Against the Grain: How Agriculture Has Hijacked Civilization
The evolutionary road is littered with failed experiments, however, and Manning suggests that agriculture as we have practiced it runs against both our grain and nature's. Drawing on the work of anthropologists, biologists, archaeologists, and philosophers, along with his own travels, he argues that not only our ecological ills-overpopulation, erosion, pollution-but our social and emotional malaise are rooted in the devil's bargain we made in our not-so-distant past. And he offers personal, achievable ways we might re-contour the path we have taken to resurrect what is most sustainable and sustaining in our own nature and the planet's.
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I know it doesn't prove anything, but at least I, and Jarod Diamond, aren't alone in this belief.
I can't believe that I found another book to read :O(
Dudette: I've noticed some really long postings where you answered paragraph by paragraph and they were VERY long. Also the double spacing is how these postings appear on my screen... I do NOT double-space them...blame Google.
And this would be "Permaculture : a designer's manual / by Bill Mollison ; illustrated by Andrew Jeeves", 576 pages, Tagari Publications (December 1988)
Good thing his books are available at the library. They are very pricy.
Warm, wet environments also lead to rapid breakdown of organic material (OM). This is also the reason that healthy soil should only be 5% by weight, 10% by volume "OM". Otherwise, you'll pollute just like chemical fertilizers.
In the book by Charles Mann, "1492", it was noted that the Amazonians used "slashed and burn" agriculture, which was detrimental to the land. Exhausting the laterite soil, they had to move every couple of years IIRC. Subsequent archeology revealed that the Amazonians had a much more complex society that wasn't reflected in their "slash, and burm" agriculture. Prior to the arrival of diseased Europeans, many Amazonians lead an urban life based on great orchards. However, to protect themselves against European diseases, Amazonians left their cities to live in small groups, which survived by subsistent farming.
The soil needs to have organic material in order to hold moisture, and to feed the micro-organisms that compose the soil ecology, which ultimately feed the plants. Whether the "OM" is lost by the rapid oxidation of cellulose in a fire, or the stimulation of micro-organism in the soil from aeration caused by a plow doesn't make any difference. Any consistent loss of "OM" from the soil will reduce it's fertility.
The forests, of course, are the source of freshwater.
been a very interesting read. i think the general information in it is worth contemplation. i'm not sure some of his political or other views are really needed, but how could anyone write such a large topical book like this and not wander off on a few rants here or there? :)
sadly, it really needed a good editor and more proof readers to catch the many textual layout mistakes, miswords, and outright factual errors.
[moles don't eat/store bulbs, but they may shift them a little bit in their diggings -- other creatures that use their tunnels may eat and store bulbs, but that is a whole different thing...]
i think this can vary, if you have an actively growing crop with heavy roots already established then it should be able to soak up extra nutrients quickly.
i suspect it was the fact that the whole area basically collapsed and the entire social setup was likely destroyed too. what remained were some fairly isolated groups and those groups not being a part of the central peoples may have had taboos about copying their ways of terra preta or tree farming. "Look what happened to them! We better do something different."
yes, but the added harm in fire is that some nutrients are lost to the air and dispersed. even those that can float for a long time would end up 70-80% in the oceans. at least with localized decays you have a better chance of keeping trace nutrients in the area.
I'm doomed. I'm 10 pages into it, and it is an effortless read. The worst thing about it is the number of books the he mentions as asides. They fall like feathers in molting season. If you liked "Omnivore", then you'll love Against the Grain: How Agriculture Has Hijacked Civilization
From Booklist A growing body of somewhat controversial scholarship ties the beginnings of war to the "culture of scarcity" that emerged with the invention, sometime in the Neolithic era and probably in the eastern Mediterranean, of agriculture. Before that, these theorists contend, humans lived as hunter-gatherers who were, far from the common vision of the half-starved caveman, quite comfortable and well-fed, because their diet was both varied and seasonal. The investment of time and energy to grow a few crops led, paradoxically, to both great excess and horrific want; when the crops failed, famine followed among people whose population had swelled beyond the small tribes of the earlier peoples. These theories are regularly bruited about at academic meetings, but rarely are they the subject of popular writing (Daniel Quinn's 1992 novel Ishmael constitutes an exception). Manning brings theory to life with well-crafted essays that cover such diverse subjects as the Irish potato famine and the controversy over bioengineered plants. Readable and well-researched, this book unsettles as it informs. ======
I have a sinking feeling.
Tomatoland : how modern industrial agriculture destroyed our most alluring fruit
Looks like it is good too :O(
The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food by Kaayla T. Daniel
Too early to tell. The writing seems a little pedantic to my taste, but all the elements for a good, corporate conspiracy are here.
North Point Press, 2004., according to the library. North Point Press; 1st edition (January 13, 2005) according to Amazon.
534 pages, huh? I'll get you for this, bird.
Maybe I could interest you in "Animal Factory: The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy, and Poultry Farms to Humans and the Environment by David Kirby
It practically reads itself,honest, and is only 512 pages.
or The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein
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Who knew Milton Friedman sold Neo-liberal economics to Russia, China, and the Chilean dictator, Pinochet?
and I still have a pound or 2 of " A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present", by Howard Zinn to read. Oy.
:) it is another interesting read, i think he has a pretty good grasp of the topic.
harhar! it sounds too much like books i've already read (how much different from _The Omnivores Dilemma_ is it?)
any history of the WMF could make almost anyone weep.
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still on my list for next winter... i think i'll put tomatoland on that winter list too as i would like to keep going on the permaculture references for a bit yet.
:) much better to have enough to read than be stuck watching tv. i keep the podcast list topped up too when i get times to listen. i have two rainy days forecast... almost done with the first permaculture book by Mollison and then will get to one other of his books that i have on the pile.
Against the Grain: How Agriculture Has Hijacked Civilization by Richard Manning
I'm about 60 pages into the book (a mere 240 pages).
If you don't care for the murder rate of 20-30%, you probably won't like the complete genocide that the farmers wreaked on the hunter/gathers. Although farming startd 8,000 - 10,000 years ago, the full complement of wheat, barley, sheep, goats, and cows didn't really coalesce into a suite until about 5,600 years ago, near the Caucasus Mountains.They are identified by their pottery which is distinctively marked with straight lines, or as the German anthropologists called them Linearbandkeramik (LBK is the designation for these farmers who spoke Indo-European). Farming wasn't spread by adaptation, but conquest. The LBK farmers made it to the Atlantic in about 300 years, taking no prisoners. The "cave-painters" (Cro-Magnons), hunter/gaterers, last stand was in the south-west of France. The Cro-Magnon's descendants are most likely the Basque, who speak a language like no other.
The book goes on to describe the encounter between the LBK, and the "Scandahoovians", which was a stalemate.
A ripping good book.
Planted a dozen Yellow Banana Peppers yesterday. Instead of prepping in my normal fashion, I've taken to poking a hole in the soil, and then putting on some fertilizer, and then some potting soil, and lastly the plant, with what ever potting soil is necessary to make the ground flush. Today is sunflowers, lettuce, and potting some herbs.
i finished it two nights ago. quick read. i'm not really sure what i think of it. as it is a bit dated and the enemy of popularity has turned from big-ag processor ADM to ag-chem-seed producer Monsanto.
i enjoyed parts of it. i have to conceed the poorer health and starvation of some peoples under the version of agriculture much practiced in the past.
i think the current world is making up for it in some ways, but the question is if it is sustainable, and it doesn't look like it is as most are currently practicing...
i've been digging and burying more shredded bark and wood pieces and then after filling it back in and then topping it off with soil that is actually topsoil (and not clay). into that went about 220 onions of three types and a small patch of turnips.
i was a bit worried by the lack of bees on the blooming honeysuckle for a few days, but they were out in force today. *whew!* we'll be planting tomatoes and peppers within the next few weeks and i'll be finding more spots for beans, beets and peas, cucumbers, squash, strawberries are blooming and the rhubarb is coming along well as are the peas and onions already planted and the beets sprouted days before i expected to see them. the challenge is keeping the melon seeds from sprouting and pushing up so much that they are pushing all the beets out of the ground. i guess that is one way to thin them...
rain due this week. we'll appreciate it. the killdeer are still sitting on their eggs.
Famines every 10 years don't auger well for agriculturalists. It's way past time to start humanities return to sustainable environmental practices. It's probably an impossible dream with greed intrenched in government.
Civil disobedience, thats not our problem. Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country. Thats our problem.
-Howard Zinn
Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.
-John Maynard Keynes
When the "free market" reigns, corporations will own the seeds for our food, the rights to the our water, and charge us rent for the clothes on our backs. Of course the problem may be moot if Global Warming gets away from us, or we meet another Chicxulub asteroid.
Ah, to be young again.
We had unexpected, but much needed company yesterday. Back to planting today.
wait until you get to the part where he talks about China and famines (p. 71).
well yes. we have a lot of people in jail on very minor things (non-violent offenders).
the alternatives are demonstratably worse as already seen. socialistic adaptations to capitalism are fine to protect the elderly and the poor, but subsidies are destructive in the long haul because they distort the market signals. of course, i've already stated before what i think of taxation for pollution and making sure there is recycling and many other things. i sure know that communism isn't functional. works ok at a small scale, breaks down quickly once the group gets larger.
they don't own my seeds and i'll gladly share.
today is a day of r-n-r. very humid and in the
80s.
if i didn't need to get areas above flood stage i wouldn't be digging quite as much and having free fill to put underneath is a big help too. i could not justify spending money i don't have for 20 yards of topsoil, but i do have time and can use the exercise. my back hasn't felt this good for many years. thanks to chiropractor and being careful the past year and listening to what my body is telling me. we're trying to walk each day before gardening. so when the day is done i'm done too.
??????? It's the same deal, famines every 10 years.
What we have is more people in jail (percentage wise) than any other country in the world, 1%. Most of these people are people of color, because the law is applied disproportionately. This is the new Jim Crow, just in time for the Prison Industrial Complex. The term prisonindustrial complex (PIC) is used to attribute the rapid expansion of the US inmate population to the political influence of private prison companies and businesses that supply goods and services to government prison agencies. The term is borrowed from the militaryindustrial complex President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned of in his famous 1961 farewell address. Such groups include corporations that contract prison labor, construction companies, surveillance technology vendors, lawyers, and lobby groups that represent them. Activists have argued that the Prison-Industrial Complex as perpetuating a belief that imprisonment is a quick yet ultimately flawed solution to social problems such as homelessness, unemployment, drug addiction, mental illness, and illiteracy.
More specifically see "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness" by Michelle Alexander and Cornel West.
Who would know, it has never been tried. The U.S.S.R. was an oligarchy, as is the capitalistic U.S. of A. The Delaration of Independance says "We the People". It doesn't say I, me, mine. We are all in this together to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.
Nothing in the Constitution says anything about banks making money at the tax payer expense.
The natural, free seeds are becoming fewer, and fewer. As much as I like open pollinated seeds, I know that hybridized squash has less of a problem with mildew. Hybridized means that it is owned by somebody. Usually that somebody is Monsanto.
Mid 70s to mid 80s here for te last few weeks and the seedlings are jumpin'
I hope you make it to 60 without any chronic illnesses, otherwise it can be a real pile of shit. Good luck.
Peppers (28) are in. Now it's on to the squash, sunflowers, and more lettuce. Then it will be beets, onions, and the misc. The seeds for the green beans must have been too old. I'll have to try again.
Sepp Holzer, _The Rebel Farmer_ and _Sepp Holzer's Permaculture_ i'm reading them in reverse order, almost done with the second. he's got many years of actual experience with many things, so i appreciate his writings. some things he's almost mystical about so that isn't as much a science as a ritualized practice but it seems to be working for him.
i haven't gotten into mushroom farming, but i did enjoy the part of the book that gives that overview. if i do get into it sometime i'll be sure to read up on it.
also how he talks about fruit trees and his methods. very low input, but you need a varied environment to pull it off. in a modern suburban landscape with grasses, etc and few understory plants that support beneficials it's a challenge. then you may also have to deal with neighborhood politics or town ordinances for weeds/lawn care.
his main property is upland enough that he can work with microclimates and extending seasons of harvest by using the warmer downhill areas and cooler areas uphill along with using rocks, sun catchers and ponds.
also the film mentioned: _The Agricultural Rebel_.
no, he writes they have evidence of 1800+ famines in about 3,000 years. that's a famine almost every year to every other year.
he was a smart guy.
gah! no, i'm not going there. it's all around me already, i don't need to read more about it.
any federal or state program is always set up and will self-perpetuate once funding gets allocated and spent. that is why i think that we should make as much government as volunteer or minimum wage as possible to discourage "entrenchment" and also to make representatives selected at random instead elected by campaigns.
the first few years of Christianity were supposedly communist in organisation and sharing of resources, but that devolves like any other system as soon as you put money in any large amounts into the hands of a few "leaders" or "organizers".
however, i don't see any solution because any system set up still has to interface with others and that means some form of currency or government to make sure the groups don't trample each other or use false means of gain or counterfeit currencies.
sure thing. with some regulation here or there but the regulators can be bought off with campaign money and lobbyists contributions. so we get the best government that money can buy. which is also exploitive of resources to the detriment of any sort of sustainable future. without the environmental groups doing their counter efforts we'd be in even worse shape (the USSR was much worse than us in terms of how they treated their people and resources). so even if i don't much like what we've got and it surely can be improved, it seems to be at least a bit more open and changeable than most of what i see anyplace else.
the other aspect is that we have a hugely varied culture that some other countries don't have to cope with. how to integrate so many different forces and not have it all blow up all the time...
which isn't the constitution, but i love the language and intent.
probably covered under "promote the general welfare" intent above along with the clause which lets them regulate interstate commerce as many banks now cross state lines. as for the fed itself, that's a whole different story and the history of that is well worth reading up on sometime.
it didn't say anything about income taxes or property taxes either, but once you get a governing class feeding off the rest of the people it is very hard to break that cycle of depredation.
as to how to regulate banking, i don't see any good coming from the government being directly involved. i already am having severe dislikes to the feds current practices of transferring wealth from the responsible to the irresponsible, but put the fed in the government's direct control and it would be even worse as then they'd have no check on their abuse of the money supply. not that there seems to be one right now anyways. if i had a better place to put my money i'd be doing it, but the rest of the world is not looking much better either.
my own answer is a different form of government, but that's not likely to ever happen.
but getting back to the constitution, it's pretty amazing how many people don't even read it once in a while.
i don't think you are right. perhaps you can find an organic source for a similar hybrid and not have to buy from Monsanto. as there are so many squash varieties you might even find something better.
i keep finding seed sources way beyond what i can ever possibly use here. i don't think seed-savers are going out of business any time soon, and the expansion of farmer markets and people putting in their own gardens is also a good trend in the opposite direction.
i'm glad they are coming along.
today looks pretty good for getting something done outside.
heh, allergies have always been fun, motorcycle accident broke and twisted things so i have to be careful about some angles and bends and then i've had chronic back problems since i was 15. for me to say that it is doing better is a huge improvement in how things are going.
every day on the right side of the daisy roots is a day i never expected. for some reason as a kid i never expected to live past 30. having relatives with chronic lung or back troubles or diabetes i can see the way it can be. i've been through my own piles so it's just a matter of keeping on, finding what is important and working on that and not getting hung up on what i can't do. being a systems analyst means being able to break down a problem and work the parts until it comes back together again. keep the big picture in mind.
:) luckily they can be planted in series. i keep planting peas and beans as much as i can, i like the flowers and foliage as much as the edibles.
perhaps a fault of an ex-librarian is to keep recommending books as i come across them. :)
i'm adding them to my notes too so they can be found later or used by others to add to their own reading lists.
things are working ok here, most libraries are interconnected in Michigan now (even without much funding from the state these days) using several catalog systems (and a mass delivery system so they don't have to pay postage per item) and then there is the national OCLC system we can also use if we're not too crazy with the number of requests.
for most of what he's doing he's using either logs (he says fresh cut are best because they are already moist) or straw bales, left outside, the logs partially sunk in the ground (providing more even moisture and trace nutrients). takes a while (1-2 years before fruiting bodies appear) to get going but productive for years depending upon the type of wood used.
i should have written that "also a film was mentioned".
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as someone noted, "it's hard to get a good night's sleep." in that type of company.
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Ike was a politician, i think Butler rubbed too many the wrong way.
unfortunate and worth fighting against.
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capitalism does not require infinite resources, i dunno where you get that idea from.
socialism is fine in some parts. i still believe that freedom should be primary in that many systems should be allowed under a broader form of government and those that wish to form socialist organizations and societies within should be allowed as long as their members are allowed freedom to leave if they wish. an age of consent. some written bylaws and a coming of age ceremony would be good. i still haven't had much of a chance to see how the Amish have managed to become the society they have in the USoA and how they are treated in terms of taxes and such, but an interesting side topic for the future...
which means enforcement and that means enforcers, taxes, jails, or something meaningful as a deterrent... which pretty much doesn't seem to exist now.
...huge snip, too many tangents...
i have a fair amount of my savings in a few credit unions. unfortunately, they can bloat just like any other organization.
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no shortage there.
we're having another rainy day here, which is good as we've been a little too dry, but i'm not getting more gardens planted. we went looking for raincoats yesterday and the stores have already moved their stocks into summer and fall items.
finished planting the areas i got raised up last week. peas, beets, a few onions, snap peas, soup peas. no beans in yet. i think i can get some of those planted tomorrow if the ground isn't too soggy.
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:) dirt-biking was fun as a kid, but my downfall is that i like to go too fast. also why i refused to take up downhill skiing. i just knew that would be a bad idea. snowshoes are about the right speed for me.
my brother hit a deer at 60mph on his motorcycle. he came out of it with some bad spots of road rash, but the gal on the back had quite a bit more damage. i should have learned from that but many years later i wanted to try one of my own. learned the hard way that they weren't for me.
grab each day by the balls... gently...
hang in there and try to ignore the BS. sometimes happiness comes in small victories and unexpected places. like seeing a sundog or a pea plant sprouting and flowering.
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