Picture Source: http://trzupek.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/thomas-jefferson-big.jpg216 years ago, a woman in Virginia wrote to her father in Washington, complaining of insect damage in her garden. Her father wrote back with some good fatherly advice:
"We will try this winter to cover our garden with a heavy coating of manure. When earth is rich, it bids defiance to droughts, yields in abundance, and insects which have harassed you have been encouraged by the feebleness of your plants, and that results from the lean state of your soil." said great agriculturalist Thomas Jefferson.
We are now starting to look back to the past, exploring the simple solutions our fore fathers used for problems that we have complicated - therefore, destroying our health and our land. Solutions that have been right under our nose yet we have been too stubborn (or arrogant) to use them.
Times are in the midst of huge change, so driving the local economy with agriculture is and has to be the direction we go to avoid a total economic collapse. As we are seeing on a near weekly basis, food problems are becoming more and more prevalent. Not only are there food borne illnesses that we hear about on an ongoing basis, but we are facing corporations that want to take away our rights to save our seeds. These same corporations want to make laws to phase out small farmers altogether in order to control our food.
Think of what spending $10 a week would do to the local economy if everyone made a concerted effort to do so; Job creation, more local dependency (instead of depending on China and other foreign countries for food), and much better food safety control. Remember, food will become more valuable than gold at some point, so having sustainable local food and water sources will be critical.
In order to keep pushing ahead with stimulating local economies via agriculture, people need to be educated about what rights are on the fringe of being taken away. Call your local representatives and let them know how you want them to vote. If they continue to be bought and paid for by lobbyist and not listening to the needs of the American people, then we need to fire them!
Our fore fathers knew that the key to a thriving economy was agriculture on a local level. It starts there, and not with the huge monocultures, but with polycultures. Diversity is how nature exists in harmony and the way God intended.
"We will try this winter to cover our garden with a heavy coating of manure. When earth is rich, it bids defiance to droughts, yields in abundance, and insects which have harassed you have been encouraged by the feebleness of your plants, and that results from the lean state of your soil." said great agriculturalist Thomas Jefferson.
We are now starting to look back to the past, exploring the simple solutions our fore fathers used for problems that we have complicated - therefore, destroying our health and our land. Solutions that have been right under our nose yet we have been too stubborn (or arrogant) to use them.
Times are in the midst of huge change, so driving the local economy with agriculture is and has to be the direction we go to avoid a total economic collapse. As we are seeing on a near weekly basis, food problems are becoming more and more prevalent. Not only are there food borne illnesses that we hear about on an ongoing basis, but we are facing corporations that want to take away our rights to save our seeds. These same corporations want to make laws to phase out small farmers altogether in order to control our food.
Think of what spending $10 a week would do to the local economy if everyone made a concerted effort to do so; Job creation, more local dependency (instead of depending on China and other foreign countries for food), and much better food safety control. Remember, food will become more valuable than gold at some point, so having sustainable local food and water sources will be critical.
In order to keep pushing ahead with stimulating local economies via agriculture, people need to be educated about what rights are on the fringe of being taken away. Call your local representatives and let them know how you want them to vote. If they continue to be bought and paid for by lobbyist and not listening to the needs of the American people, then we need to fire them!
Our fore fathers knew that the key to a thriving economy was agriculture on a local level. It starts there, and not with the huge monocultures, but with polycultures. Diversity is how nature exists in harmony and the way God intended.
Quote:
"Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals, and happiness."
- Letter from Thomas Jefferson to George Washington (1787)
- Letter from Thomas Jefferson to George Washington (1787)
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