Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Dan Conine <dconine@bertramwireless.com>]

I agree, Paul. Not nearly enough talk about the community aspect and the 
commons getting involved (either in some economic exchange format 
(capitalism) or communally). These types of articles, whether 
intentionally or not, play on the 'individual' meme of self-sufficiency 
which sells magazines, rototillers and guns.

I fall for it all the time because I'm a misanthrope in general, even as 
I logically see the need for communal cooperation.
You can't grow all of your own food as an individual. You gotta sleep 
sometime and that's when the critters come out (two-, four- and 
multi-legged kinds, as well as 'zombies').

Any food source should be seen as a security issue (a target) as much as 
a resource, and people need to 'get over themselves' quickly. We have to 
stop putting humans up on a pedestal vs. the other animals, not because 
of any particular moral 'rights', but because of our natural 
co-dependencies and future needs that depend on cooperation with nature 
and each other, rather than conquering the environment which feeds us.

Whether market gardening or living on our own food, there is a minimum 
amount of social and environmental stability that we have taken for 
granted. When anything disrupts the status quo, then those things that 
are dependent on stability such as property rights, public and personal 
safety, energy sources, and even what can be considered conveniences 
become critical to survival. We elect governments to keep things settled 
and moving smoothly, but when things are moving smoothly, we take for 
granted that the basics will remain (law enforcement, transportation, 
etc) and 'civilized' people end up forgetting how and why they invented 
civilization in the first place.

None of us are an island of 1/10 of an acre.

Borders are only defined as long as we have a system to define them, and 
defining them requires cooperation, even if it is to defend a larger border.

In short (I know: too late ;-), "growing all your food on 1/10 of an 
acre" is a nice utopian hobby in perfect weather, but nobody's going to 
LIVE there.

Dan C.
Belgium, WI
On 11/17/2012 11:00 AM, livingontheland-request@lists.ibiblio.org wrote:
> essage: 3
> Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2012 10:05:14 -0700
> From: "Tradingpost"<tradingpost@lobo.net>
> Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] How to Grow All Your Food on a Tenth of
>         an Acre
> To:livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
> Message-ID:<201211161005140418.476FB801@mail.lobo.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
>
> Just to be sure I 
> checkedhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palo_Alto,_California#Climate  & Palo 
> Alto has a Mediterranean Climate. Well, we could all grow more with mild outdoor 
> temperatures all year, couldn't we. That isn't brought out in the article.
>
> As for wheat I'm not big on grains. With other calorie foods like potatoes & beans 
> etc. I don't see grains as absolutely necessary. Cover crops are useful but I'd favor 
> buckwheat there. As for green manure crops, there's plenty of organic waste out there, 
> leaves, grass, large animal manure & so on, usually free for the taking. I see 
> nothing unsustainable about recycling it, importing that waste to the garden from nearby. 
> Myself I don't have room to grow my own grasses for composting, & lots of people are 
> in the same situation.
>
> Somehow being practical in the big picture doesn't get pumped up in these 
> articles.
>
> paultradingpost@lobo.net