tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40566350194936322182024-03-13T13:14:43.345-07:00Milking the Goat: Travels in the AgroecosystemExploring food, ecology and humanityKarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14254099459855101498noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4056635019493632218.post-2132270466644064932009-05-26T00:36:00.001-07:002009-05-26T01:06:59.871-07:00To Milk the Goat<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CKC%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CKC%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CKC%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> 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margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoPapDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; margin-bottom:10.0pt; line-height:115%;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">The biggest question in my life is how to make a living as a farmer. It’s tough enough in New Zealand, even without the United States’ government-supported, artificially-depressed food prices, which make it difficult to stay in business growing anything but corn and soy (and damn hard to stay afloat growing that, come to think of it). Given the shortness of the season it’s no surprise that Alaskan farmers can’t survive without a second career, but even in climactically blessed regions being a farmer has begun to mean coming home from a nine-to-five to plough until midnight. Of <i style="">course</i> the average age of those who grow every morsel we eat is quickly overshooting the average age of retirement: no sane, self-respecting young person would willingly plan a personal future that included desperate debt and work hours that rival indentured servitude.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;">
<br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Which must mean that I know some very crazy young people, because believe it or not, some of us actually do want to create a life around the growing of food. Many of these potential farmers have reached this conclusion after being long-term travelers, learning to enjoy the grub(s) people eat in far corners of the world. Some have been passionate activists, and now see farming as a meaningful way to practice the ideas we’ve been preaching. We’ve all seen our country’s infinitely valuable soil bleeding away into the rivers with every new bottle of high-fructose corn syrup that reaches the shelves, and we’re interested in doing a better job than that. The would-be farmers I know are excessively energetic, expressively enthusiastic, and educated in at least some of the relevant sciences, having learned both in the classroom and in the field. Unfortunately, every single one of us is just about flat broke.
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<br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">If it’s nearly impossible just to <i style="">stay</i> in business farming, how can young farmers afford to get onto the land? Or, if you can’t bring yourself to care about that, think about this: who is going to be ready to feed the rest of you in ten years if we <i style="">can’t</i>?
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<br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">I’m pondering these questions in a cozy caravan located in the carpark of Fiona and Jeffery Graham’s fantastic self-built straw bale house, while a cold southerly blows outside. Pukeatua Peak Goat Dairy is not far from the little town of Te Awamutu in the center of the North Island, and they are the sort of farm that is planning to be feeding people for decades to come. As a nice bonus, they also appear to be making a living at it. This is a living that involves daily 5 a.m. milkings, weekend farmers’ markets, and a month of pure craziness while their 400 milkers give birth to twins and triplets, inconveniently congruent with the short ski season in this wet temperate climate. Still, there is money enough for new cars and good wine, and no second jobs for this family.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/ShucoK0ggaI/AAAAAAAAALg/37YyQUdMGXM/s1600-h/strawbale.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/ShucoK0ggaI/AAAAAAAAALg/37YyQUdMGXM/s320/strawbale.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340033997091144098" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Nor is there any ecological ideal, however. The Grahams consider themselves alternative farmers, and I would certainly agree; they are spray-free and focused on growing healthy soils, managing for increased organic matter and using organic inputs. They’re also very concerned with the welfare of their goats, but this is actually part of the reason they’re <i style="">not</i> organic, owing to the difficulty of combating viral pneumonia without resorting to antibiotics. The problem is a serious one; another local goat dairy had been certified organic for years, but recently gave it up, mostly because of high death rates resulting from the lung disease.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/ShucnTtqKyI/AAAAAAAAALQ/VlvMAvzv3Y8/s1600-h/milling.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/ShucnTtqKyI/AAAAAAAAALQ/VlvMAvzv3Y8/s320/milling.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340033982298467106" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">“I’m not willing to lose a big proportion of my young does every year, if I can help it,” says Fiona. “I want to be organic, but there just aren’t enough tools in my tool box to do it at this time.”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/ShucRhnxHzI/AAAAAAAAAKw/M4nuirBi8bE/s1600-h/clipping+feet.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/ShucRhnxHzI/AAAAAAAAAKw/M4nuirBi8bE/s320/clipping+feet.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340033608074731314" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">About ten percent of the herd also get penicillin at some point during the year for high somatic cell counts, which indicate an infection of the udder called mastitis. In case you’re worried about drinking antibiotics, rest assured that any medicated doe voids her milk into a separate bucket so as not to contaminate the supply chain. This rule is as assiduously followed in New Zealand as it is in the States.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;">
<br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Along with milk to the dairy goat cooperative and tangy camembert to the folks at several markets, Pukeatua Peak sells ton after ton of certified organic compost, made from the bedding that lines the barn where the goats spend about 20 hours per day. Goats that are confined get more protection from the unpredictable weather, allowing them to maintain their weight (and thus their milk production) more easily on less feed. Still, like all ruminants they must eat almost constantly, or they will not be able to extract enough nutrients from a diet composed mostly of chlorophyll and cellulose. The Grahams cut and carry feed from their pastures, which requires big petrol-guzzling machinery, and they also buy in grain pellets grown out of somebody else’s soil. The milkers get extra fat from a special supplement that is essentially shredded coconut, shipped in from tropical climes.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/ShucRePiXoI/AAAAAAAAAKo/9J_ZaRx4GVk/s1600-h/baleage.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/ShucRePiXoI/AAAAAAAAAKo/9J_ZaRx4GVk/s320/baleage.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340033607167794818" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Pukeatua Peak represents one end of the spectrum for alternative farming. They are just big enough to thrive, without crossing the line into factory-style production. They are moving toward ever more environmentally-friendly practices, while retaining the viability of their business. They are marketing a high-quality value-added product directly to their customers, enjoying both the widening profit margin and the growing relationships. Still, they have at least one thing in common with the besieged and indebted: they don’t drink their own milk.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/ShucS-J7-aI/AAAAAAAAALI/OUxB5J064_0/s1600-h/milking.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/ShucS-J7-aI/AAAAAAAAALI/OUxB5J064_0/s320/milking.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340033632914110882" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">“We can’t afford it,” says Jeff. “Farmers are the only business people who sell at wholesale (prices), buy at retail and pay the shipping both ways.”
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<br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Not to mention they also do all of the hard work, especially if they’re in dairy. Something is seriously wrong with this picture.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;">
<br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">In order to see exactly how bizarre things have gotten, we need to step back about ten thousand years, to the beginning of the partnership between humanity and the noble goat. Imagine you are part of a small family group living in the hills of what is now the Middle East, around the end of the last ice age. You are quite happy to wander your forested habitat, munching fruit from the trees and tubers from the earth, and of course shooting the occasional succulent wild goat. Everything is sweet as, except that the rain has been falling a little bit less lately. The trees are gradually retreating, and both the valley grassland and the alpine scrub are expanding. Being a practically-minded person, you find yourself thinking <i style="">gee, what a nice pretty lawn I’m getting, but what the heck am I going to eat?
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<br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Now, humans are fantastically omnivorous as organisms go, eating everything from alfalfa sprouts and Brazil nuts to roasted ants and blue whales. The nutrients in grasses, however, are completely inaccessible to us, which is a shame because a significant portion of the Earth is covered in them. Luckily for our hunting and gathering ancestors, a symbiosis between ruminants and the microflora that live in their gut acts to turn all that inedible biomass into delicious meat and milk. The goats provide a safe cozy environment, and the bacteria attack the glucose molecules in every little cellulose chain, breaking the beta-1,4 linkage that flummoxes our own digestive systems. We capitalized on that relationship when we formed our own symbiosis, and for thousands of years we’ve been letting the goats do all the work of cutting, chewing and converting the grass, while we’ve sat back and swallowed the returns.
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<br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Over the last several thousand years, we’ve figured out how to raise those returns by putting in more energy of our own. First, humans followed the herds as they migrated, killing mostly the weaker males and letting the females breed. Then we exerted a little more influence over the goat’s genetics, began to fend off other predators, and shepherded our charges to control what they ate. Eventually we were building fences, grubbing thistles, and milking every morning. This is a lot of work, but still much less expensive (both energetically and monetarily) than forking up the hay twice a day and ordering out for coconut condiments.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/ShucRyJs2WI/AAAAAAAAAK4/L1C0xdwtuNo/s1600-h/eating.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/ShucRyJs2WI/AAAAAAAAAK4/L1C0xdwtuNo/s320/eating.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340033612512024930" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">At Waihi Bush Farm in Geraldine on the South Island, I got to see how the other half lives while goat-sitting for what is possibly the most minimally-managed modern herd in New Zealand. The does had been allowed to feed their own kids, which would be ridiculous in a commercial setting. The fence, though present, was completely un-goat-proof, so the small herd ranged up and down the creek, and were sometimes far out of ear-shot when I called them up to milk. Their feet went unclipped, because they wore down their hooves climbing on stumps and rocks, and they had no sign of the contagious foot-rot that afflicts the Pukeatua head. The only feed supplement the Waihi goats ate was a waste product from the farm’s flax-oil press, given solely to keep the girls occupied while I milked. No barn, no $40,000 milk shed, no strict 5 a.m. wake-up.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/ShucoOP5RRI/AAAAAAAAALo/Mp7Q9WxVok8/s1600-h/waihi+milker.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/ShucoOP5RRI/AAAAAAAAALo/Mp7Q9WxVok8/s320/waihi+milker.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340033998011319570" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Granted, I only got about three quarters of a liter of milk per day from two does, which is low production even for the end of the season. All I had to do to get that, however, was show up and squeeze it out of them. The whole system chugged along all by itself, grass harvesting energy from the sun and nutrients from the soil, goats harvesting both from the grass, and me harvesting the milk to go on my breakfast cereal and into my tea. To drink it was to swallow the concentrated effort of a thousand separate life-forms, all sharing the same space, all working together to create a network of energy that sustained us all. Together we formed an ecosystem, not so different from that first pretty lawn on which humans learned to be goatherds.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/Shucn6cdI7I/AAAAAAAAALY/BccXAeJZXNk/s1600-h/pukeatua+peak.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/Shucn6cdI7I/AAAAAAAAALY/BccXAeJZXNk/s320/pukeatua+peak.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340033992695292850" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">How different such an ecosystem is from the input-based farm; how different the self-perpetuating loop from the one-way river, sucking energy and nutrients from far-off places only to hemorrhage energy, nutrients and soil to other far-off places. It all makes good sense (for a given value of good), because in order for money to come in something must be continually going out, and the more that goes out the better. The trouble is that this is simply not the way natural ecosystems work; only the sun comes in, only heat goes out, and life is lived in the precisely-engineered and gradually-descending energetic steps in between. No wonder farms grow up into factories, when it is so much more difficult to make a living out of a loop.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">
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5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-family:";font-size:12;" >So how do we get the goats off the antibiotics, out of the barn and back on to the grass, while still having enough to eat ourselves? Pukeatua Peak is trying very hard, and making some progress, if slowly. How do we design our businesses more like loops than rivers, so that we end up with ecosystems rather than factories? I’m still thinking about it, as are many other smart young potential farmers. What I <i style="">have</i> figured out, though, is that there is a profound difference between making a living and creating a life.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-family:";font-size:12;" >
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<br />Karahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14254099459855101498noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4056635019493632218.post-3350798734668222912009-05-07T20:48:00.001-07:002009-05-07T21:27:04.560-07:00The Hobbit's Big Riddle<span style="font-size:130%;">
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</xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1107304683 0 0 159 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750139 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoPapDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; margin-bottom:10.0pt; line-height:115%;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;">I’m convinced Tolkien must have ridden the length of Highway 5 on the NakedBus before he conceived the Shire. Most of New Zealand is a farmer’s wet dream, of course, but this section of the North Island possesses the sort of aesthetic quality that inspires romantic poets to abandon the bosoms of young ladies for those of green hills. The view out my own bus window as I near the set of Hobbiton is not as jaw-dropping as much of the South Island, but the scenery seems a comforting, human size, even for those of the shortest of stature. I can just imagine the stodgy British professor glancing up from his notebook full of elf-scribbles, looking out upon the orderly fencerows and gentle blue ridgelines of this lovely landscape, and leaping over his writer’s block like a lamb over a half-wrecked fence. Even the sheep, elsewhere of twitchy tempers and insatiable stomachs, seem positively relaxed and content here.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p> </o:p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SgOsOL7j3XI/AAAAAAAAAGg/O2U8EDp-Op0/s1600-h/hobbiton+1.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 218px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SgOsOL7j3XI/AAAAAAAAAGg/O2U8EDp-Op0/s320/hobbiton+1.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333295743457549682" border="0" /></a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Of course, these sheep are white-faced, coarse-haired Romneys, not the black-faced Suffolk breed you saw in the Fellowship of the Ring. The real Hobbiton, if one can be said to exist at all, is the bustling nearby town of Matamata, complete with car dealerships and primary schools. The hobbit holes are simple façades of white plywood, now nearing a decade old and barely holding back the bulge of soggy volcanic soil behind them. This may be disappointing to a heart longing to discover blooming gardens, thatched roofs and curly-haired little girls in woolen jumpers, but what better place to investigate the interplay between farming fantasy and agricultural reality?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p> </o:p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SgOsOa6BMtI/AAAAAAAAAGw/_VHZNkMGT-E/s1600-h/hobbiton+2.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SgOsOa6BMtI/AAAAAAAAAGw/_VHZNkMGT-E/s320/hobbiton+2.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333295747477615314" border="0" /></a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Tolkien grew up in rural England before the Second World War, adoring the simple country life and abhorring the sweeping changes that resulted from the industrial revolution. He saw his childhood neighbors gradually move out of the fields they had farmed for a thousand years, and into factories which smoked like the foundries of Isengard. I’m not sure how the neighbors felt about this, but Tolkien was clearly unhappy with the progress of technology (or at the very least, with the impact of that progress on the people and their environment). These beliefs find a bellowing voice in his story: when his middle-management bad guy Saruman orders the cutting of the Fangorn Forest, it is the trees themselves that fight back. The central conflict of the novel, in fact, is the struggle to preserve “all that is good in the world,” embodied by the Shire, its fields and people, and the rhythms and habits of both.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Tolkien might recognize some hobbit-like characteristics in the Alexander family, who own the farm on which the Hobbiton exterior set was constructed. Not that they are particularly short or curly-headed, although the members I met did have a certain hobbitish stoutness about the tum. And not that they are excessively old-fashioned; with four and a half thousand breeding ewes, up to six thousand lambs and more than twelve hundred acres to police, Mr. Alexander makes ample use of a roaring dirt bike to get around. There is, however, a very hobbity stubbornness about their decision to keep producing Romney wool for carpet, though the main focus of New Zealand farming has shifted to dairying.
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;">A decade ago New Zealand boasted 70 million breeding ewes, but now the country has only about 35 million. Most of those remaining are Merino, which produce fine-textured, high-quality garment wool targeted to the sort of market that deals in NZ$200 luxury sweaters and stylish Ugg boots. Farming is at least as subject to the capricious winds of commerce as other large industries, with the added negative that it takes an age to put together a smooth-running production system in the context of a variable climate. While any other business can reach a sort of maturity in five years, a farmer might still be working out the kinks after a decade or more, even without switching to a different product. Nevertheless, because the profit margins in farming are very tight, many decide to grow the next big cabbage rather than try to adapt their existing system to fluctuating economic realities. The Alexanders are of the latter type, continuing to carry on their family tradition.
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Even the most traditional folks recognize a good deal when they see one, so recently the income from lambs and wool has been augmented by allowing fervent tourists to wander through their fields of sheep poo. Fans will already know the story of how Peter Jackson spotted the perfect Party Tree standing next to a glassy lake while flying over the region. The filming locations for Hobbiton had already been largely sussed out in several different areas, and Jackson was prepared to patch it all together in the editing room, but the Alexanders’ place was so perfect he scrapped the other spots.
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SgOvXWuPEKI/AAAAAAAAAHY/5DTgBf2NAxw/s1600-h/hobbiton+3.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SgOvXWuPEKI/AAAAAAAAAHY/5DTgBf2NAxw/s320/hobbiton+3.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333299199508156578" border="0" /></a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SgOsOXpf_5I/AAAAAAAAAGo/hlbhnvJAEew/s1600-h/party+tree.JPG">
<br /></a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Filming was scheduled to begin at other locations in a matter of weeks, so the contracts had to be agreed upon very quickly. And they were, thanks to that patented kiwi affability. Unfortunately, the negotiations that have allowed the Alexanders to share their special spot with thousands of fans took more than two years, thanks to that equally patented American obsession with technicality (at least, when it comes to money). New Line delayed repeatedly, and the restrictions were rather severe, but now we’re all free to pay our NZ$58 to walk up the very same stone steps that Gandalf did on his way to Bag End.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"> <span style="font-size:130%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SgOtMNlg51I/AAAAAAAAAG4/etSbzaGhPhc/s1600-h/bag+end.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SgOtMNlg51I/AAAAAAAAAG4/etSbzaGhPhc/s320/bag+end.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333296809053841234" border="0" /></a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;">The stones are real, and the glorious radiata pine that played the famous tree is still glorious (albeit a little more saggy than in its movie star days), but it was harder than I expected to imagine rickety carts driven by jovial little folk clacking up the lane. Colored markers are all that is left to show where the bridge overarched the water, and where the Prancing Pony stood. Giant boards with blown-up photos of the area during filming show that little has changed in the background scenery during the intervening years, except that the magic has been assiduously removed.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p> </o:p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SgOtNB2sDOI/AAAAAAAAAHQ/9J9iVxxBfqM/s1600-h/hobbiton+photoboard.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SgOtNB2sDOI/AAAAAAAAAHQ/9J9iVxxBfqM/s320/hobbiton+photoboard.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333296823084518626" border="0" /></a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;">This is exactly the point: like all carefully-constructed country dreams, the simple, comfy life of Hobbiton doesn’t actually exist. This farm is a giant sheeply monoculture, employing insecticidal dips and antibiotics to keep the ewes alive. Real farmers may eat very well indeed, at least in the developed world, but setting the table for six meals a day is an extravagance that is incompatible with the near-constant work required to grow that food. In fact, the greatest illusion in the movie (up to and including making John Rhys Davies look 5 feet tall) may be in the hobbit’s veggie garden. The vegetables were planted on-site and carefully tended to make sure nothing changed as the filming progressed, but Jackson was so concerned about the potential for destruction by possums that those luscious cabbages were pumped full of enough poison to throttle event he heartiest dwarf. They had to be buried at the end of filming to avoid accidental poisoning of people or stock.
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Are picture-perfect country fantasies equally toxic? Certainly, the last great back-to-the-land movement left many city-born hippies frustrated, disillusioned and virtually destitute. The “grass is greener” symptom worms its way into suburban minds through writers from Tolkien to Thoreau, but the reality of 5 a.m. milkings, failed crops and blistered hands doesn’t quite line up with romantic notions of getting back to nature. <span style=""> </span>I am certainly guilty of idealizing farming in my own mind, and must continually remind myself that whilst one day of digging ditches by hand may be sublime, a lifetime of it would amount to awful drudgery. If I don’t remember this, I might eagerly sign myself up for such a life, and ultimately make myself miserable.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;">I think, however, that the Hobbitons and Walden ponds of our imaginations are not all fluff, useless at best, dangerous at the worst. All fantasies tell us something about ourselves, about our deepest desires and needs, but they are meant to be one ingredient in a successful life, not the whole substance. If the farmers I have met in New Zealand and elsewhere didn’t dream in their hearts of a perfectly ecological agriculture, there would be no organic food for the rest of us, and even more toxic cabbages buried all over our landscape. Similarly, if dreams about a healthier world motivate every city-bound hippie to grow a little patch of carrots and buy with a conscience, then that is one more person interacting meaningfully and positively with the ecosystem around them. I don’t need to live in a hole with a round door to get real fulfillment out of eating good food and gaining self sufficiency. Neither must I give up my cherished country fantasies, if I remember to dig a ditch by hand once in a while, to remind myself of farming reality.</span></p> <span style="font-size:130%;">
<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SgOtMbLL1aI/AAAAAAAAAHA/6fX8IfXz8nw/s1600-h/bag+end+view.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 307px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SgOtMbLL1aI/AAAAAAAAAHA/6fX8IfXz8nw/s320/bag+end+view.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333296812701504930" border="0" /></a>
<br /></span>Karahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14254099459855101498noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4056635019493632218.post-47310732013099709512009-03-15T20:46:00.000-07:002009-03-15T21:12:06.377-07:00The Connections Between Us<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:splitpgbreakandparamark/> <w:dontvertaligncellwithsp/> <w:dontbreakconstrainedforcedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> 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class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;">There is a fine line between enthusiasm and rudeness, and I have definitely skirted it in getting myself invited to WWOOF at Tui Community. Though the Christmas holidays fall in the middle of the summer here, the locals still like to take time out to be with their families, so this ecovillage is closed to both WWOOFers and visitors until the 25<sup>th</sup> of January. Luckily for me, araLynn, the visitor coordinator, is much more polite than I, so my repeated entreaties eventually gained me a bed in the visitor lodge. Just as I was feeling very fortunate to be invited (and also a little sheepish at having been so insistent), I had to call them back to ask whether I could bring a friend, because I’m no longer traveling solo.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;">A lot has happened in the last two weeks, so I had better catch you up. I left Treehugger Organics on Boxing Day for the city of Dunedin, where I spent two days stocking up on essentials like cheese and propane before heading up to Queenstown to hike the Rees-Dart Track. The weather cycled from gloriously hot and sunny on the first day to freezing downpour on New Year’s Eve, back to fine, back to pouring, and finally nice again for my walk out, a week after my start. I met some excellent folks, saw all kinds of native birds (including two rare New Zealand falcons and a kea), and completely overused my knees. It was great.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Once back in Queenstown, the plan was to meet up with Kat, drive the West Coast from south to north and end up in Golden Bay, where Tui is located. By the sort of bizarre coincidence that only happens when all your friends are nomads, Jonathan, one of my new tramping buddies, knew Kat from college. The four of us, including his friend Eric, spent a perfect day rock climbing in Queenstown before the big drive. For the next five days Katrina and I took in the tourist sights, including the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers, the pancake rocks at Punakaiki, and a whole lot of weka and fur seals. We camped on a beach in the rain, walked through a limestone karst landscape, and swam in the green Buller River. We even got to drive all the way to the northernmost tip of the South Island, a great curving expanse of sand called Farewell Spit. We felt recharged, ready to stop spending every evening looking for a place to pitch our tents, ready to dig back into the dirt.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Which is a good thing, because after a hurried arrival and a late night, our first job is road maintenance. More specifically, grading a dirt road with mattock and shovel. It’s grueling work, energetic, and hard on the hands and body. To make matters worse, it’s a hot, sunny day in Golden Bay, and we area sweating immediately. Exactly why was I so eager to get here, anyway?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Ever since I spent three months at the Findhorn Foundation Ecovillage in Scotland, I’ve been quite keen to visit other intentional communities. Partly it’s that I need something to contrast that experience against, and no matter how much I read about Twin Oaks, Dancing Rabbit and Ithaca, it’s impossible to get a genuine understanding of any community until you spend some time there. Though there are lots of similarities, every community does things differently, and I’m fascinated by the little bits of social technology that are helping real people get along in groups. Mostly, though, I’ve come to Tui because I feel like I was born with an open space in my heart. Findhorn plugged that hole right up, and from the day I left there I’ve been seeking to fill it again, if only for a little while.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Tui immediately reminds me of Findhorn in a thousand small particulars, from the funkiness of the half-finished cob mailbox to the abundance of the path-side gardens, the loose colorful clothing to the lived-in feeling of the community house. It’s not that any one thing is the same, or even very similar, but rather that the whole place radiates a familiar feeling of having been built with quiet passion one brick at a time and then heavily used with appreciation and love for many years. Like at Findhorn, members have employed their artistic talents to create a beautiful and inspiring place (one house has a roof sculpted into a dragon), and like at Findhorn, Kat and I are welcomed with smiles and enthusiasm.
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;">The ecosystem and physical environment are extremely inviting, as well. Tui sits about a hundred meters up the road from the northern entrance to Abel Tasman National Park, a place that is famous beyond the shores of New Zealand for its beauty, wildlife and excellent hiking (or tramping, as it’s called here). It’s a ten-minute walk from the community house to the beach at Wainui Bay, a very wide, very shallow blue-green inlet that gets as warm as bath water when the tide seeps in over several kilometers of hot sand. The climate is mild enough to permit tropical trees like grapefruit and loquat, the ground never freezes even in July, and the only impediment to an overabundant garden is sandy soils combined with occasional water scarcity. Keith, our supervisor on half of our working days, has constructed a series of raised beds in his yard that overflow with everything from highbush blueberry and strawberry to corn, tomatoes, greens and tree fruit. I feel a little pang of jealousy for the gardeners who are fortunate enough to live here.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/Sb3MjVYdl5I/AAAAAAAAAF4/wWoVamD2kAc/s1600-h/golden+bay.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/Sb3MjVYdl5I/AAAAAAAAAF4/wWoVamD2kAc/s320/golden+bay.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5313628042774288274" border="0" /></a></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Not that it’s only the gardeners who benefit from this lovely place. Tui is 25 years old, making it a grandparent among intentional communities. Only the hardiest of those creatures hatched during the gentle hippie climate of the 70’s have flourished and grown in the meantime, while most of the original communes have faded away. Just a few of Tui’s founders are still around, but plenty of new ones have shown up in the meantime; the community currently averages about 35 members, including a handful of young kids, and there is a waiting list of determined folks seeking long-term membership.
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<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;">This makes Tui about one tenth the size of Findhorn, and I find that the dynamic is quite different. While my three months at Findhorn was long enough for me to learn to recognize by sight many of the people there, I couldn’t possibly get to know everyone, or even shake every hand. I thought the smaller size might make Tui more accessible, and I did get to know a dozen or so of the members through daily jobs, community meals and other avenues. Still, after a stay of 11 days, there were members I never even saw. My friend Gary, a fellow WWOOFer and three-time Tui visitor, mentioned that the community seemed more insular and less welcoming now than in the past. I think it’s a size that feels especially vulnerable to the relentless flow of visitors (like me) who are just dying to come have a look. Any smaller, and the visitors are mostly friends of members, so strangers land gently among members. If the group is much larger, the general chaos becomes routine; in Findhorn the permanent residents seemed to feel less wearied by new faces, and therefore more able to jump forward to meet them.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Though it may have more trouble with the tensions caused by visitors, a group of 35 is a much more manageable size for decision making. Katrina and I were lucky enough to be allowed to attend a weekly meeting, wherein about 20 members gathered to discuss community issues like one child’s special need for patience, hosting a field day for the fire department, and whether to cut a tree in the upper section of the property. Consensus can be difficult even with a small group, and one particular Tui adaptation to streamline the process involves colored cards. When a member is speaking, other members can hold up a green card to silently signal agreement, a yellow to ask a question, or a red if they have a serious objection. This helps facilitator handle members’ input better, and lets people give their opinions without interrupting the speaker more than necessary, reducing everyone’s frustration with long meetings. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to observe this process as it is supposed to operate, as no one could locate the cards. Even a well-designed social system isn’t foolproof!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Even with great tools like input cards, it’s not easy to get along in a group. We witnessed enough of what is commonly known in community circles as “process” for Kat to sicken of hearing the word. For instance, there is an open question at Tui about how to interact with the thousands of people per year who drive right past the community’s front door to access Abel Tasman. Running a café catering to trampers would bring income into the community and provide jobs for members, but it would also expose the community to a lot more through-traffic, reducing the feeling of insulation from the outside world that many members value. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;">The community already collaborates on several business ventures; Tui Bee Balms employs six members to make environmentally-friendly skin salves and bug repellants, while periodic workshops such as the Permaculture Design Certification course require lots of member energy on a less regular basis. Because the community is in an isolated rural area, there are few nearby job opportunities, and community businesses support some people to live at Tui who would otherwise not be able to. Another business would increase the community’s economic security, even as it reduced their physical safety.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Support, I think, is the crux of the matter. This includes the sort of emotional support and understanding one parent received at the community meeting when he spoke about his young son’s behavioral difficulties, and the pain it is causing his child, his family and himself. It includes the support of knowing that your neighbors are also your friends, that they share your values, and that they will watch out for you. It certainly includes the support Katrina and I have been giving each other as we share our (admittedly mobile) two-woman household, cooking together, cleaning and laundering together, making all our decisions together, and collaborating in work and in play. Getting empathy, a quiet neighborhood and a little help with the dishes makes life a lot easier and friendlier, and it’s a heart-rending thing that so many of us live without these things. In spite of the value we put on indulging our individuality, we really do need these kinds of ‘soft’ support, and it is a worthy life’s work for all of us to figure out how to get them.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Even more important, though, is getting back the ‘hard’ support that small, tight-knit communities used to provide. I’m not just talking about a peaceful setting, but the true peace of mind that results from knowing that though the weather may turn cold and foul, this small group is committed to each other. The world may change beyond recognition in the years to come, but the tough decisions will be made together. The global economy may dismember itself spectacularly into a thousand thrashing severed limbs, but the group can make sure that every member is fed and housed, because though we all have different strengths and weaknesses, there is muscle and ingenuity enough between us to provide for us all. As my friend Craig from Findhorn frequently says, “The abundance is in the connections between us.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;">
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mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoPapDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; margin-bottom:10.0pt; line-height:115%;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:130%;" >Tui, like all intentional communities, is a work in progress. They are busily going through the process, striving to agree when they can, compromise when they can’t, and support each other as well as possible. By developing their economic potential along with their social interconnectedness, they are laying the groundwork to continue to grow and thrive for another 25 years, and beyond. I hope any community I am fortunate enough to become a part of can do as well.</span></p><span style="line-height: 115%;font-family:";font-size:130%;" ></span>Karahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14254099459855101498noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4056635019493632218.post-4125080904868987412009-03-05T17:42:00.000-08:002009-03-05T18:01:11.570-08:00The Ethic or the Egg?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:relyonvml/> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> 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mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Like every conscious person, I face a thousand questions every day. Where can I find meaning in my life? What can I do to make a real difference in the world? How did a city girl from Alaska end up in rural New Zealand with a chicken down her shirt? And what, above all, shall I have for breakfast? Though it seems mundane, that last conundrum is the most significant, precisely because its solution has the power to answer the other three. Especially the one about the chicken.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;font-family:georgia;"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;font-family:georgia;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SbCBYC8d30I/AAAAAAAAAFY/X0LC2Y0vQAE/s1600-h/oceanfront.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SbCBYC8d30I/AAAAAAAAAFY/X0LC2Y0vQAE/s320/oceanfront.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309886210777145154" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;">Though they’ve been managing this almost-oceanfront property for several years, Nath and Steph Davis have only recently purchased Treehugger Organics, and are in the process of shifting away from mixed veggies toward small fruits and garlic. The produce is sold along with other organic products through their tiny on-site shop.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;font-family:georgia;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SbCCj0ygelI/AAAAAAAAAFg/3gzvq1PyH-U/s1600-h/shop.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SbCCj0ygelI/AAAAAAAAAFg/3gzvq1PyH-U/s320/shop.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309887512647334482" border="0" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;">This arrangement is practically the holy grail for small farmers, because it means they cut out middle men such as wholesale buyers, processors, advertizers, shipping companies and grocery stores. I’m not sure what the numbers are like in this country, but in the U.S. farmers get an average of only 19 cents of every consumer dollar spent on food, and for some items it is much less (processed potato chips like Ruffles, for example, yield only 2 cents per dollar). Farmers who can connect directly with their customers get a fairer slice, but shops like Treehugger’s are a rare sight in the U.S. since big-business organics dealers like Wholefoods appeared on the scene.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;font-family:georgia;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SbCDG-EhD0I/AAAAAAAAAFo/BcGyPNsnCTk/s1600-h/shop+2.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SbCDG-EhD0I/AAAAAAAAAFo/BcGyPNsnCTk/s320/shop+2.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309888116434210626" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;">Treehugger also boasts a free-range flock of about 40 layers and 20 or so maturing pullets, including the lucky chicken who is now making little chicken noises from inside my bra. Or rather, the very <i style="">un</i>lucky chicken who had the misfortune to be hatched to an inexperienced mother several days ago. My fellow WWOOFer Katrina Salmons was headed out for the morning feeding when she saw a nervous red hen and her four tiny chicks wandering outside the pen.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;">“Free range” isn’t supposed to mean wandering at will through the raspberry patch, where any passing predator can have a go at helpless chickies. Kat and Nath eventually managed to get them back into the pen, albeit with much distressed clucking by both the chickens and the people. All seemed well until I went out to fill the watering cans, and found the little family had scattered again. We caught one chick in the pen and two just outside of it, putting them safely in the breeder box. Mom and the other baby were in the nearby woods, circling a nest containing broken shells and a dozen unhatched eggs.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;font-family:georgia;"><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"> <span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;">“Never mind the chick, the mom’s more important,” said Katrina, so we went after her with a trout net. We hoped that with mom in the box the other three chicks would be kept warm, and the fourth would likely hear her clucking and turn up. The snag in our brilliant plan was Mom’s unclipped wings. We chased her around and around a snarl of deadwood under the trees, clucking and screeching all the while like a mad thing (the chicken, not us. Well, maybe we screeched a little bit). Katrina finally cornered her, but with an explosion of flapping she escaped, and flew to a high perch. While looking for the baby, who was nowhere to be seen, I got tangled in a bundle of old wire and fell gracelessly on my butt. Flustered, frustrated and mildly bruised, we gave up and went to pick strawberries.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;font-family:georgia;"><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;">When we came to collect eggs that afternoon, the missing chick was just beside the box, gasping and spasming. Baby birds have a difficult time regulating their body temperature, and this one had gotten very cold while his mom was bawk-bawking her silly brains out halfway up a pine. The heat lamp seemed to revive him, but though his siblings have grown in the two days since the dramatic capture, he has not. Today the unpredictable South Island climate turned cold and rainy, and I found my baby bawk splay-legged and squint-eyed, unresponsive on the straw. That’s when I stuck him in my shirt to warm up.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;font-family:georgia;"><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;">This was not the action of a hopeless softie. I’ve been respectfully sending salmon to the fishy hereafter by means of any convenient blunt object since the age of three, and I’ve even slaughtered cute cuddly meat rabbits. The eggs I had for breakfast may have been fertilized, and the spinach that went in the omelet most certainly was (when I picked it, I saw the maturing seed heads at the top of the flower spike). You may gather that I consider myself a contemplative eater; I do not grieve over every embryonic spinach, but I am not insensitive to the right of other organisms to live. I abhor commercial meat production methods and other types of animal exploitation, and I think about the ethics of eating every time I take a bite. Most people consider animals to be entitled to more rights than plants, but whether I am consuming a side of beef or just a handful of lettuce, I am swallowing something’s future. Even a lettuce values its future.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;font-family:georgia;"><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;">My baby bawk has no more hope for a future than a fertilized egg, and probably somewhat less. Weak chicks become weak layers, and a small farm with very limited resources can’t afford to feed weak layers. If he is, as I suspect, a rooster, he’s destined for the pot anyway, since a flock can only have one alpha male. I won’t feel bad if my baby bawk meets either of these fates, because in natural systems weak genes are better kept out of the pool. The immature are also fairer game, because the transfer of energy up the trophic levels is more efficient when fewer of the ecosystem’s precious resources have been invested in an individual. Think of it this way: the younger the deer that meets the wolf’s jaws, the fewer the blades of grass that are sacrificed. And as Katrina said, moms really <i style="">are</i><o:p></o:p> more important, because successful breeding females represent the community’s best return for the resources it has invested. Cultural morals that require every being to have a “fair shot” or a “good run” actually constitute ecological waste, a crime which is usually punished by quick deletion from the collective gene bank.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Therefore, a chicken down the shirt is probably even more ridiculous than it sounds, ecologically and energetically speaking. Nevertheless, I have given over the only electrical outlet in my room to baby bawk’s heating pad, which means my own heater will remain cold on this rainy night. The impulse to protect a newborn is stronger than cuteness alone could possibly motivate, so the question I face tonight is this: why is it that an egg that might have a future can be cracked into a pan by even a thoughtful eater, but a gasping chick cannot be suffered to gasp its last?<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" face="georgia" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" face="georgia" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">It must be that every puff of feathers newly hatched seems unbearably precious, not because of what it is (a future chicken dinner), but what it represents (hope, or something like it). It is as if my baby bawk’s tiny white eggtooth stands for every shell that will ever break. His little peep heralds the continuance of life through the night and into the morning, making visible to us the hurtling progress of the generations, egg after chicken after egg.</span><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" face="georgia" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;font-family:georgia;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SbCDG5fJYFI/AAAAAAAAAFw/xpNKlf4_ZF8/s1600-h/baby+bawk.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 162px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SbCDG5fJYFI/AAAAAAAAAFw/xpNKlf4_ZF8/s320/baby+bawk.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309888115203727442" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;">But that’s silly. It’s one of Darwin’s sacred rules that overproduction of offspring is essential to the survival and evolution of every species. Every life cannot be saved, nor should it, if we want the next generation to be even more functional than this one. Still, it seems that to let a newborn die is to sever a link in the great unbroken chain of beating hearts, a chain which stretches from the first ancient glimmers of self-replication on into the endless expanse of our planet’s unknown future. When environmental conditions are changing so quickly that it's uncertain whether anything but the roaches can keep up, every link becomes invaluable; as Atwood's Crake would say, all it takes is one failed generation to erase a species from the Earth.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;font-family:georgia;"><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;font-family:georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Whether or not my mind would equate them, though, an individual is not a generation. So what is the bearing of one sick baby bawk on the ethics of eating? None, perhaps, except to point out that even our simplest choices sprout from deep beliefs, which, though they are very important to us, may make no ecological sense whatsoever. An anthropology professor of mine once mentioned to me that the Papua New Guinean tribe among whom he did his fieldwork consider it a special treat to climb trees and snack on whole nestlings, with barely the down of first feathers upon them. Terrible, ghastly, unethical… and yet, their methods of gathering and growing sustenance have more or less maintained the integrity of their ecosystem for about thirty thousand years (and at comparatively high population levels), while our shiny new “civilized” practices are bringing our environment to crisis in less than a hundred.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" face="georgia" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" face="georgia" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" face="georgia" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:georgia;">Regardless of the ethics we invent, we humans are irrevocably intertwined with the rest of the biological universe. Just as we are owed a portion of its bounty, so too are we subject to its rules. Food production methods that don’t work must inevitably meet the same fate as chickens with fragile constitutions. Unlike my baby bawk, however, we are lucky enough to be able to observe, and to reason. We get the chance to choose some of our survival characteristics, by choosing our actions. Starting with what to have for breakfast. </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>Karahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14254099459855101498noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4056635019493632218.post-35681846224001658982009-02-28T01:36:00.000-08:002009-03-16T20:48:47.184-07:00Foodscape: The Farm as Ecosystem<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:relyonvml/> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> 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mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoPapDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; margin-bottom:10.0pt; line-height:115%;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {pag</style--><br />Kōtare Vale doesn’t look like any farm I’ve ever seen.<br /><br />I will admit that some of my wonder might be simple disorientation. I’ve flown from Fairbanks Alaska, where it has been nine below and snowing since September, to Christchurch New Zealand, where the weather is like a fine spring day at home: 50 degrees and overcast. This contrast, along with my stopover in perennially-tropical Hawaii, has completely scrambled my sense of the seasons. To confuse the matter further, New Zealand’s kind climate allows for bizarre bedfellows. Collected in the average suburban yard are temperate trees like oaks and maples, subarctic species like pine and birch, and a few sub-tropicals, not to mention every possible shrub and herb. My first sight outside the Christchurch International Airport is a palm-like native cabbage tree right next to a bushy blue spruce. It looks like horticultural heaven.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SakLjYTmkcI/AAAAAAAAABQ/y4Xnt4UselU/s1600-h/hort+pot.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SakLjYTmkcI/AAAAAAAAABQ/y4Xnt4UselU/s320/hort+pot.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307786338280837570" border="0" /></a>In spite of this exotic potential, the drive through the Canterbury Plains might be a sojourn through any agricultural scene from Minnesota to Missouri, composed as it is entirely of flat square fields and overhead irrigation scaffolding. There are hints, though, that I am in unfamiliar territory: a glimpse of hazy rugged mountains off to the West reminds me more of Alaska than the Midwest. Even more tellingly, large paddocks full of belted Galloway and Hereford cattle betray a beef production system based on open space and green grass, rather than the nightmarish feedlots common in the U.S. Things are definitely different here.<br /><br />Vale, of course, means valley, so Kōtare is obviously not one of these flat Canterbury farms. The terrain soon rises into the steep, crumpled hills of the Banks Peninsula, a folded lump of volcanic land jutting out into the South Pacific. This area was once covered in thick native forest, but that was before New Zealand became the “island of the large white crowd,” as a friend from Christchurch once euphemized. (It’s a play on the meaning of the North Island’s original Maori name, <i style="">Aotearoa</i>, which translates as “island of the long white cloud.” Even the white folks are sardonic about the impact of colonization on this country.)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SakLjr2kxXI/AAAAAAAAABY/KJgwTwGm3Ic/s1600-h/native+bush.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SakLjr2kxXI/AAAAAAAAABY/KJgwTwGm3Ic/s320/native+bush.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307786343527794034" border="0" /></a>As has happened elsewhere in the world, the totalitarian agriculturalists industriously set about removing the lush undergrowth, chopping down kanuka trees too wide for three people to get their arms around, and converting a thousand-species community into a simple, people-centric food chain.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SakNTId34-I/AAAAAAAAABw/No482uXyLI4/s1600-h/kanuka.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SakNTId34-I/AAAAAAAAABw/No482uXyLI4/s320/kanuka.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307788258174297058" border="0" /></a>Where before there were kiwi and weta and wild fuchsia after colonization there remain only sheep for the people to eat, and grass for the sheep to eat.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SakJ2knoTvI/AAAAAAAAABI/xL6R3AXBwVU/s1600-h/banks.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SakJ2knoTvI/AAAAAAAAABI/xL6R3AXBwVU/s320/banks.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307784468980322034" border="0" /></a>A few plantations of exotic pines have sprung up in the last 30 years, but most of the Peninsula is essentially sheeply today, with the ugly addition of multitudinous land slips where the pasture roots have failed to hold on to the fine loess soil during heavy rains. The land that has become Kōtare Vale used to be pasture as well, but Martin Tickner is not your average stock farmer. Utilizing knowledge gained during his formal education and long career as a conservation expert in Britain, he is shepherding these 18 hectares back toward something more like the kanuka-dominated ecosystem they used to be. Gentle, well-planned additions to the wild template allow him to make a living from the patch without greatly compromising its intrinsic functions. For income and sustenance a mix of maturing hazelnut, walnut and fruit trees share the slopes with native species and other useful perennials, and small beds of annual vegetables and semi-wild ferns are tucked into the little corners of the landscape.<br /><br />Walking the farm reminds me of wandering through a large and comfortable cottage. The forest canopy provides protection against the harsh winds and hot sun, and lessens the impact of raindrops on wet days. The narrow dirt trails lead like a series of hallways through room after outdoor room, each with its own particular lighting and humidity, influenced by the closeness of the vegetation and the varying turbulence of two small brown streams. I have seldom been so perfectly comfortable outside, even in adverse weather, so that at the end of a day of work I feel refreshed and reluctant to go inside, rather than ready to escape the sensory overload that can sometimes occur in exposed fields.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SakNTCMISFI/AAAAAAAAABo/fkFFSI_kCsU/s1600-h/fern+room.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SakNTCMISFI/AAAAAAAAABo/fkFFSI_kCsU/s320/fern+room.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307788256489261138" border="0" /></a>The advantages of this style of land management are far from purely aesthetic, however. A diversity of plant species means better utilization and improved cycling of valuable nutrients, and it also gives the environment resilience to disasters such as those heavy rains. Because of the robustness of native tree root systems, there are few land slips inside Kōtare’s fences. The area also provides space and resources for rare native species, including the farm’s namesake, the New Zealand kingfisher. The birdlife is so prolific that I can’t even wander up to the eel pool without being followed by a pair of resident fantails. These tiny native birds have big showy tails, and though they seem uncannily friendly, their boldness is due to their habit of feeding on the insects disturbed by larger species (people) moving through the brush.<br /><br />Wild species might seem like a “waste of space” in spite of these very real positives, especially to those who are consumed by fears of worldwide food shortage and obsessed with “efficiency” of agricultural output. By talking up the native ecosystem, I risk transgressing into the mushy and easily-dismissed realm of a feel-good, nature-for-its-own-sake, barefoot-hippie-style argument. This is a <i style="">real</i> working farm, though, not a half-cocked back-to-the-land experiment. And it is a real <i style="">working</i> farm in one important way that every monoculture of pasture or wheat is <i style="">not</i>:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SakNTTBfKhI/AAAAAAAAAB4/gzHVyIEe1k8/s1600-h/sheeply.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SakNTTBfKhI/AAAAAAAAAB4/gzHVyIEe1k8/s320/sheeply.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307788261008026130" border="0" /></a>Martin and his WWOOFers live<i style=""> from</i> this land, not just on it. Our salads and stir-fries are picked from the garden beds and wild stands just before mealtime, and even the exotic ingredients for Friday night pizza are harvested from the property or the nearby ocean. Believe it or forget it, but pickled walnuts, bull kelp and nasturtium seedpods make for one delicious pie!<br /><br />This farm is a true ecosystem, in which the people who steward it are also an integral piece of the biological puzzle, not just managerial overlords who buy all their sustenance with the proceeds gained from selling the land’s products. It is a farm like our very first attempts at agriculture thousands of years ago, a modification and enhancement of a complex system rather than a complete uprooting and replanting. Rather than the “waste” we fear, the primary characteristic of this sort of management is abundance and synergy. Hen-and-chicken ferns, grown for their tender, sweet fiddleheads, simply would not survive as a monoculture, because they require the shade and protection of an intact canopy in order to thrive. Gourmet mushrooms like oyster and shitake need the forest both for this shelter, and also to supply the raw logs on which they grow. The trees themselves even prove useful.<br /><br />My first task upon arrival (and one of my main occupations during my time on the farm) is to build trellising for a dozen varieties of rare beans Martin plants out for the local seed exchange network he administers. I have some experience with trellising, having constructed pea fences both in my mother’s garden as a child, and on a much larger scale two summers ago while working at Rosie Creek Farm in Fairbanks, Alaska. At first I give a little interior groan at the prospect, since trellising has usually meant hammering large, heavy metal stakes into the ground, and then wiring fencing or netting to the stakes, followed by careful training of the pea tendrils, which I can never do fast enough to satisfy the boss. It’s a loud, frustrating, repetitive job, but I am acutely aware that it sets a bad precedent to object to the very first task I’m given as a WWOOFer, so I smile and agree.<br /><br />Rather than leading me to the expected pile of stakes and tangle of wire, Martin gives me an elegant little Japanese hand saw and directions over the bridge and up the bank, where I am to cut kanuka deadwood and haul it back to the bean bed, to make the main supports for a long wooden tipi-like structure. I also get similar directions to a number of large willow trees with suckers ideal for secondary poles, instructions on how to break thin pine deadwood for training sticks, and a coil of wire with which to make the whole thing hang together. Everything but the wire has grown within a short walk from the bean beds, entirely without human intention or intervention. A fanciful mind might well conclude that the ecosystem had foreseen our need for vine support, and contrived to give us exactly what we needed to make it. Of course this is nonsense, but the reality is even better, because intact ecosystems yield such a myriad of materials that with only a little human ingenuity and sweat, need-specific structures can be easily created. Problems of support are almost miraculously solved.<br /><br />I also find that I enjoy the process of building with wood much more than with metal. The gentle snick of the saw is infinitely preferable to the ear-splitting clang of hammer on stake, and climbing a ladder to do the pounding is nowhere near as fun as scrambling around in willow branches over a bubbling stream. At the risk of overemphasizing aesthetics, I have to conclude that the result is also rather more attractive than a bare and boring pea fence. As Martin reminds me, anything that’s not exactly straight is “artistic,” making it unique without compromising the function of the structure. And rather than needing to be taken down again at the end of the season, this trellis will stand until the wood decays in four to six years. I’m quite proud of it, actually.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SakLj6NlJcI/AAAAAAAAABg/ljVAN0R4NA0/s1600-h/trellis.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SakLj6NlJcI/AAAAAAAAABg/ljVAN0R4NA0/s320/trellis.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307786347382384066" border="0" /></a>It’s not a perfect endeavor, of course; I wouldn’t want to gloss over the discomfort involved in manual labor. My arms are sore the next day from sawing above my head, and my inherent clumsiness means that I am soon suffering from a minor injury on almost every finger, the result of malicious wire ends, sharp bits of wood, and slicing myself repeatedly with that sweet little saw. Still, my body feels better than after any day spent sitting at a desk, and when Martin asks for a second trellis two days later, I’m instantly thinking about which trees might render a few more straight poles. Rather than my initial reluctance, I experience excitement at the prospect of getting back to building. That, I think, is the real advantage of an intact ecosystem: it is a genuine joy with work with.Karahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14254099459855101498noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4056635019493632218.post-83805526734848769222009-02-26T17:59:00.000-08:002009-03-01T00:42:45.769-08:00Introduction: The Food is the Thing<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SadaUBeCW1I/AAAAAAAAAAU/dtDasA55Opg/s1600-h/DSCN0335.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307309985917721426" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; width: 320px; height: 240px; text-align: center;" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_wny9ZlPVp0I/SadaUBeCW1I/AAAAAAAAAAU/dtDasA55Opg/s320/DSCN0335.JPG" border="0" /></a>For anyone who doesn’t know me well, I’m Alaskan born and Maine educated, a city girl turned agriculture major. I graduated this spring with my Bachelor of Science in Sustainable Agriculture, and immediately got an excellent job working for the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Tanana Chiefs Conference. So, what am I doing all the way down here in New Zealand, doing manual labor for no money?<br /><br />I think it’s to do with that very first King salmon I ever caught. Even little city girls get to go fishing in Alaska, so I was just four years old when the big one hit. I was innocently dangling my line over the side of my family’s 14-foot inflatable boat as we trawled the freezing grey waters of Cook Inlet, completely unprepared for the violence about to occur. I can’t recall the strike as the fish took my hook, but I remember the heave that nearly pulled my arms out of their sockets, and I remember the clamp of my dad’s hands around my waist as I headed overboard. The strain in my hands as I reeled and reeled, the frantic flopping excitement when it came over the side, silver and perfect and very upset. It outweighed me.<br /><br />Since that moment, I’ve been fascinated with the food I eat, and with the wider relationship between the human species and all the myriad forms of life that sustain us. Food is among our most practical and basic needs, and also one of our most decadent pleasures. The things we eat can build our bodies up healthy and strong, or make us ill and weak. So, too, can the way we obtain the things we eat help to build resilient and diverse ecosystems, or lead to unstable, unhealthy monocultures, vulnerable to every vagary of pest and weather. Most of the agriculture and land management currently happening in the U.S. is driving us toward the latter two outcomes, rather than the former.<br /><br />I suspect that this is the case in most of the developed world, but if any country is doing it better, it’ll be New Zealand. They have their fair share of challenges, such as extreme distance from markets for their agricultural products, a very fragile native ecosystem, and of course the occasional freezing gust of air blown up from Antarctica. They also have lots of advantages we lack, such as a normally gentle climate, insulation from any agricultural pests and diseases, a human population that is still in proportion to the local environment, and liberal-leaning policies to go with their “green” image. One local condition is especially interesting: 35 years ago, the New Zealand agricultural industry was propped up by government funds for a few big commodities, exactly as ours is today. The Kiwis were considerably quicker on the uptake than us, though, and ditched that system completely. The result was a difficult but ultimately very rewarding re-organization, a shift back toward smaller, more environmentally-conscious farms. Hey, isn’t that what <em>we</em> want?<br /><br />I've been desperate to get down here, to see how all these conditions actually play out for small organic and alternative farmers. Luckily, I’m not the first person to want to travel and learn about agriculture at the same time. The Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms (or WWOOF) program has been operating in New Zealand since the early 1970’s, and there are over 1000 hosts in this year’s directory. For eight glorious months I’ll exchange 4 or 5 hours of my time per day for a seat at the dinner table on farms of all types and sizes. I’ll learn pelnty of practical skills, and have a chance to talk with some of the most knowledgeable experts on ecology and food: the people who actually steward the land from which our sustenance springs.<br /><br />This is an education for me, just as surely as my degree work, though the learning may come through unusual channels: I am out here not to comprehend the diagram of the electrical circuit, but to get shocked by the stock fence. My questions are both abstract (what is the value of responsibly-produced food?) and pragmatic (exactly how does one shear a sheep?). They are questions of a personal nature (shall I farm dairy or veggies?) and also of wider significance (is it easier to get along as a country of 4 million than 400 million?). You are hereby invited to join me on the journey to attempt to answer these and many, many more.Karahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14254099459855101498noreply@blogger.com1