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January 18, 2014

For or Against the Grain?



I included a Three Sisters Companion Planting tutorial in the last 'zine I did:

http://zinelibrary.info/new-connections-manifesto

but I am currently reading Against the Grain:  How Agriculture Has Hijacked Civilization by Richard Manning, and along with all the the Green Anarchist/Anti-Civilization/Primitivist thinking I've been around especially over the last two or so years along with retrospect on the two farm seasons of actually doing the Three Sisters Companion Planting, I've been questioning grain consumption and production quite a bit more than I have before.  Does anyone have comments to post on grain?
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4 comments:

  1. Shoshin FarmerJanuary 18, 2014 at 5:38 PM

    Does the author discuss the nuances between monoculture grain production versus polycultural planting (ala three sisters)? I'd be curious to read some information regarding the impacts of grain production on indigenous cultures and how that compares with those groups of people that were more hunter gatherers. When I hear about a critique regarding grain production it always makes me think of buffalo bird women and her people, and how they were very proficient farmers.

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  2. Shoshin FarmerJanuary 18, 2014 at 5:43 PM

    Interview with the author
    http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2004/04/the-scourge-of-agriculture/303120/

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    1. AnonymousJanuary 19, 2014 at 6:25 PM

      I'm not sure yet about monoculture, but the author does differentiate between hunters and gatherers who only supplemented their diets with agriculture, people who developed agriculture on their own, and conquering farmers who destroyed other societies as they colonized the land. Manning seems to respect the corn culture of indigenous North Americans at the point in the book I'm in. Thanks for finding the article, I'll try to read it when I'm done with the book!

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  3. AnonymousJanuary 23, 2014 at 12:37 PM

    Interesting article! I would love to read the book...I've been reading some things that make me wonder about grain consumption, but also have long thought that agriculture may have represented a wrong turn for humanity. I am very interested in reading Manning's ideas for solutions.

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