Since I’ve been growing food in the city I’ve been concerned about soil contamination. One answer, innovated by urban farmers in New York is to lay down a thick layer of tree mulch and build raised beds on top. This is similar to packing lots of condoms and going on a sex holiday in Africa. It might work out but doesn’t do anything for the underlying problem. As a real solution, I’ve been curious about bio-remediation of soils but haven’t delved into it in any meaningful way. Paul Stamets at the TED conference gives an incredibly optimistic and inspiring presentation about the unseen world and work of mycelium. Check it out.
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Random Inspiration
Too much and for too long, we seem to have surrendered personal excellence and community value in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product, now, is over eight hundred billion dollars a year, but that GNP — if we judge the United States of America by that — that GNP counts air pollution and cigarette advertising and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and it counts nuclear warheads, and armored cars for the police to fight riots in our cities. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.
Yet the Gross National Product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.