The 6% Solution

Rain, soft, gentle, steady rain, makes a perfect growing day when accompanied by warm temperatures and late day Sun. Last Sunday, the day before Longest Day, the weather here finally became seasonable and the seeds sleeping in the ground the past three weeks stuck their heads up and looked around. I was pondering a replanting and wondering if there was enough time when the elements combined to renew my hope. Gardening requires an attentive gardener, even more so if you are seeking to enhance your food supply through your garden.

The wise gardener plans and prepares. Food security whether it be on a global scale, within your community or simply your own backyard, does not happen by accident but by design. It si through appropriate systems design that we can create a food distribution system that requires much less space and energy than the one that now dominates our food network. Bill Mollison, one of the founders of permaculture, claims that we only need 6% of the globe, if farmed sustainable to feed all the people in the world. Something to give serious consideration.

If we begin the process by looking at our own property, not as a lawn and garden but as a combination recreation area( important for kids) and food production system and design it to reduce the amount of work we have to do and waste that we produce then we have taken a major step towards personal food sustainability.

There are existing methods that enable the gardener to increase yield without increasing the amount of space that is being used. There are natural methods that when used with season extending means such as cloches, greenhouses, and row covers allow us to grow more than the climate and garden size would appear to allow. Design and planning play a major role and techniques such as square foot gardening increase our output. Pioneers, such as John Jeavons have paved the way.

If you are seeing to increase your self-reliance then, improving your food security is a good beginning place. Remember what you are trying to do is put food on your table and have it travel the least possible distance while doing so. Next week we will begin the first in a series of articles on sustainability and the differences between self-reliance and self-sufficiency.

The copyright of the article The 6% Solution in From Field To Table is owned by Bob Ewing. Permission to republish The 6% Solution in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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