A meandering blog with no clear topic. You will find me talking about knitting, building, kids, social and economic issues, Alaska, and lots of other stuff.

Monday, February 11, 2008

kiss your grass goodbye...


Sharon posted a great piece about victory gardens on her blog the other day. Give it a read:


There are lots of reasons to bring back victory gardens, including but not limited to:
  • Right now, our food travels an average of 1500 miles to get to our table. (Further if you happen to live in Alaska). That's a lot of emissions, and our climate is in trouble.
  • Industrial agriculture is in trouble. With the specters of climate change, drought, peak oil, and shortages of fertilizer (likely fairly permanent), the yields of industrial farmers will drop, possibly precipitously.
  • Speaking of fertilizer, industrial fertilizers, insecticides, pesticides and such are really not good for people to eat. If you grow your own produce, you control how much crap goes on it.
  • Every time I go to the grocery store, I notice that food seems to be getting more and more expensive. Growing your own insulates you from this to some degree.
  • I read this morning that the US wheat stocks are at a 60 year low. This will only get worse as more and more farmland is converted to growing corn for biodiesel and ethanol.
  • and, of course gardening is great exercise.

Seriously, there are lots of reasons to grow your own food, and encourage your neighbors to do the same. The politicians keep yammering about achieving energy independence, and this is a start.

1 comment:

homebrewlibrarian said...

Oh, the plans I have for turning this yard into an Eden of edible plants. The front yard mostly fruit trees and shrubs, the back and south side yards will be the vegies. Herbs and flowers will be intermixed. Lots of work ahead of me!

Grass? Why would anyone want to grow grass in their yards??

Kerri