31 comments on Julian Darley and The Relocalization Movement
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GAIA Host Collective
Hwy 72 heads north east out of town less than 2 miles away.
The main north-south artery is one shopping frontage away to the west.
We are at the center of a triangle of roads in and out of the city. Yet we remain depressed. The more cul-de-sac section of our subdivision is better filled. Six to eight of the empty houses are on my ( the second ) street into the area. Whats truly amazing is that the area has been worse. Crack houses, several homes burned out cores, and we aren't even in the bad section of town, just old ranch houses of the early 70's, poor design, no way to keep warm, or cool.
The whole building design and structure of our cities is going to need to change!! Not just what we have!
What we have doesn't work! Never really did, we just fooled ourselves that it did.
A mandate to stop all new construction unless it meets a new energy saving design plan. Is that possible in the GREAT land of the UnWashed?
I have a book started where it all gets fixed, it'll be in the SciFi section if I ever get it finished, But the changes had to happen in a most radical way, and they hurt a lot, even in fiction. In the real world They will hurt a lot more! "The need is great and the workers are few." to borrow a phrase from the Bible ( changed for our needs ).
Your post got me to thinking about the difficulties involved in reclaiming suburban sprawl for agricultural use in an attempt at relocalization in a post-peak world.
I live in a suburb which is experiencing rapid growth due to large amounts of available farm land surrounding the much-older town center.
One thing I cannot help but notice as I see each new subdivision, shopping center and office complex project is that the first thing the construction teams do is to strip away the ENTIRE layer of topsoil (until they hit clay) on the piece of land being developed.
How long does it take for fertile topsoil to re-generate? Will it be decades or centuries before the land is suitable for agricultural use again (assuming you remove the buildings and parking lots)? Or even longer?
I know little about the dynamics of soil formation and erosion - comments from those who do are welcomed.
Simple composting and spreading is a start. Jevons adds to this with a fundementally different way to grow crops using double dug raised beds. Check it out at http://www.growbiointensive.org/biointensive/GROW-BIOINTENSIVE.html .
Another option is to try Lion Kuntz EcoSyn method
http://ecosyn.us/ecocity/Ecosyn/IBS_Math.html . Its harder to explain, but permits a more carnivorous diet than Jevons method.
There are no doubt other methods out there as well. All require an investment of time and resources to complete, which is why you don't see land returning to agriculture after development. It IS possible. It ISN'T easy. It won't happen until the fossil fuel subsidy for agriculture is with drawn. Only then will things change and people start ripping out blacktop and putting in farms.
I have pulled tons of rock out of the ground, ( mostly from a wooded area they planted houses on ), Back breaking work. Over time you can get enough to feed yourself and maybe a few others.
I have worked soil that had laid fallow for a decade, very good soil, wonderful soil, rich full of life, But I worked hard to get my crops, same result feed me and few others at max.
When we lose the OIL we will lose a lot of people, and have chaos for years, If you happen to live in a protected area, sure you can grow for yourself and a few others.
Have you done it, year on year, have you lived off the land? Do you know where the wild berrys grow? The plants you can eat, while your crops are getting their first shoots up? IF you think it will be easy!! Think 3 or more times harder than you are now!!
Trust me!! LIFE off the land with only your hand labor is not easy!!
Now Feed the rest of the world too, or teach them to live like you! Most city kids don't even know what a turnip is?
Will they know that Kale is good after the first frost, and that carrots really do need soft loamy soil and cool weather to grow big and sweet?
Oh and name me four (4) plants that grow in most lawns that you can eat?
We could well have several decades of expensive oil to learn. This is when i think the grass roots movements will expand at a rapid rate largely bypassing the government, i also think one of the major factors will be where you live. I live in the UK and believe while it might be very tough for awhile, but i hope our government will do the right things if given the chance and enough public pressure once peak oil is more known. This could range from grants for urban gardens to TV programs on living sustainability, who knows.
To simply say "When we lose the OIL we will lose a lot of people, and have chaos for years" is maybe one way things could go, but i would argue that is an unlikely and extreme outcome.
Yeah sometimes I tend to think to Peak Oil as "Peak USA".
We are the only country in the world that has planned its entire life around plentiful fossil fuels. Most other countries have or at least work hard on their plan "B" - in Germany or France you can very easily live without a car of your own; governments stimulate renewables and nuclear energy (soon to come back in Germany) and people generally like to live closer to each other. And maybe more importantly - people has not forgotten where they came from. It is the rich history of wars, crisises and suffering that made people learn that sticking together is the only chance for long-term survival.
Henry Ford, Interview in Chicago Tribune, May 25th, 1916
http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/24950.html
I wonder what the question was?
There have have been many papers, and reports, and books written about how TOP SOIL has gone "bye bye" in the world over the last few thousand years, since farming came into practice.
From the land use prospective. If it was former farm land and a House farm got built, or roads, or anything much more than just letting it go fallow, you will need a lot of effort to make it farmable again. Even veggie gardens will take a lot of work.
I have 3 decades of land use and study of lands and how to grow things on the land under my belt, Plus Construction Engineering and Landscape Architecture as a foundation for my information.
In general if you convert farmland to anything other than fallow land ( this inclueds trees and just over growth over years or centuries) You can ruin it for future farming without letting it go back to the natural way of things first. This natural way of things takes decades to work its wonders. DECADES!!
I see it happen, and I know the outcome, We are cutting our veins open and saying "we don't care"!!
In reality Farming never was a "wise use" option for land anyway! Living off the land means really letting the land give you its bounty without changing how we use the land! Go Look at every culture that used the land by farming it, you see the land dying around them.
But we are stuck. We farm, we fish, We need the land to make as much good food as it can, or else we die. OIL Peak is going to hurt us really bad!! FOOD WISE if nothing else.
I hate to see it this way, but the options aren't there!