Friday, September 25, 2015

"Practical" permaculture as opposed to what? Part 1- feeding society

I find the typical permie farm, our own included, to be a piss poor example of practical, sustainable agriculture.

Welcome to Qian Jia Farm. Sign up for our CSA and we will hook you up, Son! We'll stuff your fridge with a variety of food that is packed with more nutrition than player haters even know what to do with! At least, that's the idea; my beloved CSA falls woefully short and has no strategy in place to move beyond providing vegetables. They are the highest quality and most delicious vegetables you're gona find around here but nobody is feeding their family on veggies alone.

As a matter of fact, just today the 2 full time employees, one other volunteer and myself are sharing lunch and I ask "how much of this came from our farm?". With a big shit eating grin and mental pat on the back, Auntie Volunteer proudly declares that the vegetables were grown on the farm, confessing by admission that the: meat, tofu, spices, noodles and fish came from the grocery store. Of course, I praised the vegetable dish, albeit with the sincerity of one complimenting a 5 year olds finger painting masterpiece, then finished the mostly store bought meal.

I, myself, consume a balanced diet consisting of: vegetables, fruits, grains and meat. Average Wang (the Taiwanese equivalent of Average Joe) much more grains and meat than fruits and veggies. Nobody i know of could make more than 10-20% of their diet off of produce from our farm. Essentialy, our farm produced a lot more education and good vibes than it does food.

And how can any system be "sustainable" if the farmer cant even feed himself?




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