Sustainable Food for the Globe: Everyday People Producing Food in Abundance

By Norma Burnson

At a time when so many people are full of doubt and questions, it is refreshing to meet everyday people who have come across problems and solved them with rather creative solutions. In this book, stories of everyday people take us all over the world, and brings us all kinds of insight. Meeting kindred spirits along the way, who share their knowledge and passion, they motivates us to find and develop our own inner gems.

You will read about Salma Kamal, and the importance of Kitchen Gardens. And there is Deborah Manning who shares her system of rescuing wasted food, by redistributing it and creating a tasty meals that provide food and humaine substinace to those in need. You will meet everyday people that are empowering themselves, by actively securing healthy food production to nourish not only themselves, but their families and the global community as well. We see how our future pioneers, the children, thrive as active participants within the community and thus paving the way for respect and honorable stewardship of the limited resources given to us by Mother Earth. I hope these stories will bring you happiness and joy and a little inspiration as well. You might even smile and take a few minutes to share your own stories your families and friends. I'll make sure to include as many stories of your stories and bits of wisdom on my blog.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Apr 23, 2015
• ISBN: 9781483565491

Book preview

Burnson

Introduction

Do you eat? Of course you do! This is what my English major husband would call a rhetorical question - a question to which we already know the answer. Then why do we ask such questions?

Because behind that small inquiry lies a much larger one. One which will have a significant impact on our lives and an even larger one for our children.

Where does all the food we eat come from? Here in the United States, most people would answer, The grocery store! For the other 97% of our planet's inhabitants, the answer gets much more complicated. Billions of people need to grow their own food every year – for themselves, their neighbors, and any livestock they might have. This is a heavy burden for millions of families around the world. Climate change, which is bringing drought to some areas, brings floods to others. In the past, many people - such as nomads and Native American tribes - had the wherewithal and open spaces to hunt and farm wherever they chose. We all know, that's not the case anymore.

Complicating the situation are companies producing genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Over the centuries, selective breeding and hybridization have done a lot of good. We have more drought-resistant seeds so previously barren soil can produce viable foodstuffs.

We also have seeds resistant to insects and blights which, previously, would devastate crops. Some people confuse GMOs with hybrids. Hybrids are created by cross-breeding two plants of the same family. Traditional breeding has been done for centuries.

For example, crossing a corn variety that has plump, sweet kernels with a corn variety that is drought-resistant will produce a hybrid with plump, sweet kernels that is drought-resistant. Genetic engineering (also called genetic modification) is when something foreign to the species is artificially inserted into a natural seed. In Bt Cotton, a GMO variety, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is inserted into the cotton seed to produce an insecticide that kills certain insects when they munch on the cotton plant. In other words, the insecticide is within the cotton.

We also have GMOs that sterilize the crops grown which prevents the farmers from utilizing any seeds from that planting for future use. They are called terminator seeds. This in turn forces the farmer to purchase more seeds - spending money he may not have. There is a similar problem with the use, or abuse as many recognize now, of chemical fertilizers. For most applications, a little goes a long way. But so many use LARGE quantities of these fertilizers (have I mentioned golf courses yet?) that we have poisoned numerous rivers and lakes to the point that they are dead. Dead! No fish, no birds, no swimming! Dead. Organic solutions are readily available for most situations, but I guess the profit margins aren't great enough yet.

Oh. One more looming threat is out there in regards to the use - or abuse - of chemicals in our gardens and farms. Have I mentioned bees?

You know! Those buzzy little insects that float around, moving from one bud to another and that return to their hives and make yummy honey for us!

Well, millions of them, all around the globe, are dying off. Seems that some chemicals used for fertilizing and killing nasty pests are also killing bees!

Thousands of scientists at hundreds of universities are working to identify the deadly compounds killing these bees. Do you know what life would be like if we lost the bees? Think of tomatoes at $2.00 each. Think of peppers or beans at $10.00 per pound. That would only be part of the cost if farmers had to manually fertilize each crop. That is, if they could grow one.

All right, all right, you say – what's the point?

The point is - there's a solution. Actually, there are hundreds of solutions. And there are millions of people spread all over our bright blue planet already putting working, non-threatening, practical solutions to work for them and our neighbors. Yes, for all of us. We really are at a crossroads right now. As the astronauts noted when they circled the moon and looked at the vast, dark space all around, there is only one place where we can live: our little, blue planet (also known as home). It's all we have. But there are a few changes we need to apply.

Think of them as new habits. They're not threatening. They're not drastic. They don't kill jobs! What they do is improve our lives, clean our air and water, and provide us the opportunity to demonstrate our capacity to show what we are made of. Quite a bargain, I'd say.

Chapter One

Sustainable Food for the Globe

Several years have gone by since my first book (which I refer to as the little engine that could) was published. The little book was downloaded by a great number of people and it slowly began to emerge into a grassroots movement.

I was surprised to receive writing invitations. One invitation came from LinkedIn Publisher to post my stories with my own byline.

The articles have been well received, so I’ll share a few of the readers’ favorite posts on my blog normaburnson.com

In the meantime, everyday people have been very busy, quietly gardening in their backyards, terraces, rooftops, empty city lots, even vertically on walls.

But a slight misperception remained about the meaning and goals of Sustainable Food for the Globe.

Sometime ago, on my Facebook page, the question came up, Why don’t you write more about gardening? It seemed very odd.

Even though Sustainable Food for the Globe is based on everyday people gardening and producing food, the message is about Sustainable Food for the Globe. It’s not just gardening, but also many other things. It’s about reclaiming food already produced but deemed too ‘ugly’ or ‘imperfect’ to sell in a grocery store, producing food organically and more efficiently, reducing waste…In fact, you’ll see dozens of practical, innovative ideas in this book that are already working to increase food supply, to end hunger, to teach sustainability to future generations, all without great expense or hoopla.

Human beings are not the only living beings on Earth that eat and/or need sustenance. Think about it. I’m pretty sure that some of you can walk toward the kitchen window and see your bird feeder getting attacked by hungry squirrels all the time. So you figure out how to feed both, instead of one or the other. If you are lucky, you will see some grass, flowers, a vegetable garden and half a dozen trees or more.

It may be a small backyard, but in that little bit of Earth, there are all kinds of living beings searching for the food they need to survive.

You might spot a beautiful butterfly fluttering its wings on a flower. Flowers provide nectar and pollen. The nectar is sustenance for the butterfly and other pollinators, and these helpful insects then pay it forward by carrying the pollen to other plants to help them grow and produce more fruit and flowers for all to enjoy!

When you shift your point of view, a whole new vista opens up exactly where you are standing. All of a sudden, you see the intricacies of the natural world around you. You realize, we need the Earth; the Earth doesn’t need us.

The realization that the cars, roads, buildings, everything man has made, is not permanent hits us for the first time ever. Many of us are living our happy-go-lucky lives until Mother Nature strikes a powerful blow and shatters the man-made illusion that we are in control.

Scientists - men and women who use facts, analysis, and experiments, such as testing, re-testing, mathematics, what have you - are seriously concerned about the future of this planet.

You know what? So am I. Let me share this scenario with you: If I find myself and my loved ones close to a fire raging out of control, do you think I am going to go sit down at my computer and write a dissertation of what could be causing this fire?

Do you think I will get on the telephone to have a discussion, which could turn into a counter argument, on what is really causing the fire?

I don’t know what certain government officials will do. Hey, they might even stall or do nothing!

Not I, baby cakes. I would grab my loved ones, including my fur babies if possible, and run like the Dickens to safety.

Very interestingly, Mother Earth is sending us more urgent signals every day. Unless everyday people can envision these problems and create a solution, we – all of God’s living creations – are going to find ourselves in