Third of Earth's soil is acutely degraded due to agriculture

[NJCher]

2. most of you know this, but

there is a movement afoot to get us to grow our own food. This counteracts industrial farms. Here is an example, which is taking place on Long Island. I am active in this movement, but in NJ. The movement is huge in California. They are way ahead of everybody in terms of school gardens and teaching the next generation how to grow.

Now, you might say about yourself, I don't have a green thumb. I kill houseplants.

Those of us who are active in this movement know this and are working on strategies that will circumvent that. A couple examples:

--Farmbot. An Arduino-automated garden. A young man--something like 18 or 19--designed this!

--Personal food computers.

Did you think the personal food computer a bit too complicated? It's not! Middle-school kids are building them, and I'm in the process of persuading a middle school I work with to build one.

Along with growing one's own food will go composting, which replenishes the soil. Also, winter cover crops, known as "green manure." Many people don't know it, but a green cover crop can be folded right into the ground in the spring and is equal in replenishing the soil to compost.

Can you throw a handful of seeds into a raised bed? That's a cover crop.


Cher