Earth Day

I haven't posted in a while so I figure Earth Day would be an appropriate day to make a comeback.
What did you do for the earth on its day? Since today was Wednesday, I attended my Master Gardener class. We learned about growing vegetables and herbs organically. Our guest lecturer was Theodore Radovich from CTAHR at the UH Manoa Campus. Overloaded with enthusiasm about his subject, he presented the material in a casual and informative manner. We were all fed more than we could handle, but enjoyed the process.

Just watched this video, titled "The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil." If you believe in the idea of peak oil, then this would be a good video to watch. It is short, but a good lead into the world of sustainability and organic gardening. It might also be a sign of things to come and what we can expect if peak oil is real.

A friend showed me Geocaching, an interesting way to travel and see the world. Basically, there are these boxes that are hidden around the world. People geotag them, trade with an item left by a previous finder, write in the box's log, and go online and say they found the box at such and such latitude/longitude. Others can find the boxes and do the same. What an idea. Almost useless in its practicality, but so cool that it deserves commendation.

Last week I attained employment at I place I frequent quite a bit, Kula Hardware and Nursery. It is an easy job, but still challenges me in the aspects that I desire. I wanted to work there to become more familiar with plants, both local and exotic, gain plant disease and pest knowledge, and also meet the growing growing community and become a part of it.

Bountiful Hoods

I know I've mentioned this before, but restating it just shows how important it really is to all of us, whether you are concerned or not. I pulled this story about commercial agriculture in America from www.farmpolicyfacts.org. We all need to take at least a bit of our future in our hands (literally). We may never escape taxes, oil, foreign markets or junk mail, but we can all mitigate our dependence on imported foods and commercial agriculture, with all of its inherent weaknesses.

Imagine a small ficticious community with 10 homes. Each house has a family consisting of two parents and two children. Each home is on a quarter of an acre lot. This community was relatively close and friendly with each other. Apart from their regular professions, they also all had a penchant for home gardening. No one is an expert, but enjoys growing things. Now let's say that they get together and discuss that each family can produce one crop, enough for their along with the other 9 families. Each crop was one that was commonly used, and also commonly imported. Limes, tomatoes, peas, oranges, apples, various nuts, lettuces, potatoes, corn, and bananas for example. Each family grew their crop as a hobby, not by coersion. Imagine the benefits of such a system.
Now, don't go putting words in my mouth like "utopia" or "communist" or anything like that. This would simply be a neighborhood getting together to grow locally what they usually import. These are crops that are relatively easy to grow and wouldn't take up much of a backyard. Mind you, this wouldn't replace their total nutrition, but suppliment it. Now imagine that each family grew two crops! We could add such things like berries, broccoli, eggplant, garlic, avocado, beans, squash, herbs, papaya, and onions. Such advantages (better nutrition, stewardship of the land, education, economics, social building, lessening dependence on outside forces, less pollution, etc.), could be reaped that it seems strange that this isn't a common thing (at least not to me, nor to this era). Maybe this was more common in the "old days" or "tough times." Well I would argue that now is a tough time for many.

I realize that this imaginary neighborhood is highly idealized, but to a lesser degree, it is completely possible and even established in some places. This idea of community and sharing is one of the cornerstones of permaculture.

We may not need to have our food shipped 3400 miles or depend so much on the large farm industry.

Imagine the possibilities...

Maybe Athletes Foot Isn't So Bad...

I am always inspired by TED videos and speakers. If you don't already know about them, have a look for yourself and you will become their greatest fan.