Poop

The snow is almost completely gone. The Almanac is calling for more snow during the month, but I really am hoping they are wrong. I'm having the itch to get outdoors. Sadly, they are probably right considering they have been spot on target in the past this year.

I spent part of my afternoon picking up dog poop in my yard and composting it. It's a dirty job, but needs to be done to get good soil without buying destructive fertilizers. I am currently reading, The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan (see picture in previous post). I am learning about the Polyface farm located not too farm from us in Swoope, Virginia. They have a philosophy that goes beyond USDA organic standards. For them, it's not just the food that is organic...it's their farm.

Large industrial farms operate like you would think...and industrial machine. They buy all the pesticides and fertilizer, grow (probably corn) in a monoculture (only focusing on one crop), and have a large output (good and bad). They have to spend a lot of money on their crop in which they have a high yield, but at the same time they have a high yield of pollution which is destructive to our environment, our food, and our bodies.

Polyface is not like this industrial machine. Their farm is essentially self sustaining. They use all the manure to fertilize their 100 acre pasture, they use the cows to eat the pasture, they use chickens to debug the cow poop, eat bugs in the pasture, and add needed nitrogen to the soil, they add pigs to compost the extra manure that fills up in the barn...each animals waste goes to provide for the other animals. It's a circle that is mimicking a natural habitat, but done better. That's what God has called us to do...to cultivate the nature around us. You can see this does not operate like a machine. It's like a living organism, a body, something organic (even though they aren't USDA Certified, and don't want to fall under those government regulations).

This is the future of sustainable organic farming. You can't keep this up in the industrial organic farms, which are largely operated by companies without an organic philosophy...they only grow organic to fill a market desire and to make a buck. We need to start buying and eating from local growers as much as possible.

So...as I gather poop from my yard I feel I am contributing is some small way to this self-sustaining farm life. I know my manure is from a house pet, which isn't getting his food from a sustaining source...which probably means I am not practicing at all what they are at Polyface. Nonetheless, I am not putting to waste what I have been made steward over. This makes me happy and like I am doing what God designed man to do.