Why Some May Oppose Food Forests

          If you know what a food forest is you likely cannot conceive of anyone being against them. Those that are usually say “there’s got to be a lot of work somewhere!” The answer there, of course is, “Yes! There is a lot of work on the startup end!”  After all you have to observe how nature works in your particular area, research what kind of food plants and trees can replace any non-food plants in that mix or what plants you never considered to be food plants are already there!

          That right there can be a problem for a lot of people. They have to open their eyes and actually look at the world around them and then, horrors, THINK about what they are seeing. Worse they have to think, not about what they have always thought they saw but what is actually there to see. The weed choked field can suddenly become the open cornucopia of natural foods, herbs and even medicines! Many would prefer that it remain a weed choked, ‘useless’ field because then they can bulldoze it and put in a parking lot and maybe even a fast food franchise. Hey, what’s wrong with that, they make money and bring jobs to the area don’t they?

          Or do they? There will be a spike in employment for those who run the bulldozer (if any live in the area and get the contract). There will be a spike in the employment of builders (again if any live in the area and manage to get hired!). Then when it is all built perhaps . . . perhaps a few local teens can get jobs flipping burgers or dunking frozen fries into hot oil during the summer. Unless of course the local builders who are now out of a job after finishing building the place get hired first.

          Yes, I am being a bit down here. But hey, who else is going to read this, anyway.

          A food forest, once it is fully planned, and implemented will take three to five more years of care and tweaking before it starts giving a good return. It will give some return that first year as there will be annual plants in among all those perennials that can be harvested and either consumed on site or sold. Then, as no true forest is without some kind of ‘wild life’, there will have to be animals other than humans inhabiting it. Critters like chickens, doves, goats, rabbits, and maybe a cow to just name the large life forms. All those beasties (and here I do NOT leave out the micro-fauna!) will need human intervention for at least a while, some for as long as they stay there. That is where the human comes into the equation, as the planner and as the ‘gardener’.  However, with a food forest, one that is properly planned and arranged, the ‘gardener’s’ workload decreases over time to that of  simply harvesting unless he or she wants or needs an increase in production.

          That last I suspect is where a number of people have a problem. They simply cannot envision just walking out the backdoor and getting your breakfast, lunch and dinner while not working 40 plus hours a week just to pay for food, water, utilities and housing. If such a thing actually came about what in the world would they do with themselves? They might have to confront the  emptiness of their present lives and have to fill it up with their very own thoughts instead of the sound bites they hear around the ‘water cooler’ at work. On the other hand they could work on becoming whatever it is they truly want to be. Now is that a scary thought or what?