Wait for a full update on the grass-fed beef tomorrow! It's in the oven cooking right now and it smells SO good.
So here's the thing. I'm reading this great book, The Omnivore's Dilemma. And the author, a journalist, describes a farm in Virginia which the farmer describes as "sustainable," specifically avoiding the word "organic," although it sounds pretty amazingly organic to me. On this farm, the farmer grows grass. He uses cattle, chicken, pigs, and turkeys to harvest the grass and convert it to meat. And as the journalist describes all the interactions between the animals, it's just mind-blowing. It's like a perfect picture of how God designs things. For example, the cows are kept in a barn during the winter. But instead of mucking out their manure, the farmer spreads it out and layers it. He adds a layer of woodchips and apples. Gradually, the whole mass composts, keeping the cows warm and fermenting the apples. In the spring, after the cows are moved back to pasture, the farmer brings in the pigs, who joyously snort through the compost to dig out the fermented apples. As they do so, they introduce air to the mix, greatly increasing the rate of compost. And once they are done, this nasty yucky mass of woodchips and manure has been transformed into fabulous soil to spread on the grass fields! No waste. No diseases. No pollution.
Humans, on the other hand, herd cattle into CAFO's (google it) where they stand on top of untreated manure and eat corn that damages their rumens. The rumen damage and close quarters require massive doses of antibiotics. The mass of uncomposted manure becomes pollution expelled into the environment.
God's engineering is so amazing. It just blows my mind. I think we all fall into this zero-sum mindset where every issue has two sides. We think that in order to gain something, we must lose something. We think that in order to clean the environment, we have to stop economic development, for example. But I think that loses sight of what God offered us in the Resurrection. I think God always offers us a win-win situation. I think there is WAY more hope than any of us, even me, realizes.
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6 comments:
This was my favorite chapter too and I think that your summation of it, using the Resurrection, is astute. If I weren't committed to living in the city (because of my husband's job) I would so want go do what that guy did at his farm. But then I'd probably be working so hard, I wouldn't have time to write!
Yes, I'm feeling a strong pull to grass farming that nothing at all in my life supports! Instead I will keep shopping at the farmer's market and maybe look around for some NC implementations of this!
Sorry to read your comment! I was going to suggest that you buy a farm and duplicate the marvelous farmer! I'll help, except that you will have to take the animals to a humane butcher, because I can't kill an animal unless I'm a lot hungrier than I usually am. But in an alternate life, I'd have that farm. And if the world falls apart, perhaps Dad will let me have chickens in the back yard!
Don't mean to make fun at all. I love it, and that is the way we were meant to have food.
I stumbled across your blog in an Omnivore's Dilema farm search. I have talked to many farmers who call their farms sustainable and what I have learned is that many of them are organic, but the cost that the farmers have to endure to go through the process of being certified "organic" is prohibitive. So they just go with sustainable. You should look for some CSA's in your area. Majority of the time those are truly organic, but not certified. Where I am there are even some CSA's that will deliver to your door each week.
Can Anonymous be more specific? What are CSAs? What do I search for in my area?
Sorry about that Fran! CSA stands for community supported agriculture. Basically you create a relationship with a farm by buying a membership or subscription and each week (or however often your farm distributes) you receive a basket of goods. Most of these are produce but often include eggs, milk, meats, etc. - farm goods. Here is a good place to search for one in your area... http://www.localharvest.org/csa/ Hope that helps!
Carol
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