KNOT 2:
Original knot by R. Farquharson:
Statement by R. Farquharson:
“Sustainability, by definition, is a necessity. Yet my desire to live sustainably is so
difficult to achieve. Every aspect of our lives involves some sort of unsustainable practice.
Even most things you eat aren’t sustainable. The way we get our food requires synthetic
fertilisers, pesticides herbicides and fuel to plough, harvest, transport and process our food.
It involves extracting water from river systems, displacing habitat and results in a lot of land
degradation. One thing I’m trying to do is grow a lot of my own fruit and veggies. To do so
requires fertile soil. One way to make the soil more fertile is to use green manure – composts
or mulches made from plant matter. All plants require nitrogen and most nitrogen these days is
made synthetically. It requires a heap of fossil fuel to make. Some farmers grow legumes which
are able to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere in symbiosis with a soil bacteria called rhizobium –
a relatively clean, green source of nitrogen. We use pea straw to boost the fertility of our
soil. It comes in bales tethered by string. The string is synthetic. And therein lies my
first knot. It’s so difficult to truly live sustainably. You try to grow your own and use a
natural source of nutrients but you know that even then there are still aspects that aren’t truly
sustainable.”
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