Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Liz <liz@allslash.org>]

At 11:05 PM 12/26/2007, you wrote:

> "If your experience is that your water comes from the tap and that your
> food comes from the grocery store then you are going to defend to the
> death the system that brings those to you because your life depends on
> that; if your experience is that your water comes from a river and that
> your food comes from a land base then you will defend those to the death
> because your life depends on them. So part of the problem is that we have
> become so dependent upon this system that is killing and exploiting us, it
> has become almost impossible for us to imagine living outside of it and
> it's very difficult physically for us to live outside of it."

Unfortunately, knowing that your water comes from a river and your 
food from a land base has led to many wars of expansion over the 
centuries. But at least they were mostly localized conflict waged 
with relatively primitive weaponry. Now we're exploiting and killing 
the very planet that used to sustain us.

This is one reason that on the solar energy lists you hear questions 
like "I have a four bedroom house with central heat and a/c, 
refrigerator, freezer, electric stove, washer, dryer, three tv's and 
three computers--how many solar panels do I need to power this?" And 
when the reply is, "You need to reduce your consumption first," the 
person asking the question usually just goes away, because they can't 
imagine living differently.

When a significant percentage of people begins to ask "How can I 
change my life so it affects the world less?" rather than "How do we 
change the world so I can continue my current lifestyle?" only then 
will we begin to see a real difference. But I think it's going to 
take a crisis for that to happen.

Liz in SW VA
http://life-as-a-spectator-sport.com