National Geographic says that “Doomsday Preppers” is one of their most popular shows. It profiles “preppers” who believe that civilization will collapse sometime in the foreseeable future so they’re developing skills and creating a homestead that will ensure their survival. We’re not “Preppers” in that vein, but we do like to be prepared. What we like about planning ahead is that it gives us the opportunity to keep problems from getting so big that everything collapses around us.
This week’s articles qualify as efforts to plan ahead to prevent future problems and make our world a better place. In Troy’s piece about being a winter grazier, he shows us how we can look at the ground right now, even under cover of snow, and see how our management efforts might be improving soil, and collecting water for the future. Of course we’ve all heard about Colony Collapse Disorder, and we’re all concerned for our pollinators, so Nancy Hayden shares her farm’s experience with creating good bee habitat. That problem we’re worried about where parasites are becoming resistant to the drugs we use to control them? We can slow that down, and here’s how. Solving a problem closer to home, we look at how to figure pasture rental rates so that we can be sustainable and profitable. And finally, we look at how scientists figure things out and how humans create solutions based on those findings. It may look like a simple Travel Cup, but it’s really a response to physics!
Sometimes the headlines are pretty scary, and there are a lot of things to worry about. But stick with us, and we’ll keep learning, planning and doing, and finding solutions that don’t require us to build an underground bunker.
