Earth Day Reflections: We Belong to the Earth

This Earth Day, I find myself reflecting not just on the state of the planet, but on the stories we’ve inherited about who we are in relation to it.

For too long, dominant systems have told us a lie: that humans are separate from nature. That health is an individual achievement. That the Earth is something to control, fix, or exploit for short-term gain. This story of separation has shaped our policies, our economies, our food systems—and now, it is threatening the survival of life as we know it.

We are living with the consequences of this illusion. Chronic disease is rising, mental health is fraying, biodiversity is collapsing, and entire communities are being sacrificed in the name of “progress.”

But what if the root of our health crisis—and our ecological crisis—is the same?

What if restoring the health of the Earth and healing our bodies are not two tasks, but one?

At Food for Us, we believe that the path forward begins with remembering: we are Earth. Our breath is the forest’s exhale. Our bones are made of minerals born from ancient soils. Our wellbeing is braided into the mycelial web of all life.

This isn’t poetic sentiment—it’s ecological truth. And it’s time our policies, systems, and stories caught up.

We cannot medicate our way out of ecological collapse. We cannot “influence” our way to wellness while ignoring the toxicity in our air, water, soil, and politics. And we cannot heal our bodies in systems that fragment, surveil, and shame the most vulnerable.

Real health—human and planetary—requires reconnection. It requires relationships rooted in reciprocity, care, and respect for limits. It asks us to listen to Indigenous wisdom, to honor ancestral foodways, to build food systems that nourish rather than extract.

This Earth Day, let us not simply pledge to “protect” the Earth. Let us practice remembering that we are the Earth—and that our survival depends on healing the relationships we have neglected.

May we grow systems that nourish life.
May we compost the logic of domination.
May we feed the future with care.