keeps me up at night.
It really does. Since becoming interested in the Local Foods Challenge I've checked out and bought as many books as possible about the subject. And I'm not done, either.
Read:
~The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
by, Micheal Pollan
~Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
by, Barbara Kingsolver (aka, author of The Poisonwood Bible)
~Heirloom Vegetable Gardening
by, William Woys Weaver
~Get Started Preserving
by, DK
~Herbs
by, Better Homes & Gardens
Almost finished:
~Organic Manifesto
by, Maria Rodale
To read:
~The Great Tomato Book
by, Sheila Buff
~Starter Vegetable Gardens
by, Barbara Pleasant
~Raising Less corn, More Hell
by, George Pyle
~Everything else
As you can easily see, I have specific interests at the moment. I'll lay out the pattern for you: cooking, gardening (I have a small patio which can support tomatoes and herbs only), organic/local food culture literature.
It's that third piece that's really occupying my mind. I have some questions that I really want answered, that I really want to research. Are we currently sustainable? No. That's an easy one. But can we be? Is it really possible? I think so. I do. Honestly. I'm convinced that it is, but then again I've always been a glass-half-full sort of gal. I also think I ought to go back to school for this.
Okay, so let's start with what I know so far about why we're not sustainable now. And this, by all means, is not comprehensive. I'm no scientist, but I sure do read. We'll start at the top.
~Sunlight: check.
Sun grows plant, man eats plant. Sun grows plant, animal eats plant, man eats animal. Easy enough, right? Well, yeah, normally.
~Dirt: Not so check.
So we have plenty of sunlight, at least for the next couple bajillion years. Not an issue. But dirt. Hmm. What is dirt, exactly? 1 Cup of dirt has more itty bitty organisms than there are people living on this planet. Fact. We still don't completely understand the complex oganism(s) that is Dirt. Fact. Why is Dirt "not so check"? Easy.
Dirt has this thing, it's called Fertility. Dirt, as I'm coming to understand, exists in four stages as we know it:
~Fertile and undisturbed.
~Disturbed and constantly being depleted of fertility.
~Completely depleted of fertility. (ie, desert conditions may now begin.)
~Dirt (in farming) allowed to lie fallow for 1 year/several years/generations/etc to rebuild its natural, mysterious fertility.
When crops are planted and constantly harvested over and over (as in Big Organic farming and its evil cousin, Industrial farming), the Dirt loses its precious fertility. In these business Dirt is not allowed to lie fallow to recover its fertility. This is like planting 1 acre of Christmas trees and harvesting them immediately the next winter (when they are a few inches big) instead of letting them grow for several years and attain the height of a full-grown person. When soil is depleted in this manner, nothing can grow on it. When soil is depleted it can't grip the earth, it runs off into nearby streams and rivers and ends up in A) the ocean and B) our drinking water.
You can't choke on dirt in your tap water, but fish sure can. (Remember that dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico?)
So what happens when farmers aren't rotating crops properly or protecting fertility with natural methods (manure/cow poop)? Big agri-business companies step in and say, "Are your crops dying? Then you need Brand Name! Brand Name fertilizer will solve all your problems!" and then they smile like used-car salesmen. ding!
Argh! But if you spray fertilizer then everything grows, even bugs and weeds!
"Bugs getting at your crops? No worries! Try NameBrand weed and bug killer! It works fast!"
Wait a minute.
Brand Name and NameBrand are made by the same company! Okay, don't panic...
"Weed killer killing your crops? Don't worry! We'll sell you GMO(Genetically Modified Organism) crops that are resistant to our NameBrand weed killer. For you, we'll do it all!"
Unfortunately this B.S. is being sold on three sides: GMO seeds, weed/bug killer, and fertilizer, often by the same company. Boom, snap, slap. Money in the hands of some corporate goon and debt as the only thing lining a farmer's pocket. If we just practiced crop rotation and a little goddamn patience this wouldn't be an issue and, what's more, we could feed the world.
~Chemicals: Check.
I always make sure I'm getting my daily dose of arsenic and lead, don't you? I find I just can't live without the stuff. Okay, I'm joking, but not about the poisons. So many of the chemicals that Industrial agriculture is sprayed with are highly toxic to humans and the enviornment in either large or small doses. Many of these chemicals were used in the gas chambers during WWII. It's bigger than what I had previously thought. We've been highly chemical dependant for a long time, with early chemical attempts at increasing fertility going all the way back to 900AD China, and others in 1300AD Europe. After the Battle of Waterloo the English even stole bones to grind up into powder in the hopes of encouraging soil fertility on their exhausted island.
So, after all these chemicals are applied, what happens to them? Well, they enter the soil and the plant. Yes, they do. And then they get inside us. And our water. And our meat. (all that corn goes somewhere: beef, chicken, pork, salmon, you name it...plastic, cardboard, lamps...)
HOLY COW.
Chemicals are in everything. I am not making this up. It's true. You probably couldn't even get out of bed without touching something that had these harmful toxins applied to it. But to be sure, different forms of contact affect the body in different ways. I'm going to worry about my food first, since it's ingested, and my keyboard last. So, chemicals in the soil, the water, the food, the air...
How does anybody do anything about it?
I'm getting there. It gets worse, first, though.
~Meat: Ugh. Gross.
This one's easy. Meat eats chemically-doused feed (usually corn), meat is fed ground-up meat, meat is fed hormones and antibiotics, man eats meat (thereby digesting chemicals, gross!meat, extra unneeded hormones, and antibiotics all in one! Yuck.).
Yes, meat is fed ground-up meat. "But, Kim, what about Mad Cow Disease? We totally fixed that!"
No, we didn't.
Cow eats all stuff mentioned above, unusable bits of cow are ground up and put in chicken & pork feed, unusable bits of chicken and pork are ground up and put in cow feed. Cow, therefore, eats cow. Not directly, it's true. But it still happens. And those chemicals and viruses don't just break down after one pass through. As anybody who can attest to the massive flu outbreak sweeping America right now, viruses don't just die. They'll chug right on through a cow's gut, a chicken's gut, and then a cow's gut again, and then they will come for you. And so will Mad People Disease, or whatever we're going to call it.
#zombieapocalypse
People: Um...
The end of this industrial food chain? Diabetes, asthma, cancer, endocrine distruptors... need I go on? No wonder health care is a booming industry, we're downing poison all the way there.
Chemical dependance is killing us and our animals and plants. It is choking our water and our air and destroying our ozone. It is melting our ice caps (Beijing, China's pollution just went so high it left the record), and giving our children diseases we didn't even have two generations ago. I'm serious. This chemical-feedlot-industrial-macho- bullshit is poisoning the planet.
This keeps me up at night. I know how it happened. I know why, too. That's the simplest part, really. Greed, pride, and a macho self-centric culture is the root of it all. Which is really sad, all things considered. But, it can change. It's not too late.
So, after all this frightening stuff that I just mentioned, how do we save the planet?
~Firstly, you've got to go organic. Organic food, organic clothing, fuel-efficient cars, whatever.
~Secondly, you've got to go local. As local as possible. Yeah, I know, I like lemons are much as the next girl but this is just too much poison lemonade for me.
Start there and see how far you get. If you "vote", so to speak, with your dollars, you already have the most powerful tool at your disposal: Customer.
But, Kim, that's so generic. What's your P-L-A-N?
I don't know yet. But I'm going to figure it out, goddammit, I will. Are we sustainable? Heck no. But can we be?
I'm certain of it.
Could we do it by state? By region? Is ethanol a good moral choice? No, on that last one. The world already produces enough food to feed everyone, way more than we need, judging by the obesity index. I bet this world could feed more than 7 billion people. I bet there is land out there (currently all industrial farms and feedlots) enough for houses and good living conditions. I bet that life can be good and decent, and full of dignity and respect. It might involve a little more planning, it might involve stricter regulations and food-testing, crop rotation, and I'm certain it would involve a lot of hard work. But I bet there's a living wage out there for each and every adult willing to get out of bed and come home with enough groceries to feed everybody.
I know that future is possible.
And I'm going to find it.
xoxoxo,
Kim & Emmy
It really does. Since becoming interested in the Local Foods Challenge I've checked out and bought as many books as possible about the subject. And I'm not done, either.
Read:
~The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
by, Micheal Pollan
~Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
by, Barbara Kingsolver (aka, author of The Poisonwood Bible)
~Heirloom Vegetable Gardening
by, William Woys Weaver
~Get Started Preserving
by, DK
~Herbs
by, Better Homes & Gardens
Almost finished:
~Organic Manifesto
by, Maria Rodale
To read:
~The Great Tomato Book
by, Sheila Buff
~Starter Vegetable Gardens
by, Barbara Pleasant
~Raising Less corn, More Hell
by, George Pyle
~Everything else
As you can easily see, I have specific interests at the moment. I'll lay out the pattern for you: cooking, gardening (I have a small patio which can support tomatoes and herbs only), organic/local food culture literature.
It's that third piece that's really occupying my mind. I have some questions that I really want answered, that I really want to research. Are we currently sustainable? No. That's an easy one. But can we be? Is it really possible? I think so. I do. Honestly. I'm convinced that it is, but then again I've always been a glass-half-full sort of gal. I also think I ought to go back to school for this.
Okay, so let's start with what I know so far about why we're not sustainable now. And this, by all means, is not comprehensive. I'm no scientist, but I sure do read. We'll start at the top.
~Sunlight: check.
Sun grows plant, man eats plant. Sun grows plant, animal eats plant, man eats animal. Easy enough, right? Well, yeah, normally.
~Dirt: Not so check.
So we have plenty of sunlight, at least for the next couple bajillion years. Not an issue. But dirt. Hmm. What is dirt, exactly? 1 Cup of dirt has more itty bitty organisms than there are people living on this planet. Fact. We still don't completely understand the complex oganism(s) that is Dirt. Fact. Why is Dirt "not so check"? Easy.
Dirt has this thing, it's called Fertility. Dirt, as I'm coming to understand, exists in four stages as we know it:
~Fertile and undisturbed.
~Disturbed and constantly being depleted of fertility.
~Completely depleted of fertility. (ie, desert conditions may now begin.)
~Dirt (in farming) allowed to lie fallow for 1 year/several years/generations/etc to rebuild its natural, mysterious fertility.
When crops are planted and constantly harvested over and over (as in Big Organic farming and its evil cousin, Industrial farming), the Dirt loses its precious fertility. In these business Dirt is not allowed to lie fallow to recover its fertility. This is like planting 1 acre of Christmas trees and harvesting them immediately the next winter (when they are a few inches big) instead of letting them grow for several years and attain the height of a full-grown person. When soil is depleted in this manner, nothing can grow on it. When soil is depleted it can't grip the earth, it runs off into nearby streams and rivers and ends up in A) the ocean and B) our drinking water.
You can't choke on dirt in your tap water, but fish sure can. (Remember that dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico?)
So what happens when farmers aren't rotating crops properly or protecting fertility with natural methods (manure/cow poop)? Big agri-business companies step in and say, "Are your crops dying? Then you need Brand Name! Brand Name fertilizer will solve all your problems!" and then they smile like used-car salesmen. ding!
Argh! But if you spray fertilizer then everything grows, even bugs and weeds!
"Bugs getting at your crops? No worries! Try NameBrand weed and bug killer! It works fast!"
Wait a minute.
Brand Name and NameBrand are made by the same company! Okay, don't panic...
"Weed killer killing your crops? Don't worry! We'll sell you GMO(Genetically Modified Organism) crops that are resistant to our NameBrand weed killer. For you, we'll do it all!"
Unfortunately this B.S. is being sold on three sides: GMO seeds, weed/bug killer, and fertilizer, often by the same company. Boom, snap, slap. Money in the hands of some corporate goon and debt as the only thing lining a farmer's pocket. If we just practiced crop rotation and a little goddamn patience this wouldn't be an issue and, what's more, we could feed the world.
~Chemicals: Check.
I always make sure I'm getting my daily dose of arsenic and lead, don't you? I find I just can't live without the stuff. Okay, I'm joking, but not about the poisons. So many of the chemicals that Industrial agriculture is sprayed with are highly toxic to humans and the enviornment in either large or small doses. Many of these chemicals were used in the gas chambers during WWII. It's bigger than what I had previously thought. We've been highly chemical dependant for a long time, with early chemical attempts at increasing fertility going all the way back to 900AD China, and others in 1300AD Europe. After the Battle of Waterloo the English even stole bones to grind up into powder in the hopes of encouraging soil fertility on their exhausted island.
So, after all these chemicals are applied, what happens to them? Well, they enter the soil and the plant. Yes, they do. And then they get inside us. And our water. And our meat. (all that corn goes somewhere: beef, chicken, pork, salmon, you name it...plastic, cardboard, lamps...)
HOLY COW.
Chemicals are in everything. I am not making this up. It's true. You probably couldn't even get out of bed without touching something that had these harmful toxins applied to it. But to be sure, different forms of contact affect the body in different ways. I'm going to worry about my food first, since it's ingested, and my keyboard last. So, chemicals in the soil, the water, the food, the air...
How does anybody do anything about it?
I'm getting there. It gets worse, first, though.
~Meat: Ugh. Gross.
This one's easy. Meat eats chemically-doused feed (usually corn), meat is fed ground-up meat, meat is fed hormones and antibiotics, man eats meat (thereby digesting chemicals, gross!meat, extra unneeded hormones, and antibiotics all in one! Yuck.).
Yes, meat is fed ground-up meat. "But, Kim, what about Mad Cow Disease? We totally fixed that!"
No, we didn't.
Cow eats all stuff mentioned above, unusable bits of cow are ground up and put in chicken & pork feed, unusable bits of chicken and pork are ground up and put in cow feed. Cow, therefore, eats cow. Not directly, it's true. But it still happens. And those chemicals and viruses don't just break down after one pass through. As anybody who can attest to the massive flu outbreak sweeping America right now, viruses don't just die. They'll chug right on through a cow's gut, a chicken's gut, and then a cow's gut again, and then they will come for you. And so will Mad People Disease, or whatever we're going to call it.
#zombieapocalypse
People: Um...
The end of this industrial food chain? Diabetes, asthma, cancer, endocrine distruptors... need I go on? No wonder health care is a booming industry, we're downing poison all the way there.
Chemical dependance is killing us and our animals and plants. It is choking our water and our air and destroying our ozone. It is melting our ice caps (Beijing, China's pollution just went so high it left the record), and giving our children diseases we didn't even have two generations ago. I'm serious. This chemical-feedlot-industrial-macho- bullshit is poisoning the planet.
This keeps me up at night. I know how it happened. I know why, too. That's the simplest part, really. Greed, pride, and a macho self-centric culture is the root of it all. Which is really sad, all things considered. But, it can change. It's not too late.
So, after all this frightening stuff that I just mentioned, how do we save the planet?
~Firstly, you've got to go organic. Organic food, organic clothing, fuel-efficient cars, whatever.
~Secondly, you've got to go local. As local as possible. Yeah, I know, I like lemons are much as the next girl but this is just too much poison lemonade for me.
Start there and see how far you get. If you "vote", so to speak, with your dollars, you already have the most powerful tool at your disposal: Customer.
But, Kim, that's so generic. What's your P-L-A-N?
I don't know yet. But I'm going to figure it out, goddammit, I will. Are we sustainable? Heck no. But can we be?
I'm certain of it.
Could we do it by state? By region? Is ethanol a good moral choice? No, on that last one. The world already produces enough food to feed everyone, way more than we need, judging by the obesity index. I bet this world could feed more than 7 billion people. I bet there is land out there (currently all industrial farms and feedlots) enough for houses and good living conditions. I bet that life can be good and decent, and full of dignity and respect. It might involve a little more planning, it might involve stricter regulations and food-testing, crop rotation, and I'm certain it would involve a lot of hard work. But I bet there's a living wage out there for each and every adult willing to get out of bed and come home with enough groceries to feed everybody.
I know that future is possible.
And I'm going to find it.
xoxoxo,
Kim & Emmy
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