justice. There is a big point of how different communities (Indigenous, Black, Latinx, and Asian Americans) employed sustainable farming practices until industrial agriculture. In order to help heal the land we should integrate traditional methods and achieve social justice. 

In the first chapter Liz talks about the work done by Latrice Tatsey. She is an ecologist and a member of the Blackfeet Nation. Her research is about how reintroducing bison to traditional grazing landscapes could positively impact organic soil matter and carbon content. By enhancing organic matter it can combat climate change. It can also connect Indigenous communities to their ancestral land. Reading the impacts of bison are extremely interesting. They were native to America and had so many positive affects on the land.

Colonization lead to displacement of land, labor exploitation, loss of food sovereignty, barriers to land access, and traditional knowledge. I did not have much knowledge about some of these points. It is incredibly sad knowing about how much causality has happened and the effects it has had on our land.