Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["E. E. Mitchamore Jr" <emitch@att.net>]

I just had an event that sharpened my interest in growing our own vegetables - Genetic tests showed a strong sensitivity to gluten.  Trust me; there's NOTHING that enhances your interest in fresh vegetables like learning that you can't eat bread any more.

 

E. E. "Mitch" Mitchamore
www.hillcountrynatives.biz

----- Original Message -----

From: TradingPostPaul

To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org

Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2007 12:33 PM

Subject: [Livingontheland] crunch time

Just how realistic is it to expect sustainable growing to take over?

We can't really predict how all the environmental and economic changes will
play out, but we can expect the future of food to be very different from
what we've known for decades in this country. Some random thoughts on it
come to mind, but others may have a different take on it. My best guess
here.

Some will think the crops they grow just aren't suited to permanent beds,
though they know they need to conserve whatever water and amendments they
have. Well, they can switch crops or go under as costs rise. They think
they have to rely on commercial fertilizers because we just don't have
enough organic fertilizer to go around. But organic wastes are everywhere,
such as lawn clippings and leaves bagged up for the landfill, restaurants
where half the food goes to waste, and the typical kitchen disposal which
ends up the best fed mouth in the country. When fertilizer gets too
expensive we'll start seeing all this invisible organic waste.

They think we can't expect the industrial mega-farms to just go organic or
work free of fossil fuel costs. When they become unprofitable in this
economy, they'll figure out the industrial monoculture farms need to be
sold off and broken up into thousands of small farms that can be farmed
sustainably with very different crops. They might ask, where would all the
corn and grains come from if we did that. Well, that would starve out the
monstrous factory feedlots for starters, where most of the corn and grains
go to feed our meat addiction, and we'd all be better off for any number of
reasons. It would free up enormous amounts of freshwater and land for human
food growing. There's plenty of uncultivated land for free range beef and
poultry that's far healthier and more sustainable.


paul tradingpost@lobo.net



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