It's Time To Look At Agriculture Differently

Sometimes certain posts, with bits of wisdom that need to be recovered, bears repeating. Here's one that I've had a lot of comments on...

My partner and I were talking about our future one day when she made a statement that still has me thinking weeks later. I was telling her about my plans for the not-quite-an-acre property, and how I plan to eke as much food from it as possible. She nodded and said, "Your job will be growing the food and mine will be preserving and cooking it" Now, obviously there will be more to it, but she has the essence of it right. With the core of our new roles put like that, I realized I can't take a break from learning all I can about agriculture.

John Michael Greer talks about two agricultures in his blog entry, Two Agricultures, Not One 

He talks about how the mega-farming as we know it today is an industrialized and chemicalized version of the intensive farming that fed our ancestors, and he also shares the opinion that intensive gardening is going to help us pad our food shortfall, 

"A team of researchers at pioneering organic-gardening group Ecology Action found, on the basis of extensive tests, that it’s possible to feed one person year round on a spare but adequate vegetarian diet off less than 1000 square feet of intensively gardened soil... In the more troubled parts of the future ahead of us, some of us may have to do just that; a great many more of us will need to be able to garden in order to pad out potential irregularities in a food supply that’s desperately vulnerable, over the short term, to fluctuations in the price and availability of fertilizer feedstocks and fossil fuels. The victory gardens of past wars are likely to be a useful template for the survival gardens of the deindustrial future."

 
I completely agree, and I've begun to see it already. All of that only frustrates me on another level, because here, I can hardly grow anything, facing north and being in shade. So on one hand, I could sit and whine about it, or I could shut up and do something. Months ago, I chose the latter. So it has become my secondary job, if you will, to learn everything I can about growing as much as I can on very small acreage. Starting with the soil. I already knew that compost is better than any chemical fertilizer we can manufacture. It's better all around, for the plants and for the environment, and it goes hand-in-glove with the various micro-environments in one's garden. I've been learning exactly how earthworms break down plant matter, how plants use the nitrogen from the air and how the no-till method is better than churning up our soil every spring and fall. I've also learned quite a bit about why seaweed is a better fertilizer than one that relies on ever-diminishing oil supplies. Did you know that plants require not only the big three (nitrogen, phosphorus and calcium), but also micro-nutrients? Without those micro-nutrients, the plant cannot grow to its true potential, and the resulting food lacks nutrients also. Hence the mystery of the tomato with less Vitamin C.

So, the answer then I think, is to go back to farming, or at least gardening, the way we used to. Those that can need to turn away from chemical fertilizers, away from row gardening, away from the way 90% of all gardening books tell us it should be done. We need to learn all we can about organic gardening, intensive gardening, square-foot gardening, composting, vermiculture, soil tilth, extending the growing season no matter where we live, and the value of the old-style farmsteads. The inter-relations of soil, air, food, animals, trash and what our culture has done to our planet cannot be overstated. But in the end, we will all come to a point where we must put down the books, turn away from the computers and do something about it. More of us need to focus on food production in a way that will not poison ourselves and our environment. We need to get back to basics, we need to take that first step.

Once we take control back over our food, we can begin to take more control over our lives and hand less of ourselves to the government. Once we get back to basics, many of us will need less and be happier with less and realize the folly of our culture's demand for the latest, best and fastest gizmo of the week. (I write this while admitting I spend more time on my computer than I probably should) I also admit that getting back to basics will inevitably improve our health, give us clearer vision when we look at what's going on around us, and in many cases, shift our priorities.
This is only the tip of the iceberg, it's true. We all need to start thinking about what's coming and how we might each be responsible for changing our corner of the world.

What do you think?

How Huge Food Corporations Will Make Upcoming Food Price Hikes Even Worse

An interesting quote this morning from an article I read called, "How Huge Food Corporations will Make Upcoming Food Price Hikes Even Worse"
First the quote, then a link to the article if you're interested.
(And there's a print link if you're like me and prefer to read articles without all the flashing ads on the side)

"Nearly 90 percent of U.S. cropland is comprised of just four crops. This year, the USDA estimates [10] that the nearly 30 percent of U.S. cropland is planted in corn, 23 percent in soybeans, 18 percent in hay, and 17 percent in wheat. Of these, only wheat is significantly different from the others: it mostly goes to feed humans (not livestock), it is less affected by the drought [11] in the U.S., and the U.S. is not the world’s top producer (it’s fourth)."

Here's the link to the article. It's worth a careful read.
How Huge Food Corporations Will Make Upcoming Food Price Hikes Even Worse

The A B C's of An Urban Trench

The obvious place to start is "A", of course, and with agriculture.

Wikipedia says that agriculture can be defined as "the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi, and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life". The New Oxford American Dictionary  says agriculture is the science or practice of farming, including cultivation of the soil for the growing of crops and the rearing of animals to provide food, wool, and other products.

That's still pretty broad. There are dozens of  branches to get lost on in the study of agriculture. If one were to go to school to study agricultural sciences, we would be studying irrigation, agricultural productivity, plant breeding, agricultural diversification, pesticides, soil, agricultural techniques, and the list goes on. So, if we use the two definitions above as our starting off point, we can study how we use animals, plants and fungi in our day to day lives, how they're raised or grown and how we modify them for our own use. Our track record, generally, isn't good.

We have a bad habit of squeezing animals in massive numbers into cages or pens too small for them, denying them basic comforts, force feeding them so that rapid growth benefits us, and even feeding them in a cannibalistic manner because slaughter house floor scrapings are cheaper, never mind the health risk. All one has to do is sit through half of Food Inc. to really see how we treat the animals destined to become our food. Now, I'm not a vegetarian, and I have no plans to become one. My standpoint here is that we, as a higher life form, really should know better than to continue down this slippery slope. We already dance with danger every day. E. Coli and Mad Cow runs rampant, and usually it's because some member of the human race has done something they know is wrong. E. Coli in melons killed 13 people, because two brothers thought they could save a few bucks. 9 people died because of salmonella in peanuts back in 2008. The list is exhaustive, and not the main thrust of this post. You get the point I'm sure.

One way to live healthier is to eat healthy food. I've written here before about diminishing nutrient values in our fruits and vegetables, and while I'm still appalled by it all, let me say that the declining nutrient levels have caused many to start their own gardens. Indeed, it is the main thrust behind my passion for organic growing methods. Growing healthier food starts with healthy soil. Soil that is teeming with life in the form of worms, microbes, fungi and bacteria. Before you get grossed out, these tiny critters are the keystone to good food. If your spadeful of shovel has no worms, chances are it is bereft of the smaller soil-dwellers too. That's not good for the plants. To feed the plants, you must first feed the soil. No soil ... no food.

Massive industrial agriculture is not a viable option for the future as the model stands today. There needs to be a change in our habits, and while there is a revolution that marches on, it is still small. We need to get politics out of our fields so that monsters like Monsanto wither and waste away. We need to get politicians to stop paying farmers to let their fields sit empty, and instead pay them to think more organically. We need to educate more people so that they better understand soil and what should live in it. We need to spread the word about compost so that everyone knows what it does, what it should be and what it can do for us. We need to understand water and how to live with less, as well as how to conserve it both in a small scale and a large one. We need city councils to allow us to raise chickens in our backyards, and sell eggs and grow tomatoes in our front yard if we want; not take homeowners to court when they rip up water-guzzling lawns.

This conversation is a massive, ongoing dialogue, one I hope we can all wade in on and share our opinions. It is only through the exchange of ideas and truly listening to one another that we can learn. So tell me what you think of agriculture today, perhaps you'll teach me something or get me pondering some aspect of it that I had overlooked!