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Monday, September 27, 2010

DIRT, THE MOVIE

Thoughts on DIRT, THE MOVIE

Our planet has a skin, and just like our skin it is necessary for the proper functioning of the organism as a whole.  We can look at the living world and understand it as a complex organism, much more complicated than a human being.  To predict the future of our tenure here, this idea works much better than simply seeing the planet as a lump of inanimate matter for us to use and misuse. Since all life on earth depends on the ability of plants to use sunlight, water, carbon dioxide and minerals to make the food the whole chain of life depends on, we would do well to make sure we keep the dirt plants grow in available and healthy.

Recently I attended a showing of “DIRT, THE MOVIE,” presented by the Northwood Area Land Management Collaborative (NALMC) and the Deerfield Conservation Commission at Camp Yavneh in Northwood.  It’s a fascinating and emotionally draining movie, uplifting, scary, painful, hopeful.  KInd of a metaphor for our times.

It is easy to forget when we shop in a modern supermarket that ALL that food is dependent for its production on that layer of dirt that covers much of the land masses of the planet.  Nor do we usually consider that the quality of nutrition we get from our food is dependent on the health of the soil in which it grows.  To make sure we can continue to feed ourselves, we need to make some changes in how we treat “dirt.”

To illustrate how we can make changes, I am going to look at a local phenomenon that appeared in the last couple of years in our area, the explosive growth in the number of farmers markets. Those of us who take time out of our already busy lives to get farmers markets started, who support local agriculture and local small-scale food processors, are looking for several advantages to eating and shopping “local.”  One thing is quality, knowing the person who grew or made the product, and often being able to visit the places where the food is grown or the kitchen where the bread is baked.  Another is sustaining the environment that supports us.  A third is to provide local jobs, to promote economic development on a scale that suits smaller rural towns.

Perhaps, most of all for me, local food provides some security. I am more comfortable if I know I don’t have to depend on almost all my food coming from far away, subject to sudden rises in transportation costs or interruptions in supply from natural disasters.  While I don’t expect we will produce all the food we need here in New England, we could produce a lot more than we do.  John Carroll at UNH says, in his book Pastures of Plenty, that we have some wonderful grazing land in New England, and we could branch out from dairy farming to grass-fed beef, sheep, pigs, and other livestock, with breeds which do well in our climate.  We can grow many things in greenhouses and other protected growing areas, as well as in open fields.

Small scale agriculture preserves the soil.  The demand for organic food, or even food that isn’t grown with a lot of chemicals, increases every year.  A farmer learns quickly that having healthy dirt makes much less work, and is less expensive than trying to fix it once it is leached of its nutrients and filled with toxins.  There is more to food than volume and cheapness.  Better to eat less and eat better.

There are many, many more issues concerning dirt, from mountain-top removal and associated poisoning of water supplies, to deforestation, from drought associated with climate change to erosion that carries the soil away into the oceans and resource wars as people migrate to escape starvation.  It all seems overwhelming, but the movie ends with the reminder that if each of us does a small part, we can accomplish things that seem impossible at first.  However, this does require some changes in attitude, the ability to see that no particular way of doing things needs to be the end all and be all forever, a willingness to work together, rather than each of us grasping for our own at the expense of others, and leadership in our communities.

I singled out the local agriculture movement as an example of working in a small way to solve a big problem because we are all familiar with it in NH now.  It is part of a response to a major issue that will take many different approaches to solve.  There are no magic bullets for the big problems we face, we need to be creative, and find things to do that, added together, make the difference.  This is actually a good thing, because it gives us all a part to play, and getting involved in the community is a lot of fun.  You meet the best people if you will give it a try.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

I love libraries!

I stopped today at the Chesley Memorial Library in Northwood for their Open House.  I asked the librarians what I could do as a state representative for libraries, knowing that in some states the libraries are being cut way back.   Both of them told me that I should support the state library services to the town libraries, since they depend so much on interlibrary loans which are done through the state library to get the books that are requested by patrons that they don't have on their shelves.

In hard times, libraries are a great resource for all of us.  Here's a great link to ideas on how to save money using your public library.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Cost-shifting

As we look for ways to support the functions that our state can more efficiently and effectively do for us all than we can do for ourselves, it is important not to be taken in by cost-cutting measures that do not really solve our problem.  Very often what looks like cost-cutting turns out to be cost-shifting, because there are things that simply need to be taken care of by government, and if we are not careful, our towns end up with the burden.  We all know how we fund towns.  Yes, property taxes.


Did you know that our towns are mandated to be the first line in caring for those of our citizens who run into trouble getting food, a roof over their heads, and medical care when they fall upon hard times?  While we always try to find other sources of immediate aid, and we do require repayment if at all possible down the line, we still have to have our welfare budget, and in the recession those have been substantial.

Don’t let yourself be distracted by the apparent ease of some fiscal proposals.  Make sure you do your research and ask some town and county officials what effect those supposedly easy cost-cutting measures have on us as property tax payers.