A Look Into The Future

Is the outlook a bleak one? As the natural balance tips, overloaded by the sheer force of human impact, what can we expect? Everyone seems to have an opinion, but in the main, only a handful of people really understand what might happen and how soon it will happen. Will it be gradual or will it be sudden? I have heard on one hand that the ocean levels may increase by 5 meters in as many years and I find this hard to believe, I have heard that global warming has been caused by human impact and another that argues that human impact has contributed in only an insignificant way in what is otherwise a natural global/planetary cycle.

Al Gore has done a lot of research on this subject, and is campaigning for change to take place globally. I am inclined to follow his way of thinking, predictions based on scientific research, and, I believe, we have to take steps to repair the damage we humans have done. So join this ever expanding mindset, read, watch the many documentaries available on the subject and help keep our impact to a minimum.

A Farmer Who Dared

This is a true story. A small scale farmer in Mozambique, by Western standards, a poor man, saw the benefits of organic farming, made the transition and has never looked back. A church missionary organisation had come into the area and began teaching farmers organic farming. Their progress is good but slow because the local markets sell pesticides of all kinds and farmers are reluctant to change the way they have farmed for so long. But the farmer in this story patiently watched the demonstration plots set up by the mission, he saw how healthy the crops were and how abundant the crop yields were, so he too set about changing how he farmed. He told me that he always struggled to feed his family, but in the 5 years since he began farming organically his fields have provided well. Walking through his fields, he shows me how damp the soil is under the thick layer of mulch and ground cover crops, pumpkin and water melon. The maize is a healthy green colour and towers above us, yet all the adjacent fields are barren and dry whilst their owners await the rain so they can plant their crops. The organic farmer, on the other hand will soon be reaping the third crop that year. But although his methods are obviously successful, whilst many of his contemporaries in the community now farm as he does, the majority do not. Why? I don't know, but there is a transition taking place, and that is encouraging.

One thing to think about here, is that this story is about a farmer who has no mechanical aids to farm with. What he and his family produce from their land is what sustains them, it is their livelihood in the true sense of the word. These people do not have lots of money, they do not have the modern material possessions that we in the Western world take so much for granted, they do no own a car or even a motorcycle, and yet their lives are full and rich. They have had fewer choices in their lives than I have and yet they are more content than me. From such people, we have much to learn, the farmer in this story is a wise man, he has chosen to farm organically after careful consideration because he would and could never jeopardise his family their bread and butter. He is a good man, and I am privileged to call him a friend

Crazy Sick World

We live in a world that is ill. We are out of kilter with nature and in a crazy spin of repetition. From one generation to the next and the next and the next our inventiveness gives us all these wonderful gadgets, our nature is to be inquisitive, to want these wonderful things. We toil day in day out to make enough money to pay the bills and to buy the things we want, and so it goes. It's great, isn't it? But we haven't achieved a balance, the impact we humans have on this planet is huge and although we are slowly learning how to reduce that impact, it is all too plain to see, wherever we look, that whilst some try hard, others don't think there's anything to worry about, that it's OK now and that is all that matters.

If the vast majority, or maybe even only half of the people living in high density population areas took an active interest in just one of the millions of natures little intricacies and that interest spread through to things linked to it, that little bit of personal knowledge or even expertise will raise that persons awareness to the plight of mother earth. Be thoughtful, get interested, become involved, become a part of the solution, not the problem.

Organic Farming, Opinions

There are a number of arguments fore and against the use of organic agriculture. Today at work, a young man who comes from a farming family in the Northwest of England said that organic farming doesn't work here. This reaction is typical to 'modern farmers' all over the globe, and in one sense that young man was correct, but only in the sense that anyone attempting, for instance, Integrated Pest Management and surrounded by neighbours who control pests with chemicals, the efforts of the farmer in I.P.M. would be hampered because the pest predators would perish if the chemical spray drifted over. Another set back would be that pests would migrate to the crops that are free of chemicals, and even if there are good predator numbers, the pest numbers would be too great. So this is why entire areas would have to be dedicated 'chemical free'. My opinion is that organic agriculture is the only sustainable way forward. But my opinion is only my opinion. There are others who share this opinion, but the majority of farmers who control the land are in the business of survival or profit. They are the ones who have to be convinced and no amount of yelling and screaming will hold with them if money is to be lost, or yields reduced during the transitional phases. For them it is too big a gamble because their entire livelihood would rest upon such a decision. They would rather stick to what they know works, and that's the end of it. The answer is to prove beyond doubt that becoming fully organic actually works, and if there are losses during the transitional phase from non-organic to organic, then assistance should be given.

I also believe that the future of food production will rely upon more sustainable use of land. The world, as always, and possibly even more rapidly, is changing. The raw materials from which fertilisers are made are not in endless supply, toxic chemicals and rapidly expanding populations continue to pollute the air and water and soils, yet we bumble aimlessly along, completely unaware of the long term and only living for today. We say we want a better world for our children and so many of us do, but some do not mean what they say because they are blissfully unaware of the implications and others just don't know any better.

We hope that the next generation and the next and the next will be more aware..............