"Correct discipline and enough time are inseparable notions. Correct discipline can not be hurried for it is both the knowledge of what ought to be done and the knowledge to do it period."- Wendell Berry
What do we need to harvest sustainably, Mike posts about the Upo Wetlands and the fishermen fishing there. Mike was nice about the government, development, fishers, and environmentalists role but he didn't mention the complications but development of civilization is destructive to the environment and ultimately us. The fish will lose environment which means less fish and that means less food for us.
Environmentalist can often remove men from nature as a way to protect nature from man but it also lessens man understanding of it.
I feel the fishers are the most suffering lot of all groups because they really have the most understanding of their environment and the truth is that pressure to feed a population of people who are too many of their is is putting a strain on the available number of fish to feed people and then the government is destroying the number of fish available in nature and then the environmentalists remove men from nature. My oversimplification is just a model of the most acute problems in this cycle.
But I don't believe this really is the biggest problem. Rather it is the lack of understanding or I should say humility about how we fit into this. We kill and are killed by the life cycled. I think amateur environmentalists need to stop thinking about how to remove the threat of man from nature and bring man back into nature. We often hear talk about this with other animals but not with ourselves.
The hard truth of this is that with peak oil all these choices are self-preservation as much as environmentalism. And it won't matter if your a vegan or a non-vegan because it won't really matter in 200 plus years. What will matter is do you have enough to eat and at this point whether or not its beef or dandelions won't matter. Food storing, preserving, growing, and procuring are essentially environmental when done by yourself.
We need to use less fossil foods not because there it is because of its environmental impact but because there are less fossil fuels and costs will continue to go up. IN order to meet the demand of food with dwindling households who can drive more farmers will be necessary. Even public transportation wouldn't be able to be sustained through sustainable energy a concept in itself that is optimistic. The truth is that many people may starve before we find a sustainable balance. If we are talking truth here, we are suffering from overshoot as it is. Overshoot is the concept that when a species of animal grows to large enough population it will exaust its food supply and the population will die until the level comes back into balance with nature. We have dealt with this throughout history. In Jared Diamonds, Gun's, Germ's and Steal, all civilations destructions when not caused by a natural disaster is the result of farmers exausting the top soil and populations in the cities feeling back to the woods to find food. As we run low on oil we will depend on people to harvest more and more food.
This documentary tries to explain a lot of material easily to people succeeds in coming off only convoluted. A success for an environmental documentary:
Farming for the future
As I think more about this I realize that the next step to becoming more ecological is to become a permaculturalist. Is it enough to have a professional job and be organic or vegan? Truth be told, even a vegan relies on industrial agriculture when it comes to grain production. Wouldn't it be better to depend less on a system to feed us and take our food into our own hands.
This is my solution to education problems and I wish to form a group of people willing to exchange books resources and ideas. A community of like minded individuals to support one another will be necessary to become successful at this. The internet is a good resource so far.
Permaculture Forum
Survival topics
Starting small and simply will be necessary with so little money. But I can start training myself to move backware to permaculture.
One is action with others who already know what they are doing:
Wwoofing will provide a means to work with other farmers in large scale agriculture.
Korean Wwoofing
The other is the experiments I make to move into growing my own food.
The other is the knowledge I can aquire through books work towards is a subsistance life style as the first step in farming until I can make it into a productive place. These are how to guides in self sufficiency and living off-the-grid by. Each one talk about one of the following topics or all, including food preparation, growing food, building, meat preservation, and storing vegetables.
These are books I wish to read, accept for Wild Fermentation, which I read.
Writings of a Deliberate Agrarian
Living the Good LIfe
How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It: Tactics, Techniques, and Technologies for Uncertain Times
Perenial Vegetables
Wild Fermentation
Successful Small Scale Farming
Charcuterie
Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning
Tom Brown’s Guide to Wild Edible and Medicinal Plants
Primitive Wilderness Living and Survival Skills: Naked into the Wilderness
Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages
Build It Better Yourself
Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits and Vegetables
-----------------------------------------
Acquiring knowledge is important and I want a road map for myself and for others to follow so I wish to found a non-profit site for people to post scanned books of useful information for people to use. It will be a small consortium of like minded people so we can scan our sources into pdfs and share them with each other.
1 year ago the thought of becoming a farmer was far from my mind but then again a lot has changed. There are a lot of intermediate steps and a lot of struggle along the way but it will be easier than all the things I've forced myself to do because I was told it was the right thing to do. This decision has already brought me happiness and excitement. Still I got a long way to go. But I can still grin about it.
No comments:
Post a Comment