Edible Ecology

“People forget that eating represents their most profound engagement with the natural world. Through agriculture is how we change the world, more than anything else we do.” -Michael Pollan

Food is such an important necessity to focus our efforts on because food is related to so many aspects of the degradation of the earth. Food packaging represents 20% of all the single use plastics produced. We face health issues related to the industrial way we have been growing food. Industrial farming practices make up 10% of CO2 emissions and lose of much of our underground water resources.

We can address many of these issues of eating by producing much of our food locally within our cooperative. We can be part of the healthcare system by taking care of the soil. We know that many of our illnesses are food related. We know that nutrients are being depleted from the soil and thus our food is depleted of nutrients. Here in the United States it’s not necessarily lack of food but lack of food that is healthy that is the problem. Most of us eat food coming from a chemical based agricultural system. Starting with pesticides, fungicides and herbicides sprayed on plants to the thousands of chemical based food additives in the processed foods we consume. Not only is the industrial food system unhealthy for us but also for the earth. It is inhuman in the way many farm laborers are treated, animals are raised and processed. The industrial food system is killing life in the soil, killing insects indiscriminately, including pollinators we depend on and destroying diverse ecological systems. One way we can help is to minimize, and hopefully eventually stop eating from the destructive industrial agricultural systems and eat more food grown by us. As we do this we also build resilience. Our Poultry Power project falls within this endeavor. As we expand our growing of food locally we will look at ways of preparing food for our weekly use with reusable metal, ceramic and glass containers that can be washed such that the gray water produced from cleaning these containers will be fed to our food growing operations.

The industrial agriculture system is bad for many reason. 1. Soil loss by way of tilling and draining leading to erosion and river silting. 2. Soil health loss by way of pesticides and herbicides kill life in the soil. 3. Soil compaction leading to reduced water infiltration. 4. Pollution of streams and rivers due to high levels of nitrates, pesticides and herbicides. 5. Pollution of aquifers due to high levels of nitrates, pesticides and herbicides. 6. High levels of fertilizer leaching into rivers then ocean estuaries leading to algae blooms and oxygen depleted dead zones. 7. Large amounts of plastics used and micro plastics ingestion. 8. Plastics contaminates adversely affecting the endocrine system in our bodies. 9. Large amounts of petroleum used. 10. Animal welfare issues. 11. Growing of monocultures creates ecological fragility.

We will explore a variety of food producing methods. Here are some of them. 1. Perennial polyculture 2. Indigenous methods of food production 3. Silvopasture 4. Rotational grazing 5. Organic gardening 6. Korean natural farming 7. Regenerative Agriculture 8. Alley cropping 9. Mushroom culture 10. Aquaponics 11. Duckponics

We will explore a variety of food preparation methods that make use of reusable containers such as: 1. Fermenting 2. Canning 3. Drying 4. Freeze drying 5. Smoking

We happen to live in an area that has much potential for getting fertility from the ocean. There is kelp that can be collected. There is remains of fish harvesting. There is guano from a variety of sea birds that if give proper perch design could be a collection source for this guano. Some of the projects we will do to support our food growing and restoration efforts will involve the following: 6. Composting of food scraps and biomass. 7. Vermiculture 8. Biochar production

If you are interested in this project or would like more information contact SunnysideArtisans@gmail.com

Small sample of Inspiring references:

fullbellyfarm.com/

www.seppholzer.info/

projectfoodforest.org/

www.savannainstitute.org/crops/

perennialagriculture.institute/

regenerativeagriculturepodcast.com/