Environmental Consciousness - Little Peace Farm

What bothers me lately, is the idea of balance.

That balance is scientifically described as a “steady-state” where the output of a given system is equal to its input.  Nearly any organism or inorganic creation that has an intake and a waste product needs to remain in the “steady-state”, or equilibrium, in order to remain sustainable.

Sustainable has become one of the flash words of the recent “Green” movement and has in turn lost the most significant part of its meaning.  That meaning, is, that to be sustainable, a species must not exceed its carrying capacity within a system.  Carrying capacity being the population size limits that allow a system to never “run out” of natural resources.

These concepts are the fundamental precepts of Environmental Science and are the true ideal goals of any Environmental Movement.  When looking at the creek banks in the Lehigh Parkway, it becomes apparent that the “steady state” of that system is out of whack.  Erosion of the banks, loss of biomass, increase in sedimentation, warming water temperatures, etc, are all examples of processes that are rampantly worsening outside of the “steady state”. 

The Parkway is a genuine microcosm of the attitude of our entire country.  We create more waste than any other species in the history of the planet on a daily basis.  Our waste, in some cases, is permanent and in all cases, devastating. There are islands of plastic in our oceans.  Small fish eat bits of that plastic and are in turn eaten by larger fish and so forth until ultimately, we are eating it.  Scientists are finding plastic inside the bodies of humans that have eaten fish from areas near the plastic continents.

The food we eat at chain restaurants, fast food joints, and big box supermarkets is produced in an unsustainable way.  I could go on for pages about the documented Environmental disaster that is factory farming and the modern food industry but I will instead encourage you to watch the trailer I have embedded below.  If you have Netflix, the film is available to watch instantly.  If not it will air on PBS on April 21st. This is a must see film.

The point of this post is to show that the connectivity observed in nature that preserves the “steady-state” is sadly contradicted by the unsustainable and polluting manner in which the human species currently lives. Everything you do, everything you use, directly affects the Environment around you.  The soap you wash yourself with, the chemicals you spray to clean the counters, the gas you use to power your automobile, the steroid injected-hormone laden meat and vegetables you eat –All of it – returns to the Environment and in turn, comes back as genetic defects, cancers, increased parasitism, and a whole host of other completely avoidable, humanly created problems.  

That said, I encourage you to check out Little Peace Farms. Here is a link to their website.

The farm is offering CSA’s for 2010 and there are spots still open for the CSA that will be run through the Plaza Growers Market in Allentown this spring and summer.  For those that don’t know, like the Emmaus and Easton farmer’s markets, The Plaza Growers Market is a weekly occurrence on Hamilton Street in downtown Allentown during the warm months.  The Market spotlights local, sustainably grown food and drink. 

Be part of the solution, not the waste.  Check out Little Peace Farm, The Plaza Growers Market and Food Inc.  

Also, for great ideas on how to cook the wonderful produce offered by places like Little Peace Farm check out

Save the Kales              and
Capri-Not Like The Pants

Those ladies know their stuff.