The home for street kids in Manila where Alma and I volunteered at had this cool idea where they'd collect paper, shred it, make new paper and then draw a design on it for a greeting card and then sell them for a small profit. Expounding on that idea, have a website where you can set up an account, buy a card, write what you want it to say and where and when you want it sent and a child will write your message and mail it from Manila (or another country). The kids can come up with new designs and fun stuff. The money will go to the children's scholarship fund or something and we'd make whatever precautions necessary that it doesn't become a sweat shop.
Forest garden, agroforestry, intercropping, companion planting, forest farming, permaculture, edible forest gardens, silvopasture (I'm sure this list goes on and on) are all ways of using your farmland for more than one product. I like this idea for a few reasons. It creates more diverse products which should reduce the amount of travel for each one. It's more humane to animals than being raised in a small space. It apparently creates more stuff then each product alone (synergistic). There's apparently 10 times as much sun coming down at midday as any plant needs. But it requires a lot of skill and basically in this era of specialization, you gotta know everything there is to know about corn/cows/whatever to complete. So here's my scheme. It's a little bit like a shopping mall. I buy a bunch of land. I put a fence around most of it. I then make lots on the edges. I lease the edge lots to different farmers with know-how. The farmers come plant, main...
Comments