By now, you must be dying to ask, "Hey, Pete, what's with the 'urban farm?'" So, I'll tell you....
...It all started eight years ago, while writing an argumentative essay for a college English class. I picked a topic I had seen in a newspaper headline: drilling for oil in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge. At the time, I thought, "Hey, why not? America needs oil and there's hardly anyone in Alaska, right?" My initial research yielded lots of articles and information in favor of drilling wells in the final five percent of Alaska's coastline not yet open to oil exploration. But then, I found reports from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In them was detailed information about the many small pockets of oil spread over most of the thin sliver of coastal tundra where caribou, musk oxen, polar bears, tens of thousands of birds, and many other species raise their young during the short summer months before starting their migrations, often thousands of miles long. So, I began to realize the impact that wells, roads, pipelines, oil spills, and trash would have on this unique habitat. (For more details, my essay can be read here.)
At that point, I had to ask myself, "If not oil, then what?" That question led me to solar and wind and renewable fuels, such as cellulosic ethanol (not starch-based), which can be made from hundreds of feedstocks, including about seventy percent of landfill materials. Fuel from trash? Suddenly the image of Christopher Lloyd putting banana peels and coffee grounds into a time-traveling Delorian came to mind. And then I read a speech given by William McDonough, in which he outlined three principles of "sustainability":
1. Waste Equals Food - Eliminate the concept of waste. There is only food for another metabolism.
2. Only Use Nature's Income - Nature does not go into debt to survive, so why should we?
3. Respect Biodiversity - Sustainable solutions must be tailored for each situation.
In the speech, McDonough quoted Thomas Jefferson (my paraphrasing):
...It all started eight years ago, while writing an argumentative essay for a college English class. I picked a topic I had seen in a newspaper headline: drilling for oil in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge. At the time, I thought, "Hey, why not? America needs oil and there's hardly anyone in Alaska, right?" My initial research yielded lots of articles and information in favor of drilling wells in the final five percent of Alaska's coastline not yet open to oil exploration. But then, I found reports from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In them was detailed information about the many small pockets of oil spread over most of the thin sliver of coastal tundra where caribou, musk oxen, polar bears, tens of thousands of birds, and many other species raise their young during the short summer months before starting their migrations, often thousands of miles long. So, I began to realize the impact that wells, roads, pipelines, oil spills, and trash would have on this unique habitat. (For more details, my essay can be read here.)
At that point, I had to ask myself, "If not oil, then what?" That question led me to solar and wind and renewable fuels, such as cellulosic ethanol (not starch-based), which can be made from hundreds of feedstocks, including about seventy percent of landfill materials. Fuel from trash? Suddenly the image of Christopher Lloyd putting banana peels and coffee grounds into a time-traveling Delorian came to mind. And then I read a speech given by William McDonough, in which he outlined three principles of "sustainability":
1. Waste Equals Food - Eliminate the concept of waste. There is only food for another metabolism.
2. Only Use Nature's Income - Nature does not go into debt to survive, so why should we?
3. Respect Biodiversity - Sustainable solutions must be tailored for each situation.
In the speech, McDonough quoted Thomas Jefferson (my paraphrasing):
The world belongs to the living; the dead have neither rights nor power over it.
Therefore, a man can only use what can be replenished during his lifetime,
or he creates a debt for future generations.
Generational tyranny? Planning for seven generations ahead? My father's words are always next in my mind: Always leave a place better than you found it. The "what" was crystal clear. But not the "how"...
So, I struggled from then on with what to do with this new realization. But I also lived my life. I moved to Los Angeles for six years, finished school, got married, and started working in the film business. I drove on the freeways and wished I didn't have to. I daydreamed about building lightweight, three-wheeled cars and installing solar panels on every roof in the city. I took long walks along a stretch of the L.A. River where the bed hadn't been cemented over and plants and wildlife abounded. I tried guerrilla gardening, and I started a small garden at my apartment complex. But some things fail, and I found myself back home in Northern California nursing a broken heart and figuring out what to do with my life. And slowly a picture formed in my mind. First, there was a rocking chair on the porch of a log cabin I would build. And then there were sheep and a garden to tend. But I met The One and the vision changed...an urban farm... a homestead where we could create a life together and honor each other and the Earth. And now, you can follow the rest of the story as we co-create it, rejoicing over the abundance of God and the Universe....
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