"Where Food Begins"--National Geographic

[cynthia_h]

"[url=https://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/09/soil/mann-text]Where Food Begins[/url]" is a *very important* story in the current NatGeo (September 2008).

Soil health, soil destruction, erosion, protection: an understanding of these processes is vital to the continued production of food.

This article is available on the Net at www.ngm.com together with several photos.

HOWEVER, I was stunned to read the entire article and the accompanying short on "[url=https://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/09/soil/bourne-text]Dirt Poor--Haiti has lost its soil--and the means to feed itself[/url]" and then realize that the word "compost" had not appeared once.

There must be regions of the world too poor in resources to make compost, but where there are sufficient plants and other resources, there's no reason to leave compost out of the soil-building and -protecting processes.

I was very affected by the short on Haiti. All my adult life, I had believed that the widespread poverty and starvation in Haiti were due to governmental corruption.

Not so. Read the short article to discover the devastating details of Haiti's plight.

Cynthia H.
USDA Zone 9, Sunset Zone 17

[cherlynn]

Cynthia,

Haiti should be a "wake up call" to the rest of the world. Thank you for the info. I will be passing it on to my family and friends.

[elevenplants]

The article does mention 'composting toilets', which according to wikipedia are "closed unit(s), not connected to a sewage system or septic tank, used to receive, contain, and compost human waste via aerobic biodegradation." I assume that in regions as poor as described, there might not be much else to compost. I do agree that composting methods should be taught and practiced wherever possible.

Very enlightening reading, thanks cynthia.


Rebecca

[Snippy]

It is very good reading. It is interesting to note though that the "modern" way of eating has also caused the world over to be impoverished. Processed food misuses our resources. Our most basic foods are polished to perfection and in the process there are valuable food losses. eg. white rice. There are many facets to food shortages.