Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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

RESTORATIVE FARMING AND THE REAL GREEN REVOLUTION
by Kenny Ausubel
http://www.lightparty.com/Economic/Restore.html

Agriculture as it is practiced by "agribusiness" today is the single most
destructive human activity against the environment. If we do not redirect
agriculture, we can forget preserving the earth. In addition, by the year
2000, just one percent of farms will grow fifty percent of our food. This
centralization of agribusiness undermines global food security and national
sovereignty. What do we do? What would a positive scenario of global
agriculture look like?

The practices for ecological agriculture are already present. Systems such
as permaculture, bio-intensive, biodynamic and many indigenous methods are
capable of producing yields comparable or actually higher then chemical
agriculture while restoring the soil, water and land. These systems are
knowledge-intensive rather than technology-intensive, meaning that they
also create jobs. Creating jobs is an essential component of any healthy
future economy, and food is the biggest business in the world.

In just the last ten years, over 2,000 farmers markets have sprung up
across the U.S. They indicate the desire of the public to have direct
access to fresh health food, as well as a direct connection to farmers and
the soil. Similarly, Community-Supported Agriculture projects (CSA's) are
already spreading rapidly as citizens come together to contract with a
farmer for fresh produce over a season. These budding community
institutions underscore the need to decentralize agriculture and produce
much more food locally for community food self- reliance. While access to
markets and a cash economy are important as well, community food security
is equally important.

We will also be reexamining what crops we grow, both from the point of view
of nutrition and the health of the soil. As current trends indicate, people
are enthusiastic about "new" varieties of foods, which are mainly the rich
heritage of heirloom vegetables and fruits that people have cultivated and
passed down through countless generations. Most of these also contain a
higher nutritional value as well as delicious flavors that are now
inspiring respected chefs to highlight them in great recipes and meals.
Meanwhile, brilliant farmers and gardeners have been documenting which
crops are more or less impactful on the soil, and we will increasingly see
these ecological and nutritional considerations in our future farming.

Human beings face one of the greatest challenges ever. How do we learn to
feed ourselves while living lightly on the land? The future, already in the
making today, is a restorative agriculture which restores the soil, water,
nutrition, community, jobs and economy. Restorative farming also restores
the human spirit in harmony with the natural world. What a great adventure
we are undertaking.

Kenny Ausubel, is the author of Seeds of Change - The Living Treasure: The
Passionate Story of the Growing Movement to Restore Biodiversity and
Revolutionize the Way We Think About Food (Harper San Francisco, 1994).

His next book on the Bioneers will be out in Spring, 1997. (Reprint, The
GreenMoney Journal, West 608 Glass Avenue, Spokane, WA 99205. (509) 328-
1741. Summer, 1996 edition)