Wednesday, July 13, 2011
food deserts, ideas for the food buying club, local fresh organic food sources,...
Long-term goals we're all working toward for the people of Hazelwood - quality food at good prices - lead to some next steps. Sources: local farmers; community gardens; personal gardens; the YMCA garden; food forests. Going to: Fishes and Loaves food buying club; our farmstand; a community grocery store (eventually); Meals on Wheels.
As a soil expert, I am mostly aware of a tight part in the production pipeline - our soil's fertility. Over the years I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that - similar to the saying that it takes a whole village to raise a child - it takes a whole community to produce and protect good soil. It must be understood that the living web of life in an area is central to a soil's productivity. As much as a part of me would like to go off somewhere where I don't have to deal with pollution and ignorance, I know by now that (no matter how much money I might have to e.g. buy a farm), I would always have ignorant and destructive neighbors. We're all downwind and downstream of each other, no matter where we are.
I suggest or remind that - now that the food buying club is started - we keep in mind gradually opening up our sources for food to include not just Wholey's but: local gardeners; local community gardens (in the entire Pittsburgh area, not just from HUGS gardens); local farmers.
Always on my agenda is re-organizing organic waste stream directions back to the soil from which the organic matter originally came. The level of recognition of the need to rapidly move to a much higher rate of biomass recycling is tiny compared to the need. Contribution of a relative few people of a few kitchen scraps and grass clippings to composting situations is great but is not going to make it either in terms of food security or other ecosystem services in this present context of rapid climate change. So I suggest that outreach activities begin to include both: learning recycling to the soil; and sharing that and other skills related to protecting and regenerating the web of life in our community.
As a soil expert, I am mostly aware of a tight part in the production pipeline - our soil's fertility. Over the years I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that - similar to the saying that it takes a whole village to raise a child - it takes a whole community to produce and protect good soil. It must be understood that the living web of life in an area is central to a soil's productivity. As much as a part of me would like to go off somewhere where I don't have to deal with pollution and ignorance, I know by now that (no matter how much money I might have to e.g. buy a farm), I would always have ignorant and destructive neighbors. We're all downwind and downstream of each other, no matter where we are.
I suggest or remind that - now that the food buying club is started - we keep in mind gradually opening up our sources for food to include not just Wholey's but: local gardeners; local community gardens (in the entire Pittsburgh area, not just from HUGS gardens); local farmers.
Always on my agenda is re-organizing organic waste stream directions back to the soil from which the organic matter originally came. The level of recognition of the need to rapidly move to a much higher rate of biomass recycling is tiny compared to the need. Contribution of a relative few people of a few kitchen scraps and grass clippings to composting situations is great but is not going to make it either in terms of food security or other ecosystem services in this present context of rapid climate change. So I suggest that outreach activities begin to include both: learning recycling to the soil; and sharing that and other skills related to protecting and regenerating the web of life in our community.
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