Food is medicine. Part One

The stories about America's obesity problem are all over the place these days. Recently a BBC article I posted to my Facebook page quoted research saying that 2/3 of Americans are medically obese. 2/3!!! That's an epidemic of ridiculous proportions. It highlights the fact that human beings truly are what we eat. Unfortunately, many Americans are unwittingly filling their bellies with poison and are becoming sick as a very predictable result. Garbage in, garbage out as the saying goes. Permaculture to me is often about education and changing hearts and minds without guilt, shame, or blame. Most of us have grown up in a truly flawed system through an accident of birth. There is no shame in that. We can however make the choice to refuse to participate in perpetuating the flaws of the system thereby creating a new system that actually serves life rather than profits. One of the "low hanging fruits" we can pick in refusing to participate is the food we choose to buy.

Monsanto, ADM, Cargill et al would have us believe that the planet can only be fed through chemical and bio-engineered agriculture. The Rodale Institute in Pennsylvania has proven that to be false with a multi-decade study. Their study proves organic production out performs and out yields chemical agriculture in the long term while also regenerating soil and withstanding the vagaries of weather better than chemical agriculture. Still,it is the stated goal of Monsanto to control the food supply from seed to plate. The flaw in that system is this-it's all about profit and control. I'll control my own food intake thank you very much! Farmers throughout the US and Canada are being duped into growing GMO "foodstuffs" by promises of higher yields in the short term. These "frankenfoods" then end up in the local grocery store without any labeling to let shoppers know that what they are buying is as unnatural as teats on a bull. Most of the world requires labeling of GMO ingredients. Why? Because a coalition of scientist in the European Union have called for a complete moratorium on GMO foods due to research that has been done showing that they are UNSAFE either to grow or eat. 90% of Vermont's voters recently voted to enforce GMO labeling for GMO tainted foods sold in Vermont. Monsanto threatened to sue the state. Why are they so scared of having their products labeled if they are truly safe?

German researchers recently found glyophosphate (trade name Roundup) in the urine of urban dwellers in Germany. The eco-cide gets sprayed on "weeds" and then leaches into the soil and finds its way into the water supply. Would anyone drink Roundup laced water on purpose? I doubt it. Roundup kills almost every plant it touches. It is very potent to say the least. Monsanto has genetically modified commodity crops, notably potatoes to be "resistant" to Roundup. Are we to believe that a potato liberally doused with Roundup is actually safe to eat? How are we to know if the potatoes we buy are GMO if they are not labeled as such? A good rule of thumb is to only buy organic. Organically produced foods by law have to be GMO free. The major commodity crops, corn, rice, wheat, potatoes, and soybeans are almost if not all GMO unless they are organic. If you and your family are looking for a good place to start buying organic, I encourage you to start there. Consumers drive demand. Nearly everyone eats corn, rice, potatoes, wheat, and soybeans. Demand organic, buy organic, and let the Monsanto house of cards crumble.

Corn production in the US is killing people plain and simple. The US Farm Bill provides enormous subsidies to corn growers to give them an enormous and unfair competitive advantage over farmers in other countries. All those subsidies encourage over production. It also encourages the production of High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). This sicky sweet liquid is now found in everything from soda to crackers and loaves of bread. Medical research shows that HFCS is a poison to the body causing obesity, diabetes, liver problems, tooth decay, and even dementia. The furor over HFCS has gotten so loud that the producers of this poison product have started a PR campaign of Orwellian proportions in order to keep their market share and to keep the uninformed in the dark. Commercials on TV and the internet are proclaiming that it's "all natural" and "comes from wholesome corn" so how could it be unhealthy? Lots of completely natural things are down right deadly. Corn refiners are now labeling it as "corn sugar" or using other names for it on their products in attempt to keep producing and selling it. Until the government caves in to science, we as food shoppers will have to drive the market. Stop buying it. This is definitely low hanging fruit. Stop drinking soda, read labels in the grocery store on processed products. Again, that corn syrup is GMO as well as hyper sweet poison. You deserve better, your family deserves better than to be poisoned simply by going to the store. Buy organic.

The very best way to ensure that the food you are buying and eating is truly healthful, delicious, and ultimately medicine is to buy local and organic whenever possible. Demanding locally grown, organic products will ensure that farmers in YOUR backyard are not poisoning your local water supply, that they are growing soil rather than destroying it (this is so incredibly important for humanity) and that they are growing for a local economy rather than a global economy. All of this will enhance the quality of life for you, your family, and the entire community where you live. If we can get much of our food form local sources then it will mitigate the effects of having to ship food over vast distances. People in New Zealand deserve to eat their own apples and lamb products. Some food stuffs will still be shipped in. Every thing we do will help though. Buying local often means going to a farmer's market rather than a grocery store. It is truly wonderful to meet your farmer or to have a conversation with a market vendor who is selling local goods. The money stays in the community rather than going to some corporate account somewhere else. The benefits are many and far reaching.

It takes discipline to change habits and starting to buy organic food is a new habit many could take on. Clearly something needs to be done as evidenced by the amount of illness to people and ecosystems being caused by the current flawed system of food production. This goes beyond health and quality of life. It is a moral issue as well. We must refuse to participate in the poisoning of the planet and its inhabitants---human and non-human. We hold the power. Buy organic and ensure it's local whenever possible.

Until next time, be well and love your Mother Earth.

There is Royalty in Your Yard

The dandelion is so named because its flowers were thought to resemble the teeth of a lion. Like the King of the Jungle, the dandelion should be considered royalty due to its many amazing attributes. Rather than lionizing it for those wonderful traits, somehow this amazing plant gets demonized by lawn care chemical companies in their sadly successful quest to sell America on the idea of a hyper-fertilized, mono-cropped, and often toxic sward of green lawn. All those chemicals not only kill the gorgeous dandelions, they poison the groundwater, run off in storms thus ending up in local waterways and possibly the drinking water, and are potentially poisoning people in their own back yards. Perhaps gaining some knowledge about the wonders of the dandelion will change the hearts and habits of those who read this.

As a permaculture designer, I strive to create design elements that stack functions so that as many elements as possible perform multiple “tasks” or provide multiple yields. This maxim to stack functions is perfectly embodied by the aforementioned dandelions. These yellow beauties are tap-rooted meaning that they send down a long thick root, deep into the soil. The tap root helps to break up compacted soil as it grows downward which in turn helps to oxygenate the soil. Where there is oxygen, there is life and more life in the soil is always a good thing. The tap root also draws up mineral nutrients from deep down bringing them closer to the surface where they can utilized by other plants in the vicinity. For this reason they are known as dynamic accumulators. And finally, the root can be made into a medicinal beverage which acts as a diuretic to flush toxins out of the body. That’s three functions and I have only touched on the root!

The entire plant is more than just edible, it’s one of the most nutritious things one could hope to eat due to all those nutrients brought up from the soil below. The greens are delicious both raw (I like mine mixed in with other salad greens) and cooked. Because they are bitter many people like to steam or sauté them. In Pennsylvania, it is common to cook them with bacon fat drizzled over the top, which is of course delicious. The flowers too, can be eaten raw, though the tastiest way I have eaten them was batter fried as flower fritters. YUM! Eaten raw, they have a slight sweetness which is pleasantly floral. The human body needs a lot of different plant based foods to be healthy. Incorporating dandelion greens into the diet is a great way to diversify one’s food intake and if one is smart, they can be harvested for free without a trip to the store!

The multi-functionality of the dandelion continues to march even after all of the above attributes have been put forth. We need pollinators in order to survive. Bees, wasps, moths, butterflies, and even some flies pollinate different flowers. With all those wonderful bugs needing something to pollinate it behooves us to have a veritable smorgasbord of flowering plants on offer. Once again the bright yellow, sweetly scented dandelion steps up for duty. Watch a yard full of dandelions in bloom and you will see the action happening as bees buzz merrily around collecting the pollen and flying away to their respective hives. It is a good idea to be thankful for both the pollinators and the flowers they fly to including the powerful dandelions.
Aesthetic beauty is certainly considered a yield gained in a permaculture design and once again dandelions are there to provide it with their bright yellow flowers. They are more than just visually appealing. I love to pick them and take a long, slow sniff of the fragrance which to me smells heavenly. One simply cannot put a price on something so powerful and thankfully it is free for the taking if we allow them to grow. And finally, what could be more beautiful than a warm spring or summer evening in the garden or on a small patch of lawn with a child who with joyous wonder blows the seeds of a dandelion into the air and watches as they float on the currents of the breeze to start life anew for more amazing dandelions. Does life get better than that?

Let me summarize the wonders of the dandelion thusly. They are enormously useful for a variety of reasons including soil health, personal health, pollinator health, and are beautiful to boot. With these all of these traits in mind, it seems criminal, insane, or both to poison such a wonderfully useful plant. Would you like to save some money? Let the dandelions grow. Would you like to have clean water to drink? Let the dandelions grow. Would you like to take care of your body temple? Let the dandelions grow. Would you like to foster bio-diversity? Let the dandelions grow. Would you like to attract beneficial pollinators to your garden? Let the dandelions grow. Would you like to create moments of magic with your family? Let the dandelions grow. Would you like to leave the world a better place than you found it? Let the dandelions grow. Let them grow, let them grow, let them grow!

mid-February 2011 in Hawai'i

Life is one big road with lots of signs...so said Bob Marley and I agree. It's about the journey rather than the destination even when the journey takes us to places we'd rather avoid. The past couple of weeks have been like that here as Christina had to spend several days in the hospital in Hilo recovering from a kidney infection and dehydration due to the antibiotics she had to take. I finally got off site after a couple of weeks without going farther than the dirt road by making the 50+ mile round trip to the hospital several times. Neither of us is a big fan of conventional medicine, nor hospitals in general, though we are thankful for the care she received there. Needless to say with her being gone and recovering here at home, sleep and work were sporadic at best. And now things are really revving up.

We just got a cow. The problem is, at this point we have nowhere to put her because the land is mostly covered with a scrub thicket of guava trees along with many fast growing pioneer species. There is no pasture yet. A disaster was averted when I was told Sunday evening that the cow would be arriving Monday morning. All I could envision was a rodeo, multiple sprains, bumps and bruises and probably a cow at large running down the road. Even a family milk cow grown docile by gentle treatment can go bonkers when the routine is changed and she gets flustered. I've been leveled by a cow's kick to the knee on such an occasion and wanted no part of creating that here. Fortunately my prior knowledge of animal husbandry prevailed and the cow is now safely down the road on pasture awaiting the coming day when she can settle in here.

To get ready we need to hire a piece of heavy equipment to clear a road and pasture. The options presented so far are using a mini-excavator to clear a road or getting a bulldozer to do it quicker and probably better. Dozers can run up to $200/hour plus delivery fee. Ouch! My hope is that I can find an owner that will rent one to us and allow me to operate it thus saving us a great deal of money. My Marine Corps training may prove useful for a change... (I ran heavy equipment as a jarhead). Whatever happens needs to happen fairly quickly so we can get the cow here. Raw milk is $12/gallon so I for one am looking forward to eliminating that expense one she calves.

There has been some improvement in the gardens. Some of our composted humanure was harvested and I mixed that with the cinder based soil that we had delivered. I also went into the forest and harvested some soil from a low gully that is filled with hala trees. The falling leaves have slowly decayed forming a rich black humus that I shoveled into five gallon buckets and wheelbarrowed back to the potting area. The seeds that I planted with interns on the last astrologically favorable day (consult a farmer's almanac) have all done much better at germinating than previous attempts. The soil mixtures had much more nutrient content enabling the seeds to sprout. My challenge now is to keep them going until time for transplanting in a few weeks. With the amount of rainfall we get here the plants take a beating and have to be protected. The soil needs frequent amending as well due to leaching.

Corn is being stubborn. I have only managed to get three corn seedlings to sprout despite trying different methods and using the University of Hawai'i non-GMO corn seeds. Next to nothing has happened even when planted in straight compost. Perhaps it is somewhat seasonal here even with the continuous warm weather and abundant rain. I'll plant corn at various times throughout the year as a test to see when or if it will do well here in Puna. There is only one person with a corn farm on the entire island so it may be a crop I have to give up. Time will tell.There are other things to eat that grow prolifically. Abundance surrounds us.

As ever the distance from society both physically and intellectually so to speak are very healing. The sounds I wake up to have changed from racing cars, sirens, and shouts to bird song, rainfall, and perhaps the wind. One really cannot put a price on that in my opinion. The permaculture view as I see it is one of health, true wealth, deep connection, and personal power being celebrated while being surrounded by verdant, bucolic beauty. Sounds pretty awesome to me.