Thursday Open Thread 6-1-2017
Morning, I hope your gardens are growing well. Our local farmers market is starting in a couple of weeks. I am looking forward to buying some local vegetables. I always seem to get my garden in a little later than the market farmers.
When this question was posed this week in a diary "3) Where is this big technological fix that will solve the climate change problem?" my thought was no big fix, simply lots of little ones made by individuals.
Our discussions on climate change solutions often focus on petroleum production, electricity source and transportation options. Food choices provide us an opportunity multiple times a day to make choices that effect the climate.
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Meanwhile, those of us living in the United States and much of the industrialized world must radically change our diets, shifting away from diets filled with processed foods and loaded with industrial meat products toward whole foods and plant-centered fare. For those who eat meat, it means eating less and better: grass-fed beef, for instance, and organic-certified poultry and pork.And so, there is a kind of glorious coincidence: Every one of the bold actions around food is also a step forward for farmers, communities and our health. Oh, and these changes can be delicious, too!
Today, the global food sector is an extractive industry destroying forests to make way for commodities (think: corn, soy, and palm fruit) plantations. It relies on polluting natural gas or gasifying coal to generate nitrogenous fertilizer. It devastates topsoil and dries up aquifers—irreplaceable in our lifetimes. Instead, we need a regenerative food system—and we already know many of the pathways to get us there.
We need to do what we can to effect the food industry,
The evidence is detailed in a book – The Great Climate Robbery: How the food system drives climate change and what we can do about it, published by GRAIN. It is a comprehensive account of the unrelenting and largely successful campaign by big companies to take over the world’s food supply and exploit it for profit.
World’s food
The writers say small farms have been squeezed into less than one quarter of the world’s agricultural lands, but they continue to produce most of the world’s food.
Unless small farmers are protected and more land is returned to the kind of sustainable practice employed by small farmers, then there is no hope of feeding the world’s population in the future, they say.
On climate change, the book details how the march of industrial agriculture has created a food chain that is now a heavy emitter of greenhouse gases. The rise of palm oil plantations for processed food, the overuse of fertilisers and the long distances produce travels to reach our plates altogether produce about 50% of all human greenhouse gas emissions.
Over the past 50 years, 140 million hectares, the size of almost all the farms in India, has been taken over by four crops grown on large industrial plantations. These are soybean, palm oil, rapeseed and sugar cane.
According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, small farmers produce 80% of food in non-industrial countries. Their great advantage, apart from producing more food from a smaller area, is that they supply local markets with fresh rather than processed products, and less is wasted.
Farm Report
A few years ago I was trying to decide how to effect my carbon footprint, I started deliberately using land management methods adding carbon to the soil. The primary method I use is growing grass and using grazing animals.
My point is that the plants do not need the soil to grow. The soil, however, needs the plants to grow. The photosynthesizing of the plants produces sugars, which are the foundation to life. It is the plants that push sugar out of the root tips as they grow that glues the soil particles together causing good aggregation.
The plants build the soil. The plants take H, O, C and N from the air and add it to the soil. We do also have to give credit to the soil microbes. In symbiotic relationships with the plants, (the soil life needs sugar from the plants) many of our microbiotic employees also help to build the soil.
Farmers of 40 Centuries was referenced in a diary last year on resilience. The complexity of soil management and fertility in the pre-world war II Asian culture was eye opening. I have been trying to implement some of the methods they used in climatic zones similar to mine.
This week yellow blooms everywhere I walk.
Stopped and took this picture of Smith Rocks on the way to the grocery store.
Comments
Is grass fed beef,
the same as antibiotic and hormone free? I know we buy chemical free. I don't know if it is grass fed. Changing the food supply would be an easy way for people to effect environmental change.
I have lilacs, but the deer ate my roses and hydrangeas. The deer are out of control. They wanted to shoot them, but people got upset at shooting in the subdivisions and the killing of such beautiful pests. The only reason I have lilacs is my husband fenced them. A flower garden all caged up is not my idea of a garden. We've tried sprays, and we hassle them off our property whenever we see them. They are persistent creatures.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Not a legal definition like organic
Antibiotic and hormone free indicates the animal was never given drug to treat a medical condition or cause weight gain. The label is used for both grass-fed and grain-fed beef.
Grass-fed indicates the diet the animal was eating. Grass-fed can be pasture or hay. Most animals finished in stockyards are fed grain products to maximize weight gain and fat marbling. It is possible to have a well marbled animal on grass - it takes more skill on grazing practices and pasture management.
Deer are smart creatures and have adapted well into subdivision life. I fence a number of my plants so the sheep will not destroy them. Seems odd to have the plants in cages.
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.
Good Morning SOE
Around here, there is a concentration of corporate pig farming. The cram a hug number of pigs into a relatively small space, and produce hog lagoons. Festering pools of pig waste that ruin the air quality for miles around. There is no shortage of micro-organisms in the water supply.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -
Exempt from EPA regulation - a travesty
The worst type of industrial farming practices. Like the music - thanks
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.
started the peas and beans early
under grow lights in the basement this year. Just brought them up to the deck to get used to the sun. Tilled the gardens and getting the tomatoes and squash organized. Sure have enough rain here in the northeast! Cheers
Good Morning all.
We are having rain in central Texas. My garden seems happy (so do all the bugs).
(No subject)
The squeeze on small farmers is being resisted
by groups like American Farmland Trust, a group worthy of a look.
Our garden is doing ok but needs a lot of work. That's probably an essay in itself.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Soil amendment
is a way to boost the nutritional content of your vegetables. I have mentioned this book before; Gardening When it Counts: growing food in hard times by Steve Solomon. I'll repeat it though because I think he has some good ideas for gardeners. Solomon emphasizes maximizing nutritional content of his garden vegetables by adding specific mixes of complete organic fertilizer.
Solomon also covers the subject of compost in great detail. He thinks the right compost (and it varies given your soil) is absolutely essential.
We know that the nutritional content of our food has profoundly diminished because, in part, of our industrial agricultural practices. I can find those links if anyone wants them....but I think everyone already knows this.
Just read excerpts on-line and will be adding it to my
library. Here is a link to review Gardening When it Counts: growing food in hard times by Steve Solomon. Acquire it at your favorite independent book source.
This article found during the search was inspirational, The Good Acre: Surviving Hard Times With a Family Garden.
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.
@studentofearth I'm glad you liked it
I'm glad you liked it and hope you can glean some good information from the book. He references some really interesting online resources in the Bibliography that I have been wanting to investigate.
Thanks for the 'Good Acre' link. I will read it.
Good morning, SOE ~
We got much needed rain yesterday, so our garlic crop is happy. We are expecting showers all week, into next week. Hope we get a squall or two to hit us during this pattern.
I've been enjoying farmer's market veggies during this spring season. We are growing a few things, but don't have time for much. We keep our greens in the sun porch and have tomatoes and chile in the garden. We don't eat meat (almost 4 years now!), so I feel I am not contributing to that footprint anymore.
We put most of our time in cultivating our garlic, as we would like to, eventually, make it a cash crop. We have 1,000 plants this year. By next year, we'll have enough to sell and plant. I'm sure looking forward to that aspect.
Thanks for the lovely pictures!
Have a beautiful day, folks!
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
@Raggedy Ann I would love to buy some
I would love to buy some of your garlic. I'm very picky about the garlic I buy. I bet yours is really good. I'm making a big batch of pesto today because my basil has gone ballistic with all this rain. Garlic (one of my favorite herbs) will be going in the pesto,
We planted onions in the fall and had a pretty good crop that will last us hopefully through the summer. I have not planted garlic yet.... think I'll give it a try this fall.
Our garlic is delicious!
We grow about six varieties. We started with 100 plants, then 200 plants, last year 400 plants and this year 1,000. Have you ever had garlic scapes? They are the top of the plant that will turn to a flower. Before it flowers and takes all the nourishment, we cut them and chop them up and put then in scrambled eggs, sauces, etc. I make a garlic scape pesto, too. It's yummy!
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
400 plants
represents a whole lot of planting! I know, because we put in 600 onions (but lost probably more than half of them to gophers). We still had a good enough harvest of them this spring though.
Yes, I have had scapes, and you are right, they are wonderful. I have only had them a handful of times though because we had to buy them and if I remember, they were a bit pricey.
I was reading about leeks this winter and apparently they are easy to grow. So in addition to being inspired by your garlic growing, I plan to try leeks as well.
How far apart are the various
varieties planted? Or because they multiply by cloves does it not matter?
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.
CDU and SPD have their damn nerve complaining about “fake news”
Tomorrow, June 2, marks the 50th anniversary of the shooting death of student Benno Ohnesorg at the hands of a policeman during a student protest against the Shah of Iran in West Berlin.
The ruling coalition of CDU and SPD in West Berlin covered it up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benno_Ohnesorg
A journalist visits the site where Benno Ohnesorg died and reflects. There is a plaque there, but none of the passers-by seem to know who Ohnesorg was, let alone how his death shaped West German history . . .
https://www.taz.de/Todesort-von-Benno-Ohnesorg/!5407100/
(article in German)
One definition of Fake News appears to be
any information that does not fit the "official" point of view. Thanks for sharing a hidden bit of history.
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.
UK election now just 1%
Can Corbyn be trusted to keep his word, or
is he another Obama? If we're too weak and/or stupid to defeat our corrupt government, I hope others are successful so they can help to put a leash on us.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Corbyn is like Bernie
Not Obama.
And Obama never promised anything specific anyway.
The Economist magazine has endorsed the Lib Dems.
Oh, there they go again, talking about wanting the globalizing elites’ so-called “radical center” in the driver’s seat . . .
Lib Dems have no chance at all
but they are more neoliberal.
Another opportunity to loosen the visegrip of the
neoliberal power on governments. Thanks for the survey update.
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.
Good morning SOE
My garden is going great despite extended rainy season. Have multiple varieties of tomatoes, zuccini, beans, squash, peas, and peppers. Chive, onions, broccoli, parsly, cilantro, basil and sage are doing nicely. Have seedlings ready to plant in corn, celery, snake gourds, watermelon, cucumber, and cantelop. And I'm trying to find seed potatoes.
This is my second year using biochar in my soil. This year it should be fully inoculated as I've been adding inoculating tea through the spring.
The biochar also sequesters carbon in the soil for dozens, if not hundreds of years and I will continually add more each year.
Garden is fully organic and I keep and maintain a compost pile year-round. Utilizing an old blender I grind up all kitchen scraps toss it into the pile, along with grass cuttings and garden refuge.
This year I have expanded my garden into the front yard as I need more room for the squash, gourds, cantelop, cucumbers, peppers, corn, and watermelon.
Neighbors are already looking over fence and asking when something going to be ready for harvest as I always give them my excess. Have inspired a couple of them to start their own little grow and given them some excess seedlings I started under lights.
Going to be a long productive season. Have got the slugs under control with beer and will add ladybugs soon. Haven't seen but a few bees yet but they always come back when it warms.
I wish a happy, healthy growing season to all and stand ready to advise anyone here at c99% if help is needed. PM me if you like, will be here all summer.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Anytime you want to add tips or thoughts about
gardening - PLEASE feel free to comment despite the subject in the open thread. Your gardening knowledge appears to greatly exceed mine. My growing season is short and most of my suggestions and advice are out of sync with tips people could try this year/season.
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.
It's great that you're inspiring your neighbors.
Thanks for offering to help us here at c99. It's good to know for potential future questions.
I agree;
We have a record high rate of adult-onset-diabetes. Even young children are getting this, which is unheard of. We are making ourselves sick with our diet. Our exponential growth in the rate of sugar consumption matches our exponential growth in diabetes.
It's interesting that you mention that sugar cane is one of the four crops that dominates our industrial agricultural output. I find that weird since sugar has absolutely no nutritional value.
I just finished reading The Case Against Sugar by Gary Taubes. I found it an absolutely fascinating book.
great OT and comments . . .
I am working on an essay about my round bale gardening efforts this spring. It is too big to put into the comments.
Glad to hear about all the folks here who plant gardens.
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
Looking forward to your essay
using bales since you mentioned them a few weeks ago. My subdivision was built on ancient floodplain and is mostly sand and rock. Contractor trucked in 3 or 4 inches of topsoil to support a lawn and anything else (shrubs, bushes, or trees) required additional excavating.
As a result of this I had to build a raised bed garden and create my own soil, which took years to fabricate to my satisfaction.
Your round bale system seems ideal for any of my neighbors who would want to try their hand at a backyard garden without having to spend the time and effort I have. If they find they don't have the time or don't have a green thumb, removing the bales is easy.
Good luck with your endeavor.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.