Summer 2008 Editorial

I listen to the news less and less these days but when I do I hear article after article talking about or related to nutrition and sustainable development. The latest and most recent concerns the second generation of GM crops which are to be nutritionally enhanced - The GM community is trying to grow food for nutrition!

We are now being asked to consider accepting crops that have been engineered to increase their content of certain nutrients. This, it is argued, will not only tackle degenerative disease but will also be more sustainable. For example, the omega 3 essential fatty acid helps lower cholesterol and ward off heart disease but it's only found in fish. Engineering a plant to contain omega 3 will help reduce the pressure on already dwindling supplies of fish stock and help decrease the incidence of heart disease. Brilliant - it's a convincing argument that's bound to appeal to many. Heart disease is the No I killer in the West.

Another creation is to enhance the level of flavonoids. This covers a range of micro-nutrients called anti-oxidants that are found to occur naturally in many vegetables. Research is currently underway to increase the production of these tiny nutrients in tomatoes. Apparently we now have the creation of a purple tomato. Again, it's another brilliant and clever piece of marketing because it is linked to the second biggest killer in the West - cancer. But will it ever work?

Despite the issues and campaigning against GM crops in Europe the pressure to accept them is relentless. According to the news on Radio 4 there are now 12 million farmers in 23 countries using GM crops. If we do not join in and help develop this new technology, it is argued, we will simply get left behind and become the poorer for it.

I can't believe the timing of me hearing about this latest development.

In a way it's perfect because it coincides with the completion of my final article on nutrition inspired by Sowing the Seed lectures delivered to the Acorn School a year ago. The aim of this was to understand what nutrition is. From the science of nutrition to spiritual science we have considered the different views and followed them through to the quality of food associated with each. In this concluding article I look at the impact our understanding has on the environment and ask which is more likely to be sustainable. This I believe is the only true test of whether our view of nutrition works or not.

To date many of the claims made to support GM crops have been shown to fail. Increased yields and reduction in the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides have not been delivered. Call me sceptical but whilst the aims of GM nutrition appear to be admirable I can't help thinking that what really lies behind it is economics. This connects to the idea of competing against nature which, I have argued, is creating the problems of degenerating health of both humans and the planet in the first place.

We are only a little charity but with big ideas of Moving Beyond Organic where our aim too - is to grow food for nutrition. It's like David and Goliath. In completing this series of articles I feel I have managed to lay down a platform from which to begin our argument that to grow food for nutrition involves learning how to cooperate with nature and with each other.

This has been the most challenging piece of writing I have ever had to do. But now I am done I hope others will help develop it. I have come to realise that because the subject matter includes a spiritual element which involves feelings and emotions the task of putting it into words, for me, is extremely difficult. I am sure others can do much better and 1 welcome your comments and contributions. I also warmly invite you to attend this year's AGM so we may discuss this face to face and transform thinking into action.

Matt Adams

The above is taken from the GGA quarterly News Journal. You can join GGA here

NO DIG GARDENING. HOW TO GET GOING FROM SCRATCH

Let’s get going! How do you start no-dig growing from scratch is the question I'm most often asked (after the one about why no-dig in the first place, see 'To Dig or Not to Dig?', last issue). Apologies to GGA members who've heard this all before - this is for the more recent readers.

The method described here is a permaculture inspired 'sheet mulch' technique, which has worked very effectively on my heavy Cheltenham clay. This method of 'breaking in' weedy or grassed areas, actually creates good soil above the original level, rather like nature does on the forest floor, without any disturbance to the soil. Worms and micro-organisms are left to do their job, to create healthy living soil, and the electro-magnetic fields of the earth are left undisturbed by metal tools. What's more, this is the perfect time to start planning your no-dig beds since you will need time to gather the following unused resources (otherwise considered 'waste' to the system) before you start planting about April.

What you will need is:

1) Thick sheets of cardboard eg. large brown cardboard boxes

2) Enough manure and home grown compost to cover your bed 6"- 8" (Even half rotted manure or really rough compost will do as you're not digging in. Whatever's free or cheap and local!)

3) Enough straw, garden shreddings or lawn mowings to give at least 6" layer.

4) Seed potatoes

5) Long sharp serrated knife (old bread carvers are perfect)

6) Bucket of good compost

Now before you turn the page, this is a lot easier to gather than you think. The amount of large brown cardboard boxes destined for landfill is criminal. Ask at any retailer, especially appliance shops, look out on dustbin day, put the word out to friends and neighbours, and in a few weeks you'll be inundated!

Manure is cheap and plentiful. Riding stables usually let you have it free if you bag it yourself. You'll need about a large bag or barrow load per metre square, so work out your beds first and guesstimate. If you can get compost, so much the better but that is usually in short supply and expensive. I have emptied my half decomposed heaps to make a sheet mulch bed to good end.

Straw is often for sale cheaply - I think the most I've paid is £5.00 for a large bale, but in the spring we're coming to the end of the season. Alternatives are shredding's and grass mowing's, or I even cut the spring couch for hay (don't let it seed though).

Method

Right, so you find all this stuff and select a suitable warm spring day (not too much wind is helpful when manhandling large sheets of cardboard!) and you make a start. First slash or squash down the weeds a bit if very high, and damp down if very dry. Cover the area of your beds (any shape you like, just cut the cardboard to fit with your serrated knife) with a double thickness of card (ie, boxes folded flat) and at least eight inches overlap to stop the light. If starting on lawn, don't remove the turf just lay cardboard on top. Cover this with compost or manure or mixture thereof to about six inches, eight if you have enough.

You then cut a criss-cross through the cardboard and lay a potato on the soil/weeds underneath, surround with a handful of good compost and cover over with the manure. Place potatoes about 18" apart, there's no need for spaces between rows (or even rows) as you will not be mounding up. The closer you space, the less your yield will be but the greater the light exclusion and weed suppression, which is the primary reason for this sheet mulch technique.

After you've sown all your spuds, cover the whole lot with a good clean layer of straw etc to stop summer weeds setting in the manure and to provide another light barrier to protect the potatoes from going green and allow the worms to do their job. You may want to keep adding fresh mulch in the summer I chuck on anything - weeds, kitchen green waste, mowings to ensure no light gets in.

Results

By end of July/August/September according to your potato variety, you can start pulling your spuds -literally. Pull the haulms and you will find the potatoes nestling in the layer of rich compost that has formed from the good nitrogen/carbon mix of the mulch. Amazingly, I have found that any surviving perennial weeds (some will come through the card eventually, try not to worry but pull off any bind weed as it emerges) will have their roots running along this nutrient-rich layer and can easily be pulled up with the spuds. In my experience best results occur if you sheet mulch areas which have been previously covered in carpet for a whole growing season, but this isn't essential.

Your yield may be smaller than normal (not always I've found) but you will have a lovely dark brown veggie bed ready for planting with winter crop seedlings such as brassicas or leeks, or sowing with autumn broad beans or an over-wintering green manure, rather than compacted lawn or weedy scrub. Potatoes are perfect for breaking in new ground in this way as they love the acidy manure and the tubers help the worms break up the soil, but I have also grown jerusalem artichokes, broad beans, and sweetcorn and courgettes in this way. (Tip - very large transplanted plants help deter slugs which prefer the young fresh growth)

by Alison Ensor