Today we look at the meaning of sustainability, where we are as a
culture, and what sustainble means to most people. Of course this is a
broad topic, and should be followed up in much more depth, but this
scratches the surface as to what I believe, and what I think needs to
be done to ensure that sustainability, actually is sustainable.
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Love sustainability.
Run, little doggie… be free. Run back to Tobuscus.
Upon leaves and chicken poop, I will build my sustainable empire.
Very interesting video
Luke, these are all great points and I think something that many of us struggle with when getting started with a more sustainable life. I have found that the more sustainable methods you discover the more they all work together to provide more. For instance, if you add chickens and other livestock you have more compostable material. Aquaponics can provide a fertilizer to supplement plants with the water changes/filter cleanings. It also seems that over time as you build good soil as you suggested the amount of nutrient you need to add becomes less making the goal of complete sustainability in reach. Thanks for sharing these types of discussions, I enjoy learning and discussing through your channel.
PLEASE READ: IMPORTANT INFO. I want to let you all know that we will NOT have a sustainable world so long as we have a monetary system. It just won't happen.. Why? Because our entire "economy" is based on consuming.. If people stop consuming, we lose jobs, if we lose jobs we don't have money to purchase goods. We must understand that we are where we are because money. Companies are constantly trying to make more money so we use the Earth as an inventory. If we all stopped consuming or shopping for a month then the entire economy would collapse.. If we all ONLY supported sustainable living our economy would collapse. Why? Because sustainable living doesn't consume as much and therefore doesn't circulate money. Sustainability is AGAINST economic growth. It is the enemy! Why do you think companies are so hesitant to be sustainable? It destroys market share long term. If we gave up oil imagine how much money would be lost if we could get free energy from the sun. If we all ate healthy & grew our own food, imagine how much money would be lost in healthcare & supermarkets. THINK PEOPLE. It's too much to explain here but I suggest people WATCH: Paradise or Oblivion on YouTube.
To truly be sustainable we can't live with money. Simple fact. After that film WATCH: Economic Calculation in a Resource Based Economy & watch Peter Joseph on RT.
I hope people take the opportunity to educate yourselves with these videos because this will really straighten your views on ACTUALLY achieving a sustainable society.
Well I try. I cancelled the lawn spray and spread Miliorganite all over it a couple of times and the flowers and the garden. Leave in an subdivision so don't think I can have a pallet compost bin, but I did start a big worm bin and put all my shredded paper and veggie scraps in a big rubbermade container that's in the garage for next spring. Have been drying bananna peels and grinding up then rinsing out egg shells and grinding so I can scatter all over the plants and garden. used coffee grounds also.
Great video! You make some very valid points. I too, try very hard to be sustainable on my own and it's a never ending battle. There's always a new challenge that my garden throws at me that I feel I need to go to the farmer's store for. I live on the edge of a bayou and my soil was terrible before I made my own compost. Now, it's – just ok. It'll grow, but not enough to feed my family. Drives me mad.
What are some good gardening forums to join?
Personally I wouldn't stop using compost just because you can't make enough just from your own yard, you need to continue to add organic matter to continue the soil formation cycle and compost tea alone is probably good but not as good as making and adding compost as well. Besides why not use your neighbor's trash if they aren't going to? Why not use the cattle industry waste to make blood meal when the alternative is they still make it but it goes to no use? There will never be a world where every single person uses all their lawn clippings and food scraps and fallen leaves to make their own compost, there will always be those who don't and there will be extra. There will always be tree trimming waste, etc. I think a lot of self sufficient types get a little too hung up on the "self" part – its important to remember we are all in this together. Of course you can only effect the world with your own practices and choices, but its not necessary to cut yourself off from the system, you are a part of it if you want to be or not, and no one person can do everything. There is a reason we evolved to live in groups, because you can delegate and share responsibilities and "jobs" in the most efficient way possible but with all working together as a whole. I wouldn't worry too much about being sustainable in a vacuum – that is not sustainable either.
Great video Luke! You raised great points. Any unsustainable system will eventually have to become sustainable. That is the the definition of unsustainable, it cannot hold itself for long. Of course we can make the transition to sustainable less traumatic. Just because we cannot do perfect, doesn't mean we shouldn't strive to do good. Keep up the great work!
Sustainability is one of the catch phrases that is being abused but it is something to strive for, but unless we plan on living like the Amish, we can't beat up ourselves if we're not perfect. I just try to do and be better than the day before. Taking your neighbors waste and preventing it from going to the landfill is sustainable as long as they keep providing it to you. And, it's such a good thing to do. Someone else mentioned it, don't confuse "sustainability" with "self-sufficiency."
Good topic. I've been collecting neighborhood grass clippings too because I don't produce any. (I know well the look you get when you ask for them.) I like to think of my neighborhood as being somewhat sustainable. For example, I love to garden, but it's just me. So if a neighbor helps me with something (watering while I'm away, or giving me some used lumber to make raised beds), they get produce. I like to give my food away, but preferably to those who help me in some way. Not really bartering, but being neighborly, I guess.
Great video Luke. I dont ever think any one garden on its own can be sustainable because while you are taking resources out of it in terms of food, you will need to put back atleast that much or eventually your garden will have nothing left.
I think what you are doing by taking organic matter from neighbours that might otherwise be wasted is a great way to sustain the production of your garden.
As you say, people definitely need to be aware of how companies use the sustainability tag as a marketing tool and which companies are actually being sustainable.
I'm using compost tea since 3 years. It's a fabulous method to prevent disease and deficiency but it's not enough. The earth need organic matter to keep the soil alive. Add compost in your garden again or put mulch to create a decomposition of organic matter. Good work, Keep going!
excellent rant, dude.
Very well said, Luke! Great video 🙂
Luke, I had to do some research, because before this year the word "sustainable" wasn't really part of my vocabulary and now it seems to be thrown around like the work "Organic" where any product that says it's organic is good for you.
My thought of sustainable is what I'm already doing. Feeding my chickens leftovers from the garden and mowing, cleaning their pen and putting on the compost pile, eat their eggs, the egg shells get dried and micro-blended to feed the worms, worm castings and compost go in the garden beds. It's such a great perfect cycle of life or "sustainable". Am I wrong, or could do you think I could be doing more?
Great video, Luke! Well put. I think its tough these days given limited time, space and resources to be totally sustainable, but anything I can do to put back into my garden what I already have, I will do so. However, while I do put a high value on sustainable living, I do have other priorities that I value more – namely relationships with people in my life. So I do chose to buy some things instead of make them in order to spend more time with the people I love. Thanks for the thought provoking video!
Very good video. I agree with you about companies that use sustainability as a catchphrase to garner more business when their effort is only a minor percentage of their operation. You may be too hard judging your own efforts. OK, so you aren't 100%, you are a lot closer than I used to be and still better than I am now. Gutter cleanings and bone meal, otherwise known as waste, is being put back into the system by you! Its not going to a landfill! To put it another way, in baseball is a no-hitter a perfect game? I believe it is commonly understood to be, but by strict definition, a perfect game is 81 pitches, no more (no balls, no foulballs, just 81) strikes. Now, for me and sustainability, I'll take a no hitter anytime and work on my perfect game. 100% sustainability is like the pitcher's perfect game, nearly impossible to attain. Boy, do I get wordy, but it was an insightful video. Thanx
Interesting discussion, Luke! Using free external inputs that are being thrown away (e.g., wood chips, leaves, grass clippings, and used coffee grounds) to make your own compost wouldn't be sustainable if everyone were doing it, but that simply won't happen in our lifetimes. So, in my view, using free external inputs is definitely a sustainable practice. Perhaps not infinitely sustainable, but close enough.
Wow…. How Ironic. Saw a KeystoneXL advertisement on this video.
Hahaha
It's much easier to compost when I'm at home. When I'm away at college, I have to save my food scraps and other compostable materials to put in my compost back home.
i can only see true self-sufuciency and sustainability in a permaculture type farming model, but even there, you still need solar panels, tool supliers ,the ocasional vet visit, and ofc you have to use money to buy or rent the land.I for example, spent quite a bit of money on my first year gardening to get started, and i still spend on seeds, bt insecticide, chainsaw fuel and parts, water, chiken feed etc, but im realizing that, the more i work at it, the less i spend, so after the inicial inevtiment of time and money the garden starts payig you back with fruits , vegetables and so much abundance that i start feeding the animals with the surplus.i have stopped buys most vegetables and fruits and thats as far as i can go rigth now.
I'm so tired of companies capitalizing on buzzwords. "Green, Gluten Free, Artisan". Guess what! If you can buy it at Dominoes across the country, it's no longer Artisan!
I didn't read all the comments and maybe someone already suggested this, but in many suburban areas you can raise chickens. We're on 5 acres and have nearly 200 pet chickens,ducks, turkey and quail, but even a fraction of an acre usually allows 3-5 hens or so. We add everything from the barn – including soiled straw and hay – into our 4 rotating compost bins. We also add in weeds, garden leftovers, kitchen scraps, leaves, grass clippings etc., then I sprinkle some scratch grain on the compost piles. The chickens get in there and dig up the compost to get the grain so there's no turning ever needed! They're also contributing more nitrogen while they're in there digging around.We then cover a pile when it's full and has become nice rich dirt to keep the birds out so that any bacteria is aged out of it for 3 months, then put it in our raised garden beds. In the fall we add a layer or 2 of thick cardboard (we're in the fireplace business so we get lots of great big boxes), put leaves on top of the cardboard, then add used bedding from the coops until mid-December. That cooks down til March when we start planting cole crops, at which time we add some aged compost. Get yourself a few chickens and watch your compost pile really grow. They're hilarious to watch, fun to play with and give you organic breakfast too!
Excellent topic my friend! Sustainable gardening is very important to me. Your right I do get my leafs from my neighbour and my son's day home which is taking from their property to feed my garden and other local free resources to improve my soil. That said most of what I am intercepting is being sent to land fill which is a waste.
I hope one day to grow enough of my own organic material to be able to feed back into the garden. things like Comfrey, leaves and my own grass clippings will be the cornerstone with green manure and my own house hold organics.
With your move to compost teas next year it would be great to have you participate in the trials with @OneYardRevolution and myself. We are going to do a compost tea trial next year and it should be interesting!
Hope you had a great weekend my friend!
NO
Luke, what is that thing your puppy drags along with a wire attached to him?
There is this old Inca proverb that I really like. It says, "The frog does not drink up the pond in which it lives."