EARTH

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The health of the land, the Earth, is the health of the people. A great industrial agricultural system has arisen, creating great quantities of meat and produce, using great quantities of external inputs like fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, and fossil fuel.  We now know that these practices are not sustainable, jeopardizing the health of the planet and creating loss and pain in the local ecology.

Traditional farming, similar to the alternative of organic farming, offers us a way to provide our food through a healthy relationship with the Earth.

Create a better relationship with Earth through any measure of ways:

• Start a home or community garden

• Use permaculture Zones to make a right relationship with place -- less disruption in distant zones allows wildlife to thrive, and regularly-needed produce in nearby zones will reduce your efforts in producing food

• Plant trees, with their many gifts: shade, respiration, cleaning of the air, habitat for other creatures, and food for all beings.

• Create compost from food waste and dry plant matter, and use it to build soil health.

• Use dry manures, wood ash, and ground shells as natural soil amendments from the earth. These materials provide trace minerals to enrich the soil

• Experiment with no-till farming and stick-planting, which create less disruption of soil communities. Use only biodegradable chemicals in your home. Industrial chemicals impact biodiversity in negative ways.

• Plant diverse crops, like corn, beans, and squash

• Save seeds from open-pollinated plants, for use in the next season.