“Man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons” Douglas Adams
I started with this Douglas Adams quote not to insult anyone, but to highlight how we have gotten so far off kilter when it comes to our food system. (I cover the logic of why we first started farming elsewhere in this blog – and it wasn’t because we really needed to control our food supply (e.g., see link.) After all, we are the only species that deliberately poisons our food supply and ruins the soil system that supports our food production in the name of economic expediency. We put so much store in money, which is quite amazing really since money is merely a construct we created. Whatever the largest cash note you can find, it is still just a piece of paper with a number on it. It is a belief system that we agree upon. That piece of paper representing money is worth almost nothing in itself. We are ruining the planet all in the name of an abstract concept that cannot help you if you are hungry and we reach a time when the value of that paper means nothing.
In the last post, I gave a doom and gloom overview of our global food system. Food is so critical I find it amazing that so many people are all so blasé about trusting it being there when they need it. I recall my parents talking about being hungry in Europe at the end of World War II, or my British uncles talking about the dire rationing during that war. Then I look around the neighborhood in which I live here in the States with the perfectly trimmed grass lawns and flower beds. All very scenic and pretty, but I look at my garden in the back of my house and how unusual it is. Next door to me is a 5-acre ‘farmette’ that grows all the food it needs for the family and shares the extras with many of us who help out.
My garden is not large (1000 sq feet or 90 sq meters) and is mostly an experiment for me to understand what grows in Colorado’s arid climate and harsh sun at 5000 ft (1530 meters). I have a friend who claims he grows enough in his 1000 sq feet that he feeds his family for the year! I have a herb spiral that I harvested yesterday before the night frosts arrive this week – amazing how much herb you can grow in a small area! I still have some Squashes needing to be harvested as well. I don’t currently have enough produce to last a long winter, but if I had to, I would be able to grow enough with extra for sharing with neighbors. If the crunch should come, I would be able to advise my neighbors on what to do to grow enough food for the whole neighborhood from all of us. The first thing would be to get rid of all the green lawns!
Of course, growing enough during the short summer growing season is one thing, but growing food during the long winter and cool Spring and Autumn seasons is also an interesting challenge in this type of Climate of the Colorado Front Range. I have talked about Permaculture as a solution for small scale farming (see links in the last post), but the key to successful cropping is in the cultivation of the soil and maintenance of the soil organisms whatever the scale of farming. By growing our own organic food and supporting farmers to grow organic food, not only do we get nutritious food we also begin curing many of the health problems that we modern humans are so inflicted with as a result of high intake of toxic processed foods and pesticide grown Industrial foods and GMOs.
Now I live in a semi-rural urban area with plenty of areas in which to grow food. What about the many people who live in high urban areas? I previously covered two large-urbanized communities that were thrust into food insecurity (Detroit and Cuba) and were able to develop systems to feed the larger populations (see links 1 and 2) – these examples are examples of what can be achieved once food sovereignty is desired. It wasn’t individuals but localized communities working together that made it work. The graphic link shows a community garden in Detroit – now nicknamed the garden city!
Once upon a time, before the industrial revolution, nearly everyone would have had a small garden of some kind, whether it was by the home of part or part of a communal plot of land. In the highlands of Scotland for instance, they were called ‘crofts.’ I don’t think we will all ever go back to a pre-industrial lifestyle, but in the foreseeable future we will have to deal with a disrupted global food supply chain. And if we want it to be a healthy food supply chain, we have a lot of farmers that will have to re-learn how to grow food in a sustainable way.
One of the biggest revolutions that will occur will be the cultivating of perennial crops that once planted will yield year after year instead of having to be planted every season – just like the ancient forms once did naturally until we used crop husbandry to make them annual crops. This would have many benefits in that soil erosion would be eliminated, and the roots structures would be able to grow down into the water table thereby reducing the amount of irrigation needed. The extensive root systems growing in regenerated soil would make for more robust and durable crops (see link for root graphic – note the roots outlined in red). This will be the sustainable ‘green revolution’ working with ‘natural intelligence’ leading the way.
Our global industrial food system relies on shipping of food vast distances from warm climates to areas of marginal climate farming areas (if you can afford to buy them of course). These foods need to be picked before they ripen or be modified to last long periods before they rot. I have a feeling that fresh foods that will ripen fast will be grown locally and only foods that can be picked pre-ripe (and grown organically) will be the ones shipped globally in the years to come. Of course, it is up to us to demand sustainably grown organic foods. Once we have localized agriculture, we will have the leverage to push global sustainable agriculture.
Now for the localized foods, we will need to rethink how we look at the system. Some cooler areas use large heated greenhouses to grow fresh food year-round (see link). That tends to be with methane fueled heating systems. Locally, we will probably not have that option and considering that methane resources are fast declining we need to rethink older ideas of using the winter sun and ground geothermal heat to keep the greenhouses warm. The link shows many examples of what is currently commercially available. I personally like the Walipini-greenhouse idea (see link) and would build this for myself if local zoning restrictions did not interfere.
Imagine a near-future when the global food system is disrupted and unreliable. Now imagine localized organic farming giving you food sovereignty and improved health for both you and the soil systems that you rely upon. Further imagine that you will still have exotic foods in the middle of winter, but sourced from areas that also grow organic foods sustainably. Health is so important, and now imagine that the sick-care system is now surpassed by a true healthcare system where nutrition is a primary preventative measure, and the healthcare system works with people with special health needs, and not as a financial cash-cow enterprise.
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