Re: POLITICS Gov/Ag Econ/Re: The Glutenator - starring Heidi S.

[Guest guest]

>Hmm, Helga, I don't actually understand this pre-Nixon thing. So if

>you grow something and the prices are low that year, and then a few

>years later the prices are high and you go to sell it, wouldn't

>somebody've eaten it by then? I mean, I know carrots and cabbage and

>stuff can sit around in the winter, but a few years later? I'm

>assuming Helga the Glutenator isn't going to be condoning large-scale

>grain agriculture and all that...

Well, I hate to disappoint you but I'm really not against *all* grains,

just a few bad actors. Fact is, with climate fluctuations being

what they are (and the climate has been fluctuating forever, sometimes

worse than others, I'm sitting where a hundred feet worth of

glaciers used to be) -- stored calories sitting in dry rooms isn't

a bad idea. The " crop buying " was primarily for staples ... corn,

sorghum, rice (we'll not support wheat, of course!). Those are the

crops that tend to be over-planted.

Now, when it comes to carrots and cabbage, of course we will

be encouraging more local consumption, and preferably coop

type farms. With a coop farm, the farmer has his/her money in

advance, and that is built-in price stability! If there is a bumper

crop of carrots, I presume people will eat more carrots that year.

>Maybe I'm missing something here, but wouldn't it better if people

>just focused on growing things and eating them, instead of " buying "

>and " selling " ?

Certainly would! And someday we will have to revamp the economy,

esp. once robots start massively replacing human workers. In the

meantime, this is still a capitalist society and we live in that framework.

BTW I'm going to be reading SOLVIVA shortly, and getting into more

distributed food-growing and energy production. We will have a committee

studying this ...

-- Helga

http://www.superseeds.com/self_sufficiency.htm

L807 SOLVIVA: How to Grow $500,000 on One Acre & Peace on Earth

By Edey

Isn’t that title a grabber? What more could one ask for? Wait, there is more in

the second subtitle: " Revealing the Truth About How We Can Provide Electricity,

Heating, Cooling, Transportation, Food, Solid Waste and Wastewater Management in

Ways that Reduce Pollution and Depletion of Resources by 80 percent or more, and

that At The Same Time Reduce Cost of Living and Improve Quality of Life " . At

first glance, Edey may sound a little ‘out there’, but isn’t that what we

need­people who venture beyond conventional thinking to solve the problems we

need to face? Edey has been working on these solutions on her farm in

Martha’s Vineyard since 1977 and has developed a remarkable " solar dynamic,

bio-benign " living system. Edey wisely began her book with a lengthy section of

color photographs of her farm, greenhouse, and waste management system that will

convince you it exists and works. It will also make you envious of her lifestyle

with year-round tomato plants and a salad garden in the kitchen, and a

greenhouse that produces 1600 servings of her famous organic salad mix a

day­without an artificial heat source! Edey relates the remarkable story of the

development of her farm, her research and experiments with greener living

designs, and the details of constructing and maintaining them. She also issues a

" Call to Action " where she envisions grander uses for her designs­greener

schools, businesses, municipal solid waste facilities, ­even the White House!

Softcover 224 pp

-- Helga