Sweating Together and Material Value

What a treat to talk to my good friend Elizabeth Mattocks last night. Elizabeth was my Americorps supervisor on Petij Jean Mountain, and she inspired me for being a strong woman and collaborative leader who encouraged her volunteers to work hard as a team and then to innovate individual projects to improve the community. Elizabeth hoed with all of us in the garden, badged her palms with pitch fork calluses, and ended many a day sitting in a circle with us in the break room. All were hot and sticky, all covered in dirt; a few arms were green from tomato vines. The rich dirt of Petij Jean Mountain rooted our Americorps community as we worked the earth together, our unique human energies commingling in the soil to produce sensuous wonders such as Valencia tomatoes and winter savory. My term on the mountain has ended as well as the Americorps program itself, which has shifted to a single horticultural internship in the summers. I miss the friends that I made there, especially Elizabeth. They were my first teachers in the garden and on the farmstead.

Elizabeth is now one of my closest friends, and now is a successful farm manager in North Carolina who “can not grow enough” for the growing demands of the local farmer’s markets. She is coming into town next week for the Southern SSAWG (Southern Sustainability Agricultural Working Group) Conference at which I will be volunteering. We made plans to hang out after the event. At the end of the conversation, she said, “You know, I were that scarf you gave me everywhere. It is my favorite. It was the first homemade gift that a friend ever gave to me.” I was shocked- the scarf had been a gift well over a year ago. It is interesting how working with the land and handcrafting items are similar in that they strengthen human relationships through the medium of particular things. Handmade scarves are softer to the stroke than those in stocked in a store and tomatoes shine more vibrantly orange or red on the vine than on a shelf and because they are entwined with a communal memories and gratitude.

Advancing Technology into our Natural Lives

The technological age is now fueled by the green spirit, or human energy is being invested into inventions that work within natural cycles to improve the ecological home shared by humans, plants, and animals. Over the Christmas break, my Dad and I have had fresh conversations about new inventions that work within marginal environments such as deserts. Many of these inventions mimic the process of nature, using energy from the earth's only outside energy source, the sun. They encourage the diversity of organisms necessary for a mature eco-system that is better capable os sustaining life than one closer to monocultures. Dad works at Future Fuels, one of the leading producers of biodiesel. My Dad told me about how algae is being grown to make fuel for vehicles. The algae is grown on arrid land that is not suitable for habitation or agriculture. The algae absorbs C02, allowing it offset the emmissions that occur when the fuel is burned. The balance of the intake and output of C02 would contributes to a greater stability of the atmosphere. 350, a number that Bill McKibben is working to make known world wide, is the maximum amount of C02 emmissions that could be emitted each year. The algae farms are still in development, but they are representative of the exciting developments that will be shaped by the global warming bottleneck.

I found one such invention when I picked up the New Yorker today, and found a surprising article on a new invention called the waterboxx. The invention would allow local people to plant trees in poor environments or deforested areas. The specific goal is to reforest desert areas that used to be fertile land, a great boon since increased desertification has resulted a third of the earth to become marginal, dry land. The waterboxx is an invention of biomimicry, that is it is modeled after natural processes. It mimics the way that a plants draws water, and the result is that a sapling recieves enough water to grow through the perilous first year, while at the same time developing tough roots so that it can endure the desert climate after the box is removed. The result is more trees to absorb the excess CO2 in the atmosphere. My Dad was excited to learn about the waterboxx, and we discussed how they could be useful for people who live in desert areas or for farmers who are repairing land damaged by monoculture. Having been on a mission trip to Haiti earlier this year, he commented, “ It would be neat to replant forests at the edges of deserts and begin working across them. If the biodegradable Waterboxx could be made much much cheaper (like less than $1 instead of 10s of $s), this would be more likely. Nearly the entire island of Haiti needs replanted in trees.” I could see integrating the waterboxx into an organization that is similiar to Heifer, in which small communities, families, women, and minorities are empowered to grow their own food or start their own small business. Fruits and vegetables make a colorful, healthy diet for affluent and imporvershed nations alike. Small green businesses can help the locals celebrate fresh food- a gift of technology, water, earth, and sun.