Drought
As I type this I can feel the sunshine streaming through the window behind me warming my back. After a clear cold night, with lots of stars visible, which led to a hard frost in the morning, we are on our way to another 60 degree day. As one who suffers from SAD and likes to be warm, part of me feels happy. Yet I also feel like I’m in the beginning of some strange disaster movie, or Twilight Zone episode. Climatic patterns are changing and becoming less stable. In northern California we are having one of the lowest rainfalls in decades.
Last week I was pruning roses at OAEC and discussing the situations with Dougo whose been gardening on that amazing piece of land for nearly thirty years. The pond which normally irrigates all the gardens there is at about 1/3 of capacity. The community is working on a strategy. Best case is that we get lots of late season rain, but with each passing day that becomes less likely. Instead large sections of the garden will probably not be planted and what water there is will be used to keep the perennials alive and healthy.
All of this has led me to think about priorities in gardening and in agriculture. Where I live we have a well and hopefully I won’t have to overly restrict my gardening usage. But irregardless, the concept of water shortages is something we will all need to come to terms with in future years. After urinating in your toilet, the water there is cleaner than the majority of the world’s drinking water, and most Americans flush it away without so much as a thought.
Choosing what to plant is always a challenge for those of us who don’t need to sustain ourselves from own land. I’m always struck by the multitude of tomatoes grown in people’s backyards, my own included. For years, and probably still in some locations, when all that was available in stores were tasteless mass produced tomatoes I easily understood why to grow your own heirloom variety. Yet if we look at gallon of water per nutrition it would be hard to make a case for tomatoes. They are a nightshade of questionable nutrition value, although what is nutritious is a whole subject unto itself.
Currently agricultural policy focuses on bushels per acre. Looking for quantities that can be increased and easily measured, to instead look for qualities such as nutritious would be far more challenging. Health in all its forms is hard to measure, kind of like happiness. Our cherished Declaration of Independence tells us we have the right to pursue happiness but doesn’t offer many clues, let alone detailed instructions, on what happiness is. The USDA food pyramid’s concept of nutrition is far different than my own understanding but it would at least offer us a starting point.
I don’t know the answer to our growing water shortages, and am fairly certain there are no easy answers. I would however be delighted if people just began to reflect on water usage. The policies we each implement are important although in California residential water usage pales compared to industrial agricultural use. When there is a problem the first step is realizing and recognizing its existence. Then we can begin to contemplate changes, and hopefully eventually implement them on large scales. While preparing for the upcoming growing season lets all start thinking more about water. Let’s realize we have a limited amount of water to spend and spend it wisely. Let’s give thanks for the this big blue ball of mainly water and realize that water allows all of those other colors, flavors and nutrition to grow in our gardens.
Last week I was pruning roses at OAEC and discussing the situations with Dougo whose been gardening on that amazing piece of land for nearly thirty years. The pond which normally irrigates all the gardens there is at about 1/3 of capacity. The community is working on a strategy. Best case is that we get lots of late season rain, but with each passing day that becomes less likely. Instead large sections of the garden will probably not be planted and what water there is will be used to keep the perennials alive and healthy.
All of this has led me to think about priorities in gardening and in agriculture. Where I live we have a well and hopefully I won’t have to overly restrict my gardening usage. But irregardless, the concept of water shortages is something we will all need to come to terms with in future years. After urinating in your toilet, the water there is cleaner than the majority of the world’s drinking water, and most Americans flush it away without so much as a thought.
Choosing what to plant is always a challenge for those of us who don’t need to sustain ourselves from own land. I’m always struck by the multitude of tomatoes grown in people’s backyards, my own included. For years, and probably still in some locations, when all that was available in stores were tasteless mass produced tomatoes I easily understood why to grow your own heirloom variety. Yet if we look at gallon of water per nutrition it would be hard to make a case for tomatoes. They are a nightshade of questionable nutrition value, although what is nutritious is a whole subject unto itself.
Currently agricultural policy focuses on bushels per acre. Looking for quantities that can be increased and easily measured, to instead look for qualities such as nutritious would be far more challenging. Health in all its forms is hard to measure, kind of like happiness. Our cherished Declaration of Independence tells us we have the right to pursue happiness but doesn’t offer many clues, let alone detailed instructions, on what happiness is. The USDA food pyramid’s concept of nutrition is far different than my own understanding but it would at least offer us a starting point.
I don’t know the answer to our growing water shortages, and am fairly certain there are no easy answers. I would however be delighted if people just began to reflect on water usage. The policies we each implement are important although in California residential water usage pales compared to industrial agricultural use. When there is a problem the first step is realizing and recognizing its existence. Then we can begin to contemplate changes, and hopefully eventually implement them on large scales. While preparing for the upcoming growing season lets all start thinking more about water. Let’s realize we have a limited amount of water to spend and spend it wisely. Let’s give thanks for the this big blue ball of mainly water and realize that water allows all of those other colors, flavors and nutrition to grow in our gardens.
Labels: drought, nutrition, water usage
posted by Chas Moore at
6:21 PM
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