Will Allen’s powerful urban farm Growing Power is also featured on the cover in the last edition of Yes Magazine. The cries of concern grow louder with every tomato seedling that is lovingly planted in the ground… In my gardening classes the main concern of students is soil fertility. People are afraid that there soil is not good enough to grow food. Past pesticide abuse haunts many and quality issues. I always insist that the mere act of planting and caring anything restores and improves soil fertility, roots break up compacted soil, living mulch (via plant leaves and shade) provide a great environment for creepy crawlies of all types, as well as watering responsibly.
If interest in the fertility of your own backyard gives cause for concern imagine it on a larger scale. Imagine the amber waves of grain heavily fertilized, ‘protected’ with pesticides, and grown the same way indefinitly because it is good for business. Now, you could be okay with this scenario, many are. But what if it were your backyard? Would you just genetically modify your seeds so that they could resist these problems or would you change your direction and seek out a new way of growing food, one that thought about protection of soil fertility, because that is all you really have? Well guess what folks, that is all that we have…. there is no other planet that is on aisle 4 that has a 2 for the price of 1 deal.
The damage that we cause takes exponentially longer to repair. Time to farm responsibly. And no, Genetically Modified Seed aren’t the solution either… Smaller sustainable farming on a global scale is the direction that holds the most promise for the future. We have a lot to learn in a very short time. Organizations like Growing Power are blazing the trail.
Read the article, see what this ‘green giant’ is up to…
http://www.nytimes. com/2009/ 07/05/magazine/ 05allen-t. html?ref= magazine
Filed under: Uncategorized, biodiversity, environment, food security, gardening, green, greenhouse, mini farming, mono-cropping, nature, organic, permaculture, seedlings, seeds, sustainable
