Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Watched "The age of stupid" last night, it's an unusual movie/doco type film that has some very interesting info in it.. Well worth watching as a reminder of the path we are heading down with our massive levels of consumption in the western world.

Here is a trailer for it, but get hold of the full version and watch it if you can.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZjsJdokC0s

This may be the full movie online I think, for those interested..

http://en.sevenload.com/videos/pO7SM7M- ... tupid-Full

I have only had a chance to watch about half of it so far but combined with documentaries on exponential growth, peak oil and permaculture and most recently the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), I am beginning to see things from a new angle at least to me.

One of the things that has nagged at me for some time as I worked toward a degree of self sufficiency was the relative cost. I don't so much mean the cost in dollars but the cost in time. I have always enjoyed doing things from scratch, I just like to know how they are done. So I sat back recently and looked at the time it takes to plant seeds, transplant, grow, control insects, harvest etc. I would often spend hours for what in the end is really only a few dollars worth of vegies and fish. Don't get me wrong I believe it's worth it, I love doing it but I was puzzled by the fact that doing the things necessary to survive was only worth a couple of bucks an hour. Why was doing the things that are essential, for survival only worth a fraction of the $AU15 minimum wage? The thought occurred to me why are we worth so much?

Anyway I think I am beginning to see why and it's the same issue that led to the GFC - in a word "Leverage". The GFC was created by the creation and circulation of money that did not exist being utilised to inflate asset prices (US housing) which did not reflect actual value. In modern society the value of wages is also effected by this flow of leverage all wages are inflated by the same leverage.

So how is it possible for this leverage this Tulip Bubble of relative values (where people like Bill Gates or even Paris Hilton will earn more in a single hour than many will in their entire lifetime) to have gone so far and have lasted so long?

I guess the answer is OIL millions of years of compressed energy being released nearly instantaneously. We are all caught up in the biggest explosion this planet has ever seen.

I don't think I could afford to play for the quality I grow myself. Some aren't even available - like fertilized free range eggs, with minimal but organic feed - laid this morning! Just can't purchase that at any price.

OK, I did see something like that on Craig's List for like $7 a dozen!

I'm not questioning why we do AP or other food production I'm questioning why we expect such a high income for our labour? I also don't expect this will go down favourably with many

Novaris if we put everything into a $ value then we would probably do almost nothing, I don't expect a big return from AP, time spent a week tinkering would no way make it viable, but it's a hobby, how much actual money do Model builders or stamp and coin collectors or snow skiers spend following their hobby, I grow veggies AP style for the convenience and taste, veggies from the supermarkets are that modified they taste nothing like they use to, only us middle aged people can remember what they should taste like, HP veggies taste like chemical, the fish are a bonus and a pleasure to grow, what cost is AP? once you have the infrastructure then about $20 a month for power, $150 per year for fish food, few dollars for seeds or a few more fore seedlings about $150 per year for fish, so around $500 a year for a good supply of fish and veggies, I don't count infrastructure as that to me is something you can sell at near what it cost to build, for outlay of $500 I got back approx $500 worth of fish, who knows what in veggies, but the veggies are worth far more for the quality, add my time of at least 10 hours a week at say $25 per hour (cheap gardener) then it adds $13,000 to the the cost of production, so you would never make it pay, really not all time is money again it is a hobby and not a chore, for me anyhow

I guess I must have really expressed myself poorly

See that is my point we would only do nothing because we are accustomed to extremely high returns from our wages i.e they are inflated.

the growing of veges and food for you and your family is not only about cost saving..

it is also about control... the home vege grower is removing the power from large , greedy, faceless corporations and returning it to the end user.. buying locally is also about this...

there is also the sense of pride and self respect in growing your own food...

as karl marx said...... man will find contentment in producing rather than consuming.. ....(Not promoting any form of political view...just the quote.... )

WELL SAID

Yeah wages are over inflated and oil is still too damn cheap. While it's feasible to import fresh snow peas from China, there's something very wrong.

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