Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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

You're probably right. The vast majority have enough everyday problems to
think about and the mainstream news is asleep at the switch. We're always
being stampeded into being afraid of something that never exists. Al-Quida
under every bed, whatever. People can take only so much before tuning it
out. 

I'm not talking catastrophe, just too many real problems converging at
once. Fossil fuels, food, and utility costs rising, cost of all Asian
imports rising as the dollar slides, water shortages in some areas, the
housing bust, all this when we're coming into the baby boomer retirement
age and medicare & SS costs are skyrocketing, and we're doubling the
national debt with futile wars on borrowed money. There are several ways to
react. Push the panic button. Go back to sleep. Refill the Prozac or hit
the bar. Or do what we can to secure more of the necessities of life for
ourselves and our communities. Or at least try. 

In the Depression of the '30s, fully half the U.S. was rural population.
Millions of farm families. The cities generally fared much worse in
hardship. Many men took to the rails to look for work somewhere. Time and
time again I recall the stories of my aunts and uncles and life growing up
in those days. They were in Hutchinson, Kansas, a small town back then, and
their dad had a struggling Maytag store after selling the place he
homesteaded in Colorado. They didn't have money for school clothes but they
had a garden and a root cellar. And they never went hungry.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

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

On 12/16/2007 at 5:44 PM Phil Bunch wrote:

>People can only become aware of something that penetrates their daily
>lives.
>The inertia of day-to-day routine, convenience and the familiar is a
mighty
>force. People block out the inconvenient truths by a myriad of means. My
>personal belief is that most will not understand what is being said until
>it
>is impossible to ignore. 
>
>Perhaps the major media could sneak in the message via the evening news if
>they thought it important. I'm not holding my breath. They are just like
>the
>rest of us and subject to the same habitual world views.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: livingontheland-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
>[mailto:livingontheland-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Liz
>Sent: Sunday, December 16, 2007 10:17 AM
>To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing
>Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] michael pollan article on sustainability
>
>At 12:43 PM 12/16/2007, you wrote:
>>
>>The Way We Live Now
>>Our Decrepit Food Factories
>>By MICHAEL POLLAN
>
>Thank you, an excellent article. I don't know what it's going to take 
>to wake people up, but articles like this ought to help.
>
>Liz in SW VA
>http://life-as-a-spectator-sport.com
>
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