Save Three Lives Rodale book

[Jenn]

Re our Monsanto thread: I really enjoyed this book which is an organic view of the World Bank etc and bringing First world farming methods to the third world (bad idea in his opinion). Following is a shortened review.

Save Three Lives
Robert Rodale
Sierra Club Books; (1991)

The global crisis of famine is steadily worsening. And most efforts to stop it not only fail, but contribute to the problem.
In Save Three Lives: A Plan for Famine Prevention, Mr. Rodale first shows how the traditional avenues of help only cause more famine. The importation of highly mechanized, chemical-additive farming techniques, for example, actually makes famine worse. It poisons water supplies. It harms indigenous culture. It increases the incredible burden on women (women do 90% of the agricultural labor in the Third World). And it destroys the soil. Famine-prone countries that have received this kind of aid are more vulnerable to famine than when this "help" first arrived....One of the most surprising aspects of this book is that much of the "answer" to famine prevention lies in the restoration of traditional farming practices: a return to the cultivation of native species-plants like drought-resistant, protein-rich amaranth-and avoidance of imported surplus crops like American yellow corn, which Third World people simply don't eat. Simple organic gardening practices like alley cropping-growing plants and trees together in the same space-that sustained people for untold centuries, until the tractors and experts arrived, can still keep these communities going for untold generations.

[mightybooboo]

Originally Posted by Jenn

keep these communities going for untold generations.

Yep,the Chinese know a heck of a lot about sustainable farming for what,thousands of years? Homesteaders are perfect for using the Chinese model.

BooBoo

[sullen]

'Scuse me, but the popular belief is that the Chinese are responsible for our current temperature, the deforestation of that entire country thousands of years ago drastically changed the global environment, and the following of the British Isles in it's wake (of deforestation) only made the problem worse. This is from Scientific American, among other places.

[mightybooboo]

From 'The Owner Built Homestead' By Ken Kern....
(on several pages as I just typed the whole thing and IE had a freeze up, )

The venerable Chinese system.....

....Includes in its production cycle the orchard,garden,pig,duck,and chicken as well.This program of polyculture begins with the terraced ponds,where water is impounded by gravity and where nutrients are drained from the garden and orchard above.Pig and poultry manure is also washed into the first ponds.Pig dung contains 70% digestable food for fish.When fish are harvested the offal and undersized are fed to the pigs.

[mightybooboo]

Cont.

Most Chinese ponds are drained every few years.Aqautic vegetation and surplus muck are scraped up to fertilize gardens and orchards and pond bottoms are exposed to air and sun.Pond bottoms are then planted in soybeans,rice or alfalfa.After harvest the pond is refilled and restocked.This practice keeps fish disease and parasitic incidence at a minimum.

[mightybooboo]

Cont.

When filled and restocked,nutrient laden overflow enriched with fish manure is used to water crops.In China only the immediate area around the plant is fertilized.Ducks enjoy a symbiotic relationship with fish,for they feed on invertebrates and on vegetation fertilized by the fish....It has been found that carp raised in ponds to which ducks have access grow 2-5 times faster....Ducks,along with frogs,chickens and pigs perform a kind of natural pest control,thriving on this source of nutriton....

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Or they destroyed the planet,take your pick.

BooBoo

[Wolf mom]

Is this the same Rodale from Rodale Press that publishes the gardening books?

[kathy H]

Yes it is, he wrote it just before he was killed in a car accident[ in russia] . Save three lifes is one of my fave books!

[Cyngbaeld]

BooBoo, a few years ago I read a fascinating book on Chinese village culture. Found it in the library, can't remember the name, written by a Chinese professor. The book went into great detail on farming. Amazing how much they produce on very small plots of land. I love the idea of multi level farming.

I was reading Gene Logsdon's book on small grain raising. He talks about putting poultry onto wheat or oat crops and letting them graze to keep the crop from prematurely setting seed. Then giving the shocks of grain to the birds and letting them do much of the work of threshing and winnowing. Pretty neat also because the birds will eat the insects that might destroy the crop and add fertilizer to the soil.

America is heading down the road to famine with our dependence on big agribusiness to provide our poor excuse for food. We need to take back responsibility for our own food.

[mightybooboo]

More good reading coming up,thanks peoples.

BooBoo