Besides those tough cattle they also use a small tough breed of horse, for urban transportation and other uses. There seems to be a trained response in Americans to downplay the Cuban food revolution rather than see it as a model - and more than that, a branch sticking out of the cliff we're falling off of. Some say the end of the embargo would solve Cuba's food problems by once again opening the door to chemical fertilizers and pesticides and more fuel - a discouraging thought. Pat, you said 'I suspect the problem will be lack of population and hence lack of labor to apply to the land' here. Yesterday a lady called, offering us her (willing) teenage son as a farm labourer; the boy has a new dirt bike, and she and her husband have refused to buy gas for it, @$1.39/litre or about $5.50/gallon here. That reminded me of your comment and made me smile. High-priced gas => labour for an organic farm? Win-win-win. About humanure, the prejudice against it is huge, unless it's sold in disguised form, like Milorganite. I have reason to believe we've lost business for our market garden because I talked too enthusiastically to the wrong person about the idea of it - we don't practice it ourselves, but I think there's great potential. Since then, every now and then somebody will ask me out of the blue whether we use our own sh*t on the gardens. And the manager of a small local grocery store declined to carry our produce because of 'hygiene issues' - a comment that surprised me so much I left it at that. Luckily we have some smart local people and smart American summer residents who know what organic produce is worth and are willing to pay for it.

Hello, I found this old thread (almost a pun in this case) quite interesting. I have more clothing than I need, but that is mainly because I keep almost all of my old clothes in perpetuity. I have 'nice clothes' I almost never wear, from when I had a corporate job, but every now and then I wear them. Yesterday I wore something nice to attend a friend's baby's baptism. If clothes don't fit now, well, I am optimistic that they will fit again sometime. For a long time I kept some old pants I had loved (purple jeans and blue jeans, each colorful, stretchy and not denim) that I decided I would really get rid of since they hadn't fit me in years. Then I lived in Ecuador for a year (out of 2 suitcases of clothes) and lost weight and they fit me again (briefly.) So now I think I am justified in keeping them a few more years just in case. :-) Freecycle helps me, as when I see a person near my size really needs clothes I try to find them a bag of mine that I don't need. But I also get free clothing on freecycle a lot. I have gotten clothing from one sister a lot, I give her some sometimes (as we reverse who is gaining or losing weight) but she complains because what she gives me is almost always nicer than what I give her. Then there is a third sister that we both give clothes to, she never gives any away. Once her washer broke and she said she could go 3 months without having to wash any clothes except underwear! I think the reason that homesteaders and organic gardeners and home canners and bakers mostly don't make clothing is just that the clothing most of us could make ourselves wouldn't be very good/comfy. Whereas the organic vegies and the homemade bread and jam way exceed the quality of ordinary grocery store items. Clothing from stores is just way better than what I could make myself, I can hardly patch my jeans. One thing Marie said I must take exception to: "The idea was that someone was trying to draw attention to themselves by wearing really worn out garments. It was a way to control family members, too, in some cases. The threadbare person would try to get sympathy for him or herself." I and my hubby both tend to wear really worn out things, where the material is thin or has holes, whatever. We get fond of certain things and wear them over and over until they are totally shot. I don't stop wearing favorite shirts until they are so worn out they rip down the back and are unrepairable. It is always cotton comfy shirts in a color or pattern I liked a lot, and I just won't stop wearing them until I absolutely have to. I used to date a guy who had holes in his clothes, really ratty underwear, and so on. He also had a weird short haircut. I initially mistook him for a punk (back in the mid-80s.) Turned out he was just excessively thrifty and paid no attention to his appearance. So although I imagine some people could wear worn out clothing to make some sort of statement, some of us are really just that thrifty or lazy or attached to a particular garment. As for shoes, I have short wide feet with high arches. I always had to wear shoes longer than my feet to get them to fit comfortably in the toe area. In college I wore a friend's shoes and was amazed how nice it was to have shoes already busted out a little. I soon got used shoes from a lot of people, in particular a friend who was a serious runner. She ran about 10 miles a day, so after a few months would need good new running shoes. But they were great for walking around for YEARS more. And fit better and were more comfy since already broken in. So I am lucky that old shoes are better for me than new. My other solution these days is to buy boys shoes, somehow boys get to have wider feet than women. I get almost all garments free and used, so that is about as sustainable as one can get. Marcia

Hi. I've visited a number of experiments in this direction in the last 15 years in Canada. Some seemed to have little hope of making it. This past Septemeber I visited Findhorn Foundation Community in Scotland. It developed near the 300-year-old coastal village called Findhorn. It started out on trailer-park land, but they've bought the land and some surrounding land. Out of the 100 or so residents (as opposed to workshop-takers and visitors) on the FoundationÂs land, some have been there only a short while and some have been there for as much as 40-something years. Because of the houses that have been put up and are lived in, and the craft workshops, business offices, mediation center, natural-food store, playground, children bicycling around, etc, the place has the feeling of a functioning "real community. They have a system of community currency that seems to be used quite a bit. I met people some of whom had been living in the community for fifteen years or more. Of course, they view the community as a process. ItÂs not without challenges, problems, and all the other things that go with living with other people anywhere. There was a big financial crisis (I believe it was 8 or 12 years ago, somewhere in that range). Things like the "Living Machine" (community waste processing, utilizing plants and small organisms in a large greenhouse) and the wind turbine electricity represented big up-front expenses. An emphasis on paid stays and workshops is one important source of income. As my two and a half days did not coincide with any of the guided tours they offer (for a modest fee), I did a self-tour. I walked through the community, went to the visitor center, walked all around in the main gardens, went over to the Living Machine, and out to view the wind turbines prviding communityp power. I also ate in the community café, bought food at the natural food store, and visited the pottery studio, and the Trees for Life (central-Scottish reforestation project office). I talked with the people at Trees for Life on two successive days, the second time for about an hour. The large production-garden area has outdoor (raised-bed, etc) patches, beds, and rows, as well as two large greenhouses. All is very productive. They use mulches and there are huge compost piles. YouÂd need it here with the basically sand soil! This market-garden space supplies the natural food store and café, and possibly other places/people as well. It is a pretty real place  the plants generally look healthy and strong. There is a beautiful flower, shrub, and tree garden started about 40 years ago. There are lots of other trees, shrubs, and flowering plants strewn around and many people have nice food or decorative gardens in their home's yard. There seem to be a diversity of philosophies among the residents, but a general 'new-age consensus' of some sort. I don't know too much more than this. Joel

Speaking as a Biology teacher, your teacher is unfortunately incorrect. As has been pointed out, sealed terrs are typically very problematic in large part because of the issue of stagnant air. Few plants (or animals for that matter) do well under such conditions and fungi -- including pathogenic ones -- thrive. Furthermore, vfts are EXTREMELY poor terr candidates for a number of reasons: 1) They are very high light plants ... even up to full sun. In a terr it is difficult to provide that kind of light intensity without raising the temperature to lethal levels. 2) Vft's like to send their roots quite deep. This would require a fairly large terr. 3) Most significantly, vfts REQUIRE a chilly/cold winter's dormancy to maintain health/vigor. Without it, they weaken and die -- though they may survive for two or three (maybe four if you are very lucky) years before finally kicking the bucket. Unless you plan on giving the entire tank a cold dormancy or digging the vfts up to do so, they are better off not setting a root tip in a terr. Now having said this, some cps can be done in a "sealed" terr BUT it will require the inclusion of fans for air circulation and a rather large tank too. I say "sealed" in quotes because while the terrs in question are left closed for periods of time they are by no means left closed permanently. People I know growing Nepenthes, for example, this way, do open up the tank every day or two as they check on the plants and allow an exchange of fresh air. It is far easier to go for a partly sealed tank setup (still using fans) as one can keep humidity levels up while allowing for some air exchange. With such a setup, there are a number of cps -- pinguicula, utricularia, and drosera -- that could be used. With regards to the ant idea ... The concern regarding ants harming the plants is not terribly likely unless you were to obtain species that -- like the leaf cutter ants -- actually use vegetation as a food source. However, the issue of wet, stagnant conditions would prove detrimental to most ant species. Also most ant species are carnivorous or scavengers. So you would have to have present a renewable prey/food source for them. And unless you did have a very well sealed setup, you would in all likelihood have ants touring your room and/or home. (And I suspect your parents might object to that. )