pdc+++ module 3 class 7. food sovereignty part i

M3.7 PDC+++M3.7 PDC+++To return the control of food to each local community is something essential to creating sustainable societies. Only installing this practice as habitual would change other systems a lot, amongst them the economy, soil regeneration & ecosystem & human health.

We explore the importance of food sovereignty & how it works in practice. Included in this class is an exploration in some detail in the various organic food-growing styles that can be used, in small & large scale, with examples of good practice in different areas of the planet.

of the

PDC++ +

M3.7 Food Sovereigntyan integral exploration

Wangari Maathai

"Until you dig a hole, you plant a tree,

you water it and make it survive,

you haven't done a thing. You are just talking."

The people are

starving. They need

food; they need

medicine; they need

education. They do

not need a

skyscraper to house

the ruling party and

a 24-hour TV

station.

Kenia, April 1th 1940 - September 25th 2011

• The Via Campesina Movement

• Basic Re-Connecting

• Types of Organic Agriculture

• Some Specific Foods

• Feeding the World

an integral exploration

M3.7 Food Sovereignty

La Via Campesina is the international movement which

brings together millions of peasants, small and medium-size farmers, landless people, women farmers, indigenous

people, migrants and agricultural workers from

around the world

La Via Campesina comprises about 150 local and national organizations in 70 countries from Africa, Asia, Europe

and the Americas. Altogether, it represents about 200 million farmers

The main goal of the movement is to realize

food sovereignty and stop the destructive neoliberal

process.

Food sovereignty is the right of people to healthy and culturally

appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define

their own food and agriculture systems.

7 PrinciplesFood: A Basic Human Right

Agrarian Reform

Protecting Natural Resources

Reorganizing Food Trade

Ending the Globalization of Hunger

Social Peace

Democratic control

access to food is a constitutional right

the land belongs to those who work it.

the right to practice sustainable management of natural resources and to conserve biodiversity free of restrictive intellectual property rights

Food is first and foremost a source of nutrition and only secondarily an item of trade

Regulation and taxation of speculative capital and a strictly enforced Code of Conduct for Multinational corporations (TNCs) is needed.

Food must not be used as a weapon. Smallholder farmers

must have direct input into formulating agricultural policies at all levels.

Food Sovereignty it's not just an ecological issue

it is mostly a political issue

For Example in Europe

The Community Agriculture Policy (CAP) receives around the 40% ot the European Budget

The CAP determines what kind of food we produce, How we market it and

what we eat

And it's being discussed right

now!!!(till the end of 2013)

To have a CAP based in Food

Sovereignty is vital to shape our future

around food

This one?

Or maybe this one?

How do we know what to eat?

•Habit, learning, propaganda, addictions, the markets (created by globalization), affordability

•Could a system as complex as our food-digestion system not be matched by an equally complex food-selection system?

•The food, diet & health 'industries' are some of the most powerful in the globalized economy

• Lots more money to be made out of ill-health (system set up to respond to the wrong signals)

What do we know about how to eat?

• Less (amount) & more often than we usually do

•More variety of nutrient-dense foods

•Much slower than we tend to eat

•With gratitude, appreciation & thanks (never when worried or tense)

•All of these seem to aid absorption (& we are what we absorb, not what we eat)

How do we know what to think? (& design for)

• Food is connected to our earliest memories & so becomes emotionally entangled with issues of comfort, love, survival & belonging

•We are unlikely to make rational choices about food with these powerful programs running (mostly unconsciously)

•So getting more conscious of our food issues (EVERYONE has some + our culture has) is key to good design about this vital theme.

Some big irrationalities around our 'normal'

foods•Wheat products are omni-present & mostly

highly addictive, allergenic & de-nutritive in current forms (chemicals + highly refined)

•Chestnuts have similar nutritional composition to wheat, but none of the health disadvantages + build instead of destroying soil

•Wild foods (weeds & animal 'pests') are vastly more nutritious than cultivated & bred foods

How do we know what to grow?

•When we grow our own food ... we choose more in terms of what can be grown (easily) than about what we 'like' to eat (minimax)

•More likely to choose food rationally: healthy choices rather than emotionally-driven ones.

•So growing some of your own food is a way of re-connecting with ONE self, not just re-connecting with the Earth & vital cycles

Extra Class coming up about Nutrition

•Why is there such a long & ongoing debate about optimum nutrition?

•What did we evolve eating & how do Leaver & Taker diets differ in general & in particular?

•What scientific studies are there about human nutrition & what do they conclude?

by Joseby Jose

Many Types of 'EcoFarming'• Fukuoka & Synergic Methods >> Emilia Hazelip

•BioDynamics >> Maria Thun

•BioIntensive >> John Jeevons

•Paredes en Crestall >> Gaspar Caballero

•Anastasia's Method >> 'Anastasia'

•& YOUR Style >> YOU

•+ your local's culture method/s if any

DESIGNDESIGNwith these!with these!

Some may be more Some may be more appropriate to some appropriate to some memes than others.memes than others.

HoweverHowever we we convince convince allall kinds of kinds of people to grow people to grow moremore

of their food is an of their food is an achievementachievement!!

Natural Farming (自然農法 )Fundamental principles:1.No tillage2.No fertilizer3.No pesticides4.No weeding5.No pruning

Objective:Facilitating nature’s (humans included) regenerationby changing the way we live (not just agriculture).

Cereal cultivation (Fukuoka style)

All weeds, insects, etc. allowed to liveSeeds broadcasted at the right moment

All work is done by hand (here’s a kama)

Rice seedlings growing between cloverHarvesting rice (barley seedlings under it)

Spreading rice straw over barley Sowing rice in maturing barley

Citrus & Vegetables Food Forest

Citrus, acacias, ornamentals, other fruits…

Lots of diversity, new varieties Humans, chickens, etc. integrated in orchard

Ancient technology for food conservation

Soil deeply worked by natural processes

Self-seeding saves work, more flowersTrees unpruned, easy & bountiful harvest

Observe, experiment, connect, enjoy

The soil on Spanish lands was terrible: dry, arid and without life.

I had no idea about what could be done, but I was certain of one thing: a

better way must exist

Emilia HazelipI was still a child when I realized myself that

adults had no idea about agriculture.

75% Water 25% Dry matter

20% Carbohydrates

5% N2 + Trace elements

From the Soil

From photosynthesis

Composition of a plant

The Synergetic effect is between the plants and the microorganism that inhabit the soil,

the plants' “digestive system”.

So the key in the Synergetic Agriculture is to keep the Plants/Soil Ecosystem intact

1- No digging2- No Fertilizers3- No Chemicals4- No Soil Compaction

The Synergetic Agriculture uses the plants (green manure, mulch) to feed the microorganisms that create the

fertility of the soil

Synergetic Agriculture Principles

The beds are created

accumulating the top soil

from the paths

Permanent tutors (iron, bamboo, etc..) for tomatoes, beans,

etc..

Irrigation pipes with a tap in

each bed

The planting Scheme is divided by Crop families that rotate in a systematic way

Leguminous for N2 fixation

Graminaceas for C

Cruciferous for tilling, deep soil conditioning and control of pests and diseases

And the benefits of segregation or combination of plants from the solanaceae, cucurbitaceae, and cruciferous families

An Example of crop rotation

Year 1

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 3

In summaryIn summary

Lots of mulchLots of mulch

Beneficial association strategies Beneficial association strategies (in time and space)(in time and space)

Leave the roots in the soilLeave the roots in the soil

Actitude, lots of observation and loveActitude, lots of observation and love

Raised Raised bedsbeds

Self-fertilization of the SoilSelf-fertilization of the Soil

BioDynamic Farming & Gardening

Rudolph Steiner (of Waldolf education)gave some lectures in

Mostly known for it's moon relationships to growing:

note there are 3 DIFFERENT cycles of the moon related to: 1) distance from the earth (gravitational pull)2) earth-moon-sun relationship (luminosity)3) moon's progression through the constellations (what sign/element)

Also some relationships to other planets are taken into account

1)

2)3)

Maria Thun - investigatoryearly lunar calendarwith lots of info

GOOD FOR PLANNING

>> very good videos in www.PermaCultureScience.org

BioIntensive Farming & Gardening

8 principles of Biointensive farming:

■Deep Soil Preparation■Composting■Intensive Planting■Companion Planting■Carbon Farming■Calorie Farming■Open Pollinated Seeds■Whole System Method

Nature prefers to grow plants together

intensively.

>> very good videos in www.PermaCultureScience.org

Nature likes life everywhere. Thus when we have an open area without plants in it, weeds and other plants

magically appear.

all while using a fraction of

the resources

These techniques can

also:

Produce 2 to 6 times more

food

Build the soil up to 60 times faster than in

nature, if properly used

Reduce by half or more the

amount of land needed

Statistics courtesy of Ecology Action

GROW BIOINTENSIVE mini-farming techniques

make it possible to grow food using:

67% to 88% less water

50% to 100% less fertilizer

99% less energy than commercial agriculture

Parades en Crestall1.Parada (Bed)2.No tilling or steping on the bed3.Crestall (mature compost)4.Drip Irrigation5.Rotation

Solanaceae

Compositae, Chenopodiaceae and Cucurbits

Umbelliferae and Liliaceae

Legumes and cruciferae

The key of the success of this methodolgy it's that is

a really simple way to start gardening

Anastasia Planting Method

Step 1: Put one or more of the seeds you intend to grow into your mouth under the tongue and hold them there for at least nine minutes.Step 2: Remove your shoes (and socks) and stand barefoot on the earth in the place you will be planting the seed(s).Step 3: Remove the seed(s) from your mouth and place them between the palms of your hands for about 30 seconds.

Anastasia in the Ringing Cedar's series advises that in order for the seed to know of "the human condition" a very specific process must be followed.

Each person must do this for their own seeds, for each requires different substances.

Anastasia Planting Method

Step 4: Raise the seed(s) up before your mouth and blow on it lightly, warming it with your breath.Step 5: Raise the seed(s) up high and present it / them to the celestrial bodies for another 30 seconds (to allow the seed to determine the moment of it's awakening with aid from the planets to make the correct substances just for you).Step 6: Plant the seed(s) by softening the dirt in an excavated hole with your fingers and bare toes (why? see below...) and spit into the hole as well. Afterwards do not water it for 3 days.

4455

Conventional Potatoes

Chicken Tractor Gardens

6 mini-ponds

Finca LunaCanarias

a wild mix of all those methods

Organic Matter

12 days after

first year, 2 months after(eaten lots of veggies!)

4488

most 'weeds' are

more nutritious than the

vegetables we 'like'

4499

mini-ponds

brassicas:young soil

5500

"Weeds" act as nursery

no pestsif system

balanced & well fed

What they all have in comon it's that they grow Organic Plants

It has been proven in different studies that plants which are fertilized organically are:

★much more resistant to plague & disease than those which are grown using chemical fertilizers ★especially against fungal desease★they are also more nutritious & healthy to eat ★they have higher protein synthesis★increase & regulate soil temperature ★erosion prevention

TRACE ELEMENTS (needed in very small quantities but vital)Fe - iron - probably missing, with Mg, if pH highZn - zinc - probably missing in dunesCu - copper - probably missing in costal plains Se - selenium - often missing (seaweed)Bo - barium - very often missing (seaweed)Mb - molybdenum - missing in deep & volcanic soilsCo - cobalt

PRIMARY - of the soilN - nitrogen - leguminous, urine, aquatic plantsP - potassium - ashes, leaves, bonesK - phosphorous - bones, bird guanoS - sulphur - elemental sulphur, volcanic mineral deposits, swampsCa - calcium - calcarious rocksMg - magnesium - dolomite

ELEMENTS necessary for healthy plants

BASIC (basic structure of all plants: are carbohydrates + water)C - carbon H - hydrogenO - oxygen

Scale of Interventions

1) Do Nothing

2) Pick by Hand

3) Biological Control

4) Chemical Control

(Re-design)

Health of soil (& people)

pdc+++ module 3 class 7. food sovereignty part i

Technology