Texas Tea, Green Manure, and Forgiveness
May 27, 2008|Comments (none)
“Man is the animal that intends to shoot himself out into interplanetary space, after having given up on the problem of an efficient way to get himself five miles to work and back each day.” ~Bill Vaughan
We are all very concerned about the rising gas prices — we see the effects everywhere we turn. Our consumer-based society can scarcely afford to buy anything because the prices are up thanks to shipping and production costs. Shipping costs increased because of the gas prices. The gas prices increased because the demand for oil is so high and the oil companies enjoy owning our politicians. And why shouldn’t they? Everyone wants to get angry with the oil companies for cranking up the prices but no one seems to realize that we gave them that power over us.
Our government and our public needs to make some major changes because we are facing a much larger problem than rising gas prices: the farmers that feed this country cannot afford the oil or the fertilizer to produce the food. In Iowa alone, farmers spend $700 million each year on inorganic fertilizer. What does that have to do with gas? Well, those farmers use nitrogen fertilizer which is manufactured with natural gas. (Read the article here) Many farmers are turning to manure and green manure for fertilizing but have no idea how to combat ever-rising fuel costs. Their efforts to find and implement alternative farming methods are handicapped by a government that has simply not thought that far ahead. As a result, we will have a food crisis of epic proportions. And this is no doomsday-cliche: we’re headed for disaster if things don’t change.
Please check out the video below and watch it all the way through. I know, you are busy and the video is sort of long but Joel Salatin talks about the solution — a thunk on the head if ever there was one. His energy cost per sales dollar at his farm would allow the current fuel prices to triple and his farm would still be okay. How many farmers can say that? How many of us regular folks can say that?
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Want to know more about Joel Salatin? Read “We are the Caretakers of Creation.” (another post in this blog)
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