Genetically Enhanced Ecosystem
Why should we grow our own rice? It's one
of the cheapest food staples
at the store and it's never out of season. I have not given small scale grain
production much serious thought until I ran across a group called
Amberwaves. They have started
a small movement of citizens, gardeners,
and farmers who speculate on a not too distant future where pure
organic grains are no longer available. They fear many heirloom
varieties will be squeezed out of our delicate ecosystem in favor
of stronger, higher yielding, genetically modified products that
promise a bright future if you believe the latest corporate machine promises.
There are a few places
on the internet
that will take you through the
steps you need to get your rice started. You will need plenty of
sunsine, and plan to do it during warm weather. Expect to wait 90 to
120 days before harvest. It seems the most difficult part of rice
cultivation is keeping a constant level of water on your crop.
You might not be able to grow enough to meet all your grain needs, but
you can feel good about doing your part to keep that specific variety
of organic rice alive and kicking and pure. That is unless you have a
neighbor within a few miles growing a genetically
modified product.
Then you run the likely risk of having your back yard rice contaminated
by its stronger and more popular rival. If this does happen you
might want to make sure that same neighbor isn't one of those "Mad
Scientist" types we keep reading about in the newspapers. If you do
live next door to a crazy scientist then you might want to consider
moving before your vegetables start re-thinking their position on the food chain.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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