Macrobiotic Life

Few interesting informations around the agricultural topic.

But before them, let me show you one eye-opening fact:
In the place of 1 combain-harvester, you would need 120-300 people (using no oil powered machinery), fully engaged from the beginning of harvest season till Christmas.
The combain is probably the number one invention that caused a rapid human multiplication and massive shift from agricultural occupations.

John Michael Greer posted at his blog:

The productive potential of intensive gardening, especially under emergency conditions, should not be underestimated. A team of researchers at pioneering organic-gardening group Ecology Action found, on the basis of extensive tests, that it’s possible to feed one person year round on a spare but adequate vegetarian diet off less than 1000 square feet of intensively gardened soil. (The details are in David Duhon’s book, listed in the resource section.) In the more troubled parts of the future ahead of us, some of us may have to do just that; a great many more of us will need to be able to garden in order to pad out potential irregularities in a food supply that’s desperately vulnerable, over the short term, to fluctuations in the price and availability of fertilizer feedstocks and fossil fuels. The victory gardens of past wars are likely to be a useful template for the survival gardens of the deindustrial future.

I have read reaction to this theory from one very experienced farmer and he thinks, that the statement is right, but only if you are talking about the supplemental food production (vegetables, herbs). For the full scale food sustainability, read this:

Oldfarmecmac wrote:

… If it should become necessary,any reasonably accomplished gardener living in the more temperate parts of the US where the soil is decent and rainfall is adequate can produce most or all of the food necessary for herself and her immediate family,given enough land and sufficient time.The amount of land needed might be as little as one quarter to one half acre per person in the deep south where double cropping and even triple cropping may be practical,but such high yields are very much the exception rather than the rule,and can only be accomplished by very proficient farmers devoting very long hours to very small acreages.Chinese and Korean subsistence farmers in thier best farming areas are known to obtain even higher yields on a regular basis,but they are the 6 under par pros and work more or less continually at feeding themselves.You will need several times as much land in less favored areas.Our personal rough last ditch plan on our place here in the Blue Ridge mountians is two acres or so per person in field crops and fruit trees,which will provide us a little excess production for use as chicken feed and for sale,as well as a stored carry over safety cushion.
The more land you have, the more options you have in terms of varieties,crop rotations, fallow periods,cover crops, field manures,etc.More land also means that you can use less labor intensive techniques and get the same yields with fewer hours of labor.This will probably be a critical consideration for most people.In our case we will need to spend considerable amounts of time gathering firewood and other chores not directly related to food production. …

Oldfarmecmac:

…It is extremely unlikely that you can support yourself in Maine on a half acre.your twenty acres would probably be enough for a family of four or five if at least ten acres are reasonably level,cleared land with good soil.
You simply cannot believe how many things will go wrong until you are on the land and you need huge safety margins to protect yourself.

Question from Joe Waxman at Facebook was:

What will life be like in a year or two from now? Pretty much the same, or drastically different? What do you think?

Here’s my shot. Retelling the quite proliferated story of oil depletion, well spread by John Michael Greer (to name my favorite doom & gloom writer).

Less of unpolluted natural environment, hence less quality water and soil. Less oil = less of everything oil based, which is 90% of the present system. Economic growth of China, India, Brasil, Russia (more machine produced stuff), economic downfall of US, Europe (more human production again). More nuclear factories worldwide (because of energy depletion from cheap fossil fuels and no other option acceptable by the (lazy, spoiled) society – they can’t accept the only real option, to use less energy, because it’s going right against the present economic habit of continual growth, continual consumerism, continual hedonistic lifestyle, we are all in this interwined by being addicts of the present comfort). In US, Europe – more human produced food, with less use of oil based products, hence more natural. Back to local economy models. All of this is logically resulting from my basic presumtion, which is “less of cheap fossil fuels”. If not in two years, very soon anyway.

Peaceful scenario of the peak oil crisis:

The only thing we need to transition to is a zero-growth economy, which is going to be forced upon us. Peak oil does not mean the collapse of modern agriculture, however, and population die-off. This mantra among peak oil theorists is flawed. Bear with me here. Here’s why:

Peak oil destroys oil demand. When the price gets too high non-essential industries collapse first (airlines, car manufacturers, etc.) We’ve seen what happens then. The price of oil drops. It starts rising again as there’s some economic recovery, but eventually the price gets too high again and more industries collapse. Each collapse make the subsequent recovery smaller. It’s a bumpy down slope.

But agriculture won’t collapse during these high price peaks, because people need to eat. They will spend their last dollar on food. They will stop flying. They will stop buying new cars. But they can’t stop eating. So even if food prices rise during these brief oil-price peaks, agriculture won’t collapse. Remember also that the world food crises in many countries in 2008 was not due to the rising cost of oil (or natural gas) needed to produce food. Those amounts are marginal. Rather, it was the result of biofuels diverting cropland, and the UN and other world organizations woke up to that danger. It’s doubtful that will happen again on the scale it did in 2008. It’s doubtful economic recovery will ever increase enough to produce oil prices that high again, making biofuels competitive. Remember demand destruction REDUCES oil prices. Peak oil will over time REDUCE oil prices by destroying demand. This is such an important point.

Some important stats:

All farm machinery combined (tractors, combines, etc.) uses less than 1% of world oil consumption.
Producing nitrogen fertilizer uses less than 5% of world natural gas consumption.

As long as supply remains greater than demand and the price remains low (which is virtually assured because peak oil = industrial collapse) there will be plenty of oil and natural gas around for agriculture for a very, very long time. Even the transportation of food, which clearly uses more oil than farm machinery, will not be affected by oil depletion for these same reasons. Transporting furniture around the world from IKEA might slow down, but nobody is going to stop buying food.

Only when people are completely broke without a penny to their name will they stop buying food. But when this happens the government starts buying it for them, because otherwise the result is food riots, and that is bad for the upper classes as well.

Hence there is no imperative to localize food production. Most locations around the world can’t live on locally produced food anyway. Most States in the US are net food importers. Most countries are also.

The agriculture of the future, like agriculture in any thickly populated society with few energy resources, will thus use land intensively rather than extensively, rely on human labor with hand tools rather than more energy-intensive methods, and produce bulk vegetable crops and relatively modest amounts of animal protein; the agricultural systems of medieval China and Japan, chronicled by F.H. King in Farmers of Forty Centuries, are as good a model as any. Such an agricultural system will not support seven billion people, but then neither will anything else, and a decline in population as malnutrition becomes common and public health collapses is a sure bet for the not too distant future.

The Archdruid Report – Riddles in the Dark

Worst drought in a millenium creates severe food shortages in China

This is my reaction to the Rosine’s article – How to Solve the Problems in the World:

Even when I will start to express my objections now, it doesn’t mean, that I don’t like the article, it’s very beautiful one and with many things I concur.

Right, at the start, it reminded me of my writing – Whatever is happening is right and perfect

Now, my few objections:

1. What does perfect harmony means in practice? For me, it’s stillness, no action, no reaction, no happiness, no hate, even no love, just nothing.
So, we need to be disbalanced a little? I think so.

2. What is actually positive thing? When you immerse enough in the substance of each phenomena, I am afraid you can see no positive/negative. And each action is combination of many thousands phenomenons, each action is a mix of them and each action has reaction, cause and effect. And when you trace the effects of each individual action, you realise, there’s never pure positive or pure negative effect. It’s a big dilema for any life decision I think. Things are not always black/white.

3. The more abstract the words are, the more disturbance people created in their explanations/understanding. But the more they pretend, they are sure of them. I am talking about love, peace, friendship etc. Ask anyone about definition of the love and you’ll get thousand answers.

4. About the negative words. What’s more important, inner being/feeling or the outer expressions? I am not waiting ultimate answer, just giving another look, how it is actually all interconnected and hard to decide what is right/wrong.

5. The same for food. Christians will tell you, really deep from their hearts, with big love (as they would describe it), that the meat eating is perfectly in congruence with the God’s rules, hence with Love. Eating something and checking how I feel inside is quite misleading, people can really feel big loving satisfaction with many “unhealthy” things.

I am not trying to make you create arguments against me, I am not creating arguments also. I am just philosophying about the Universe and people. About complications that I face daily. About constantly arising utopian versions of how to save the world, all based on the lesser understanding of the bigger Unified Laws. The more I study and learn, the more I am inclined to the taoism, to understanding that things need to oscillate, they can’t be in harmony and that world is full of paradoxes and one of them is, that even the horrible things are needed, to World be the perfect place for our learning purposes – big school. If there would be harmony, we would be reincarnated somewhere else, where the disharmony dominates. But maybe this is our purpose? To repair one world after another? The last sentences are not meant too seriously

Thanks for the nice article!
I am definitely with you in the thinking process of “why don’t we join finally?”
But ideally, I am for the real-life joining – in time and space – real, physical community, but this is very big challenge for all of us. I think we are not ready to undergo this challenge successfully, until the outer conditions will not press us a little bit harder.

This discussion was started by Phiya’s Facebook message. I would like to reprint it here, for other people to benefit.

Phiya >> Macrobiotics must necessarily address addictions, be they from more serious substances such as drugs and alcohol, or from foods such as sugar, ice cream, chocolate, fried foods, junk foods, baked foods and processed foods. It isn’t enough to stop the addiction itself but to also address the addictive patterns of thinking and behaving as well…

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Me >> Macrobiotic should provide more theories about all energies beside the food. Macrobiotic is very good in setting the exact food pattern, standard plate – people like precise rules. I think, there should be similar precise pattern for the rest of the life energies/activities. People are not aware of this.. that they should balance all their …

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John >> Interesting point, Frantisek, although wouldn’t there be a danger that so much precision and control over everything would kind of squash out all the freedom and joy of living? Just a thought…

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Me >> John: I think there are two sides as usually. Some people would become too rigid (yang) because of this, some people would be helped to become less unresponsible (yin). For me, I try to look at mental body the same as physical. I think the exactly same question can be put over the food plate. Doesn’t it cause too much control? From what I see and people I know, there are many rational/logical thinkers in the macrobiotic movement. I think, one of the reasons for this is – the precision with which the macrobiotic sets all the food rules (the whole logical taoism yin/yang logic). I can imagine the same style of rules for the spiritual/mental/emotional life. They don’t need to be perfectly precise.. the importance would be put on the overall harmony/balance logic. There would be suggested ‘plate’ models with the basic theory around – that everyone is different, unique and has to find his way. I am just suggesting more discussion about the spiritual/mental part in the macrobiotic. I know top M leaders are aware of this very well and they try to address this issue. For example in the latest edition of Cancer Prevention Diet – there’s whole new part about Emotions related to Cancer development.

I am getting inspired by Integral Life Practices last days – I like how they try to make balance from different world practices – http://www.kenwilber.com/personal/ILP/MyILP.html

I am just speaking from my daily macrobiotic practice, from my life experiences with M and from many M people I know around. I see where they make mistakes, where I have made mistakes.. and this issue is one of them – on of the biggest mistakes I made – I just simply didn’t balance all my parts of life, I have concentrated too much on food

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John >> Excellent insights, Frantisek…I am often in conversation with students and friends here in Scandinavia who repeatedly bring up the issue: “if MB food is meant to be local, how come it all comes from Japan?”

I have very well thought-out and articulated answers to such questions, of course, but what if one applied the same criteria to “spiritual food?”

Many of the arguments that one can make about solid food do not make sense when applied to spiritual food.

I have personally derived ENORMOUS benefit from Far Eastern spiritual practices, but I find it much easier to explain to a Finn why he should eat miso soup every day than why he should chant the Diamond Sutra every day…

Perhaps we should continue this very interesting conversation somewhere other than Phiya’s FB wall: he probably wants to put the cat out and get some sleep : )

BTW, how can you possibly have such excellent English?

best wishes,

John.

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Me >> I think we can continue chatting here, Phiya can just ignore and others can see it and join, if they want.

Excellent English? Thank you, but I don’t think so. The same question could be send to you also, right? Or at Finn, it’s usual to talk English there? For me, I am self-employed from 99, I make money from net, I get info from english websites, so I consider myself as very poor learner.. for so many years of reading in English, I am not good at all But writing, talking and reading is very different, you know. For writing, the best practice become from my blog writing http://www.macrobiotic.name

About the local macrobiotic issue. I was dealing with the same question myself and from people around, asking me why so many Asia groceries. I have found general macrobiotic answers for this – the logic of the same climatic zone and also the logic of “the more water food has, the closer to you it has to be”. It served me well. But finally, I am questioning the same thing again. Looking from different perspective and now the perspective could be described as “simplicity” and “self-sustainability”. From this point of view, I am for localizing macrobiotic to each country/environment. I am asking myself, what if there will be world crisis, what if I want to live deep in the nature. I am sure, I can live from the local production, without miso, kuzu, umeboshi, seaweeds. I think they can be exchanged with other fermented foods or that I can learn how to prepare them similarly. In the end, the fermented foods were in each country’s history, we just have to rediscover and also learn about wild plants/weeds. They are my seaweed replacement
Maybe the little problem is with rice. I like rice very much. But I am going to learn about no-water rice cultivations (if I say it right, they just don’t need so much water and warm/wet weather).

For the spiritual practices. I think we are in the quest of rediscovering our old roots too. At least I am. Pagan, druid religions were the basis of nearly all religions (if you look closely and open your mind). Sacral geometry is hidden everywhere. It’s all about energies, the spiritual practices differ just like the different exercises for the body. But I have no problem with doing aikido in the Czech, or meditating vipassana style, because I see it all as having exact energy on me (more yin, more yang). Meditations and exercise are in christianity, just under different names

John, so you are Finn macrobiotic lecturer?

Thanks for the conversation, awesome topic

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Patrick >> i enjoyed this exchange, it is clever;just suggesting that everyone that is interested in this kind of mind excercise could go and simply rediscover the diet of their peaceful ancestors, some times very difficult to do find (peaceful)
michio’s work is tremendous!!
we all could turn into what i call lattitude”izing” MB,and trust me there is lots of work to be done in it’s longitude”izing” as well; to be continued if you so desire??? love peace, namaste

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Me >> Patrick: I am not sure what you are talking about. I surely desire for continuation
And I agree, Michio’s work is colossal!!

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Patrick >> frantisek, in simple terms i’m talking about about the true regionalisation of MB latitude and longitude wise, michio only touched base with that! and also i have to remember that this way of life is base on the motto of ” one peaceful world”
therefore my question about following the diet of peaceful ancestors ( pre traveling foods) is i think a crucial one

i have in storage in mass a tremendous book of about 500 pages written by a polish man ( don’t remember his name now) about fermented food complete history and geography

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Me >> Patrick: thanks for the explanation, somehow your English is a little hard for me (I don’t consider it as your problem).
You remembered me about the “Ferment & Human Nutrition” excelent book from the Bill Mollison (father of Permaculture movement), maybe this is the one you mean, but he is not polish I think

Check the reviews.. really great book!

In this fiery and funny talk, New York Times food writer Mark Bittman weighs in on what’s wrong with the way we eat now (too much meat, too few plants; too much fast food, too little home cooking), and why it’s putting the entire planet at risk.

Tags: Mark Bittman ted teddtalks environment food sustainability green plants energy

Spiritual explanation of macrobiotic lifestyle.
Where does it all heads, if we eat proper food.
Vibrational levels of the Universe, which we have passed and we will go through after leaving our present Human body.
What can you expect after Death (very precise description).
Ghosts (astral souls) around us, how to communicate with them, how to help them and how they can help us.
Explanation of the Law of Karma – it’s not any kind of punishment, but simply a balance of the yin and yang.
How to eat better to understand the Law of the Universe on the base of intuition – without everyday eating of the brown rice, one can’t understand/comprehend the Essence/Principle, all other grains will keep us healthy and happy, but who wants to develope Spiritual path, have to eat brown rice daily.
How to clean up your Spirituality – mantra AUM, meditations, moderate eating, chewing.
How to watch Aura – unsharpen vision (similar to the Celestyne Prophecy book).
Chakras and meridians and our connection with the Universe.
Death is the same as the birth (only it has opposite character from the yin/yang view) – we are born to the next world (astral) – if we are attached to anything in this world, we are creating unconsciously another illusionary world (Maya) after the death and we are spinning in the Circle of reborns – attachment and confusion is created by low quality foods.
Human being can come to understandment (inner conscious comprehension) all the levels of the being/existence and understand the uppermost Principle/Essence – but it’s not possible if we are not vibrating at the right frequencies (the highest quality food).
The power of Purpose/Intension/Will and the Dream is manifested at all energetic levels – in the material world (that we are now) is the Intention (thought, dream) manifested as doing/action (by our physical body) – at the Astral world (the next after we die) is thought immediately manifested in the form of Picture/Image – important is, everything exist in the form of vibration, that’s why we can communicate with death people (souls/ghosts) and they with us (by the power of thought in the Astral world).
The meaning of Life and much more you can read at:

I have find out about Peace Pilgrim today. Some thoughts from the website:

I have walked 25,000 miles as a penniless pilgrim. I own only what I wear and what I carry in my small pockets. I belong to no organization. I have said that I will walk until given shelter and fast until given food, remaining a wanderer until mankind has learned the way of peace. And I can truthfully tell you that without ever asking for anything, I have been supplied with everything needed for my journey, which shows you how good people really are.

1. Purification of the bodily temple.
Are you free from all bad habits? In your diet do you stress the vital foods – the fruits, whole grains, vegetables and nuts? Do you get to bed early and get enough sleep? Do you get plenty of fresh air, sunshine, exercise, and contact with nature? If you can answer “Yes” to all of these questions, you have gone a long way toward purification of the bodily temple.

I know enough about food to nourish my body properly, and I have excellent health. I enjoy food, but I eat to live. I do not live to eat, and I know when to stop eating. I am not enslaved by food.

Steps Toward Inner Peace by Peace Pilgrim

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As I put on my simple clothing one day after a swim in a clear mountain lake I thought of those who have closets full of clothes to take care of, and who carry heavy luggage with them when they travel. I wondered how people would want to so burden themselves, and I felt wonderfully free. This is me and all my possessions. Think of how free I am! If I want to travel, I just stand up and walk away. There is nothing to tie me down.

One outfit of clothing is enough. That’s all I’ve owned since my pilgrimage started in 1953. And I take good care of my things. I can always find a wash basin in a public restroom or a nearby stream to wash my clothes, and drying them is even easier: I just put them on and let the energy from the sun evaporate any dampness.

Living the Simple Life

The question of traveling + macrobiotic does interest me a lot. I would like to pack and start traveling all over the world, while eating pure macrobiotic. I am interested in wild nature, where there are no places to shop for 1-2 weeks. The favorite regions to visit are SE Asia, S America, Mongolia, Tibet, India, Russia and all the beautiful mountains on the whole Earth.

I wonder if anybody traveled to wild places and lived on macrobiotic?
I am searching someone with experiences from the adventurous places to give me more courage to realise my plan, because I am still hesitating how to overcome all the problems with food.

I see the purpouse of these trips also from the spiritual view.
I would like to conduct very good macrobiotic lifestyle while traveling, because I won’t have another option and clean my body/spirit while traveling and while being connected with nature.
At home, while spending 10 hours at work, it gets hard to eat well. It needs a lot of discipline to not overeat, to not take too much jin foods, to chew 50 times, to eat slowly and in relaxed manner, to spent time outside and if possible walk barefoot each day.
I envision how my trips will give a completely different charge to my macrobiotic life. Maybe I am only dreaming and the reality will kick me hard and return me back to my city house living. But I hope, it will be the opposite and I will fall in much bigger love with the Nature and that I will feel completely at home in the deep mountains with simple foods.

The more and longer I eat macrobiotic, the more I feel being pulled to the natural life style. To build and live in a house in some mountains and be self-suficient. I really like this direction that macrobiotic leads me.

My big problem with traveling is also that I am alone for this. Not many people would like to undertake 1-2 month living in a strange places and exploring the nature. But maybe I was searching at wrong places. I was searching only localy and today I realised why I don’t share my dream here. If anyone is of the same feeling about the traveling + nature + macrobiotic, please let me know, maybe we can start planning something together

Bellow are photos are from my summer 2007 trip to Iceland. I was eating mostly macrobiotic there for 15 days and I can share a lot of tips and experiences with the Iceland in general if you want. Just let me know in comments.

This last one is not from Iceland, but from the Slovakia – High Tatra mountains, exactly from the east part called Belianské Tatry.