A crash course in changing the world.
So where I'm living at the moment is the east coast of the UK. It's a big arable farming area. Fields are large (but nowhere near as large as the USA), and everything is mechanised and very reliant on fossile fuels. The photo shows the dry soil being blown away as the ground is prepared for the next crop.
The soils are nutrient poor, as monocultures are the norm with "nutrition" added in the form of chemical fertilisers. Biodiversity is low as the use of pesticides and herbicides seems essential with this form of farming.
It's the beginning of May 2011 and according to one website we are now in drought conditions, with no rain (to speak of) within the last 25 days.
Many of the grass paths in I've walked on recently are looking like this, the cracks are fairly small say 10mm across at the largest point. But my point is that this is May in the northern hemisphere, we haven't got to the summer yet. I'm concerned.
The good news is that many people are looking to start producing their own food - the above issues may not be their main motivating factors (higher food prices and rising unemployment probably being playing a larger part).
Community supported agriculture projects are starting around transition towns. The number of organic farms is growing too, but for me the most exciting is one larger scale farming type project too at Wakelyns farm, that is looking at agro-forestry practices using alley cropping within strips of nitrogen and food producing trees.
© 2024 Created by Alchemy. Powered by
You need to be a member of Urgent Evoke to add comments!
Join Urgent Evoke