…If we could double, triple, or quadruple the organic carbon content of soils in the decades ahead, the benefits would be incredible. The productivity of the land would climb and soils’ ability to hold and attract moisture would increase dramatically. The ability of the land to support economic activities would diversify and expand. If the scale of the soil-creation project was large enough, then soil building, as much as any other program currently being considered, could help lower atmospheric carbon dioxide and create a more stable climate.
…How ready are we for this scenario? Short answer: we’re not ready now, but the transition could be accomplished, especially if we start preparing. The percentage of food produced locally would have to rise from 1 to closer to 100. This can be done not only by an expansion of local farming, but also by a rapid growth in urban horticulture. During both world wars, government in the U.S. sponsored a social invention called “victory gardens.” 20 million Americans responded to the call from the Department of Agriculture which made pleas to Americans to grow their own food. Gardens in yards, vacant lots, and parks supplied up to 40% of the produce eaten in the U.S.
…Several times a year, I get a ‘fresh batch’ of kids in my high-school chemistry classroom. Most of them come from an upper-middle class background and are thoroughly indoctrinated into the basic tenets of industrial civilization — material growth, technological progress, nature as merely a source of raw materials, novelty as virtue, etc. And in addition to imparting the general chemistry curriculum, I feel it is my obligation to both (1) tell them the hard truths about our civilization and its future prospects, and (2) outline a philosophy and practical steps that may improve our chances for a livable future. But both of these “extra” tasks are not without their challenges.
…This new way of procuring food, by direct connection with a local farmer, is called “Community Supported Agriculture,” CSA for short, a movement which sprouted in Europe and Japan in the 1960s, and took root in the U.S. in the early 90s. It’s also an old way of procuring food, that is, from neighbors who you know and trust. It works like this: Pay your farmer a set price at the beginning of the season (usually between $300 and $600) and for the next 20 weeks you will be provided with a variety of fresh vegetables, either right at your doorstep or for you to pick up at the farm.
West of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, coastal California is a hotbed of alternative agriculture. Eating locally is easy enough where the balmy climate affords a year-round growing season. Ironically, the same farms featured as local growers in a San Francisco market are featured in my mother’s New Jersey grocery store as “California Fresh.” “That’s because it snows in New Jersey,” explained my ever-patient mother. This I already knew, having grown up on the East Coast.
A newly produced UN Report rightly points out, among other things, that the western model of meat and dairy production simply won’t work on a planet of 9 billion people. The report, which quantifies the basic unsustainability of affluent societies and the challenges facing us in satisfying needs we’ve spent a century creating and can’t possibly actually fulfill, is generally a good one. But I do want to take issue with the underlying assumptions in the report, including the ones that lead the UN to the most controversial and media-attention gathering claim – that we need to move towards a universal vegan diet.
Backyard farming seems a bit counter-intuitive. Why take time out of our daily routine to grow food at home when we can just buy it at the grocery store? Isn’t saving our time and effort part of the reason we work long hours and strive to make money? These questions seem to be ingrained in our culture’s DNA. Convenience is important, but so is preserving the environment, teaching children how to grow food, and building community resiliency. Yet there is an easy way to balance these values: practical and enjoyable design.
Roundup Ready corn, soy, and cotton have been the norm in America during this past decade. The seeds are used for 90% of soy and 80% of corn plantings. Roundup is used four times that of any other herbicide. But, nine weeds, including pigweed, horseweed and Johnsongrass, on millions of acres in more than 20 states in the Midwest and south have now developed immunity to Roundup. It was fun and easy while it lasted, but it didn’t last long, did it?
This year, the nonprofit Denver Urban Gardens (DUG) will support the construction of its 100th community garden. We only had time to visit four of them in the two days we were in town, but we got a kaleidoscope of ages, ethnicities, socio-economic strata, and motivations: the suburbanites in formerly rural Aurora, African and Asian refugees in East Colfax, school students all over the place, and upper-middle-class professionals in Rosedale.
…How does the way we eat have such a big effect on the amount of energy we use? According to this report, about half of the change is due to increased use of labor saving devices, with the remainder being split between population growth and changing food choices. Fewer people are farming, processing, cooking, and cleaning. Machines do the work for us, and consume more energy to do it.
