Rich Bard is a wildlife biologist who began his career as a zookeeper. Having spent most of his adult life moving around the country working with various wild animals, he settled near the coast of Maine in 2004. Amid the striking beauty of this remote region, he passes the time with his family, hiking, snowshoeing, gardening and watching the tide ebb and flow.
| A Look at the Risky Side of Self-Sufficiency |
| Sunday, 13 November 2011 | Rich Bard | Blog Entry |
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Now that we've had a few weeks of summer weather, folks are eyeing their meager gardens with disgust. The new refrain heard at the market or hardware store these days is something like, "Did you get anything from your garden?" Potato blight, molds, fungus and insect pests of every sort, slugs, overpowering weeds and plain old lack of heat and sun have all conspired to ruin gardens across the region, whether hobby gardens like mine or commercial farms that people depend on for food and income. And it isn't just the crops. It's going to be a grim year for wild berry crisps, pies and cobblers. The apples are small and many trees have already dropped most of them for the squirrels, mice and deer. As I said, this is basically a disappointment. I'd like to eat from my own garden, or at least from local farmers. Failing that, though, I can just stop at the local supermarket or health-food store and buy plenty of beans, lettuce, potatoes, herbs, etc. But what if I couldn't? What if this summer happened years ago, before the industrial food complex gave us instant access to all the food we could eat in every season? Would historians be looking back on the famine of '09 in northern New England? How many people would starve or suffer from malnutrition, if all we had to last the winter is what we produced in the summer? In some parts of the world, of course, that is still the case. Droughts in Africa and cyclones in Asia cause human (and animal) death and disease due to crop failure, just as our near lack of summer would have if we didn't have the safety net of the commercial food supply. We independent-minded New Englanders are safe from famine this year and we should be thankful. This is an opportunity for humility and mindfulness of just how precarious our lives may be if we get our wish to be free of the fossil-fuel-laden grocery supply chain. And we do wish for that, at least many of us do to some extent, despite the risk. Perhaps next summer will be a better one for our gardens and farms, so that one evening the following February, we'll get to open a homemade and home-preserved jar of salsa and feel the satisfying buzz of self-reliance. Help the Earth, Spread the Word: Share this article with family and friends by clicking on the "Email This" or "Share This" links below right. Then see TODAY's OTHER TOP STORIES. Comments
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Written by Greg Castillo , September 18, 2009
Richard,
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Very interesting post. I hadn't thought of gardens this way. I'm a writer covering the home improvement industry from L.A., and I came across an organic animal and bug repellent that could help out a bit with this problem. Bobbex Repellents... Check 'em out. Thanks for the info!
Written by amy kaplan , September 07, 2009
It's probably worth exploring how people handled the variables in years past. I mean people lived with these variables and found ways to save surplus in good years, for example.
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They'd also slaughter an animal or two and salt it and eat that and beans all winter. You raise a good point-- there's reason why we have the food distribution system we have no because even, say, 75 years ago, famine could happen in our country if there was too much dependence on buying local. We forget these things. |
This was almost the summer that never came. After a reasonably nice early spring, things turned cold and wet in Maine and across New England. It wasn't until the beginning of August that we had two hot, sunny days back to back. For the most part, it was an inconvenience and a conversation starter. "Wet enough for ya?" But for those of us striving to increase our self-reliance and sustainability while decreasing our carbon footprint, a summer like this is a reason to think seriously about the implications of self-sufficiency. 
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In the past, my focus has been on saving wildlife http://demiandthedolphins.authorsxpress.com, but it makes sense that wildlife depends on these gardens too.