Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

If you dig into Cuba's story after they lost the Soviet's oil, it's not
what you think. There was widespread suffering and worse. Their transition
to growing food without petrol was gradual; the ship of state can't turn on
a dime; and today they get oil products from Venezuela. Not energy
independent at all. And there's an ocean of difference between Cuba and the
U.S. Our material "standard of living" is much higher and this country is
totally dependent - far more than Cuba was - on oil, not just oil but cheap
oil. Bottom line: we have a lot farther to fall. 

I'm sidestepping all the problems with alternative fuels; there's nothing
that can prop up our fossil fuel economy much longer. One fact is
undebatable: we're using so much oil because no other source of energy is
as cheap and convenient. And having to switch to anything else would
bankrupt people, business, and government. 

I will point out that enough solar to power a typical house here costs as
much energy to manufacture as it takes to build a car, and you'll pay the
same for it as a car. And if you've got a few hundred trillion to burn you
can start rebuilding our cities and suburbs with 800 sq ft houses. What
you'll do with millions of existing houses I have no idea. BTW we're
already into a severe - or disastrous - construction slowdown and it's
getting worse by the week. 

Now as for converting much of our cities to sustainable farming, or any
kind of farming, good luck. Just because people have been to college
doesn't mean they can master the learning curve in one season (I have and
it's taking me a lot longer). They'll eat anything they can get. No, I
don't believe we'll all turn into raving lunatics as depression sinks in;
there are always noble and heroic people who go beyond the call. History is
full of precedents for what's coming, only never on this scale. In the
Great Depression and Dust Bowl most families still lived on the land. My
great aunts and uncles had no money but with a garden and root cellar they
never missed a meal. Not anymore.  But the crystal ball grows cloudy ...


paul tradingpost@lobo.net

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 11/22/2006 at 12:45 PM Robert Monie wrote:

>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