Feb 20, 2021
This episode focuses on self-sufficiency through living off the land and growing your own food, agroecology and restorative farming, escaping the control of governments worldwide, and basically living a life that allows you to thrive physically, all of these in light of the events of the pandemic. Enjoy!
(2:50 - 3:40) The difference between city and rural life, and how that contrast, unwittingly, showed Gabriel the difference between learning about a course in college and actually living the reality of said course.
(4:33 – 6:10) Now that the world as we know it has ended, what shifts in thinking and culture will have to be made to enable people thrive in the coming age?
(7:42 - 8:34) The ethical, nutritional, and environmental benefits of oysters and growing oyster farms.
(10:52 – 12:56) How Gabriel restored a portion of land that had been severely degraded from years of serving as pasture for horses and was unable to grow grass and made it rich, fertile farmland with more than a hundred varieties of plants, including fruit trees and cash crops, all within a year.
(14:19 – 19:29) How human activities affect ecology; how pests and insects interact to contribute to nature’s ecology
(22:22 – 27:01) Will more people embrace retiring to the country to farm their own lands and grow their own foods? Will the events and fear-mongering by governments worldwide, during the pandemic, cause the shifts necessary to make people seek self-sufficiency? Brazil as an example of how culture, if strong enough, can influence government directives; Are we currently living in an Orwellian world or a Huxleyan world?
(27:45 – 30:01) There’s nothing wrong with vaccines, but given everything we know about COVID, does everyone have to take it? Given that we don’t know the long-term effects, is vaccinating everyone, including those who have already had covid and those who haven’t had it, worth the risk?
(30:37 – 37:19) Organic vs inorganic farming; given that there are harmful organic pesticides, is organic farming really all the PR surrounding it makes it out to be? How do practitioners of agroecology cope with abstinence from the use of pesticides? How does this affect their crop yield and their ability to make a living? How do we incentivize restorative agriculture on a large scale?
(46:48 – 53:09) How some commercial farmers are implementing regenerative agricultural practices. How money can help the incentivization of restorative farming. Are conscious consumers really making a difference or are they just being ripped off by capitalists trying to take advantage of their guilt? Does knowing the process of how food is made really change consumers’ relationship to food? Or is convenience the driving force?