Something similar to this idea is illustrated in Dan Brown's My Ishmael, where he shows the effects of 'locking up the food' within the bounds of a centralized control system, in our case that is our oil driven economics. Over the years this has developed into generally centralized agricultural, and other food production modes which are highly inefficient in an ecological sense. The vast majority of produce is grown in grand clusters, completely separate from the urban, and suburban environments. Though if you are reading this blog, I suspect you are well aware of many of these issues. The production of food in this manner is superfluously wasteful, and creates vastly inferior foods in every manner. None-the-less, for the sake of ease people have accepted the growing partition between themselves and their food. Dan Brown's novel generally argues for one point, and that is neo-tribalism. In a sense that is also what I am striving to illustrate, though I am solely concerned with our food production in this case. The general aims being localized food production, de-commodification of foodstuffs, supporting public health through reacquainting people with what their food is and where it comes from, and hopefully a growing participation in this process.
The system which is continuing to dominate food production across the globe is broken, the waste and ecological cost is quickly building, and will soon far outweigh the benefits of centralization, if they haven't already. So a new paradigm need be established. We are fortunate that this has begun organically and is well on its way to success. There are such a wonderful variety of approaches, thoughts, ideas, concepts which are all playing roles in this growing movement. And this is where I am directing this blog. WindowFarms were a wonderful place to start, and I encourage anyone who is new to hydroponics to begin there, easy to construct and modify. Super sleek and utilitarian at the same time. Completely recycled. And you get to see all of the inner-workings in action. But there is also so much more out there which I wish to highlight, and considered when looking forward with food production. We need to strive for a decentralization of agriculture, purely local, nearly-no-transportation-required local, sort of agricultural modality.
I will continue to utilize WindowFarms, and WF inspired vertical drip gardens, I certainly have plenty of bottles! And I will continue to work on plastic-free options. But there is a growing continuum of sustainable methodologies, and possibilities which I will talk about as well. As I already have dabbled with, alternative methods in hydroponics such as DWC and FC. I also aim to learn much more about permaculture, and creating relatively self-sustaining hydroponic/aquaponic gardening systems. Along with different systems, I plan to use more CO2 and O2 enrichment methods. I am currently reading a book called Edible Forest Gardens by David Jacke in preparation for a conversion I aim to work on for the next couple of years at a wooded plot I have free-reign over; so far the book is a good read simply for the conceptual understanding of the intricacies of natural forest ecosystems, but is also a practical guide. I found that HERE, at Fuck yea Permaculture, generally great information there. I plan to try mushroom growing possibly with portobellos or another commonly farmed variety. There are some other things rattling around that may or may not go anywhere, but these are some of the ongoing, or soon to come up things.
With all of this said, I hope to take my food into my own hands, and I hope others attempting the same may be able to learn from my trials along the way.
