Jaime de Zubeldia is one of the primary stewards and residents of ReZoNation Farm. He was introduced to gardening and beekeeping as a child, and studied biology before earning a degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Arizona. Jaime’s career began in land development, but his concerns over our society’s rapid consumption of resources compared with historical research of the demise of past civilizations, led him to question the long-term sustainability of cities and the rampant consolidation of food and seed industries. He believes that community-based, resource-efficient farming will be key in restoring the health of our soils, and in turn our communities.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

What'll It Be?

A lot has happened since the last post. Worm bins are on the verge of tripling in population. A chicken enclosure is being completed amongst twenty-eight eight-week-old Rhode Island Red, Buff Orpinton, and Barred Rock hens. Several hundred feet of irrigation line connecting the rainwaterharvesting system to the existing groundwater well lines is underway. Over 2000 lbs of alder, pine, and oak sawdust along with other hardwood odds and ends and pallets have found a new home in our resource pile, courtesy of a local woodworker who was tired of seeing this resource end up in the landfill. Ten raised garden beds have been constructed and are also nearing completion. My new role as a project certification reviewer on behalf of the USGBC is also beginning to take root which may allow me to stay home and work on more important things like creating biochar and compost from all this sawdust.

The intent of this project is to provide an answer to living in the midst of pending energy resource scarcity, and provide a transitional path towards building a regenerative environment to sustain some semblance of life. Yet underlying all these efforts is an increasing sense of urgency mixed with feelings of futility. The economic turbulence of 2008 has been an eye opening example of how our society is hardly prepared to change direction on a moments notice, or even a decades notice. Every day now is a question. Will everything fall apart or will the market rebound a few hundred points, buying us a bit more time and access to the resources we need to make this work…hopefully? Most of us haven’t even begun to prepare for other scenarios. If General Motors is too big to fail then obviously, so is industrialized society, but the reality is that our global economy, which is dependant on stable energy prices to do work, is like a concrete pond that is in need of total reconstruction, not a patch job, and to top it off we don’t have enough cement to do the job. Disappointingly, we are so pressured by our egos and fear of loss that we ensure the cogs of this gargantuan economic machine keep turning. This leaves little to no time to consider a plan B.

It’s this that I worry most about: the effort currently being expended here on the ‘farm’ comes at great cost. By the time the major portions of our projects are complete we will have spent about $8,000 to $10,000 and approximately 30-40 hrs per week on top of our other responsibilities, over the course of a year, to make this happen. All this after I spent many months during 07’ involved in ‘thoughtful and protracted observation’, planning, and design. So the question becomes, who and how many in this small community with limited resources have been working towards these same ends? If I consider myself to be only half way towards a safe transition point, what will become of the 95% of those people in my community that haven‘t had the time, resources, foresight, or will to adapt? If one of the more realistic scenarios unfold how will the contours of society change in relation to those of us on the fringes?

At this moment I’m reminded of an insight by an NPR radio show interviewee in Great Britain where the interest rate on savings accounts has been dropped to the lowest rate in the last 50 years…3%. Speaking and writing letters on behalf of historically diligent savers such as himself, he complains that the interest that he and his wife were once able to live comfortably on has dropped to 50% over the past year, and that they will most likely have to consider working again in the face of continued interest rate cuts. He pondered the ironical state of affairs saying, “There are many of us who have diligently saved our whole lives, and now our reward is that those who have not saved will be rewarded by interest rates cuts aimed at getting them to borrow and spend. Why are the savers being punished and the non-savers being rewarded?”

I see a troubling pattern solidifying in this observation and I hope I‘m wrong once more: that no matter how much I diligently plan and work at building this regenerative system, in effect saving future energy costs through stacking functions, in the end it will only be lost to those who have done nothing at all to help themselves. After all, without much research I would venture to say that the proportion of savers to non-savers on this planet is extremely low, and when push comes to shove, without significant resources it’s hard to deny millions of non-savers access to your hard earned cash or crop of fresh vegetables. Especially when they are starving. Environmentally speaking, the non-savers who have spent the health of our common assets such as air, soil, and water quality, may have already rendered our future climate inhospitable to even the most robust regenerative system anyone can imagine.

What then is the solution? Perhaps it’s to stop looking for solutions, become a non-saver, and enjoy the rest of your days at your favorite bar sipping gin and tonic? But if you’re following this blog I’d venture to say that answer doesn’t sit well with you either.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Day One…Or Shall I Say Year One?

Wow...three easy steps to blogging? Wish I knew it was this easy before. It wouldn't have taken me two years to start.

I guess I'll start off by introducing this blog. The purpose here is to track ongoing progress, or lack there of, of a monumental project in the Desert. Yes I meant to capitalize Desert. Sort of how spiritual individuals capitalize God - I do it out of respect. I'll explain.

The Desert, the Sonoran Desert to be exact, is where I'm located. About 20 miles west of Tucson, Arizona and 6 miles west of the intersection of Manville Rd. and Anway Rd. (Google Earth it) in a region known as the Avra Valley. I have great respect for the Desert as it can be the most unforgiving environment. My goal is to develop a working model of a retrofitted sustainable food producing system from basically nothing in one of the most inhospitable places on earth. I guess I like a challenge, but more importantly I understand the people and the climate here more than other places I have lived. The sunsets and multiple growing seasons also tend to offset the negative benefits of the scorching midday heat and destructive monsoon storms.

After a year of protracted and thoughtful observation and planning, this project is now 6 months old. I'll go into the details of it later as the notion of creating this blog comes at 3am and in 4 hours the garden needs to be watered. Sleep is a luxury these days, but the work is rewarding.

Why write a blog about a crazy food security project in the desert? I guess, like many before me and around the world, I have a message. The best way to convey it is by showing something tangible to those that live around or near me. Something they can feel with all their senses. This soon to be farm in the Desert is that message. A message that says there's something else to look forward to if you're not too proud and you're willing to work hard for it. And hard work it is. Fortunately, if things go as planned, it gets easier over time. After all, this is essentially a study of Energy. Use it wisely in all it's forms and you'll be rewarded. Ignore it and the Desert either conquers or consumes you.

Lastly, this project serves as a way to reflect on, study, and record the workings of a rural community as it relates to industrialized civilization. How these entities interact to resolve or in most cases ignore the constraints put upon them by problems that are global in nature attests to our human character and calls into question our ability to reign in the ego. Controlling the impetus of greed that seems to dominate our motivations then becomes the central most fundamental problem inhibiting progress or healing of a society. Farming The Desert is then an attempt to open a door to a new path of interacting with our environment including others around us. The fight over a disproportionate amount of resources has always been a central them in human history. However, we were all, in the not too distant past, much more dependent on each other for survival.