Year of the What?
VIDEO OF THE WEEK
Year of the what? Pulses! Watch and learn. @Regeneration_In | Year of the what? Pulses! Watch and learn. @Regeneration_In | Read the Full Article
Last year was the International Year of the Soils. Everybody knew what that meant.
In January of this year, the United Nations General Assembly declared 2016 the International Year of Pulses. That declaration had more than a few folks scratching their heads—and scrambling for their dictionaries.
From “The Pulse of Life,” by Vandana Shiva:
Pulses are truly the pulse of life: for the soil, for people and the planet. In our farms they give life to the soil by providing nitrogen. This is how ancient cultures enriched their soils. Farming did not begin with the Green Revolution and synthetic nitrogen fertilisers. Whether it is the diversity-based systems of India, or the three sisters planted by the first nations in North America, or the ancient Milpa system of Mexico, beans and pulses were vital to indigenous agro-ecological systems.
For a quick tutorial on what pulses are, why they’re good for you, and how they contribute to global food security, watch this video from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).