The Starving Moon
by Hardscrabble Farmer | Posted Apr 8, 2015
I spent the better part of the weekend cleaning up the detritus left behind the melting snow; where heaps of it had been piled up from plowing all winter there remained random piles of wood chips, abandoned toys, broken garden stakes and the like. No matter how well prepared you think that you are before the first storm hits there are always things forgotten and left behind that are buried in drifts and stay that way until the big thaw leaves them out in the open again, like tide lines at the beach. I moved load after load of wood chips to the sacrifices where the herds gathered all winter to suck up the muck and add carbon to the composting manures, brought out the splitters and added another ten cords of logs to the saw yard to be cut up in blocks. Towards the end of the day I raked out the raised beds and planted seeds; arugula, Russian kale, butter crunch, snow peas and radishes. Our larder had become so bare that the only vegetables we have left from the fall are two butternut squashes, maybe ten pounds of soft and sprouted potatoes and some garlic. We still have the mason jars of preserved dilly beans and the like, but fresh vegetables — nada. The American Indians of the northeast refered to the last full moon as the Starving Moon, for obvious reasons. The preserved stores were either in short supply or gone completely, the game scarce, the earliest plants yet to germinate. The maple sap served as a bridge, the precious sugars something to tide them over until the warmth of spring set in for good.
Americans depend on two forms of sustenance — imported and domestically produced. In some ways we handle our need for food in a manner that makes it readily available year round for a smaller fraction of our annual income than most countires do. In some ways, not so much. We produce most of our own vegetables, but only a fraction of our seafood. Corn and its by products are readily available and inexpensive at the point of purchase for example, but were it not for massive government subsidies, enormous amounts of petrochemical inputs and copious use of genetically modified seed resistant to herbicides and pesticides along with supply chains that reach across a continent, it would be unobtainable for most. Those supply chains, fertilizers, herbicides and distribution channels are also dependent entirely on cheap oil which as many have noticed has not gotten much cheaper even as the price per barrel has declined on a global market reeling from prolonged economic contraction. An interesting side note is that today 98% of our population depends upon the output of 2% for 100% of their daily dietary needs. Most Americans have little or no idea where their food comes from, how to produce it on their own or even — based on the obesity levels of today — how to eat for the purpose of living a healthy life. In any other place or time this would be considered as disasterous for a nation, something worth addressing if not altering. In another place, or time, that is.
No comments:
Post a Comment