One of the things I think about a lot is productivity comparisons between conventional and unconventional agriculture. Mostly because that’s the first question you get asked when you talk about anything that’s outside the norm*, but, on what metric are we measuring? Per acre? Per hour worked? Per cost of input? Are we measuring yields of product or dollars earned?
This question also, to me, rings of fear. Fear of food shortages, which are really a problem of greed & distribution, not the world’s capacity to grow food. If we were really worried about calories though, I think we’d at least switch to pastured animals instead of sending so much corn and soy to livestock (for any non-farmers out there, you do not get nearly the calories out of a chicken or pig that you put in- you get much less**). Or we would put more effort into making cities great places to live so we stopped turning farmland into suburbia. Or we would be much more concerned with how to prevent erosion & loss of arable land. But we don’t, and we’re not.
I also think of the complexity of non- conventional farming, and how instead of it being a return to the past, it actually relies on new information and methods***.
Take the plot of land that I’m working to make into a market garden. It’s soil is, from a farmer’s perspective, crap. It’s gravely, sandy, very little organic matter. If I were to farm it conventionally, I’d basically have till to open the soil and kill weeds, and then provide all of the plant nutrients through fertilizers, which would cause the plants to kick out their symbiotic fungi, leaving them vulnerable to pathogenic fungi, and more dependant on me for water. There would also be bare soil everywhere, increasing evaporation & providing plenty of opportunities for new weeds. My costs would be very high, paying for fertilizers, pesticides, & herbicides, and I would have to water, a lot. It probably wouldn’t be at all economically feasible to grow food on this plot using conventional methods.
Now, I look at it and say, I’m going to do no-till. I look at the hard, weedy, depleted soil and there’s no way a seed is going to be able to come up through that. But, I’m not just doing no-till, because I’m not looking at it from a conventional mindset and just trading out one practice. I’m doing basically everything different from above.
Instead of tilling, I’m laying down a thick layer of mulch, to shade out the weeds, increase soil organic matter (increasing the amount of water and nutrients the soil can absorb & good on to), and feed the soil ecosystem. By the time spring rolls around, the soil underneath will be much better, but I’ll still add more compost in most cases.
Instead of fertilizers I’ve had to pay for, I’m using mulches that I got for free from my gardening work & composts made for free from restaurant kitchen wastes****. I’m going to use over crops, plants that fix nitrogen and also serve as perennial hosts to beneficial soil fungi, which will also form symbiosis with most of my crops, increasing their resistance to pathogenic fungi while also providing them with increased access to water and soil minerals.
Instead of bare soil, there will be mulches and cover crops every where. Instead of monocrops & pesticides, I’ll be intercropping which will help by hosting beneficial native insects that will chow down on aphids and other crop pests.
From this framework, there’s an upfront investment of effort and planning, but farming this land now seems feasible.
And the thing is, each of those choices is backed up by research. We know so much more now about soil and nutrient cycling and how it actually works than when conventional ag really got started. We know so much more, and so many practices are new, so growing non-conventionally isn’t a step back into the past of how things were grown.
But at the same time, it’s not exactly completely information either- other cultures have different ways of growing food crops, and if you broaden your concept of what cultivating plants looks like, there’s examples everywhere. We’re just studying it now and providing it scientifically.
*and I honestly think that it’s a result of the extractive mindframe that comes from being the decendants of colonizers. Just look at the different perspectives between many western foragers ideas and Indigenous peoples’ relationship with the land.
** chickens are one of the most efficient, with a feed conversion ratio of 1.6, which means for every 1.6 pounds of food you give them, you can expect the chicken to gain 1 pound (cows are over 4 pounds of feed to pound of live weight, and pigs are 3 to 4ish). That’s the whole bird though, counting all the parts we don’t eat- guts, feathers, bones, etc. Even so, a pound of chicken food has over 1300 calories, and is about 20% protein for starter/grower, where as a pound of chicken has about 500 calories and about 30% protein (for dark meat, you get fewer calories from white meat). I’m not saying everyone should give up meat, but I am saying that the amount of meat in mainstream diets has increased dramatically, much of it comes from cafos where animals are fed on grains & legumes, and if we’re measuring productivity and yield per acre because we’re worried about feeding the world, this is a huge factor. Look up how much of the corn & soy crop goes to actually directly feeding people.
*** from a western, colonizing prospective
**** is this a particular boon from my particular circumstances? Yes. But everyone has their own challenges and resources, there is no cookie-cutter solution to all agriculture, everywhere. You have to find the solutions that work for you.
@mysteriouslyjellyfish yes in fact I do! I’m making a post because of how much typing I was doing.
Books:
If you read Masanobu Fukuoka’s ‘One Straw Revolution’ and Ruth Stout’s 'No-work Garden Book’ you’ll get the practicalities before we had science to back it up, and then you can read 'The Complete Guide to Restoring Your Soil’ by Dale Strictler & 'Teaming with Fungi’ by Jeff Lowenfels to get a lot of the updated and science backed info. I also got a lot out of 'Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond. Also 'Finding the Mother Tree’ by Suzanne Simard, though it’s got a lot of personal story in there with the facts. But it’s so cool about the way trees use mycorrhizal networks!
Free, online resources from reputable sources include:
I would also suggest you try to figure out what pre-colonization/pre-European contact plant practices existed in your area and see how they’re ablicable to your setting. This is a broad topic, with lots of specifics, which is why I’m not listing them all.
I am currently working my way through Kristin Ohlson’s Sweet in Tooth and Claw, which is a refreshing look at mutualism in nature. She’s got an entire chapter on how interconnected relationships among animals, plants, soil fungi, bacteria, and other living beings are a crucial part of regenerative agriculture. Restoring healthy soil is a big part of it, but so is having enough micro and macro biodiversity above and below ground to support the soil microbiome. We’ve spent way too long in the United States overculture with the fixation on chemicals as the solution to agricultural problems, and the goal of sterilizing the soil so that the plants have no competition, when in fact it is the opposite that we need.
Here’s something new to know about me. I’m a Murramarang woman from the south coast of New South Wales, and an Aboriginal Artist. I’m learning and trying to bring Dhurga (my native language) back to life after it was nearly destroyed during colonisation.
Here are a couple of my paintings.
The first is a Giriwa (goanna), the totem of my tribe, painted in our traditional x-ray style. This type of painting was used to illustrate and educate, to teach biology and anatomy.
The second is a warigal (dingo) painted in a more decorative style, with a fusion of our more narrative style of art and my own modern style.
If you’ve stumbled upon this post, I hope you learned something from it! I love sharing my culture ❤💛🖤
[image id: the first image, of a girawa (a large lizard), is a painting done with thick lines and vibant colors against a black, starry background. the main body of the girawa is red, with visible organs layered on top - the lungs, heart, and intestinal tract are black, the kidneys are yellow and filled in with smaller yellow circles, with a black and white striped outline. Overlaying the lungs in a highly concetrated white are the ribs. other textures in bright yellow and white indicate pockets of fat and muscle.
the second image is a warigal (dingo)’s face, painted in the center of a large medallion. it is also rendered in thick lines, but they are white and filled in with many smaller light yellow circles. the warigal’s face is made of a variety of geometric shapes, reminiscent of a patchwork quilt, and the patterns used in each shape are symmetrical and highly textured. the eyes are more realistically rendered than the rest, giving it a striking gaze. the background is a series of small concentric circles, in yellows, reds, and greens. the word “warigal” is painted in the upper left. end id.]
taylor, the artist of these pieces has a commission post up now! please click the link [ here ] if you want to check that out.
I can’t see an ending to this show not somehow creating a permanent bridge between the Human and Demon Realms, but how are they gonna get there? I think the answer is in…
✨The Stars✨
One of the first things that brought this to my attention was in Reaching Out, when Luz & Amity send a flower into the sky, and it’s directly paralleled by Camila’s flower vase:
Amity: Do you think they’ll reach the Human Realm? Luz: Probably doesn’t work that way, but… it’s a nice thought, right?
Now, in Thanks to Them, we have TWO scenes where Luz literally reaches for the stars (the sun a clear reference to the Collector), MULTIPLE shots of light spells floating upwards (into the sky), Gus and Hunter discussing space travel, and the very last shot of the special itself panning up from the cemetery portal to the night sky.
But, how DO they reach the stars? I highly doubt this show would go towards a literal space travel route. I think, obviously, the Collector is a part of it, but I think it’s also a matter of someone getting high enough to reach.
Perhaps maybe…. as tall as a titan?
Clearly, there’s a lot of shared history between titans and the Collector. And titans themselves have their own fair share of celestial imagery:
(notice the titan skeleton LITERALLY BEING AS HIGH AS THE PLANETS AND ASTEROIDS)
Perhaps this is why the titans and the Collector have been at odds. Maybe, the titans could use the stars to travel, and for whatever reason, the Collector didn’t like that.
And if titans can travel through the stars, it might also solve the mystery of King’s mother’s whereabouts.
We know the Boiling Isles titan is King’s father. And the Boiling Isles is OLD. The Hecktaceous Period is a really vaguely ancient era that doesn’t directly parallel one specific era on Earth, so it’s hard to put a time frame on it. Either way, all life on the Boiling Isles evolved FROM the Boiling Isles, and did not exist prior.
But….. Bill saw a titan somehow? Bill isn’t from the Boiling Isles, and he’s old, but it seems unlikely that he’s older than literally all life on the Boiling Isles. And King HEARD a titan, who roared, “son”. King is about 8 years old, but we don’t know how long he was in his egg before he hatched.
It SEEMS implied that “the last titan” the trappers were after was supposed to be King, but that might not necessarily be the case…
Bill: But if you think Belos is evil, you’ve never seen a live Titan. The children out there haven’t either. [The trio looks outside the window, but Hooty notices something to his right and stretches towards that direction. Cut to the King lookalike demons cheering at him as he stands in front of a waterfall.] Bill: Don’t know a thing about their ravenous appetites, or their terrible cries! Even their babies act like little monarchs. The last living Titan, I saw it once before it disappeared. Its hateful roar blew out my eardrums. How did it go? “Weh!”
Bill: [Rolls up his sleeve.] You like our disguises? [Takes off his glove to reveal a hand.] You gotta look like a Titan to trap one. [Puts on his glove back.] But if I ever find that missing Titan, I’d hunt it down, tear it limb from limb, and mount its head in pride as we release the Huntsman! Then… we can finally go from being Titan Trappers to Titan Slayers! Say, who’s your buddy’s tailor? His costume looks so real!
it sounds to me like there’s a titan Bill saw that isn’t the Boiling Isles or King.
And if you look back at the mural of the trapper fighting a titan, the titan is depicted with a longer face than what the Boiling Isles actually has. Maybe…. *that’s* King’s mother?
So, where did she go? The stars? But if they connect to the Human Realm, where would she be?
Funnily enough, in Connecticut (you know, the state Luz is from), there’s geological structure called The Sleeping Giant.
Just a thought.
ITS A KEYYYYY ITS A KEYYYYY KINGS CASTLE HAS A BIG KEYHOLE AND THE TITAN SYMBOL IS AN EYE. THE STARS INSIDE THE EYE ARE SHOWING THAT THE PORTAL DOOR OPENS TO THE STARS!!!!!!!!!!!
IN EDGE OF THE WORLD THEY LITERALLY USE TITAN MAGIC (same colors as king’s WEH) TO TRAVEL THROUGH A PORTAL THROUGH THE EYE OF A STORM. IN THE SKY.
HMMM i remember kikimorra saying something about the collector being “from the stars” as well. my first thought is maybe the collector and titans are/were both spacefaring ppl who happen to land on whatever planet the demon realm is in. maybe the titans are actually multiverse travelers too (similar to planeswalkers from magic the gathering? ) . it seems like the collector doesnt have this power so maybe he depended on the titans or worked with them in the past …this also reminds me of the whole multiverse idea btwn gravity falls , amphibia and the owl house
i wonder why the heck titans blood even has universe traversing properties in the first place
also its weird that like when luz was able to visit the human realm thru the door she constructed she was mostly traveling on walls and windows and surfaces (this seems kinda meta tbh, like we “watch” the owl house on screens that luz appears on) similar to how when the collector was sealed and trapped, they were only on surfaces/planes but had a bit more freedom of movement than luz. i wonder if the collector was also hanging out in another dimension when they were trapped , bc it also seemed like they werent always in the demon realm when belos had to call out for him.
A photo of the hyper evolved velociraptor, Beatrice Quill back from her extended stay off world. she works as a professor of dinosaur behavioral science at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. Since her tenure she has revolutionized mankind’s understanding of the prehistoric world while also keeping the museums rodent population under control.
One thing this episode really lingered on is just how much The Owl House is a story about stories – fandom, and stories told within stories, and breaking the mold to write your own, new one, and history as a narrative and parallels to the past, but also not being beholden to repeat them.
It’s Luz stumbling into a magical world and deciding to stay because of the stories she loves. It’s Eda telling her there are no chosen ones there, but stories turning out to having real power even when chosen ones don’t. It’s Luz and Amity having their first real bonding moment in a library, battling a book that came to life. It’s Azura bringing them together. It’s Luz learning about Philip Wittebane first through the false, polished, carefully curated story he wrote about himself in his diary. It’s Eda telling Luz and King the story of how she met Raine before they’re ever able to meet them. It’s the repeating cycle of grimwalkers, constructed to play roles in a story they were never privy to. It’s Caleb only ever being shown through glimpses and snatches of the narrative that swallowed him up, but being present all the same. It’s Gus and Hunter stumbling upon Camila’s old favorite series and connecting to it the same way she did (and then some). It’s the constant meta jokes about various books the characters love mirroring the show. It’s the kids on a haunted hayride being told about the Wittebane brothers like they’re a ghost story, except they know they were real – and who the real monster was.
It’s meeting your girlfriend because of fandom. It’s the book series your dad gifted to you just before he died that brought you much-needed comfort at the time, and so much more in the future. It’s looking deep inside and saying “Stories help me be the person I want to be” and “You want me to repeat the way this happened in the past, but I refuse” and “Stories help us remember those who are gone.”
It’s Luz finally stepping back into the Demon Realm dressed as Azura, the character that lead her there in the first place, at the end of the beginning of the end of the show’s own story.
