Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TamesonOB" <tamesonob@metrocast.net>]

> From: Marty Kraft <martyk@allspecies.org>
I wonder if we on this list could come
> to some guidelines that feel good to live by. The fewer and simpler
> the better.

Marty, I think the 3 Rs  and the golden rule pretty much sum it up, 
especially with an emphasis on the first and the last. There are all sorts 
of philosophies and slogans out there and they all pretty much come back to 
the 3 Rs and the golden rule.

Grow your own - reduce
waste not want not - reduce
eat local - reduce
use it up wear it out make it do or do without - well all 3 Rs
take care of your mother (meaning the earth)- golden rule

I should like to add a fourth R to the trinity. That being Renew. If we not 
only Reduced our consumption, Reused the things we did consume and Recycled 
our waste, but also Renewed the resources from which something came (like 
soil building, and seed banks, and nature conservatories, and stuff like 
that) then we would be that much closer to true sustainability.

I am by no means perfect in my quest for sustainability - in fact 
embarrassingly far from it, but in the past few years the underlying 
question I ask myself whenever I make a decision is "is this sustainable?", 
and now more than ever I feel that I am doing my part for sustainability. I 
grow some of my food (in a perfect world I would grow all, but family 
obligations cut into my time, energy, and financial resources), and by 
reducing the number of disposable diapers my daughter uses (cloth 80% of the 
time), and the number of car trips I make, and the number of cups of coffee 
I have (maybe that's where the energy drain went) or how many appliances are 
running I am lessening my load on this planet if only by a little.

Every little bit helps
Tameson