Thanks for the quick replies - they are a bit pessimistic, but I understand where you are coming from.
Yes, Brenda Groth I agree with you it does start in your community. My thought process is that the growing kits could be put together by the local churches to be shared with their members and others in the community or by people to their neighbors. I can see how this idea would not work if you just simply dropped them out of an airplane with a parachute attached.
I was bitten with the growing-my-own-food bug when I lived in the Philippines with my wife and kids for almost a year in 2008. We saw first hand how the rise in commodity prices put millions of Filipinos into poverty over night. We tried to help the best we could, but my knowledge was very limited. We did succeed in starting a seaweed farm, but ran out of time to commence our organic farm project. There were many that had their hands out for welfare, but we were determined to empower people to provide for themselves. So many of the Filipinos want to move off the island, yet I saw so many opportunities right there in their own back yards. Most do have a little property and there are also a lot of plots of land that could be rented via harvest sharing. The government even has over 200 hectares available on the island for those that wanted to farm a small parcel with no rent at all. Yet, so many didn’t have the knowledge nor the money for seeds and fertilizers (Fertilizer being the only farming that government teaches there.). There is one man on a different island that is doing a good job helping the Filipinos that I hoped to model after, you can learn more about his work at
http://www.ourchurch.com/view/?pageID=185925 . His work is what inspired me to try.
We had secured a 5 hectare parcel based on a 25% share with the land owner. The parcel was next door to many of the members of our church. The parcel had over 20 fruit trees from coconut, mango, banana, jack fruit, citrus, and others. Unfortunately, the economic crash also struck the company I worked for, which forced me back to the States; putting an end to my efforts.
Yes, I am striving to feed my own family. I currently rent a house that sits on a ¼ acre lot in a Suburb of Salt Lake City, Utah. I have four chickens in my backyard that I rotate everyday in a chicken tractor – should be kicking out their first eggs July 15. I have planted 3 square meter garden boxes with vegetables, planted my side yard with berries and other edible plants. I even have 5 fruit trees in cut-in-half 55 gallon barrels (Why not planted? I am renting so I didn’t want to put the trees in the ground, hoping to take them with me when I move). My next project is aquaponics to grow rainbow trout and more lettuces and greens. I have a compost pile made out of old pallets, I collected over 60 pots of dead flowers from a cemetery after Memorial Day harvesting the soil for more planting and putting the dead flowers in my compost bin, I take home the coffin grinds from my office – even though I don’t drink coffee – to feed my worms in my worm farm (est. 4,000 worms strong now), and I even have my wife and kids trained to save all the seeds from our favorite fruits to grow next spring. Yes, I learning a great deal, but have a long way to go.
My vision is simple: If I can help one person grow one plant that provides them food I have just empowered them to start down the path of self-reliance.
That is my goal. I appreciate your help. Please submit your selections of varieties that you would use.
Thanks!
