Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Livingontheland Digest, Vol 68, Issue 1

livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Robert Monie <bobm20001@yahoo.com>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Livingontheland Digest, Vol 68, Issue 1
  • Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2006 12:45:02 -0800 (PST)

Hi Marty,
 
Can Ken tell us where to get copies of the Suzuki DVD on organic farming in Cuba?
 
"If the Cubans can do it, so can we," should be our motto. 
 
I work in New Orleans and live nearby.  I have seen disaster first-hand (3 square miles of Lakeview under 6 feet or more of water for over two weeks, mass evacuation, corpses in rocking chairs, million dollar homes turned into mold-covered shells), and I don't believe that when we run out of oil the sky will fall and we will all turn into cannibals and roving madmen.
 
More likely, most of us will be sensible and develop some pragmatic recovery program as the Cubans apparently have.  In addition to growing their own food locally, I wonder how much the Cubans are also doing to achieve energy independence?  Replacing gas is not going to be nearly as difficult or expensive as most people say it will be.  There are a couple of ladies in the tiny town of Paradis, Louisiana who for the last 3 or 4 years have found it very practical to drive a solar-cell charged car, and some people had solar electric systems  (under $8,000 outlay) on their roof that kept the lights shining, the microwave oven cooking, the computer running, and and the ceiling fans cooling during the extended power outage after Katrina and the flood had passed.  My little Carmanah solar system performed without a hitch.
 
In the face of disaster, many unhelpful conventional ways of thinking fall by the wayside. One is city versus country, urban vs. rural. We all live on land, even if it is temporarily covered by pavement, asphalt or over-sized houses and garages nearly as large as the houses. I have spoken with familes of 2 or 3 who have lost their massive houses to the flood and now wonder why they needed so much covered space to live in.  Some of the very attractive factory built "Katrina Cottages" that are soon to be on sale encompass only 300 to 800 square feet yet they can be very cosy for 2 or 3 people to live in (the Japanese, for example, live in small enclosures usually without complaint).  Rebuilding with very small houses like these leaves a lot of open space (soil, grass, weeds) that can now be used for URBAN farming. Cities could be redefined if houses were not so overbuilt as status symbols and shows of wealth and power.
 
Urban farming does not have to be synonymous with trendy permaculture courses and yuppie diversion. If "small solar powered houses on big lots" became the paradigm for cities, than farming in the city would not be the humorous contradiction that it now is in the US. The technology to do this already exists, and to it must be added the know-how and practical experience of sustainable farming.   Of course you can't convert downtown Manhattan or Dallas to such a model, but you don't need to. 
I think that when oil departs, we will all somehow, as Churchill said, "muddle through."
 
Bob Monie
New Orleans, after the flood

Marty Kraft <martyk@allspecies.org> wrote:
In the film The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil, it
talks about how the growers make more money than doctors and shows how
they developed farms and plots everywhere just to survive the US
embargo (especially on petroleum). You can check out more about the
film at http://www.communitysolution.org/cuba.html As the price of oil
goes up the reign of petro food goes down. The question is timing.

On October 22, Ken Hargesheimer also made an offer to send us a David
Suzuki dvd of Cuban organic farming. I got it and it was great. And
cheap. Thanks Ken

Marty





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page