Billy wrote:
songbird wrote:
Billy wrote:
....
Against the Grain: How Agriculture Has Hijacked Civilization
by Richard Manning
http://www.amazon.com/Against-Grain-...ivilization/dp
/0865477132/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368981220&sr=1-4&keywords=Aga
inst+the+Grain

I'm about 60 pages into the book (a mere 240 pages).

i finished it two nights ago. quick read.
i'm not really sure what i think of it. as it
is a bit dated and the enemy of popularity has
turned from big-ag processor ADM to ag-chem-seed
producer Monsanto.


If you don't care for the murder rate of 20-30%, you probably won't like
the complete genocide that the farmers wreaked on the hunter/gathers.
Although farming startd 8,000 - 10,000 years ago, the full complement of
wheat, barley, sheep, goats, and cows didn't really coalesce into a
suite until about 5,600 years ago, near the Caucasus Mountains.They are
identified by their pottery which is distinctively marked with straight
lines, or as the German anthropologists called them Linearbandkeramik
(LBK is the designation for these farmers who spoke Indo-European).
Farming wasn't spread by adaptation, but conquest. The LBK farmers made
it to the Atlantic in about 300 years, taking no prisoners. The
"cave-painters" (Cro-Magnons), hunter/gaterers, last stand was in the
south-west of France. The Cro-Magnon's descendants are most likely the
Basque, who speak a language like no other.

The book goes on to describe the encounter between the LBK, and the
"Scandahoovians", which was a stalemate.

A ripping good book.

i enjoyed parts of it. i have to conceed the
poorer health and starvation of some peoples under
the version of agriculture much practiced in the
past.

Famines every 10 years don't auger well for agriculturalists. It's way
past time to start humanities return to sustainable environmental
practices. It's probably an impossible dream with greed intrenched in
government.

wait until you get to the part where he talks about
China and famines (p. 71).


Civil disobedience, thats not our problem. Our problem is that people
are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation
and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are
obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while
the grand thieves are running the country. Thats our problem.
-Howard Zinn

well yes. we have a lot of people in jail on
very minor things (non-violent offenders).


Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will
do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.
-John Maynard Keynes

the alternatives are demonstratably worse as
already seen. socialistic adaptations to capitalism
are fine to protect the elderly and the poor, but
subsidies are destructive in the long haul because
they distort the market signals. of course, i've
already stated before what i think of taxation for
pollution and making sure there is recycling and
many other things. i sure know that communism isn't
functional. works ok at a small scale, breaks down
quickly once the group gets larger.


i think the current world is making up for it
in some ways, but the question is if it is
sustainable, and it doesn't look like it is as
most are currently practicing...

When the "free market" reigns, corporations will own the seeds for our
food, the rights to the our water, and charge us rent for the clothes on
our backs. Of course the problem may be moot if Global Warming gets away
from us, or we meet another Chicxulub asteroid.

they don't own my seeds and i'll gladly share.


putting on some fertilizer, and then some potting soil, and lastly the
plant, with what ever potting soil is necessary to make the ground flush.
Today is sunflowers, lettuce, and potting some herbs.

i've been digging and burying more shredded bark
and wood pieces and then after filling it back in
and then topping it off with soil that is actually
topsoil (and not clay). into that went about 220
onions of three types and a small patch of turnips.

Ah, to be young again.

today is a day of r-n-r. very humid and in the
80s.

if i didn't need to get areas above flood stage
i wouldn't be digging quite as much and having free
fill to put underneath is a big help too. i could
not justify spending money i don't have for 20
yards of topsoil, but i do have time and can use
the exercise. my back hasn't felt this good for
many years. thanks to chiropractor and being
careful the past year and listening to what my
body is telling me. we're trying to walk each day
before gardening. so when the day is done i'm
done too.


i was a bit worried by the lack of bees on the
blooming honeysuckle for a few days, but they were
out in force today. *whew!* we'll be planting
tomatoes and peppers within the next few weeks and
i'll be finding more spots for beans, beets and
peas, cucumbers, squash, strawberries are blooming
and the rhubarb is coming along well as are the
peas and onions already planted and the beets
sprouted days before i expected to see them.
the challenge is keeping the melon seeds from
sprouting and pushing up so much that they are
pushing all the beets out of the ground. i guess
that is one way to thin them...

rain due this week. we'll appreciate it. the
killdeer are still sitting on their eggs.

busy day today. i'm due for a bit of a snooze.

We had unexpected, but much needed company yesterday. Back to planting
today.

good luck to you and your sprouts.


songbird