Illusion of scarcity and the mismanagement
of resources, how and where we get what we need - A severe drought in another
country can potentially starve us all. Today most of the food consumed in
America is imported from Mexico. This means that any major instability in
Mexico could starve out America. The best way to avoid this is simply to grow
your own foods. Replace that useless, pointless, water wasting, time killing
lawn with a garden and grow your own foods. Some people are fooled into believing that
it takes a space as large as a football field to produce enough food for one
person. In fact this is only true if you live exclusively on beef. As seen in a
television program aired on Discovery called the 'End of Oil' it is
claimed that it takes an area 120 yards x 53.3 yard (about the same in meters),
that's about the area of a football field, to produce enough food for one
person. Indeed this is true only if you live exclusively on beef or other meat
products.
However it has been proven in multiple countries by a multitude of methods that food production can be far more efficient if done in any way other than our currently used "modern" totalitarian agriculture. By totalitarian agriculture I mean a mono-culture, not allowing more than one species on a field. The major problems in this method have become obvious but are ignored and labeled as general consequences of agriculture as a whole. One obvious problem with mono cultures is diseases and the speed at which they can spread throughout a crop devastating profits and creating dependence on pesticides. Simply stated, if one plant is infected the neighboring ones will quickly get the same disease. This actually created the need for pesticides. However, a look at any wild meadow or forest will show how nature handles this problem without pesticides. By spacing, proximity, and mixed species meadows forests and other natural ecosystems lack devastating parasites. And while there are some diseases or pest species found within these systems, they cannot wreak the havoc they do on mono-culture crops. That is, rather than having an orchard with hundreds of apple trees, where one diseased tree could infect the entire orchard. One should have a mixed orchard with many different species spread out somewhat randomly with no single species planted directly next to another of the same species, perhaps alternating between four or five or more different species. This means that if an apple tree does get infected with a disease the other apple trees won't be exposed because of proximity, and the natural barrier of differing species, perhaps plums, apricots, peaches, almonds.
In addition to mixed orchards one should include shrubs, vines, and ground covering plants within the orchard. Chives, garlic, ramps and alliums (onion relatives), are all excellent for apples and many other fruit trees. They are toxic to the fruit flies and worms that tend to infect apples. Simply by planting chives at the base of your apple trees you can eliminate the need to spray fly deterring pesticides that work their way into the water systems and are eaten by people. The only downside to such an approach is that one will not have a massive crop of a single species (one ton of apples) but rather many smaller crops of many different species harvested at differing times of the year. This is seen as a "downside" because a farmer is forced to harvest more than once a year. However given the different time at which each crop is mature means one will have fresh fruits and vegetables for an extended period instead of a single large crop at one time of year.
Another problem with mono-cultures is soil degradation. By growing a crop of anything, say wheat, in neat orderly and machine friendly rows, one exposes most of the soil to the air, sun, wind, and rain. This is actually what caused the great dust bowl of the 20s'. It is also why most of the top soil in North America has been eroded away and we now seemingly require fertilizers to grow anything. But if the soil is protected from erosion as it is in a mixed-species wild meadow, there is no need for fertilizers. This is because some of the species that grow in the meadow act as fertilizers by fixing nitrogen into the soil. A Japanese man named Masanobu Fukuoka has developed a method of producing enough food for ten to twenty people on a single acre and without the use of fertilizers or pesticides. A great article on his methods can be found here. In his book 'Walden' published in 1854, Henry David Thoreau developed an elegant method of food production that kept him alive for years with only a 9'x9' garden and the occasional squirrel chipmunk or trout.
However it has been proven in multiple countries by a multitude of methods that food production can be far more efficient if done in any way other than our currently used "modern" totalitarian agriculture. By totalitarian agriculture I mean a mono-culture, not allowing more than one species on a field. The major problems in this method have become obvious but are ignored and labeled as general consequences of agriculture as a whole. One obvious problem with mono cultures is diseases and the speed at which they can spread throughout a crop devastating profits and creating dependence on pesticides. Simply stated, if one plant is infected the neighboring ones will quickly get the same disease. This actually created the need for pesticides. However, a look at any wild meadow or forest will show how nature handles this problem without pesticides. By spacing, proximity, and mixed species meadows forests and other natural ecosystems lack devastating parasites. And while there are some diseases or pest species found within these systems, they cannot wreak the havoc they do on mono-culture crops. That is, rather than having an orchard with hundreds of apple trees, where one diseased tree could infect the entire orchard. One should have a mixed orchard with many different species spread out somewhat randomly with no single species planted directly next to another of the same species, perhaps alternating between four or five or more different species. This means that if an apple tree does get infected with a disease the other apple trees won't be exposed because of proximity, and the natural barrier of differing species, perhaps plums, apricots, peaches, almonds.
In addition to mixed orchards one should include shrubs, vines, and ground covering plants within the orchard. Chives, garlic, ramps and alliums (onion relatives), are all excellent for apples and many other fruit trees. They are toxic to the fruit flies and worms that tend to infect apples. Simply by planting chives at the base of your apple trees you can eliminate the need to spray fly deterring pesticides that work their way into the water systems and are eaten by people. The only downside to such an approach is that one will not have a massive crop of a single species (one ton of apples) but rather many smaller crops of many different species harvested at differing times of the year. This is seen as a "downside" because a farmer is forced to harvest more than once a year. However given the different time at which each crop is mature means one will have fresh fruits and vegetables for an extended period instead of a single large crop at one time of year.
Another problem with mono-cultures is soil degradation. By growing a crop of anything, say wheat, in neat orderly and machine friendly rows, one exposes most of the soil to the air, sun, wind, and rain. This is actually what caused the great dust bowl of the 20s'. It is also why most of the top soil in North America has been eroded away and we now seemingly require fertilizers to grow anything. But if the soil is protected from erosion as it is in a mixed-species wild meadow, there is no need for fertilizers. This is because some of the species that grow in the meadow act as fertilizers by fixing nitrogen into the soil. A Japanese man named Masanobu Fukuoka has developed a method of producing enough food for ten to twenty people on a single acre and without the use of fertilizers or pesticides. A great article on his methods can be found here. In his book 'Walden' published in 1854, Henry David Thoreau developed an elegant method of food production that kept him alive for years with only a 9'x9' garden and the occasional squirrel chipmunk or trout.
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