I found it interesting that the idea of composting came from these countries. The idea seems so much more modern, so it was surprising that these practices had been in use for thousands of years. I also found it funny how the Europeans and Americans who traveled to India and China thought that they were going to teach the indigenous peoples how to create agricultural systems, but they ended up learning from them and took the ideas of composting and cover cropping.
This chapter does a great way of once again highlighting how systematic racism has impacted so many different groups of people. The different laws that were passed to disenfranchise asian immigrants and Asian Americans, as well as the Japanese internment camps, almost destroyed any chance of people being able to make a living and employ the practices that they used back in their home countries.
The conclusion really wraps up the ideas of the book well. The ideas that land needs to be redistributed and shared among the people so that there is greater opportunity. In chapter four, the importance of letting people develop long lasting relationships with the land lets regenerative systems be created. The book tied together the different struggles that minority groups face/have faced throughout history, and how they are often related to one another.
1 comment:
I was also very surprised that the U.S. got the idea of using compost from Asia. But if you think about it, it really starts to make a lot of sense. One of the main philosophies present in their traditional farming systems is that no energy goes unused. Even so called "waste" products that may not produce food can still be broken down into essential nutrients and minerals. If we have the knowledge that compost can be an extremely useful method for providing organic fertilizer to our farm fields, then why isn't it used on a larger scale? Like in many cases, the answer is most likely profit. Large corporations that provide these farms with convenient, easy to use synthetic fertilizers have a very big financial reason for limiting the use of compost.
Post a Comment