I’m eating a lot of probiotics now, fermented coconut cream, etc.
How did we get here?
Why are we going to these lengths to get clean food?
How do we get all of our food to be clean?
I recommend that you read Michael Pollin’s In Defense of Food. He has an interesting viewpoint on how the modern food practices have developed. But FIRST:
Thankfully, there are a lot of people developing and implementing sane food practices. Following are some people and web sites to check out:
Farm for the Future BBC Documentary is my original go-to. This free online film is what got Lucky to look for a farm down here for a year, and eventually buy a farm in Oregon! It’s a real wake-up call! Watch this first. About one hour.
The Biggest Little Farm, now available on DVD or, for a price, on Amazon Prime, is a great way to get motivated, and get an overview of what it takes.
Polyfacefarms.com, with Joel Salatin. He has many books, lots of YouTube videos, and great results.
Alan Savory, with a hard-hitting talk on Ted Talks, lets you know why he has gotten into the re-newing-the-land game.
He has graduated the plan into a Holistic Animal Management program, that he feels can reclaim the huge arid sections of every continent, back to grasslands, at least. People should be able to include some trees here and there.
Geoff Lawton, who has a permaculture practice, has great free videos on permaculture projects, which is a way to get the land producing without constant renewal and minimal ongoing effort. He shows you how to use the contours and natural rainfall to turn anyplace into a productive area. My favorite is a place in Arizona, where an earth dam was built out in the desert (not just sand there, has some plants too), and left alone for 80 years. He takes you back to it, and you see this lush, incredible area that has built up.
Forest gardens are the best option. Ten people can be fed per acre. The only way is to have more people directly involved in food production. Gardens included.
Observe the land and work with it.
I personally have been asking myself what the best city/grouping/housing/lifestyle is for human beings. I lean toward a more agricultural setting, as getting food fresh every day from the land would be better in so many ways!
First, you are getting maximum nutrition and enjoyment from the food. The more raw it is, the more problems it solves. First, you eliminate shipping and the pollution that causes. You reduce illness. The food doesn’t have time to grow bacteria or “go bad.” And raw, you don’t really have to worry about that.
Second, Waste is reduced. Packaging is unnecessary. Personal waste can be composted if you eat raw, and be returned to the soil. There are ways to do this perfectly safely. Composting toilets are so much more sane than the water system at this stage. The water was handy, but it is wasteful and polluting to use it now. The rotational grazing allows the animal waste to be directly recycled, thus eliminating that waste and effort in handling the waste.
We have to stop using waterways as waste dumps. They have to be kept clean and use clean ways to travel on them.
In other words, our best survival has to be changed from making money to eating and living our best. We of course want innovations and growth, building. But let’s not do things just because we can. Let’s make sure it is optimum for future survival.
Interestingly, the idea of living just this life, and not having a heaven to go to, ore not returning life after life, us not being an eternal life force, is something that is promoted by people or cultures that want to enslave others. Thinking you have to put up with it, get everything you can now because this is it, live no matter what the conditions are (horrible slavery), are all due to this viewpoint.
As interestingly, knowing you will live on helps encourage the idea of making sure what you are doing is sustainable. It also allows people to keep their personal integrity in, and to refuse to do things that they don’t agree with. To refuse to let others do bad things. To do what is right and demand that others do so also. People who fight and die for a cause often believe that they will be rewarded, go to heaven. Hopefully, their sacrifice has allowed the future life to be better, to be what they want it to be. I think one’s experience of heaven is probably dependent on what you do in this life. And if we return, it definitely is.
Several of our members have moved out of the city and onto a farm. I applaud you! I still am hoping to create that in my life.
I encourage each of you to look at your life, and see how you can make it more sustainable, or support sustainable agriculture. Every yard and patio can be a learning experience, and provide food.
Look at what was done in Pasadena with a yard! Urban Homestead is the thing to Google. They have kept a diary and produce $20,000 of food and money from their yard. If you make your yard a food forest, a la Geoff Lawton, or your own research, you can have fresh food, food for wildlife, and help make a revolution. Even small trees and bushes with garden plants life lettuce between can help restore your soil. Add in a worm bin, and mulch, with bird boxes to encourage wild birds, or chickens to keep the bugs down, or frogs/toads/lizards, and, yes, spiders. Your choice.
If you are interested in the idea of retiring to a farm, I’d like us to restart that conversation. Let’s find out what is possible/legal/ideal/necessary to maintain our way of life and support each other as we age/retire. The regular options are not healthy. Even the idea of our own retirement facility in the city with a large garden. ?? Take over a city block now, each live in our own space yet combine the yards for a large garden etc.? Send your ideas to me, Randy, Marea, and let’s get together to talk about it.
Here’s to Healthy Living!
Marilyn at RA
