Part One: Wendell Berry's
In the Presence of Fear was very intriguing, but his last essay, "In Distrust of Movements", was the most eye opening to me. I think the main take away from this essay was to be knowledgeable and understanding. Berry states, "One way we could describe the task ahead of us is by saying that we need to enlarge the consciousness and the conscience of the economy. Our economy needs to know- and care- what it is doing. This is revolutionary, of course, if you have a test for revolution, but it is also a matter of common sense" (38). Meaning that the more people who are informed about the topic on hand, in this case the economy, the better off they will be. I also agree with Berry when he calls this knowledge common sense. He also talks about how people in our society are not thankful for what they have and take the necessities in life, for granted. "Most people are now fed, clothed, sheltered from sources toward which they feel no gratitude and exercise no responsibility" (Berry 37). I would agree with that statement and even confess that I, myself, take the simple things in everyday life for granted.
Part Two: My research topic for Fresh, was learning more about vermicomposting. This is the act of using red wrigglers, tiger worms, and other earthworms to change organic waste into high quality compost consisting of decomposing vegetables, food waste, and vermicast. Vermicast is typically known as worm castings, or worm poop. So, these earthworms consume as much as their own body weight in organic matter and then their castings create a healthy and thriving environment for plants to grow in. This is because, "worm casts contain five times more nitrogen, seven times more phosphorus, and 11 time more potassium than ordinary soil, the main minerals needed for plant growth" (journeytoforever.org). These worm castings also create and ideal pH level that the plants can prosper in.
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| What vermicomposting can look like. |
Vermicomposting is pretty interesting, I had never heard of this before. My dad bought a composter a couple years ago and I'm familiar with how a food composter works, putting our rotten vegetables or fruits, egg shells, and even grass in the composter will eventually break down and produce nutrient full soil for our garden. But using worms to produce soil that is full of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium is very cool and I would imagine fairly cost effective.
ReplyDelete"Distrust in Movements" was pretty interesting, there is such a saturation of movements currently out there today that it takes away the importance of them. You turn on the T.V. and its like, oh another movement. Its probably not the right thing to do, but I don't even bother listening to them any more, its a full time job to keep up with it all. Nice post on vermicomposting also, nature seems to have all the answers there for us with the natural relationships already in place.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that I do to take the simple things in life for granted. I never knew anything about vermicomposting and after reading i found it very interesting. Never knew that simple worms could be used in that way.
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you talked about how people are no longer thankful for what they have. We live in materialistic society. People dont think about who made what they are wearing and what they eat. It is so easy to take things in life for granted. We often dont think about it .
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