John Suavecito

Great ideas, Joshua!
I have planted walnut trees in public parks in low income areas.  So far, they are all tolerated.  I tried to do it so no one would notice at first.  Portland is pretty pro that sort of thing anyway.

John S
PDX OR

https://www.facebook.com/events/432017940742060/

In Lents, Sunday Sept. 8th, by Lents Collective.
John S
PDX OR

I decided that since I am making limited amounts of biochar with each batch, I would need to decide where to put it.  

WE have naturally acidic soils due to high rainfall.  I checked mine and it was ph 5.4  Too acidic.  I have added ag lime since then, but I still think we're on the acidic side.

There are lists on the internet showing the preferred ph of each tree.  I checked to see which of my plants prefers neutral to alkaline soils.  Then I decided to create a circle

around the dripline of each tree that preferred neutral to alkaline soils.  

For me the big ones are persimmon, Asian plum, and pie cherry.  After reading one of Redhawk's emails, I decided that the best way of getting the biochar in deep was to get out a shovel and dig

a trench around each tree, by digging the shovel it and pushing it back and forth.  I completed the rings on some of the trees and they seem to be happy.  More pie cherries than ever before.  

My new plan is to drop nutritive waste on top of the circles.  Since biochar is hotels for microbes and their attendant nutrients, rotten fruit placed above the circle could help populate the biochar.  

Of course I inoculated it with nutrition for weeks before putting it into the garden.  It seems to me that the indigenous of South America intentionally placed their organic waste in the pits with the biochar and they had great results.

They are long gone, but the soil is still unbelievably fertile there.  

John S
PDX OR

Bike to work and for errands, move around a lot at work (teacher). Go on walks as social activity with family.  skateboard and play baseball a lot.  Sometimes canoe, kayak, hang glide, paraglide. Lots of work in the food forest.  Decided to create a mini-gym at home so I can be here with the family.  Weight training is highly recommended for longevity and injury avoidance. Super cheap: stacked paint cans for weight rack, boogie boards for bench, bleach bottles and pulley, $1 metal bar from Restore, rope for lat pull down machine.  Craigs list weights.  No fees.  

John S
PDX OR

I love to think about how abundance could be organized in the future.  In my neighborhood, we have a local sharing/trade group. Realistically, to paraphrase Yogi Berra, 50% of the group is 90% social.  Maybe there will be organized tour/shares of gardens.  Maybe people will come out in their spare time and help work on neighborhood food forests, getting food in return. Maybe it will be socially organized with musicians and health workers sharing ideas, like a farmer's market.   Maybe lonely old homeowners will encourage young energetic poor people to come and develop their land.  This sort of thing is already happening in many areas of the US.
John S
PDX OR

I just saw this article and it addresses an interesting question-can Food Forests really make a difference in hunger?

https://civileats.com/2019/08/14/can-food-forests-fight-hunger/


Whaddya think? I liked it. I also think that one big public food forest is not enough for an urban area. Many people should take it on.  Almost any homeowner can grow something. People can teach each other and share experiments.  Cuba had everybody growing stuff. Same with Russia. Italy does a lot of stuff like this too.

JOhn S
PDX OR

I'm not going to discuss 1976-1980 with Chad anymore because I can't even begin to start speculating about what sort of vested interest he guesses I must have in that period. The discussion is not logical anymore.

Weston Price Foundation is a great resource.  He wrote a book about 100 years ago after traveling the world trying to find the healthiest teeth, then healthiest people. SOme of their advocates aren't completely balanced or research driven, but they are good at bringing out an intriguing point of view. The book he wrote, which is called something like "Physical degeneration......." is a great resource.  

John S
PDX OR

Obfuscation? Do you really think I'm trying to hide the data like the cigarette industry? Do you think I make profits from greatly declining health?  It's hard for me to understand your point.

Yes, there was a bump during that period. I remember that period vividly.  That was also the period where Jimmy Carter talked about our "national malaise" of lack of meaning amidst stagflation, the energy crisis, and the Iran hostage crisis. We were a culturally lost people.  Cocaine and disco.  I'm also still alive now, and the problems have steadily continued to get worse.  If you want to focus on that period, and block out everything else,  like I said,  dwell on it.  Be my guest.

Just because the American brain culturally prefers to find one pinpoint answer to every problem doesn't mean that it really gets solved that way.

The overwhelming evidence as I see it, from innumerable vetted sources including double blind placebo controlled studies is that the report is one of many, many sources.  If we focus only on that one, we will be absolutely unable to recover our health.  I aspire to focus on what we can do to become healthier in the future, not blame a narrow window of the past.

John S
PDX OR

Chad-
Your video details changes through 2010 and 2015 as well. If you want to stop paying attention after 1984, that's up to you. If you want to believe that it's all about the dietary guidelines, go for it.   I can't tell you how many doctors and PHD's I've listened to that said it is all due to this one factor.  And then listed one of the things I mentioned.  Almost always a different one.  I just listened to Ari Whitten on the Slim Gut summit annihilate the idea that it could be just carbs.  It is convenient for us and comforting to think that we can attribute all of the problems to one thing. Then we avoid that one thing, and we're ok.  I agree that the dietary guidelines are a factor, but we've got a huge problem on our hands, and we won't solve it by pointing to one of the many factors.
John S
PDX OR

Since 1977, there have been a lot more changes than more carb.  More fat, fewer vegies, more sugar, bigger portions, more soda, more meat, way more pills from Big Pharma,  more toxins, more processed food, more video games, more sedentary, Less hiking and camping, most young people staying indoors, young people don't ride bikes anymore, etc.  Deciding its due to the carb isn't clear. Others blame meat, processed food, sugar, etc.  

I just finished listening to the Keto Edge summit. What amazed me is how the plant based and keto docs are now coming to almost a consensus.  Low processed carbs, low meat, lots of vegies and herbs, some fruit and berries, some fats like nuts, olives, avocado, coconut,  movement and exercise, purpose, community, spirituality. Cycling through big carb days, keto days, and fasting days.  They sound almost the same.

The longest "study" I can think of is the Blue Zones.  They hardly eat meat.  They eat a lot of weeds, vegies, stuff from their gardens.  Not a lot of fat.  Almost nothing processed.  Low stress.  If it's processed, THEY process it by chopping it up. It's not done months earlier by a corporate giant thousands of miles away and left in storage. They are connected to the Earth and their communities.  Sounds like a good life to me.

John S
PDX OR