[microfarmer] Ideas
- From: Lancifer WIldwood <phytomphalosfarm@xxxxxxxx>
- To: microfarmer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2007 18:53:02 -0500 (EST)
The European Central Bank has injected 60B of liquidity into the market, ie.
they are trying to bail out a sinking ship with a thimble! They actually did
more inane things today. The FRN (I refuse to call greenbacks 'money'!) is
doing the same and there is no way around what is going on financially. Its a
dead end.
Peter Light and his son were looking into writing a minimal diet for the coast,
what could be grown that would meet our basic nutritional needs if we could
also eat from the sea. Too bad, I don't think they've been working on it.
Everyone needs to know stuff like that but, alas!, most people haven't a clue
about what's really going on. Sure there are whispers of doom, 'Peak Oil'
(nonsense, peak refinery production), 'Anthropogenic' global warming (vide:
more taxes for everyone!) but 'follow the money' and then it becomes clear that
the crisis that those in power don't want us to look at is financial.
This is one reason I suggest everyone invest in seeds, which will be the
currency of tomorrow (briefly), and a really good 'fedge' (an edible hedge)
from which to take cuttings. I'd say a bush in the ground with tasty fruit or
nuts on it is a good hedge against economic skullduggery. Since we are such a
small group of people it seems logical to focus on selling plants with which
people can feed themselves, if it comes to a crisis there is no way any of us
would be able to feed 'the masses'. Ah...more
lynn grossutti <secheltlynn@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: .hmmessage P { margin:0px;
padding:0px } body.hmmessage { FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY:Tahoma }
Greetings to you,
Your experience and observations are appreciated. Thanks for taking the
conversation up a notch.
In my opinion, now, real food security is a well thought out, community plan
based on market research, nutritional data and the execution of that plan. It's
not a romance. I'd like to know how many of us have even 10 lbs of dried beans
and 50 lbs of rice kikking around with some miso and tahini, dried fruits and
veggies, dried milk powder and nuts to feed us for a couple of months. For
vegans, this would be paramount and for the flexitarians (everyone else) it
would provide base line nutrition. How many of us have tried the 100 mile diet?
How long would our food supply last without the ferries and the products they
carry over for us? Apparently about 3 days and then 'survivor' would kikk in.
The First Nations fished, hunted and grew corn, beans and squash (the 3
sisters) and they thrived. The Sechelt Nation was affluent. It seems to me
that they didn't fabricate reality; they honoured it and respected it.
Could you say more about "the EU CB injected another 60B into the markets
today!" and
what you would priorize in the next year for those of us seeking solutions
geared to food security?
The thing is, we are a group of people who make up a small percentage of the
population that would even consider asking these questions and searching for
solutions.
We are living and bringing up our children in a vibrant, enthusiastic and
positive community. Everything we need is right here and now. Looking forward
to future forums.
Ciao for now,
Lynn Grossutti
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Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2007 23:47:30 -0500
From: phytomphalosfarm@xxxxxxxx
Subject: [microfarmer] Re: Ideas, please
To: microfarmer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Greetings:
After some thought (8 years worth now, here) I've concluded for myself that
this is not an area to farm in. Permaculture yes, farm no. By this I mean
that I will never spend time growing annuals for market. I've enough
experience to know that for real food security, you must provide for you and
yours above all else. Expecting even this amount of return from the poor soils
on the coast is almost laughable. Looking at my extended families food needs
for one year makes me lean far more towards mariculture than agriculture.
This is simply not a 'farming' locale. Sure there was enough small fruit
production to have a jam factory, and I'm sure that those who contributed also
had home gardens, but the wealth that westerners extracted from here was not
soil based, it was ocean/forestry based. Looking at boosting production of
low-use annuals (almost most of them!) seems rather weird to me. If anything,
we should be focusing on small scale meat raising, because
vegetarianism/veganism as a lifestyle would be impossible in a time of real
crisis. Which is what I tend to think is coming. Growing more lettuce,
peppers, corn, basil or other marginal crops seems a waste of time. Sure they
may be slightly marketable but they do not answer to food self security
what-so-ever.
The only solution I have come up with is to utilize the dead spaces as
foraging tools. Roadsides, empty lots, marginal land, clearcuts. These places
could all be utilized as massive food production areas, if our main food source
was the sea. As it was for the past millennia. We should learn from the
Sechelt, not try and garden in and around them. Sure, have a huge home garden,
but what need is there for specialty lettuce's? Focus on 20, very hardy (do to
Solar Based Climate Change), very useful plants. As a money earner, we could,
since there not very many of us really... become nurserypeople. Having a fully
functional fedge filled with fabulous fruits and nuts is going to be de rigeur
in the not so distant future (the EU CB injected another 60 B into the markets
today!).
The plain and simple fact is, we can not live by soil alone, nor anywhere
near so, on the Sunshine Coast (my apologies to the non-coasters here). We
must focus in on how we CAN live, not on the whims of marketability, but in
clear concise garden-wise ways that may need more marketing than the easier to
see products. We need to be proactive in helping mariculture renew itself. We
need to think along different lines. Sure, grow blueberries, but grow 20 types
of them! Harder to market since they don't ripen at the same time, but holding
down different genepools in the face uncertain climate/political/banking
backdrops seems wise.
Have a specialty! But don't specialize (specialization is for insects). If
this list is the new wave of budding farmers, we need to do a lot of thinking
and planning for what is to come. I disdain of typing really, so I'm hoping to
chat more with everyone at the next gathering. Growing perennials is more time
consuming, but more fruitful in the future. And if my sources are correct, we
are going to need a lot of food security in the not so distant future.
Ciao Fer Now
lance
A consensus means that everyone agrees to say collectively what no one believes
individually. Abba Eban
""We already have the means to travel among the stars, but these technologies
are locked up in black projects and it would take an Act of God to ever get
them out to benefit humanity...Anything you can imagine, we already know how to
do."
Ben Rich, Stealth Bomber Designer
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