Forward into our Past.

Last Saturday we had our first snow. Mercifully, it lasted for only a few minutes and left no traces behind. That was enough though with the cascading leaves to remind us that Summer is indeed gone and Fall is nearly over. Winter sits on the horizon and everything changes. It is a good time to reflect and look back at the past seasons.

This reflective mood suits me well. Ever since I began exploring molecular farming and transgenic foods, I've been wondering if we really know where we are going. For example, do we know what will happen to the symbiotic relationship between the plants we rely on for food and the microorganisms that inhabit the soil that the plants need to thrive? If this relationship is disturbed what happens to the plants? The soil?

I've decided that over the next few weeks rather than looking ahead and trying to speculate what may happen, I'll take a journey into our past, as it relates to food security, and see what, if anything, we may learn about alternatives. I have written in previous articles about alternative farming methods, but I want to explore a different perspective and see if we've overlooked something in our rush to modernize, in our worship of progress.

As I've mentioned in past articles, permaculture may well hold the answers that we seek, but for permaculture to be effective, we need accurate, precise information so that we can gain the knowledge that we require. As I begin this trip into the past, I noticed that during the 19th century, the Province of Ontario was experiencing a situation that is having such a negative impact on today's farms, monocropping. What, if any, changes took place, as the province moved into the 20th century? What, if any, meaning does this signal for the new millennium?

This journey will be a global one. We will look at the period before humanity settled down and grew its own food, the time of the hunters and gathers. We'll wander through the centuries, examining the tools and techniques that were used to produce, store and distribute food. Asking questions such as could our currently mechanized society evolve into a hunter-gather one? Or would this be a disastrous plunge into the Dark Ages?

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