"The tragic reality is that very few sustainable systems are designed or applied by those who hold power, and the reason for this is obvious and simple: to let people arrange their own food, energy and shelter is to lose economic and political control over them. We should cease to look to power structures, hierarchical systems, or governments to help us, and devise ways to help ourselves." - Bill Mollison

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Small-Scale Agriculture in Russia

“According to official statistics, in 1999 more than 35 million families (105 million people, or 71% of country’s population) owned a dacha or a subsidiary plot and were cultivating it… The 35 million plots of these families occupy more than 8 million hectares and provide 92% of Russia’s harvest of potatoes, 77% of its vegetables, 87% of berries and fruits, 59.4% of meat, and 49.2% of milk.” See - Small-scale agriculture in Russia and The Socioeconomic and Cultural Significance of Food Gardening in the Vladimir Region of Russia.


28 comments:

Dani said...

It's good to hear that at least Russia is encouraging subsistence farming. What I've been reading recently about Americans and Canadians being taken to court, or having their vegetable gardens removed by the authorities is appalling. (http://www.naturalnews.com/036709_home_gardens_attacks_self-sufficiency.html and http://www.naturalnews.com/036234_edible_landscaping_medicinal_plants_Tulsa.html)

What is the world coming to... or should that be aiming for?

You Can Call Me Jane said...

This makes me happy. For them. And a bit sad for us. Thanks for sharing this.

Mrs. Mac said...

I think our government is only concerned with people relying on the gov't food train .. imagine .. people feeding themselves .. novel idea.

Heiko said...

Hey Mr. H, Long tome no hear! It's good to see these movements all over the world. Italy probably has a similar percentage of people at least having access to land where they grow their own stuff. It's the way forward. Now we just have to convert them all to permaculture practices! ;)

Buttons Thoughts said...

Wow you are back you have been missed.
What a great thing I think we could all learn a lesson from Russia.
The comment by Dani made me sad.
Hope all is well in your garden Mr. H I do look forward to seeing your bounty. B

Aimee Hennen said...

Thanks for sharing this video. We lived in Russia for 6 years and saw first hand the dachas of many families. Without them they would have starved. In fact we wondered if we were going to starve our first winter since we did not have access to any land to grow food. In the early days of openness, food in the shops was scarce. A potato truck pulled up in front of our apartment house and I bought a 50 pound sack. Thus we were saved from being very hungry our first winter!
Aimee

mavis said...

Welcome back Mr. H. :)

Dee Sewell said...

Hello, was thinking recently that you hadn't been in my stream :-) Thank goodness one country is actively encouraging self sufficiency!

Wendy said...

what a different way of life when compared to us as a whole.

Wendy said...

but you know, when I talk to my dad about growing up in a very inhospitable communist country, the gardening/farming was not something to be proud of, or feel good about (at least overtly). It was simply a symbol of poverty and a means for survival. I'm all for self-sufficiency and I rely on the fact that I can go out and buy shit when I need it. I'm not sure I've formulated my point in my head...and I've giving up b/c it's been a long day, so forgive me! :)

kitsapFG said...

I am encouraged that so many are able to produce so much of what they need. That is ideally what American's should be striving for in order to thrive in the age of climate change and depleted resources. It is not a magic bullet - but one tool to use to thrive and live in a world of less abundance.

Lynn said...

The closer we are connected to our food, the more we will respect Nature, the growing process, and the food itself. But here in America, The Regime would rather have us all on food stamps, idle, and complacent. As Dani pointed out, the police state is regulating gardens, raw milk, and yards while allowing corporate giants to embezzle and investors to short the USD. Things keep getting curiouser and curiouser.

So glad to see you have surfaced. And how does your garden grow?

Douglas said...

I have missed your intelligent and wonderfully presented blog postings these last few months. I was worried, but hope that you were just too busy growing stuff...

Code Monkey said...

Thanks for sharing another inspiring video. I think more people are doing this than we tend to think. Even here in America. Its just the few bad apples that hog the spotlight who make us think we should be dependent and subservient. Keep on thriving everyone. :)

PF CHANGS said...

Great video. I would love nothing more then to grow my own food. Thanks for sharing.

Lrong Lim said...

Mr.H, good morning from Japan! Am glad to see your post again... I assume you must be very busy with the farm... anyway, I am always struck by the absence of backyard farming whenever I return to my home country Malaysia for a visit... this is something that we can learn from Russia...

tools for gardening purposes said...

shared video is encourage to farmer. Indian government also encourage farmer to do their work as Russia and gives instruction and helps to farmer.

Unknown said...

I just stopped by on the chance that you might have a post and here one is - welcome back :)

RE the post: That's incredible...but then again Russia still has a lot of traditional rural communities. As much as I hate to say it I don't think these figures would be the same if most of Russia had access to Walmart and credit cards. People have a way of striving for a 'better life' by making things worse for themselves.

JoyceP said...

Hey, Mr. H -- got three Q's for you: 1) do you know what the variety of apple is in your title picture? (They scream at me, "Make me into applesauce!") 2) how are your hardwood cuttings doing? and 3) how did your garden fare this year, or is it too soon to tell?

Mr. H. said...

JoyceP - The apple in the picture is a wild one growing in an old long forgotton orchard, unfortunately it was flooded out by beavers and the apple tree has died...they were good apples though. Most of our hardwood cuttings, except for the hawthorns that never did root, are now happy little plants growing quite well. The garden is doing exceptionally good this year and I'm especially excited about the squash which have been a tough one for us the past couple of years.

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Hi!
Dropping by to say your seeds have bring us lots of happiness during our cool season here. The tall red celery, top purple turnip, red romaine lettuce and watermelon radish seeds has given such a wonderful harvest this year. I finally found the perfect sowing time for the root vegetable seeds. I let the tall red celery flower last year and it self-seeded freely this year giving us more than hundred seedlings or plants all around our place.

Mr. H. said...

Malay-Kadazan girl - I am very happy to hear that the seeds grew well for you. Better be careful or that red celery might just become a weed in your garden.:) We just picked a few of the cherrytime peppers you sent us yesterday...they are doing great in our garden this year.

Elizabeth said...

Hi Mr. H,
I was wondering if you've ever seen this gardening film. It is amazing. Wanted to share it with you.
http://backtoedenfilm.com/
Peace and Raw Health,
Elizabeth

Anonymous said...

Hi Mr. H,

I found your blog because someone said you do winter sowing, all year round, whatever that means. Can you direct me to some of your posts that would address this?

Thanks
Margaret

Mr. H. said...

Margaret - Thanks for visiting our blog, here is one of the posts I wrote on winter gardening. http://subsistencepatternfoodgarden.blogspot.com/2011/04/rambling-thoughts-and-speculation-on.html

Ohiofarmgirl said...

hey friend! been thinking about you and am sending my best wishes. linked to an old post of yours today:
http://adventuresinthegoodland.blogspot.com/2014/10/potting-up-celery-and-setting-up.html

very very best regards,
ofg

Mr. H. said...

Still here, plugging along at the same old stuff...glad to see that you are too.:)Enjoy that celery!

Bee Happy Farm said...

So glad to see you are still out there. Sure do miss your informative and inspirational posts.

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