Mechanical agriculture. A text, in english, by Jean-Jacques Bouchet
"Ever since the dawn of times human beeings eat. Yesterday I was mentionning the huge quantity of food a single individual requires. We eat a lot. Back in France, I tried to live out of the land by growing a vegetable garden and harvesting the fruits and nuts that my garden provided. In the middle of winter I was out of food. Maybe because I didn´t plow a very large surface (I did it by hand) That applies for France but it´s probably different for a place like Peru and to be honest I don´t much about agriculture in this country. As you know I also often wondered how to organize those green zones. Once thing is sure, I do eat food..and I eat a lot to be healthy.
Vegetables, fruits, cereals, nutts....I eat (I require) a wide variety of ingredients with which I cook tasty balanced nutricious meals. (Well..sometimes I eat outside)
Vegetables do require plowing for instance and that, nowadays requires a tractor. You´ll wonder...."what is the problem? Why is Jean-Jacques talking about this?" Because of atmospherical pollution!! Tractors burn fuel and emmit CO2. Also, the production of tractors requires mineral extraction (they are made of steel) and the smelting of parts which also pollutes.
One important part of culinary arts is eating with bread. For my morning toasts, for my humus, for my baba-ganoush, croutons for the soup. Same, same. Wheat requires plowing and those big harvesters which also pollute. In the old days, people used to plow fields with oxes and harvest by hand but those days are long gone and as I said, I do worry about the productivity of that cultivation techniques. I heard that there where a lot of famines back in the days.
Having said this, I do beleive that we must try to eat food that doesn´t require plowing and that is harvested in a traditional way. (By hand) Here in Lima, I think of olives, grapes, dates and different fruits that grow in the zone and that only require picking. (I think trees have a higher yielding) Complementing by harvesting the few grasses and berries that grow in the lower fields. Is it possible? Can we elaborate a local nutricious tasty menu using non/plowing/ hand harvesting menu? I tried eating more fruits but I thought that such a menu would give me diarrhea? Imaging only eating olives and grapes. (You would be in a terrible health) Tell me your suggestions. What about the yielding? We musn´t starve either.
For this reason and others remember not to waste food. Eat untill the last green pea. Eat ´till the last grain of rice! Lick you dish clean! Manage your fresh vegetable/fruit stock with rigor! Check your fridge regularly!
Food fights are criminal."
