How often do you think about where your food comes from? In this country of bountiful harvest, the people who grow our food often go underappreciated. When we have grocery stores filled with such a huge variety of food at our fingertips, the process of growing crops from seed to harvest and raising livestock from birth to slaughter can be lost on the average consumer.
We have to remember as consumers that farmers in this country have the very important responsibility of feeding our population and ensuring that their crops are ready for shipment to markets. You are probably thinking, what does this have to do with pulses? The answer speaks to the many different ways pulses can make a farmer’s job much easier and more lucrative at the same time!
In off seasons for a monoculture farmer, their land remains unused and is not properly recharging its nutritional bank. Crops need their soil to be filled with nutrients like nitrogen to grow big and healthy. Pulses can be the solution to their monoculture problem. After harvesting their growing season crop (could be wheat, corn, soy, or any other cash crop they depend on), instead of just waiting until the next growing season, the farmer can plant a pulse crop like chickpeas or lentils to help fix nitrogen into their soil!
The benefit of having these crops fix the nitrogen into the soil comes in the next growing season after the pulse crop has been harvested. Now that there is a renewed bank of nitrogen in the soil, the farmer can use much less fertilizer on their new cash crop cycle. Cash crops like wheat, corn, and soybeans need a lot of nitrogen to grow. Soil abuse can cause farmers to lose out on yields and money. When yields excel with the assistance of pulse crops, farmers can save their wallets in terms of soil health and reduced fertilizer costs!
On top of that, as pulses become a more popular source of food in terms of plant-based protein and/or people switching to a vegetarian/vegan diet, farmers can sell these pulse crops on top of their cash crops! This helps the farmer stay on their land longer, take back their soil, and make extra income along with their cash crop!
As our society evolves, we have to make sure our agriculture evolves with it. Everyone needs to be able to eat to survive, so remember to thank your farmers for growing your food and eat more pulses to help them in the long run!
