A Declaration of Interdependence

(Inspired by the teaching of Rei Yoon, Natural Farmer)

I declare myself Steward of the domain in which I am in any given moment, place or time, inclusive of the land, soil and supported living systems. I am, of the body I inhabit, of the communities in which I am responsive, in support of a New Natural republic of interconnected Stewardships.

Stewardship defined by functions (interconnected within all of creation) towards a  universal ideal of balance. Balance brought to the evils and ills of soil, body and society through farming or gardening as a healing activism:

Of the Soil. Solutions are in the soil. SOIL FIRST. Without organic matter, microorganisms cannot establish habitat. Without organic matter and microorganisms, water cannot be held in soils towards a resilient balanced living system. Plants are the basis of all life. Without organic matter, the diversity of indigenous microorganisms can’t function, activating the soil as a water-sponge. Soil as a sponge is the basis for plants, microbes and insects to express their full potential and maintain resilience. Without plants in expression of their full genetic potential, balance of all living systems cannot be achieved and maintained.

Of the Body. Wild and free. Healing begins in the Soil. What emerges from soil returns to soil. What I feed my body and soil are one. We are ONE, soil, microorganisms, plants, animals, people and all manifest creation. Corruptions arise when any natural cycle is broken, when waste is created through broken cycles of return. A return to cyclic balances is a return to basics, interdependent, redundant and delightfully complex.

Our body is nature in expression, principle based, cyclic in nature. Nature is the first grower, gardener, farmer. We attend to nature and ourselves, stewarding as one body. Gardening and farming are not separate from life, and are not luxury. If gardening is life, all expressions are in attendance to balance cycles, including those of village functions (houses, possessions, bodies and cycles of the bodies including all feces, urine, manures, clay and ash). With all our life and expression being brought within the realm of gardening, what is a simple way forward, a simple life? This is the essential question of all activities towards reactivations as natural beings.

Of the Soul. Truth is simple. As natural beings within the MEST universe (matter, energy, space and time), I recognize Natural Law. I do as Nature does. I approach nature with observational curiosity, with intent set towards spiritual harmony and respect for creation. While a traveler in this creation, I am active in listening responsiveness through heart connectedness.

Of Society. As in nature, so in the garden and culture. All practice, even in a variety of technical applications (functional redundancies) is guided by sound understanding of nature’s cycles. There is no One Solution, no ‘magic bullet’, no isolates or patented secrets. No One Microorganism. Where there is diversity, nature thrives. If technical applications work abundantly towards this diversity, it is good.

I resist engagement in lies, even unto myself. I listen for the softer, persistent voice of the heart and respond with healthy patience and discrimination to reactive solutions-based, ego responses and ‘fix-it’ attitudes. I acknowledge remediation, once balances are broken, is difficult. I acknowledge chemical and salt degradation are difficult to balance and require time and commitment to process which includes data collection and simple side by side citizen science demonstrations through observation first followed by measured ‘acting-to-know’  methodologies. I approach nature as my guide in all remediations and propagations with humility and deep gratitude for what persists and amplifies towards balanced systems and healthy abundance. I recognize the wisdoms of indigenous teachings that have laid a path of applicable, simple activist knowledge.

I declare:

A simple life and all bi-products of life must return to the soil without contamination. Regenerative and abundant food production becomes the way of life. To make this possible, agreements and responsiveness is required towards the three separations, ethical utilization of resources, acknowledgement of basic corruptions of current agriculture practices and agreement toward a new gardening paradigm:

The three separations:

1. Human from Nature. This includes a separation of farms from forest and wild animals.
2. Human from Human.
3. Self from Soul. In Soul, we are interdependent. Separate, we are isolated and in warfare.

A simple natural formula towards maximum utilization of resources:

1. All food grown is for humans.
2. Inedible foods are for animal stewardship and husbandry.
3. Poop is fed to maggots.
4. Frass is fed to worms.
5. Vermiculture is for plants.

The basic corruptions of current agricultural practices:

1. Some of us are starving and inhabit food deserts.
2. We are feeding human food to animals.
3. Price-fixing to perpetuate inefficient, unethical food system practices.
4. Perpetuation of the illusion of unlimited resource which creates waste, contamination and unethical behaviour.

Essential elements towards a new paradigm understanding of working systems of food production:

1. Poop is a necessary resource to include in growing systems towards healthy natural cycles and natural health.
2. Farm and Forest need to be reconnected.
3. Plant/Animal balance is a necessary part of our food systems.
4. Farming and gardening that heals self and planet is reconnection with our wild areas, our forests, our margins between domestic and wild. There is no interface between living systems and a killing approach of any iteration, including ‘pest management’ and isolated food and medicine producing systems.
5. A balanced system is expressed through the entire relationship system between Plant/Animal, Animal/Insect and Insect/Microbial.
6. There is no waste. There exists a perfect use for every expression within a cyclic loop.
7. Farming and gardening should be easy and practical within all ages and abilities.
8. Privilege is newly expressed as doing without. Unhealthy dependency is expressed through excess, use of machines and ‘fix-it’ techniques.
9. The New Natural becomes reconnection with nature, community and self.
10. Our response to the trauma, stress and corruptions of current trajectories must be a healing response to SELF FIRST.
11. A baby cannot nurse from a dead mother. A stark but clear understanding through nature’s gaze.
12. With awakening to these, our interdependencies, comes healing of the greater Mother, our Earth, balancing of the feminine and masculine principles and practice of heart and Spirit led balanced living and livelihood.
13. All is in the Small. Proof of concept in small, observational-based practices before applying to larger projects.

Signed,

Christina Trout, LaLa Gardens

… (we, 50,000 farmers committed to the gardening life and activation of a New Natural paradigm)