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Astyk: Creating and Sustaining Soil Fertility
Sharon Astyk, Casaubon’s Book
… What if you’ve got dead soil, like mine, or rock hard clay, or soil (also like mine) that has been leached and has too much water in it? Again, there are two projects here – the first is the short term building of soil so that you can get to gardening. The second is the long term maintenence of soil health, and the addition of more organic matter, so that eventually, your soil can hold enough organic matter to save the world – or at least sequester as much carbon as possible. Plus, things will grow better. Win-win.
My favorite way to build soil on something that is completely unworkable is the lasagna method, which is pretty much sheet mulching with some dirt or compost on it. This makes raised beds, which is good if what you have is either wet or rock hard, or if you are, say putting your dirt on gravel or something toxic. It might be tough in a dry, hot climate though – raised beds dry out and warm up in the spring earlier, and keeping them wet might be tough. In that case, you might consider digging into the ground, creating sunken beds with the same mixture.
If you need to amend soil, you’ll have the choice of synthetic or natural soil amendments.
(24 February 2009)
Farming policy: an end to French hypocrisy?
John Lichfield, Independent
After 46 years of shovelling farm subsidies to its richer, more polluting farmers, France yesterday took a historic step towards a greener and fairer European agriculture policy.
Paris announced that from next year it would confiscate over 20 per cent of the billions of euros of European taxpayers’ money paid to its ranch-like cereals farms and divert the cash to hill farmers, grazing land, shepherds and organic agriculture.
The announcement brings to an end almost half-a-century of official hypocrisy in which French governments have talked about protecting “family farms” and “quality food” but allowed the bulk of European largesse to flow to chemical-assisted, hedge-free, cereals-ranching in northern, central and eastern France.
(24 February 2009)
Swiss “Victory Gardens” during WW2
swissinfo
Militia versus Nazis
Bunkers in the Alps and serving on the land.
After the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939, a massive mobilization of militia is ordered in Switzerland. Thousands of Swiss men are called to defend the borders. The myth of the unconquerable Alps is created. (SF/swissinfo)
(February 2009 ??)
In 1940, Switzerland was surrounded by hostile countries (Germany, Italy, Austria and occupied France). In addition to the Swiss military strategy described above, they were committed to food self-sufficiency. The video clip begins talking about food at about 2:45 minutes.
“Every vacant piece of ground had to be cultivated. In the propaganda campaign every Swiss, young and old, was called to roll up their sleeves and help keep hunger at bay.
[Voice from a newsreel] The plan is simple – to feed four and a half million people, Switzerland must double the surface devoted to agriculture. Instead of 225,000 hectares, 550,000 must yield produce. No green patch, no garden, however small, should remain uncultivated. Hunger is looming over every household.
Rousing martial music and a great graphic of a skull floating over the rooftops of a peaceful Swiss town. -BA
UNEP Gives Food for Thought
Agence France-Presse via Gristmill
The UN Environment Programme has unveiled an ambitious seven-point plan to feed the world without polluting it further by making better use of resources and cutting down on massive waste.
A survey of the current state of food production and consumption released to a forum of the Kenya-based UNEP and world environment ministers showed colossal waste but also came up with green solutions.
“Over half of the food produced today is either lost, wasted or discarded as a result of inefficiency in the human-managed food chain,” UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said of a 104-page report released on Tuesday.
The measures recommended for a mid-term effect include steps to:
– “Reallocate cereals used in animal feed to human consumption by developing alternative feeds based on new technology, waste and discards. This could feed nearly the entire projected population growth” (to an estimated nine billion people overall by 2050).
– “Support small-scale farmers by a global fund for micro-finance in developing diversified and resilient ecoagriculture and intercropping systems.
– “Increase trade and market access by improving infrastructure, reducing trade barriers, enhancing government subsidies and safety nets, as well as reducing armed conflict and corruption.”
The document is entitled ‘The environmental food crisis: environment’s role in averting future food crises’ and can be accessed at www.unep.org or at www.grida.no.
The survey, which also considers threats to endangered species and tackling these from an environmental perspective, can be downloaded in .pdf format from http://dev.grida.no/foodcrisis/. It is widely illustrated with photographs and with graphics for free use in publications.
(18 February 2009)
This is but the latest in a raft of recent reports about “food security” and the “food crisis” in the last few months, mostly from international bodies associated with the UN, NGOs, or the UK. Refreshingly, (in my opinion) there is an upsurge of support for sustainable farming practices but more worryingly, a renewed demand for GM technologies. KS
