Saturday, June 16, 2012

Viva la Resistance

In the garden these days life is good.  The sun is hot and the flowers are just exploding.  Just when I think it can't get any more beautiful it does.  Two days a week we spend hours cropping flowers of all kinds and making arrangements for the community and bouquets for the farmers market.  We also get to do crafty things like make lavender wreaths and wands.  Totally my cup of tea.

We are in full swing of compost season.  Every week adding layers of straw, food scraps, green waste and manure so that in a year we will have amazing nutrient-rich soil to add to our cultivating beds.  Making and using compost is a defining feature of organic farming.  Without it we could not maintain the health of our soil.  As we take nutrients out in the form of food we have to give carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous and other minerals back.  Simple as that.  It may go without saying but I'll say it anyway, large scale conventional farms are not doing that.  They essentially use up the soil, adding sub par chemical fertilizer that is only partially absorbed (the rest leaks off into ground water supplies) until the land just doesn't produce any more and they move on.  Read: we may run out of farmable land...

As Derrick Jensen said in his talk on Thursday in Berkeley, this method is not sustainable.  And we do it this way for many other systems, like fishing and meat production, fossil fuels (gas), etc.  If you have read any of his books (or even some of their summaries) you know the facts.  The depressing, apocalyptic, and accurate facts about the type of future we may have to envision if we keep living like we do.  There were eight of us Green Gulchers who went to his talk at the Edible Schoolyard Project at Martin Luther King School and while maybe some of us didn't feel particularly inspired towards any specific type of action it stimulated much conversation and, as a writer, maybe that's all Derrick Jensen can hope for.  He talked about other things that just might be too controversial for this blog ;-) or at least too intense but I did like how in his talking about the health of the planet he felt he had to discuss power dynamics and the nature or origin of our exploitation culture.  I will mention that the word patriarchy entered that convo several times...

My first thought was to say that everyone should be exposed to this type of information and maybe listen with an open mind.  But on second thought I know that there are people that will, to the day they die, disagree and even exact violence in order to quiet these voices.  Maybe nothing can change...maybe a little can change...or maybe everything will change no matter what we want or hope for.  In the mean time I know that being here at Green Gulch and taking care of this land, learning how to listen to and see the sheer magic that is nature, and trying to live in harmony with all types of people is an important part of fighting the status quo. Of working towards change that can help save the planet.  I'm trying to "wake up" or see the world clearly every minute of every day.  And have a little fun while I'm at it.

Aren't these eggs worth changing our lifestyle?  A computer can't possibly create a blue this beautiful.  You have to see it with your own eyes.  Robin's egg blue.

P.S. I would like to make it known that I too enjoy (am addicted?) to modern conveniences.  Imagining life without fossil fuels is almost impossible.  No one ever said this would be easy :-)

1 comment:

  1. I know a place in Clam Gulch where we could experiment with a life without fossil fuels! Wasn't too shabby.

    Salmon or moose anyone?

    ReplyDelete