Embrace the Good Life

Intended for The Sounding Board on the Metro Omaha Food Policy Council newsletter

Embrace the Good Life

“The Good Life” afforded in Nebraska rides on the shoulders of a very proud tradition of farming.  Nebraskan farmers produce high yields on some of the world’s most fertile soil that resides over the world’s largest and most reliable aquifer.  Drilling has allowed semi-arid and dryland farmers to tap into the million year old aquifer for center pivot irrigation.  As the rural to urban migration has occurred over the last fifty years, less people are farming disproportionately more land.  Consequently but not solely, large farmer landowners have become commodity farmers.  In Nebraska, the traditional diversified farm with chickens, pigs, sheep, goats, cattle, orchards and wheat has become a diminishing breed.  As soon as a farmer consciously makes the decision to gamble and buy into commodity agriculture as a means to earn an income as opposed to food agriculture, that farmer loses connection with the soil.   The conservation practices of previous generations are forgotten or simply not seen as “practical” for large expanses of land in the “pearly gate” shadow of mechanized farming.  Thanks to the prevalence of tiling on Nebraskan farm fields, the petroleum-based fertilizers that are used as quick-fix drugs join a dead soil medium that erodes into our riparian watershed.  Of Nebraska’s 1.8 million residents, nearly two-thirds of our populations live in metro counties.  All of these metro counties lie at the bottom of the Nebraskan erosion shed.  The unwitting populations of Kearney, Grand Island, Lincoln, Omaha, Kansas City, St. Louis, Memphis and New Orleans have to endure the environment created from the world’s most aggressive agriculture machine ever created.   Needless to say, without implying hysteria, this is not normal.

Modern farming does not have to imitate large nineteenth and twentieth century industries by expelling its waste to hapless populations downstream. This is not what farming is about.  This is not what Nebraska is about.   

A wise man once said that “the ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.”  I like to think that J. Sterling Morton saw Nebraska for its true potential one hundred years ago.  Instead of annual crop production, he envisioned a resilient ecosystem that could naturally provide an abundant bounty of assorted fruits and nuts in orchards, without any mechanization, petroleum, pesticides or center pivots.  In the early twentieth century, the Missouri Valley down to Brownville was known for orchards and the hundreds of canneries that were supported by its bounty.  THIS vision is STILL within reach.  Nebraska and Omaha should not be one of those societies you read about halfway around the world reliant on processed foodstuffs.  While we can only empathize as we watch California farmers struggle through a potentially prolonged drought, the Omaha and Nebraska region has a moment to reflect on our privileged predicament.  Should we use the best and most reliable soil, climate and riparian landscape to grow cheap commodities?   If we want to leave a better world for our grandchildren, we need people to take action.  So, if YOU live in the Omaha, Nebraska region, I challenge you to go out and START a FARM or a RESTAURANT or an ORCHARD or a FOOD TRUCK or a CANNERY today!  Before California farmers realize where the best North American growing region in the world resides, let’s dig some holes and plant something OTHER THAN CORN!

Concrete as a Recycled Material?

Concrete is a building material, which some feel, represents a modern and refined way of living.  Nothing says power and success like concrete and steel. All modern cities harness the amazing qualities of concrete to build vertically and horizontally in elaborate dedications to its stiff resilience. These same people, however, would be surprised to discover that the process to acquire the materials to make concrete is responsible for 5% of all man made carbon emissions. Many times, I feel products which cause more damage than good represent an old way of doing things and that an innovation is right around the corner. While concrete, as a product, has evolved to include many products which perform differently in different situations, concrete's resilience is overshadowed by its environmental cost. Much like the quest for a fully recyclable clean-burning fuel, the path to building a tough yet refined structure without environmental remorse is obstructed by traditional ways of thinking. Until now.

While the world and its contractors are comfortable with their trusted methods. New products are emerging in the material market which will lessen and sometimes eliminate the Eco-conscious burden we should feel. Over time, I have come to recognize bamboo as the ultimate sustainable building material short of shipping. Bamboo is slowly overcoming its stigma as a building material of the poor. The most prominent bamboo architect and engineer Simon Velez is having some success with mixing bamboo with some elements of concrete to appeal to a more modern consumer. Upon reading this, I sighed with disbelief as I realized that the only way to use bamboo for a modern consumer is to mix it with a very unsustainable product. I am the kind of designer who is always looking for improvements in materials to achieve a standard of eco-conscious  living that is analogous to a native ancestor walking through the forest barefoot. This may be tough to achieve, but our own standards as a global citizen make it more possible.

In my part of the world, most building products have traveled quite some distance.  So, in addition to recycled building materials, I have very few choices to find a suitable replacement to concrete. While clay is abundant locally, so is moisture. Ultimately, there are very few replacements for concrete in cities and infrastructure. The only way I could ease my conscious in regards to using concrete would be if concrete could be formed from recycled materials, locally or regionally. This is where the article I found represents a eureka moment for me. Once contractors find the initiative to demand environmentally responsible products in their projects, then old materials like concrete will seem, dare I say, traditional. Please click on the title to this entry to read about true progress in building sustainability.

Ethanol Vote Displays the Monetary Desires of US Politicians

Not that I expected an ethical stance on ethanol. However, with the debt ceiling looming in politicians' minds, mostly democrats felt the need to protect farmer subsidies to create fuel for rich people, at the expense of food for regular people. Ethanol is an inferior fuel which happens to ruin engines. The true colors of our politicians are on display with this very important vote. This is very, very pathetic. I am not proud of this North American energy debacle. Jesus would vote for food instead of fuel, just sayin...

An Obvious Dinner Plate to Farm Subsidy Analogy

One percent of farm subsidy goes to fruits and vegetables.  63% goes to meat and dairy. Yet the balanced diet implies that protein and dairy make up a 20-30% portion of a healthy dinner plate.  I am hijacking this blog topic because this unbalanced perspective of subsidies vs.diet needs to be addressed as a major cultural/civic policy blunder of modern times. This subsidy drought for healthy food needs to end.

Where plants grow globally in July, and then in December.

Chlorophyll fluorescence has allowed NASA scientists to map out where you get your produce from (unless from a greenhouse) two opposite times a year.  This is amazing!  The differences are very profound and provide insight into the agricultural world.  I often wonder why my corn comes from Florida and Mexico in May, and then why all fruits come from Costa Rica and Mexico in January.  Geographically, the world's elevations and other features also seem to play an important part in terms of vegetative potential.  Notice the impenetrable mass of the Sahara which prohibits growth anytime, and the extra vegetation around river basins.  This map may confirm what everybody feels, is common sense. However, I applaud the technology which allows man to render an exact display of our green environment.  I love perspective pieces provided courtesy of science.

This Nissan ad isn't a huge stretch of the imagination.

If the camera were to pan over to a green space like a park or someone's backyard, all you would see is gas-powered machines. From loud blowers, trimmers, and mowers, the manicured green space is just like this ad.  Funny ad, but not so funny.

A Welcome Unexpected Effect of $102 Oil

Although I'm aware of the trail of oil which eventually leads to plastic, I didn't think I would see retailers cutting back on plastic, at $102 oil.  This is wonderful!  Honestly, I thought most retailers would sell whatever is manufactured.  An end to clamshells would be a beautiful world.  Ideally, eliminating plastic everywhere is the ultimate goal.  However, I wonder how the plastic companies are going to remarket or repackage their plastic products. Oil companies have lobbying tentacles in everything.  Anyways, the death of plastic manufacturing for packaging, would be a great day.

Omaha needs stores like this

Although this store relies on banks to fund its supply chain, the neighborhood feeling of this store seems right.  Unfortunately, I do not see banks becoming friendlier to local small businesses in the near future.  It is for this reason I feel the neighborhood market will become what they used to be and what they are in almost every other nation on earth; a rolling cart stand with one or two products. Local and healthy food is a necessity for living a healthy life. How many CO2 miles are associated with your food will become more an more important as prices for energy increase. Omaha is blessed to have a store like Wohlner's.  However, there is much more room for more healthy/local food and produce stores. Ideally, urban farming in Omaha is going to need options for retail. There is a part of me which would love to see rolling carts throughout Omaha's streets, I must admit.

Urban Agriculture to Prevent Omaha Nebraska's Status as a Food Desert.

       While the world heads toward an energy paradigm shift surely to affect everyone on the planet, will the people of the Heartland be able to feed themselves? In a region which has encouraged landowners to plant crops for fuel, corn syrup, and animal feed, where are people to go for actual, food, grown on farms?  Unfortunately, Omaha's farmer's markets could not keep up with a potential growth in demand for food that doesn't cost much in transportation fuel. All Nebraskans from all walks of life, would have to look at their spacious landscapes and decide what makes sense.  Spending money on fuel to manicure our yards, may become a new form of bragging.

        As fuel and food prices rise, how will "The Good Life" here in Nebraska, be affected?  $113 a barrel oil, as of 4/20/11, should mean something to people who rely on oil for every aspect of their lives.  Nebraskans enjoy a relatively cheap rate for energy compared with the rest of the country. However, our food is shipped in from everywhere else in the world from large corporations.  To other North Americans, we are envied for our spacious landscapes. If you like land, then move to Nebraska. Yet, why don't we grow food we can eat, on the land?  Nebraska, with its own blend of tradition, politics, and culture, has managed to create one of the biggest ironies on the planet. The swath of land stretching from North Dakota down to Texas has the most fertile soil, on the planet.  Due to modern agriculture, most of this beautiful, rich soil is washing into our rivers and streams; depleting the Heartland of one of its most valuable resources, second only to the Ogalalla aquifer(a close second). Additionally, this wonderful soil we stride on is degraded every year by pesticide and fertilizer cycles.  Modern agriculture in Nebraska is run by big Ag.  Big Ag needs lots of fuel to run big machines.  Even if we were to eat what is grown in the patterned grid of Nebraska's rolling landscapes, how expensive would it be to farm quality food products for nearby cities and towns?
     
       Historically, Nebraska and the plains region as a whole, has had a roller coaster of a ride, agriculturally. The 1930's dust bowl should still be lingering in the memories of some of our grandparents. If droughts are possible in this region, Nebraskans should begin to consider how to best retain water on their property. Combine drought with high fuel prices and I don't even need to begin to explain what is possible.  These reasons are why I am addressing the subject of a new trend of retro/modern urban agriculture within Omaha. Many people in Omaha are deciding not to make a long drive to Whole Foods or any local grocery store, as often. Omahans are discovering that there is always an abandoned lot on almost everybody's block, or that they have some extra land in back which receives good sun.  I have met many great people in Omaha who are putting 2 & 2 together. All classes of people are acknowledging this necessary social phenomenon to restore what our parents remember as a neighborhood.  Omaha urban agriculture has the potential to be the best example in the country.  The agricultural products needed to farm, are literally, all around us.  A food desert is a place which doesn't sound like Omaha.  Yet, a growing majority of Omaha's population is reliant on food aid, every year.  With higher fuel prices on the horizon, urban agriculture is the only way to prevent Omaha from eating yellow corn #2.

      I am optimistic that the trend toward urban agriculture here in Nebraska will take hold and transform a culture used to surplus into a society of neighborly people. This transformation will be tough.  A new, tough mindset may need to be adopted.  "If you don't work in the garden, should we let you eat?"  To some, this may seem extreme.  To me, farming is going to be the most important skill of this century. So, go over and give your neighbor a hand with her wheelbarrow.

Existing ranch land in Costa Rica

Creek area, used daily by cattle. Total length of valley is about 8-9 kms. Rolling hills, some lush, some barren. Other parts of the valley have some water flowing.

On the hillside, the ridges made by cattle are evident.  Lower left shows the ravine-like erosion. This is an example of the worst part of the valley.

A closeup of the erosion from the previous picture.

A typical scene in one of the undulating parts of the valley.

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Vegetation still seems to thrive near steep ravines randomly throughout the valley.

A mango orchard stuck in the middle of the valley.  Meanwhile, the dry conditions cause deciduous trees on the hillside to lose their leaves. 

Here is a commerce town with anything you would need, within reason.  Probably no industrial strength hair dryers. The town is 5kms away from the valley.

Here is an example of the typical road and a relatively "healthy" part of the valley

   I did not realize I would have so many people awaiting these pictures.  If I would have known I would need to present these pictures to my PDC class in a few weeks, I would have treated this day a little differently. 
    For those who read my blog, these pictures basically represent a typical valley in the drier part of Costa Rica.  This area probably sees 6 months of rain and 6 months of arid conditions.  The valley has been used as pastureland for maybe 30 years and the deforestation has further added to its' arid appearance. It is tough to drive on these roads without a 4wl drive, so this part of the country looks like you could be in the 1950's.  This was the surreal aspect to this valley.  If I would have had my partner in crime with me, I probably could have had a more thorough photo diary of everything I saw.  Regardless, families were bathing in the creeks, people were washing their trucks and scooters in the creek, and locals who were stripping down, what looked like a pig, and drying its' meat on logs in the sun.  Costa Rica has much to offer.  It is sad, however, to see Costa Ricans try to imitate the way North Americans treat land.
   After spending time in the rainforest, this arid part of the country seems to be on the precipice of further decline.  I tend to be an optimist.  I think valleys like this represent the beginning of the new forests with which micro-climates can be reborn. It is a valley like this which could restore natural health to a whole region.

Obtaining a Permaculture Design Certificate while reading George Orwell's 1984 in Costa Rica

Without an explanation, the title to this blog seems significant, only to me.  Let me begin to try and explain why this experience has been the most significant experience for me, ever.  Permaculture, as a discipline, assumes that there is a mainstream sociological/technological culture which needs to be abandoned.  Teaching people to take care of the earth, its people, and then returning waste to its respective system, means that people do not embrace these ethics to begin with. Although I feel describing permaculture to people as "cultivation practiced by our great-grandparents" works for conversation sake, it barely scratches the surface as to what it means in our modern world. Our great-grandparents, in an era of ascending oil influence, would have loved to enjoy labor-saving devices if it meant they could still enjoy the fruits of their labor.  Our great-grandparents assumed there was always an improvement on the horizon in which to bestow hope. Similarly, today's youth expects new features out of every annually released iphone. This expectation of technological progress is what we have in common with our great-grandparents' lives. The differences lie in the context.  In an era of declining oil influence, cultivation must revert to the methods which imply less "man-handling". Without relying on fertilizers, genetically modified seeds, herbicides, or insecticides, how will the next generation of people feed themselves? To me, permaculture stands alone as the only solution.
       George Orwell published 1984 in 1949.  He had just watched the world destroy itself and proceeded to write a short historical narrative on the topic of global domination, or as 1984 titles it,"The theory and practice of Oligarchical Collectivism". Orwell submitted this narrative to his publisher thinking the narrative would circulate through academic circles at Universities. His publisher advised him expand his narrative into a larger novel, because the story would reach a much larger audience.  Thanks to his publisher, 1984 has become the most widely read novel of all time.  Now we come full circle as to why I chose to read this novel while I obtained my PDC.  Whenever I leave for a trip, I choose a book for my journey which will assist me in a perspective transition.  I had seen 1984 quoted in everything I have read, for years. Orwellian dogma was something I knew I had to become acquainted with in order to truly understand the topics I read. The novel is scary. I am not used to reading sci-fi, let alone fiction.  When the novel reaches the narrative I describe in the latter half of the book, I hit what seemed like a quick ascent to divine omniscience. The explanation of "doublethink" would not prepare me for the most eloquent prose I have ever read, describing 150 years of reality above the realm of all media.
     "The book fascinated him, or more exactly it reassured him. In a sense it told him nothing that was new, but that was part of the attraction. It said what he would have said, if it had been possible for him to set his scattered thoughts in order. It was the product of a mind similar to his own, but enormously more powerful, more systematic, less fear-ridden. The best books, he perceived, are those that tell you what you know already." Winston thinks to himself after reading the revolutionary manuscript. These thoughts inform the reader, "You have just read some serious @*&%!, take a moment to chill."  While learning how to save the world with permaculture, George Orwell was laying out the parameters of a modern world which cannot be saved.  Optimistic Gus found it very difficult to initially marry the Orwellian world order with my new found love of farming.
       Costa Rica has been highlighted as one of the greenest and happiest countries on the planet for the last couple of years.  While the country protects its' inhabitants and its' land with devotion, there are many aspects of Costa Rican life which are poised to imitate aspects of North American life. From pesticide use to minimal sewage treatment, Costa Rica has many problems of an ascending world model of success. However, for a country with less than 300 square miles, the inhabitants enjoy 5% of the world's biodiversity.  Amazing!  Even in its deforested, sewage runoff, and pesticide-laden state, Costa Rica has so much to offer the world, with its' diversity.  I was in the middle of a rainforest which dared me to be destructive with any of my personal consumption habits.  Costa Rica could biodegrade my waste as a consumer and still hand me fresh produce, produced kilometers away.  All year, Costa Rica can feed me!  I return to the heartland of the USA only to be fed by Costa Rica, Honduras and Mexico. This overarching message I received in the Costa Rican environment, is what restores my hope for mankind, despite Orwellian overtones. I can now grow almost anything, anywhere, thanks to my newly acquired skill set. You would think that this skill should provide me with optimism for a lifetime.  Unfortunately, as we all know, the roller coaster of life gives you a hand to play regardless of your respective affinity for hope.
      I have returned from paradise with messages of hope yet hardened with an unforgiving world-view. While my heart views permaculture as the solution, my brain cannot get around the world's desire for power and wealth. In a perfect world, the path would be easy and egalitarian. In this world, the path can only be determined by struggle of the fittest.

Turning Oil into Food

Although I do not want to get in the habit of hijacking another blog's content, I cannot help myself this time. This garden blog used a Guardian article to point out the very high dependence our society has on oil. While I realize this topic is becoming more and more cliche, the reasons for reducing your personal dependence on oil are increasing exponentially, every year. Peak oil has been a topic for the doomsayers since M. King Hubbert's bell curve of 1956.  He correctly pointed out that the US supply of oil would peak in 1970.  Now the US has continued to extract oil reserves from all over the world.  Within 40 years of US peak oil, the world has seen the world's oil resources reach peak oil, as well.  Many experts believe peak oil occurred in 2006, while the most conservative news sources reveal peak oil to occur in 2012.  Regardless of this six year discrepancy, the only number worth paying attention to, is the price of a barrel of oil.  As the blog succinctly points out, the culture of cheap oil has allowed human populations to comfortably expand beyond normal resource related limits. Therefore, a reader should imply that peak oil, means peak food.  The implications of this news means many things for the world.  However, more importantly, each individual consumer must adjust his/her consumption habits.  Nobody like to be told how to live his/her life.  Unless you live in a celestial tax bracket, you will not be immune to the consequences of peak oil/food.  I promise that I will not harp on the topic of peak oil very much. If you are going to be a visitor to my blog, however, you should be familiar with the concept of peak oil.  Mankind and its relationship to its resources is the most important relationship on the planet. Yes, even more important than the mother and child relationship. This relationship between man and resources, ultimately determines how the rest of the natural planet survives.  With the ascension of oil as top commodity, the world's other natural resources have become a backroom priority.  Through permaculture techniques, our society can lessen the impact of peak anything.  Let us fight the biological instinct to consume everything in front of us.  Please.

U.N. Food Agency Issues Warning on China Drought

A Chinese farmer on dry farmland on the outskirts of Rizhao, Shandong Province, in January.  (Reuters)

The world's largest producer of wheat is experiencing drought. This could prove to be very disastrous to the price of food, worldwide. Russia had drought last year in its' wheat fields and Australia's supply has been endangered by flooding. Permaculture, everyone, is officially the most important skill on the planet.

School gardens improve health and academic performance, reduce discipline problems

 

Kids should know about natural food, instead of that which is wrapped in plastic. Sugar or corn syrup is most likely, not grown in a school garden. Every school should teach children how to grow food. How has this never been important?

Helping Soldiers Trade Their Swords for Plows

GOING GREEN Carlos Rivera, a former Marine, at Archi’s Acres, an organic farm in California’s avocado country where service members and veterans learn about farming.

I'm not usually a fan of "heart-warming" stories, but this one pulls strings from my brain as well. Soldier turned farmer? Not very common, or not reported.

French Assert Global Food Shortage an Unlikely Reality

Given the demise of modern consumer society, this optimistic report of feeding 9 billion mouths is possible. With present day consumption rates, not a chance.

Chevron files RICO suit in Ecuador case

Indigenous women stand near an oil pit in 2005 in Ecuador, center of an 18-year legal battle with Chevron.

 

Chevron has every right to counter sue poor native Ecuadorians for reparations of oil pollution. But that doesn't mean Chevron won't look like assholes doing so.

Sarawak's last nomad: indigenous leader and activist, Along Sega, dies

Along Sega in 1986 with a "seperut" stick which is used by the Penan as both an ornament and talisman. 
Photo courtesy of the Bruno Manser Fonds.

Before Greenpeace there was Along Sega. A treehugger who wasn't a hippie, but a native Penan from Borneo. RIP