REASONS TO LOVE LENTILS

Lentils are part of the pulse crop family, alongside other crops like chickpeas, dry beans, and dry peas. Lentils are high in protein and fiber, and a very sustainable source of plant protein.

Lentils are a sustainable crop. Pulses are a key crop in lowering the environmental footprint of food production, food consumption and are an ingredient for a sustainable diet. One of the unique things about lentils and about the whole group of pulse crops is that they are able to fix nitrogen. This means they form a relationship with bacteria in the soil that then enables them to draw nitrogen out of the atmosphere and put it into the soil, both for the use of that plant that’s growing and leaving nitrogen in the soil for subsequent crops in the crop rotation. Crops need nitrogen to grow and having lentils in our crops lowers the overall greenhouse gas imprint of the whole farming system. Lentils have a negative carbon footprint because they sink, or sequester, more carbon into the soil than is emitted. That makes the whole system more sustainable over time and helps to maintain and build healthy soil.

The unique seeding process. The seeding process that most farms use these days involves an air drill. Lentil seeds are put in a tank and they are transferred via an airstream into tubes. The machine goes down the field, basically blowing the lentil seeds into the ground. They’re placed about an inch and a half into the surface of the soil and then they emerge from there. Lentil plants are relatively short in stature as they grow to be about a foot tall. They produce the seeds in small pods and each pod may have one, two, or perhaps even three lentil seeds in it.

Lentils don’t use irrigation. When lentils are seeded, the only water that they use comes from environmental precipitation. Compared to other crops, lentils are very well-adapted to living in drought conditions and the only water they need to grow comes from nature.

The rooting system in lentils is typically very shallow and fibrous. The roots don’t reach down into the depths that other crops would. That means that water that is accumulated in the soil, or groundwater is able to be retained and used for later crops.

As consumers, we are responsible for our food choices. It is important to keep in mind our own health and the health of the environment and soil when it comes to crop production and part of that sustainability factor is including lentils.