Category: Urban agriculture

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George Orwell and Food Security

George Orwell’s diaries are being posted to the web day by day, and we’ve noted some of his concerns about food and its production before. Seventy years ago, he had this to say about the value of food in times of crisis:

Sowed while at Wallington 40 or 50 lb. of potatoes, which might give 200 or 600 lbs. according to the season, etc. It would be queer – I hope it won’t be so, but it quite well may – if when this autumn comes those potatoes seem a more important achievement than all the articles, broadcasts, etc. I shall have done this year.

That he was even thinking such thoughts is interesting. Three days later he was musing about the conflict between “useless” animals and people over limited resources:

There are said to be still 2,000 racehorses in England, each of which will be eating 10-15 lb. of grain a day. I.e. these brutes are devouring every day the equivalent of the bread ration of a division of troops.

What did happen to racehorses during the war?

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Nibbles: Olive oil, Food security, Jamaica, Phillipines, EU seed laws, Sorghum

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Religion, diet and nutrition

We tend not to set too much store by religion around these parts, so a letter in response  1 to The Economist’s recent pieces on nutrition piqued our interest. It read, in part:

In the March issue of their magazine, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints reported on a food initiative which has taught many members to garden, even in small, urban spaces, and with whatever containers they can find. Started in 2009, these people have gone on to teach others in their communities how to increase their nutritional intake—and self-reliance—with just seeds, soil and sunlight.

Let me Google that for you. Better yet, having Googled it, let me fillet out the article in question and make it available all on its own. Turns out that not only are Mormons keen on urban and container gardening for diversity and nutrition, they’ve been so for quite a while. A former US secretary of Agriculture, Ezra Taft Benson, was President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and set out a very familiar vision of how to prepare for the Days of Tribulation:

Get together with others and seek permission to use a vacant lot for a garden, or rent a plot of ground and grow your gardens. Some elders quorums have done this as a quorum, and all who have participated have reaped the benefits of a vegetable and fruit harvest and the blessings of cooperation and family involvement. Many families have dug up lawn space for gardens.

That sounds like a modern manifesto to me. Of course, there’s an appeal to authority too:

President Brigham Young said, “If you are without bread, how much wisdom can you boast, and of what real utility are your talents, if you cannot procure for yourselves and save against a day of scarcity those substances designed to sustain your natural lives?”

One to ponder. Meanwhile, I wonder whether those members of the Mormon faith who heeded their presidents’ advice saw any impact on their nutrition?

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Nibbles: Desert legumes, BiH, Seedbombs, Workshops on food security, Mandrake, Productivity, Peppers, Cockles, Cassava