A Story of Neros, Neos, and Nels…

While States Burn, Nero Fiddles…

From Tuesday to Tuesday last week I unplugged from the media matrix that feeds my perceptions and cris-crossed lower Michigan visiting family and friends. I saw what was left of cornfields shriveled from 108 degree heat after 2.5 months without rain, meanwhile personal sized fireworks exploded non-stop. As Colorado faced statewide firestorms, Michigan Governor, Rick Snyder thought it was a good idea to put massive amounts of firestarters in the hands of mostly non-thinking young men.  I don’t want to be sexist on this issue, but I’ve yet to be at a summer party when swarms of women got together to set off explosives. There is a reason the Darwin Awards are dominated by boys.

There must be a better way to boost an economy without trying to destroy property and people at the same time. Where is the common sense? Why are those at the top fiddling around and promoting stupid as 90% of the state’s cherry, apple, grape, and corn crops whither and provide tender?  Check out the drought map for crops across the nation. Michigan is considered to be in a moderate drought and the USDA offered disaster relief to 82 out of 83 counties.

Didn’t Rick get the memo? At the very least, just like water bans go into effect during drought conditions, why not a ban all fire starters when the state is under drought conditions? The purchases will be made anyway in hopes of the time when the ban is lifted. Seriously, these days it seems that the Darwin Awards should be starting at the top with the enablers of stupid.

Green Spirit Farms, Rotary Gardens

What if we focus on smart economies instead and help farmers be profitable in rain or extreme shine, summer or winter?

New Buffalo, MI – home of  ”Neo”?

In the Matrix, Neo was “the one” who was going to stop the machines from feeding off of human energy and start humans on the path of taking care of themselves again. The following business may not be THE one, but it sure is worth promoting and giving it a chance to florish.

Tucked into the bottom right shores of Lake Michigan, is the tiny town of New Buffalo. That’s where Green Spirit Farms hopes to grow a new economy that will feed cities using 95% less water than traditional farming, under organic conditions, and making use of the acres of factory space vacated when manufacturing left Michigan. What’s not to love?

“Our [Rotary Garden] system not only optimizes growing conditions but also uses significantly reduced amoutns of water — 95% less than traditional farming and 80% less space. In fact, int he case of tomatoes, 1 acre of indoor farming at Green Spirit Farms will produce the equivalent amounts of at least 20 acreas of outdoor farmland!

Indoor vertical farming also eliminates the risks to crop failure associated with outdoor farming. Since it is a ‘closed system’, it ensures suprerious food sfety and ‘trace-ability’…”

The only reason I knew about this incredible system was by reading the Harbor County News, a tiny community paper serving the Southwestern corner of MI. The full article should be required reading for all politicians who insist on enabling harmful business vs. helpful businesses that could grown an economy year round.

When “Neos” and “Nels” work together

This month, green mom and farmer, Abbie Walston is hosting a blog carnival dedicated to the growing of food. She could have chosen green fireworks, but she chose to write about our food problems instead.  Thank you Abbie for promoting useful information. I’ll link to the carnival when it goes live.

For those who don’t know, Blog Carnivals are when one person selects a topic, many people (in our case, green moms) write about it, and then the host collects and sums up the posts on one site.

I’m doing my part by drawing attention to Green Spirit Farms which not only could be one of the food drought solutions but also revitalize my home state’s economy in a positive way which also puts all those empty manufacturing spaces back to work creating year around local jobs. It also is doing exactly what the green women bloggers have been asking for — organic food that is traceable and local. Truly obsessed gardeners can buy their own rotary garden and raise their own household, year around produce of herbs, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, spinach, eggplant, peppers…

Once these rotary garden foods are available on the local market(s), then women who buy 93% of all family food must take responsibility to buy them and balance the other side of the buyer/seller economic equation. It takes two to make an economy turn. Green moms are doing their part by peppering the blogwaves with how to cook fresh and organic for years. Women are both the need creators and facilitators of this movement.

Congratulations Green Spirit Farms for coming up with such a novel solution and thank you Abbie for sponsoring the topic. The Neo’s and Nel’s of the world – they are THE ONES who will feed the next generations… Or, we can blow our time and money on re-electing those who enable seconds of sparkle that can cripple a life or burn up public resources trying to put out the fires they create.