(For more about the Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Women's Symposium please follow this link:EBS)
Without the comments and natural flow of conversation that happened that morning, the following copy of my presentation notes that went along with the Power Point presentation is pretty dry. I always write these notes and then don't use them because what comes to me spontaneously usually is much more "enthusiastic" as one of my attendees put it. Anyway, here it is
Fostering Resiliency in Your Own Backyard
To be truly free, we need to create a more sustainable living environment where by growing our own food, harvesting rainwater and capturing energy from the sun we become more independent of the corporate giants that take less care of our planet then we would like.
“Every morning I awake torn between a desire to save the world and
an inclination to savor it.
This makes it hard to plan the day!”
(E. B. White)
When I was younger I was mostly concerned with saving the world but now I seem to spend a lot more time savoring the day. I’ve taken a break from the savoring to share some ideas that might help you to take more time to enjoy yourself why gaining independence and doing something good for the environment and your health.
nCommunity
nHealth
nEnvironment
nEconomy
Being a locavore is all about improving you and community’s health by growing and consuming local produce. This is better for our environment and our economy
Justification for Local Produce and Sustainable Living
- Rising cost of food, fuel and water
- Food quality, safety and nutritional value declining
- Loss of variety and diversity of the food we eat
- The financial pressure on individuals
High gas prices are added to the price of our food and everything else we purchase from distant vendors. Foods grown on industrial farms are grown in nutrient poor soils and lose many more vitamins as they travel hundreds of miles to our supermarkets. Companies like Monsanto actually own certain seed crops, like corn, and fine farmers for not using them! All of these things impact our health, our pocket books and our sense of control over our lives.
Today, 58 million Americans spend approximately $30 billion every year to maintain over 23 million acres of lawn. That’s an average of over a third of an acre and $517 each. The same size plot of land could still have a small lawn for recreation, plus produce all of the vegetables needed to feed a family of six. The lawns in the United States consume around 270 billion gallons of water a week—enough to water 81 million acres of organic vegetables, all summer long. Lawns use ten times as many chemicals per acre as industrial farmland. These pesticides, fertilizers, and herbicides run off into our groundwater and evaporate into our air, causing widespread pollution and global warming, and greatly
Goals for Re-Energizing Your Life and Community
- nMake your Community a friendlier place by sharing your excess produce
- Improve your Health and save money by growing your own food (or buying local)
- Save heating Expenses by adding solar collectors to your home
- Improve your Environment by saving roof rain water run off
The downspout that supplies this barrel is fed by about 600 square feet of roof, so has the potential of about 300 gallons per inch of rainfall(allowing for some losses in the collection process). Rain water collection can be as complicated as you like so that you can use it for everything from drinking and cooking to bathing and watering your garden. I am just recommending baby steps to get you started and feeling independent of some rules and regulations. If you collect rainwater, you can water your garden and wash your car even during a drought.
An example of a raised bed garden supported by cedar boards. They were 16 by1 foot and were cut into 4 foot and 12 foot lengths to make the box. This particular year my woodchucks took a little more than their share so we simply staple stock fence to the board and no more damges was done to any of the beds. Behind this bed is an uneclosed raised bed growing potatoes.
Schematic for raised bed
(some pictures and schematics would not load so lets load the actual picture of the built Sun Grabber designed by the Maine Solar Energy Association)
This is a schematic for an easy to build and install solar collector. It can be used as an area to start seeds or even as a season expanding greenhouse. Another idea in this vein is to fill black plastic barrels with water and use them to keep the temperature up in your greenhouse of enclosed porch or deck
Examples of solar add-on
And last here is a a great way to do composting as a garden from the Food Not Lawns movement in Santa Barbara, California
Follow this ink: www.foodnotlawns.com
Please feel free to e-mail me if you want any more information or would like me to address your group on any or all of these topics. jrnutrition@gmail.com
