Old Macdonald had a farm... you know who else wants a farm??? ME!
My husband and I have felt pretty strongly about starting our own sustainable farm for quite some time. The current U.S. agricultural model is BROKEN. Feed lots and mass produced crops are NOT the way to go. Our top soil is almost entirely non-existent now and research suggests that if we make no changes to our current system that we have about sixty more harvests... SIXTY! That's our lifetime people!
I won't go into all the science-y stuff here... partially because I don't understand it all and also partially because it won't interest 90% of you LOL... but there is an answer to this problem. The answer is changing to a regenerative farming approach. This way of farming is a rotational system, where you use animals on the land to prep the soil, grow crops on the soil, and then allow the soil to rest for a season.
There are nay-sayers who will tell you that there is not enough land to farm this way given our current population, and to a degree they are correct. We would not have the current surplus in meat and produce like we currently do. So when shopping, if you had your heart set on a tri-tip roast, you may have to settle for something else if they were out. But there WOULD be meat for you to buy, you might just have to be more flexible as to what you actually had access to. Which maybe this is short sighted of me, but I think that's A-ok! Do you have any idea how much WASTE we produce??? Any meat and produce that isn't sold by the grocery store gets tossed. Some of it is deemed ok to produce pet food but the rest goes to a landfill... thousands of pounds weekly are tossed... where is the logic in that?
There will be much more on this topic of farming this year as the hubs and I are taking our first step in learning all this farming business. We currently have built our chicken coop, we have our raised garden beds prepped, and we are researching how to start our own compost. I will be documenting this journey we are on, our successes and our failures, which we will then turn into success by learning from them.
I know this might seem like it doesn't fit within the construct of health and fitness and it is definitely different from what I usually write about. But this website is about health, and what could be healthier than going back to a better way of living. A more natural and holistic approach that is not only better for our environment, but also for the animals that we raise for food.
Like I said, much more on this to come, but for now I hope that you will check out the short video tour of what we have going so far. Oh, so you will also get to experience me learning how to edit and make videos... that might be the greatest challenge of them all! ;)
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