Backyard Food Forests

A lot of people talk about the environment, and that's great. But sometimes it feels like we are drowning in information... and much of it is bad news.

But what can you do about it? You have control of very little space in this world. And, if you're like my family, you live on a small plot of land in a neighborhood of lawns. You feel isolated from nature, which is quickly disappearing just beyond the horizon. Sure, there's the positive effects of nature, that everyone can benefit from. But who has the time?

If you're like most people, you spend much of your time at home or in your own yard. But how do you use that space? Do you make it available to local birds and pollinators? Or do you have it chemically treated so it's nice and green but lacks the diversity it needs to support local wildlife? Does it produce food for your family? Or do you get all of your food from the supermarket?

Hands down, the largest contributor to deforestation is agriculture. And deforestation is still happening at 10 times the rate at which it can be replenished. What that means is that, every vegetable, fruit or egg you harvest from your own backyard can contribute to wildlife protection. It also saves the fuel used in food production and transportation.

Did you know that you can actually reforest your yard with edible plants? Is that a cool idea, or what? Imagine your shrubs were full of berries, your trees laden with fruit, and your groundcover filled with edible herbs and vegetables. It is possible; you just need to start thinking more like the edge of a forest.

Edges are the most productive places in nature. Think about the wall of vegetation at the edge of a forest, the crowding of plants along the edge of a road, or the rich diversity of an estuary. This can be good or bad, from a human perspective. Too many unnatural edges in the wrong places can lead to population explosions of opportunistic plants, like poison ivy or bittersweet. But, in a managed environment, like your backyard, you can use this effect to create an abundance of food.

There is now scientific evidence to suggest that exposure to nature can improve your health and state of mind - even just a little bit of nature can help. There is also reason to believe that exposure to healthy soil can significantly improve your mood. So doesn't it make sense to bring nature into your own backyard? Why not feed yourself at the same time?

A number of movements have arisen in the past several decades that can help you learn more about food forests. Here are links to a few resources to get you started:

The Permaculture Research Institute offers a number of articles and courses, both online and in person.

Food Not Lawns is a movement that can teach you how to turn your yard back into a natural paradise.

It would benefit you to do a year of research and observation before diving into such a big project. If you can't spare that much time, you should at least do some research and planning before investing in plants and trees that may be around for a generation: here is an article on how to get started.

Finally, if you are looking for a fun way to get some exposure to new plants and concepts, check out my Food Forest card game. Most of the profits from every purchase will be spent on reforestation projects around the world.

I'd be interested to hear how your project goes. I have just moved into a new home, where I intend to live for a long, long time. Over the next 5 years I will be transforming an otherwise unproductive lawn into a thriving food forest. Right now, I'm doing my observation and planning year. I'm drawing diagrams of the yard showing sun patterns, rainfall, human usage and soil quality. This year, my gardens will be mostly annuals but I'll be gradually adding perennial food plants into the mix until I have a regular jungle in my backyard!

I'll keep you posted on that...

The Big Plan to Support Reforestation?

So I've talked a bit about reforestation on this blog. A few posts ago, I wrote about Plant22.com, my super-secret project to sell American-made products to support reforestation.

A lot of talk, right?

Actually, I've been doing it. And that's why I haven't had much time to chat about reforestation. In fact, I did a bit more than I promised. In fact, created a card game that teaches about building your own food forest. And I've been selling it online for 2 years now, raising money for reforestation. Through this fundraising, we have already donated thousands of dollars to reforestation - basically all of the profits we've raised after taxes and expenses. Last year I donated so much that the company took a loss. My accountant was not impressed!

So why haven't you heard anything more about it on this blog? I don't really know. I guess it's because I've been so darned busy with the project. In fact, I really thought I had announced it here but it turns out I had not!

The most direct way to support reforestation is still through organizations like The Eden Reforestation Projects. But the Food Forest Card Game offers people a great way to learn about food forests, buy a responsible game, or do a little environmentally responsible birthday or Christmas shopping. The game includes as much recycled content as possible, is produced locally (7 miles from my Rhode Island home) with renewable energy, and is shipped in recycled/compostable packaging.

If you get a chance, please check it out: www.FoodForestCardGame.com

Cheers!

Making the Most of Your Environmental Footprint

We love simplifications.  Seeing the world through one particular lens helps us to make sense of that which is too complex for us to understand.  So please forgive me in advance for simplifying a problem which is actually very complex.  And yet...

I sometimes see the world as being divided into several types of people. 

1. Scientific Believers: this first type sees the earth as the source of infinite resources which can never be exhausted so long as scientific progress continues at its current pace.  Science, they believe, will continue to solve the world's resource problems as they arise, thus we need not worry about global warming, deforestation, political instability and lack of water.
2. Religious Fatalists: these folks believe that humans are completely at the mercy of God and, regardless what they do, God will sort it out -- either by taking some subset of the population to heaven or by making it all better here on earth.
3. Doom and Gloomers: these are people who believe that nothing can be done to save the world and, therefore, he who dies with the most toys wins -- at least in the short run.
4. Ostriches: these are folks who would fall into one of the three previous categories but are afraid to take their heads out of the sand.
5. Responsibility Takers: this is a small, yet growing, group of people who believe that, regardless of the eventual outcome, they need to take personal responsibility for their own ecological footprint -- and their own community's survival.  Driven by different motivations, these people may be "Preppers", Permaculture enthusiasts, or simply back-to-the-land, do-it-yourselfers.  These are the people who give me hope.

According to CarryingCapacity.org, the ecological footprint of one, average, American is about 12 acres.  To be clear, that's the amount of land currently necessary to sustain one average American individual indefinitely.  That includes food, fiber and other resources, including disposal -- I do not believe that this includes motor fuel.

So you and I are each responsible for the continued use of 12 acres.  A family of 4 Americans is responsible for approximately 50 acres that must be reserved for growing our food and dumping our waste.

In 2010, the Stanford (University) News reported that most new farmland comes from cutting tropical forest.   This article also commented on the release of carbon into the atmosphere through this deforestation.  For people who care about the environment, this is not news.  Of the top ten drivers of deforestation, the top 4 are related to inefficient food production.  And the saddest part of this equation is that this land is not farmed sustainably and, within a short span of time, will be turned into unproductive wasteland, requiring further deforestation of virgin forest.

So what can you do to stop this trend?  Unbelievably, it has been demonstrated that the necessary calories to feed a person can actually be produced on 1/2 acre of land or less.  Here is a model for a family of four to produce all of their own food on only 2 acres.  However, very few people will do this for themselves and, if they did, they would need to spend all of their time doing so and would have almost no time remaining to earn money to buy computers or to blog about all of the neat things they were doing.  :)

Toby Hemenway wrote a neat article about the myth of self-reliance and I feel that he really hit the nail on the head.  As the organizer of Providence Permaculture, I, too, have never met anyone who has become completely self-reliant on a two (or a 100) acre farm.  And, quite honestly, who would want to?  Community is one of the greatest assets we have and, without it, life would hardly be worth living.  Historically, communities have often been self-sufficient on limited resources.  One modern equivalent to these historic communities is outlined in the philosophy and practice of Permaculture.

Permaculture studies how to maximize fertility and yield while optimizing your environmental footprint.  Farming can actually be done in a way that sequesters carbon, improves the soil, improves the landscape and enriches the community.  If we direct our focus on building connections with others, building responsible communities, enriching our soil and reducing our environmental footprint, we can reduce the acreage needed for our own survival, sequester more carbon, grow more food and live without worrying about carrying capacity and carbon footprints.

Appropriately, this kind of movement only grows from the ground up.  Government won't plant our lawns with food instead of grass.  Government won't provide positive role-models to your neighbors who spray pesticides and send their compostable "waste" to the landfill.  We are living in a time of unlimited waste, and "waste" is simply "unused resources".  American society provides virtually unlimited resources for those who are willing to use them -- and by doing so you can start reducing your own footprint, as well as that of your neighbors and friends.

So connect and barter.  Share your surplus and buy locally, responsibly produced foods.  Eat less meat.  Wear more hand-me-downs and thrift shop clothes; bike more; reuse and compost; research Permaculture.  You will find this lifestyle to be not just more efficient, but also more empowering and more fun.

If we are to thrive as a species, we need to make changes.  We can go there kicking and screaming or we can take the reigns.  So ask yourself, what kind of person are you?

Why Trees?

Trees on the Woonasquatucket River near Mowry Commons, Smithfield, RI

You've been breathing oxygen today.  That's nothing new, you breathe oxygen every day.  You have also been using electricity, and perhaps even driving a car, leaving behind puffs of carbon dioxide.  You may have eaten an apple, an orange or a banana.  You printed out a document at work and you, no doubt, sat on something at least partly made of wood.  Your house may be made of wood, as is your kitchen cutting board, your bookcases, your flooring and that picture frame on your bureau.  Right now you probably have a half-drunk cup of tea or coffee within arm's reach -- each of those is the product of a bush.

Without trees, none of these things would be possible.  We tend to forget how much we rely on these beautiful, dendritic lives that exist all around us, quietly, humbly making things happen.

When I was a child, I would climb to the top of a great white pine that once towered over our Cape Cod cottage.  It has since been replaced by three smaller pear trees, a row of lilacs, and an adolescent maple, none of which is strong enough to climb.  I am sorry that my son will never see the Hen Cove from that makeshift crow's nest, so high above the surrounding rooftops.

I love to split wood.  A wood fire is a blessing.  And pruning trees can be great meditation. 

We owe so much to trees, yet many people have a NIMBY kind of approach to them.  Trees drop inconvenient leaves all over our nice green grass.  Their roots turn a flat lawn into a lumpy mess.  They attract wildlife, which can be inconvenient for those prefer a more sterile existence. 

Have you ever wondered just how many trees it takes to offset the carbon from your car's emissions?
According to Carbonify.com's handy carbon calculator, a car that gets 40 miles to the gallon requires about 18 mature trees to offset about 12,000 miles of  yearly driving.  According to this New York Times article, one acre of mature deciduous forest offsets the carbon produced by driving 2.7 average cars for one year.  And that's just driving.  You also heat your home, eat tree fruit, use paper towels, and do many other things that require trees.  How many cars does your family own?  And how many acres of trees?

It is these complex equations that brought me to the conclusion that reforestation must be a global priority.  We, as human beings, desperately need to reforest the many millions of deforested miles that should be producing oxygen, sequestering carbon, and producing the food and timber for the next generation.  Along with local plantings, this is work that we can responsibly outsource.  People around the world need jobs.  Many of them live in the areas that have practiced aggressive deforestation.  They can improve their own lives and support themselves doing this work, if we are willing to fund it.

So what can you do?  How can you support the planting of trees?  There are lots of ways to help.  As I have often mentioned on this blog, The Eden Reforestation Projects does a fabulous job turning your donations into trees and jobs.  My own company, Plant22.com will, as of 2015, be offering American made products, the sale of which will support The Eden Projects.

If you live in a city, you can work with local tree-planting groups to help reforest vacant lots and sidewalk spaces.  If you live in the country, you can grow your own trees. And fruit trees make great gifts, especially if given in complementary, cross-pollinating pairs.  You can also advocate for more forested parks with walking trails, and sensible development policies that preserve forest and minimize large, grassy lawns.  Lawns might look nice but they require up to 3x the amount of carbon, because of mowing and watering, than they sequester in the earth.  Compare that to a garden or a forest and you can see why planting trees, bushes and perennial gardens is a much healthier proposition.  Planting your yard with wildflowers, instead of grass, is another sensible option.

If we, as a species, would like to carry on healthfully into the coming centuries, our current attitudes toward trees must change.  This kind of change starts at home.  Trees are an amazing investment.  How else can you turn an hour of your time into a thousand pounds of eventual product?  For pennies today, you can create real value tomorrow. 

Isn't it time we all got started?

Obama, Xi Jinping Climate Deal - Happily, We Can Do Better

As much as it's great to see China and the United States finally talking about climate, we have to ask the bigger question: "are the numbers truly meaningful?"

Well, I've been digging into some numbers and, to be blunt, I believe the answer is "no".

In Wednesday's CO2 agreement, President Obama pledged to reduce carbon emissions by "as much as 28%" from 2005 levels by the year 2025.  Xi Jinping pledged to peak China's carbon dioxide emissions in 2030.  Currently the US produces 16% of the world's carbon dioxide emissions and is gradually improving on this number, at least partly due to the natural gas now available through new "fracking" techniques (another thorny issue).  China produces 26% of the world's carbon emissions, and its CO2 output is growing exponentially [reference].

The world is currently absorbing only about half of the CO2 that humans produce.  By 2030, if this deal goes as planned, China's CO2 output could be four, eight or even sixteen times what it is today.

To meet this dubious goal, China will build hundreds, if not thousands, of nuclear power plants, as well as other "clean energy" production facilities, ostensibly by damming rivers and clearing forests for massive solar arrays.

Why do they need this much more energy?  So they can make more shoddy clothing, toys and disposable junk?

The upshot is that top-down solutions are not working.  If this is the best that the “top” has to offer, we must stop looking to the “top” for solutions.  What is needed, instead, is a bottom up change in priorities. 

So, let’s start from the bottom, with one of the most carbon & energy-intensive industries: big agriculture and remote food production.

Right now, less than 2% of the US population is involved in agricultural production.  In effect, that leaves 98% of Americans “food-insecure”.  The food we eat is grown by strangers on giant, distant farms, lacks nutritional value, and carries a huge carbon (and environmental) footprint.  While 98% of Americans toil at non-agricultural jobs, 70% are unhappy at work.  Many feel their jobs are pointless and their careers unstable, and many are concerned about the high cost of putting healthful food on the table. 

To sum it up: we work at disappointing jobs in pursuit of security that our leaders are unwilling or unable to provide.

Now for the kicker: according to recent studies, jobs in “agriculture, forestry and fishing” are some of the most rewarding professions.  They are dangerous, dirty, and often unprofitable, yet workers in these jobs are some of the happiest of all. 

Weird.  Maybe 98% of us are missing the boat.

Here is an equation that can change the world: Happiness + food security + community = wealth.

Where do we find happiness, food security and community? How about “agriculture, forestry and fishing” for a start?

• Local and back-yard agriculture produces healthier, potentially carbon-neutral, food.
• Forests cool the local environment, produce food and timber, absorb CO2, and increase wildlife.
• Fishing requires clean water and careful management.  Small agriculture and forestry can improve water quality, whereas big agriculture contributes heavily to water pollution.

Farming, forestry and fishing are both rewarding and cost-effective.  They are also mostly apolitical, non-partisan and largely uncontroversial.  Republicans and Democrats alike enjoy walking in the forest, eating fresh food and fishing in clean streams.  So do the Chinese, for that matter.

These pursuits bring people together over cooperative, satisfying work.  They give us purpose.

As individuals and communities, we must lead by example.  When we plant vegetable gardens and forests for ourselves and each other, we demonstrate how rewarding, and secure, life can be.  And we must publicize these successes -- at home and in China.  Every community that comes together over food, forestry and fishing can serve as an example to the next.  We must form connections and friendships across cultural boundaries.  Only by spreading our success can we hope to succeed on a global scale.

While communities become more food-secure, other sustainability issues must be addressed.  We must stop buying junk from far away, and start buying quality products from each other.  It’s all part of the same package.  So, while our leaders bicker over carbon emissions, we can be taking productive steps toward a happier, more sustainable future, from the bottom up. 

In the end, keeping the world inhabitable is everybody’s business.  Take a small step today, then take another step tomorrow.  Share your successes.  Before you know it, you'll be part of the solution.

Plant22.com

Since the beginning of this blog, I have thought quite a bit about how to best fund reforestation efforts.  This has been an exploration and a struggle.  I have tried planting trees.  But how many can I actually plant?  I have tried encouraging friends to contribute, but that's a tough row to hoe.  Everyone cares but nobody has the time.  I have even tried starting a meet up group in my town of Providence, RI.  Check out PermacultureProvidence.org.  That's my best effort to date.  It is thriving, with 56 members and counting in only four months, which proves that I am getting better at this effort....  but is it really enough?

Fortunately, trees grow like weeds here in New England.  This is a blessing and a curse for an activist.  Of what value is it to reforest an abandoned lot when that lot is already reforesting itself?  Although I will continue to plant high-value edible plants here in Rhode Island, what the world really needs is more trees planted in deforested wastelands.

Now that my son is 7 and in first grade, I have a little more time to strategize.  No longer am I trying to do the crazy balance of working part-time and playing stay-at-home dad.  Yes, I still have seven years of home maintenance to catch up on, but I also have the luxury to procrastinate the least immediate issues, like the peeling corner boards and the compacted lawn.  And when I have time to strategize, I tend to come up with big projects.  This one is a biggie!

I have rallied several friends and we are starting a business.  It is called Plant22.com.  Right now it is totally behind the scenes, but we are building it.  The goal is to sell environmentally responsible products, made in the USA, and have an average of 22 trees planted for every product purchased.

For most of our lives, businesses have been perfecting the science of offshore sourcing and production in low-wage regions of the world.  In the process we, as consumers, have passively, often unknowingly, encouraged some pretty terrible stuff.  The result has been human and environmental catastrophes.  Now we know, but sometimes it almost seems to late to go back...

The idea is to turn this model on its head. 

At Plant22.com, we are building a marketplace where the products are American made, and proceeds go to replanting forests and jungles.  The store will sell products that we rely on every day.  It will sell games that have nothing to do with computers.  It will sell healthy kitchen products and clothes that are made in the USA.  It will harness the power and efficiency of e-commerce to support artisans, artists and hard-working Americans while, at the same time, giving aid to Haiti, Ethiopia, Madagascar and other deforested countries.  That aid will be in the form of reforestation work done by the local communities.

Everyone will benefit:

• Customers will find quality, heirloom products, made to last for generations.
• American craftspeople will benefit from meaningful work and fair salaries
• Poorer countries will benefit from the regeneration of natural resources
• Communities will learn responsible forestry, investing sweat equity and building confidence.
• Everyone will feel good about working together to make a difference

We will do this by partnering with great organizations like The Eden Projects.  These folks know how to get the job done.  While raise funds by selling responsible products, they will be out there in the trenches, working in the communities and teaching people how to plant trees.

Our store is on the verge of becoming a reality.  Keep your eyes open for the soft-launch and crowd-funding campaign.

Plant22.com 
Believe in the future!

The Limits of Reforestation vs. Unlimited Faith

We spend so much breath saying things can't be done. 

In searching the web for reforestation articles I find so much defeatism.  For example, with respect to Haitian reforestation, it often takes the form of bigotry and anger with the Haitian traditional method of charcoal cooking (see the comments below this article).  With scientists it is all about pragmatism "you can't solve the problem with reforestation, it's only part of the solution." See this article.

What the cynics are missing is the simple fact that we need to change minds.  If a society can embrace reforestation, and reforestation's sister, permaculture, it must, of necessity, become aware of other necessary changes.  Success has an effect on behavior.  For instance, were Haitians able to plant more trees and shift to a permaculture model, it seems impossible to me that they would not "get it".  How could they continue to burn the trees they were planting once their livelihoods depended on these same trees?  For more on permaculture transformations see Geoff Lawton's web site.

Now I am not a bible beater by any stretch.  And it sometimes seems that good intentions have done as much harm as good in many areas of the world (including Haiti) by promoting a culture reliant on handouts.  But these same good intentions are often lifesaving.  I find, you might say oddly, that it is often religious individuals who are actually doing something -- rather than just talking about it.   I just love that these kids got out there and planted 999 trees in a week.  It's not even a fraction of what is needed, of course, but it is really something -- and it is leading by example.  If they inspire one Haitian to carry on planting, it could change the entire course of history for this small island nation.

I am happy to say that there are more and more hopeful stories popping up on the web with respect to Haiti.  It is only a small country, and reforestation on Haiti is not going to make much difference to the world climate.  But with respect to the climate of and stability of Haiti itself, reforestation and permaculture could dramatically improve the lives of 10 million people.  See this article for an unusually upbeat story along these lines.

Many in Haiti are still focused only on survival.  But there are some who are working to move beyond the dual tragedies of natural disaster and disease.  Sadhana Forest is an organization that is doing just that.  They have planted 40,000 trees thus far, and they will let you be part of the solution if you so choose.  Check it out.