The Changing Earth Podcast is about exploring fiction to see survival facts. Episode eight of The Changing Earth audio dramahas some shining examples of why self-reliance is the ultimate “green movement.” Beyond pollution, the biggest “green/natural” movement was focused on food. In our story, Erika is eating sprouts she grows in a jar in her kitchen. Sprouts are a great source of protein and easy to grow, even without light. To learn how to grow and harvest sprouts for your family, visit Survival Sprouts.

A small family farm is not possible for everyone to grow, and that’s where local farmers step in to fill the void. Food and livestock grown locally or farm-to-fork movements provide purchasers with a nutritious, locally grown, sustainable product. The recent shift to corporate farms and livestock production industrializes this process, providing foods ladened with pesticides, fertilizers, and other additives with prices designed to faze out these local farmers. Food travels many miles with these corporate farms. With locally grown products, shipping time and gasoline expenditures are minimized.

Recently local food programs that sell to “members” and are not regulated by the federal government have come under threat by government agencies. The corporate/government alliances that are becoming more prevalent threaten the ability to procure these locally produced goods.

Hunters and fishermen are often the most involved in financially protecting the wilderness. Fees for fishing and hunting licenses fund the efforts to keep forest land pristine. Some may wonder how people who harvest food from nature can be considered the biggest preservers. This is because they do not want to see the land harmed and want to increase herd and fish numbers to continue their lifestyle. They understand how to exist with nature and harvest her bounty. Food procured this way is 100% organic meat. They have not been injected with antibiotics and growth hormones.

Ocean products are under threat from overfishing and pollution. However, locally sourced products are harvested sustainably or farmed locally. The potential for the ocean level to rise puts this food supply at even greater risk. More pollutants would infiltrate the shoreline. Scientists are aware of the looming threat, but politicians do little about it because of the value of these coastal properties.

Anything a child has before age ten is considered normal, and everything introduced after that is considered “new.” Children these days are not accustomed to growing their own or hunting for subsistence. It is critical that these homesteading/self-reliant methods of food production are passed down generationally before the knowledge is lost.