It all starts with food. A backyard garden can supply a good percentage of a family’s food but not even close to 100%. We need to feed each other; share our excess.
Our corporately furnished food supply is based on fertilization derived from natural gas. Were it not for petroleum based fertilizers our food supply would be limited by the amount of nitrogen we could create naturally through use of animal wastes and growing legumes. Artificial fertilizers allow us to support a huge world population. Seven billion people wouldn’t be possible if we were forced, due to shortages, to grow food naturally. In addition, 90% of our food comes from out of town, even out of country, and is delivered by trucks fueled by petroleum.
Food is another bubble created by large corporate farming combines and with “peak nitrogen” that bubble could burst. Our current population level is unsustainable. Thus, we have a predicament for which there is no solution. We can ultimately only support a population that can be fed from the amount of nitrogen fertilizer that we can produce naturally. It is exactly the same as our Peak Oil predicament. We won’t be able to drive hundreds of millions of cars and trucks around forever. We will have to make choices about how to use the petroleum that remains and prioritize between transportation, fertilizer, etc.
On Lummi Island, it’s doubtful that we can create enough backyard gardens and chicken coops to feed even our small population. It would make sense to encourage young, entrepreneurial growers to come here and farm. We would need to find them land to use and subsidize them to make it possible for them to make a living while growing food to sell on the island. This plan could operate like a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) on a larger scale.
The Greenhorns is a group dedicated to bringing young people into farming. Their guidebook which can be downloaded through the link on this page is a good, short read. Of particular interest is their list of ways to obtain land on p.24. (See below). Encouraging some new farming operations on the island would be an excellent way to Protect The Lummi Island Community.
Ways to Obtain Land (from the Greenhorns guidebook).
1. Working for a non-profit organization as farm manager/educational coordinator.
2. Renting/leasing land from a land trust.
3. Renting/leasing land from wealthy (or not so wealthy) non- farming landowners who get an “agricultural tax assessment.” Check with the extension service in your state to learn about agricultural taxes. Also check with the assessor in your town to learn what the ‘real value’ of that tax deduction is for your landlord so that you can adequately understand their financial incentive to work with you. In some places farmers are actually paid to hay the land for the tax break.
4. Renting a part of a working farm, sharing equipment.
5. Farming land owned by a school, restaurant, retreat center, artist-in-residency program or other institution.
6. Collaborative land purchase (siblings, friends, associations).
7. Farming for a private developer in a “planned development” (this is big in the South).
8. Starting with a small homestead in a rural town while earning money for eventual farm purchase in outskirts.
9. Lottery/inheritance from your family.
10. Cannabis cultivation on rented/squatted land to finance own parcel (NOT recommended).
11. Slowly taking over a farm operation from a retiring farmer.
12. Borrowing under utilized private land with a handshake.
13. Rooftop farming with corporate partners.
14. Renting urban land from the city (this is big in Missouri).
15. Farming on the site of an old bedding
plant nursery/other compatible space.
I’ve been wondering lately if one barrier to encouraging young farmers on Lummi Island is . . . the number of people raising food in home or community gardens! Farmers have to get paid for what they raise. I’ve often thought I should start gardening for saving rare seed lines that produce well here (very important for the long term) and use my food money to support island farmers who need the $$ to keep farming, A CSA sounds pretty good.
Other places like Salt Spring Island have already started seriously down this path (e.g., http://www.saltspringseeds.com/) as well peak energy & being a “transition island” (http://www.saltspringenergystrategy.org/) It would be interesting to get a few folks together to go visit them. I
I also worry about sustainability on the island of raising livestock, chickens etc. Not only do most livestock require a LOT of water, a scarce commodity on most of the island, but I also keep seeing folks cattle etc. bringing big hay bales on island, or grazing pastures way down, or pasturing in wetland or other sensitive areas. This concerns me, as I’m a carnivore by necessity (used to be pretty much a vegetarian, but my body just didn’t work well on that die, on several levels). Seafood, despite the big salmon run this year just isn’t dependable as it was in the past.
Of course I meant ‘just didn’t work well on that dieT”
Also, I submitted another comment on this post shortly before the one about livestock. Did it get ‘disappeared’ in the e-vapor?
I tried to submit this comment last week, but it was e-vaporized.
I noticed this summer that there was lots less produce and people buying, probably a joint result of the poor weather for crops and, perhaps, more people growing vegies at home or in the community garden. I worry that it’s hard for any island farmers to make even part of a living if too many people take up home gardening. Of course, many folks who are vegie gardening now will drop it before long. Not everyone really likes all the work, has the time or physical ability, or is willing to be tied to the home plot during spring, summer and a good part of fall. Maybe CSAs would improve the situation somewhat for island farmers.
I also share Wynne’s observations, and have recently reread “Shared Heritage”, the book put out by the Lummi Island Heritage Trust. It’s amazing that at one time, LI exported goods to the mainland. Raspberries were raised over many, many acres. Cattle, hay, eggs, etc. And of course fish. So what has happened? It’s an interesting exercise getting to the answer.