Sustainable: A Soapbox Moment

[lcertuche]

I'm watching a film on Netflix Sustainable. It is really long but really had ideas that I feel are important for the health of our country and even the soil. They speak of soil health, sustainable crops, and of course they speak about the modern big farm practices. A couple of things that grabbed my interest is that the right plant for the right soil.

If weeds are overtaking the field then that is Mother Nature trying to right itself. Wow!

When diversity is limited that is a disaster waiting to happen. For instance if a pestilence or disease hits a crop of wheat and everyone grows the same wheat "What happens to the wheat crops nationwide?" Well I think most reasonably intelligent people (or people with a bit of common sense) will recognize the ramifications.

Like the "Dust Bowl Days" we need to realize our actions have reactions. We may all have to learn to do without bread. "No! That could never happen." Or could it?

And speaking of diversity, they were talking about a 10,000 year old wheat that a few farmers decided to grow. It turns out that it out produced the modern wheat by a huge amount. When bakers used it in bread, they found that people that are gluten intolerant could eat it without any negative side effects.

Well alright. This is my soapbox moment for today.

 

[SustainableAg]

Very well said. Many people do not realize the potential ramifications of monoculture based agriculture. Most recently in the news, the banana has been mentioned as an at-risk monocrop once again. A now extinct variety (Gros Michel), was replaced with the Cavendish banana, which was resistant to the pests and diseases the other cultivar faced. Now the Cavendish banana is at risk, due to new strains of disease. If you do a quick search, you can find quite a bit of information about it.
Something has to change. I wish there was more we could do to change the course of modern Ag.

 

[Hinotori]

Mom can't eat store eggs. Nor can another friend if ours. We had a discussion I think on BYC a few years ago about it. Egg shells are porous and can soak up stuff after the bloom is washes off. The commercial egg wash or the mineral oil they apply after to reseal the eggs is the most likely cause.

Want a ringing endorsement for home raised eggs?

I take lots of eggs down to my parents when I visit since Mom can't eat store eggs. Mom cooks eggs every day for Dad and the parrot no matter what eggs she has. Well she had just ran out after several weeks and got some store eggs. Dad didn't know that. So after he ate breakfast he told Mom to tell me that there was something wrong with this last batch because they tasted odd.

The Parrot took one bite of her scrambled eggs, spit it out, and refused to try eggs for a few weeks. She had to forget how my eggs tasted. This happens with the parrot each time Mom runs out of my eggs.

 

[Britesea]

I think that even if you plant hybrids and such, and save the seed, you will have SOME kind of harvest. Then save seeds from the best plants and use that seed, continuing to save the best. Eventually you will have some new variety that is acclimated to the growing conditions of your own little slice of paradise.

 

[Mini Horses]

Wow, that's disturbing! Let me add to the issue --- those "fresh baked" at store breads are shipped as frozen dough. So you can consider that it is most likely present. I'd have to see a label to know for sure, as that is not always on the loaf package.

Thankfully, I rarely eat much of the "common" loaf breads but do like the organic, whole grain types...with lots of seeds! ... costs a lot more but, tastes great & I use a loaf maybe over a month. Yep, freeze & take out a couple slices at a time. Bread machine works fine, especially with smaller loaf size.

I've said for years that our purchased food is killing us!!! Now this --- makes you want to challenge yourself to eating "only what you can raise yourself". Then we have to consider any feeds we use for those animals. I swear, it gets very complicated. Guess it will never be perfect, just try to do as much as we can to minimize these problems.

 

[baymule]

I bought a grain mill several years ago, whole wheat berries, the works. I was so proud of my home made bread, but DH complained that it had "holes" in it and preferred store bought.

 

[baymule]

He is so OCD about holey bread, that he fans the slices in the wrapper, trying to pick the most perfect loaf. I can go get other things on the list, come back, place them in the cart, and he is still peering into the bread wrapper.

 

[lcertuche]

It's really serious when you realize something like the Irish potato famine can kill off so many people. Of course it was as much a political and economic issue that caused so many deaths. After all the people that were surviving on potatoes still grew grain crops sent to England. Still had they been rotating different potato or more likely growing triple or quadruple varieties of potatoes at least some would have probably been more resistant.

Of course there are those that claim GMO's are the way to go. If a million people are dead and another million in hard straits as were with the Great Potato Famine I suspect they might not see the GMO varieties as so bad.

The poor Irish people grew potatoes because it grew well and filled bellies after hard days work and cold nights.

Only a couple of varieties were grown in Ireland and after a few years of crop failures it was too late. This should be the warning for everyone to diversify. Peru alone is said to have 4000 types. http://www.raisingmiro.com/2012/04/23/4000-types-of-potatoes-in-peru/

What other crops may have worked. Well in the American South when the Yankees burned southern crops and left the animal fodder crops, they turned to the black-eye peas, turnips, greens and survived. These all being good cool weather crops. Maybe if they had grown more carrots, cabbage, onions, peas, turnips and beets instead of potatoes giving credence to the saying "Don't put all your eggs in one basket". This was definitely a culture where potatoes was the difference between life and death.

They kept replanting the seed potatoes that did survive in the same ground exacerbating the problem until it was 100 % loss after 2 or 3 years. If only they could have gotten a hold of Jerusalem artichoke tubers! We are blessed to be living in a time where we know about plant diseases and have the ability to find resistant varieties but we should still be growing more than one or two varieties if possible.

Of course if you only plant 6 tomato plants that may not be feasible. Often if buying plants from the nursery you see one pot seedlings now, so I guess it's possible. Too often people stick to their favorites. I know I do. If someone asks me which is my favorite tomato I'll say Arkansas Traveler.

Maybe find some like minded people and trade seeds or starts of plants.

 

[Britesea]

There is also a growing body of evidence that the honeybee crisis is actually being caused by our monoculture agribusiness. Like a lot of other animals, it appears that bees need a variety of pollens to thrive- and their immune systems have been weakened by living on just one type of food.

 

[Hinotori]

I was getting sick every time I ate bread. Going through a lot of Pepto.

It wasn't the wheat, though. I can eat pasta fine as well as biscuits and home made bread. The only store bought stuff I can eat is the French bread from one store's bakery. All bagged breads get me. Some dough conditioner or such makes me very sick.

It would be very nice if they didn't add weird crap to our food.