Companion Planting at Navdanya
A friend, another Pilgrim of Peace to India, sent me this quote of the week from the Organics Consumers Association:
“Regulating by carbon trading is like fiddling as Rome burns. Governments and the UN should impose carbon tax on corporations, both for production — wherever their facilities are located — and for transport, which the Kyoto Protocol does not account for directly. Incentives for renewable energy are also essential. We face a stark choice: we can destroy the conditions for human life on the planet by clinging to ‘free-market’ fundamentalism, or we can secure our future by bringing commerce within the laws of ecological sustainability and social justice.”
This quote is by Vandana Shiva, an environmental leader, thinker and author of “Earth Democracy, Justice, Sustainability and Peace.” While this quote is very intellectual and she travels the world with her message of earth justice, her home base in the foothills of the Himalayas, Navdanya, which we visited as Pilgrims in India, is a very down to earth place. There we saw seed saving, turning cow dung into worm castings, and companion planting. These are all practical ways to grow that we have adapted in some small way into our urban home garden. (For companion planting see posting for September 21st.)
However, even in the foothills of the Himalayas there is no experience of the cold winter of Wisconsin. So as the fall chills finally arrive I am preparing my sun room for winter growing inside. I do not think my solar roof will be done for this winter, but I have enough to work with to make the room an effective growing location.
Be it outside on acres of land in India all year around, or inside an urban sun room for the winter months, the challenge of using natural, low tech, sustainable and effective ways of growing continues.
We need both the intellectual and down to earth ways of growing.
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