Support sustainability and human scale living.

1. Buy non-hybrid, heirloom seed.

This is not about "organics"... non-hybrid, heirloom seed produces "true" and new seed out of the harvest can be saved for planting next season... hybrids tie you to a seed producer and cannot be saved... thus hybrids are non-sustainable.

2. Grow your own veggies.

Home-grown fruits and vegitables are tastier and better for you that anything you can buy in any grocery or supermarket... period. Doubt me? Don't whine... investigate... this is proven fact.

3. Locate a local, real farmer/rancher and buy uncontaminated dairy and meat locally.

A small, local farmer/rancher is far more likely to sell produce and dairy products that are far less tainted than anything on the grocers or supermarkets shelf. You CAN find dairy, etc. that has not been fed on drug filled suppliments but you CANNOT find "commercial" dairy that hasn't been stuffed with anti-biotics and a myriad of other drugs and poisons... the local farmer is also far more likely to feed his dairy cattle grass (y'know... what they're DESIGNED to eat) as opposed to grain and suppliments.

4. DO NOT SUPPORT THE CORPORATE MACHINE - STOP "SHOPPING"

STOP SHOPPING! Stop the incessant drive for more "stuff"... look around you and begin to adapt to a more sustainable lifestyle... eliminate as much plastic as possible, etc.

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A "friend of Ishmael"

The dirty Fu<#ing hippies... were right - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKEZoY-TMG4

Freedom - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3vhcptoh_Y

Break Out Of The Box - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD9WMQEMe2Q

We should go out of our way to support local farmers markets, 'U-Pick', and other small regional agriculture, for sure. And it's the same in Oregon - we'll grow a lot more fruits and vegetables when the emphasis shifts away from wineries and the vast grass seed plantings. Fruit orchards have been razed to establish some of the former while the latter feeds no-one.

I do have to point out, however, that soy and corn are not the same thing as fruits and vegetables, are not interchangable nutritionally. The last I knew soybeans have the most complete protein (for humans) of all N. American plants. Small-farm production of non-GMO soy and corn might also be economically and well as nutritionally advantageous.

There was a study a few years ago showing that the use of Washington state apples in the Seattle area school system would result in funds looping through the community several times, benefitting the area economically as well as nutritionally.

Such studies show that modest local efforts can have greater than expected outcomes. And don't forget, you can grow a tomato plant in a pot even if you live in an apartment!

Great article except for this sentence,

"The study, by Iowa State Research Scientist Dave Swenson, looked at the potential for fruit and vegetable production in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin."

What about KS, KY, IN, MO, NE, ND, and SD? There is plenty of abandoned farmland in these states and more room for local food production and jobs creation.

Consider too, the health benefits of eating more fruit and vegetables and getting off the addictive fast food toxins kick.

What would this do for the fast food flippers though?

Here's a hilarious bit of reality from the blog;

"Stuff white people like"

Picking their own Fruit

It is well established that white people like the past. Vintage clothing, history degrees, and nostalgia are just three examples of how white people show their love for by-gone eras. So when white people think about growing their own food they are reminded of pastoral images of farming, working the land, and growing whole natural foods for their family. This most positive viewpoint comes from the fact that white people have mostly enjoyed supervisory roles in agricultural production over the years.

But as more and more white people moved into cities, they lost their connection to working the land. In recent years, the most advanced white people have quit their jobs, moved to the country and opened artisanal dairies and small scale radicchio farms.

However, not all white people have the ability, or the trust funds, to quit their job and follow their food-based passions. Some white people have to get their fix by picking their own fruit.

Many of you might be familiar with the process of harvesting a crop, some of its more intense variations are often referred to as "migrant labor" and "slavery." Under these conditions, laborers are expected to work extremely hard in order to live up to large expectations about their fruit picking output.

When white people harvests a crop it’s known as "berry picking" or "pick your own fruit." Under these conditions, white people are expected to work leisurely with no real expectations and then they pay for the privilege to do so. In other words, berry picking is the agricultural equivalent to a private liberal arts college. It’s no surprise white people like it, because much like a liberal arts degree it feels like you’ve done real work when you really haven’t.

Of course the easiest way to turn a profit with this information would be to start your own fruit picking farm. But that is only looking at the small picture. It is well established that all white people enjoy doing manual labor under watered down and expensive conditions. So, if you are currently working in a job that requires intensive amounts of work, you should consider using that work space to create what is essentially an adult daycare for white people who would like to spend an afternoon learning how to use a loom or pretending to be a construction worker.

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/

The general idea certainly works for me.

It doesn't take much land--we have the normal California .17 acre subdivision lot, with about half covered with house, garage, and driveways, so we end up with .08 acre, 3320 square feet--to grow perennial fruits like citrus, avocado, and mangoes; nuts like almonds and walnuts; and vegetables like asparagus and artichokes. You can rent such a house here within 25 miles of Palm Springs for $500 a month or buy one for $18,000 with no money down. It's a depressed real estate market, a good thing if you want to grow your own food.
Permaculture and natural farming ideas available on the Internet show how to do the work easily, too. I bought a plan from Mike McGroady at www.freeplants.com for growing such trees (and any other plants) from cuttings you can get for free from people in your neighborhood. Just get cuttings from regular-size trees that have good produce you like, and prune them to keep them small so you can harvest all the produce with just a 5' ladder. McGroady's plan is well worth the $88, and it isn't fair to give it away here. It tells how to make a fortune growing edible or not landscape plants, so why should he not be paid for his experience?
But what I have discovered here in the California desert these last two years is how much fun it is to grow chickens for eggs, feeding them 100% with greens from a supermarket's dumpsters. We go to only the most upscale place, where none of the rich customers would buy any produce that is not organic, so we don't have to worry about pesticides and herbicides. Therefore, the only cost (a friend gave us adolescent chickens, but they cost about $2 if you buy them) has been a very slow drip of water into a Tupperware-type container (actually a plastic food container from that same supermarket dumpster). Many times in the past before I got aware on environmental costs I let such a drip keep going on in a bathroom or kitchen sink and never thought of the cost.
We have three chickens and get three eggs a day, just in the Spring through Fall, but the winter break when they don't lay here according to the chickens, is only two months. I believe cholesterol problems are mostly genetic and the campaigns against eggs are against the highest protein cheapest food poor people can live on. With fresh vegetables and fruits, plus eggs, we raise all our own food except milk and ice cream, and some meat for seasoning and flavor in food like Chinese, Mexican, and Indian food, which we like, plus a 50 lb. bag of brown rice and similar bags of beans that cost us total $30 a year, so we buy those things. Besides perennials, because we like them we grow lots of varieties of potatoes and onions, plus lots of herbs and garlics. It's nice to know we have no carbon footprint to speak of caused by our food.

Just get growing something and learning. This skill will be useful like a Ph.D used to be methinks. You can even "farm" in other people's backyards, make them their friend and give them some back, teach everyone. Use vacant lots or railroad sidings, pots on the balcony.

It's a no-brainer that the real economy benefits as food is grown locally - that is, money in local pockets and food in local mouths. Glad the university could clarify that for us :-)

RadicalRelocalization.com

Just avoid eating meat and the rest of the benefits will follow.

Homeless Bob and adnoseum: Self-sufficiency is the key. The dirty f-cking Hippies were right. Shop as little as possible, and especially avoid purchases from corporations. Avoid being judgemental when it comes to dietary choice. Model what you believe and let others adapt in their own time. The benefits, for me, of a healthy, 30 year vegetarian diet have certainly been advantageous on physical and spiritual levels. I really do sparkle!