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Common Sense Solutions - Starting Now
Joel Salatin: 3 Things Agribiz Can Do To Hydrate & Nourish The Soil And Lessen Future Drought
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Healing the Land, Healing the Food, Healing the Economy, and Healing the Culture.
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By that he means that humans can actively repair damage and accelerate healing to the eco-system, for example soil and hydration problems, using some very simple common sense ideas.
What we learn here is that modern agribusiness has made the conditions of the drought ravaging the US in the summer of 2012 even worse, and Mr. Salatin has several solutions.
First, two brief introductions: Joel Salatin is an outspoken agriculture revolutionary with designs to redeem our food system. He was profiled at length by Michael Pollan in The Omnivore's Dilemma, and is the author of a number of books including Holy Cows and Hog Heaven, Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal, You Can Farm, Pastured Poultry Profit$, and Family Friendly Farming.
He is indeed a serious farmer. From the website of his Polyface Farm in Virginia:
"We are in the redemption business: healing the land, healing the food, healing the economy, and healing the culture. Experience the satisfaction of knowing your food and your farmer, building community."
Chris Martenson is one of the best people to listen to if you want to know exactly why the next 20 years are going to be completely unlike the last 20 years. He is an economic researcher and author of the video presentation The Crash Course, a series that connects the dots like nothing else, explaining how our economy, energy systems and environment face increasing challenges.
Joel Salatin speaks here of three main solutions to hydrate our land, and regenerate organic matter more efficiently. They are simple and require no expensive technology.
Had these been in place 100 years ago, the effects of the drought would be far less drastic. One issue is that the soil on a modern day farm is simply shot from decades of fertilization. We have burned out the organic matter, which has destroyed the capacity of the landscape to retain moisture. When it does rain, it is not absorbed properly. Solution: Stop fertilizing, start composting. On a mass scale.
Another idea he explains is the benefit in creating man made ponds on agricultural land to capture the run off, hydrating the land through a gravity fed network of pipes.
"We would see springs come back, trees grow, rain cycles run better just from hydrating the landscape." says Salatin.
"Instead of farmers buying silos, Monsanto seed corn, feed lots, pouring concrete, buying the latest trucks and white picket fences, if instead we created water resiliency in the landscape, suddenly we could recreate Eden here...we could be flood proof, drought proof...we need to ratchet up our humble massage participation and we can actually be a real healer to the landscape rather than a harm." he exclaims.
It is my sincere hope that you find inspiration in this wonderful interview, and continue to follow the work of these two visionaries.
--Bibi Farber
Chris Martenson can be found at www.peakprosperity.com
Follow Joel Salatin at www.polyfacefarms.com
