The Genesis of The Dewberry

The Earth is going through complicated changes like never before in the history of mankind. Tomorrow is different from today and changes are occurring at a much quicker pace than ever before in history.

God was not joking in Genesis 1:28 (NKJV) when he blessed Adam and Eve and then said "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish and the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

In just the last 50 years the earth's population has jumped from a large 3 billion people to over 7 billion. The only reason we have been able to feed that many people is because of oil which feeds the monster tractors and equipment that make it possible to both grow it and transport it.  If it were not for oil, our food crops and population would be much smaller, in my opinion not much larger than the "pre-oil era".

Take a look at the population statistic projections from the U.N. below and ask yourself why the sudden increase in population since around 1940 and then ask yourself the following questions:

1.  If projection "red" is true, can the world truly sustain that population of 16 billion people?
2.  If projection "yellow" is true, will people quit having children entirely or will wars, pestilence or disease kill them off?
3.  If projection "green" is true, what "serious" catastrophy will kill off the population to actually have it in decline.

~Click to Enlarge Picture~

Notice things start tapering off in around the year 2040.  That's less than 30 years away.  Many of us will hopefully still be alive at that time so as you can see from the chart, we are living in times that are very different than every before in history.

If your mind can truly grasp the importance of this fact about our growing population, then you will realize that the concept is one of the most important realities facing our generation. To understand how significant this change is, you also have to ask yourself how many thousands of years it took to achieve a population of 3 billion people, and then absorb the fact that in just 50 years we have more than doubled that number and now it is projected that we will double again (to 15 billion people) in just another 50 years or so (looking at the red on the chart). The question arises "can our minds even comprehend such a concept; much less can the minds of our leaders even comprehend the complications that will arise in the next 50 years.

It took thousands of years to reach 1 billion people (around the year 1800), and now, in less than 200 years, we will jumped from 1 billion to 7 billion and in just another 50 years we will jump to around 14 billion "very different" people with many different backgrounds and cultures, squeezed into an increasingly smaller planet. Now, if you're intelligent and think individually instead of collectively; as I like to say "you think for yourself", then this very fact alone should come off as being one of the most profound concepts since you became cognizant of your existence as a young child. It's even bigger than puberty. For the rest of you with short attention spans, you'll move on to the next thing in your busy lives, such as checking your email, txt messages and check up on everyone on Facebook and never give this a second thought.

Please don't move on. This is very important that you wrap your mind around this idea.

I created this blog because of a hobby of mine; one of the last hobbies from childhood that has not managed to escape me: Edible Wild Plants. I needed a blog to separate this hobby from my other more political, creative and religious blogs although it's hard to separate who I am, but the focus of this blog will be sustainable living. Please don't get me started on politics or call me an environmentalist or tree-hugger. In short summary I will tell you that EPA and unfair competition has shut our factories down and opened up new government job positions. For every product you buy made in China, India or some of the other "slave labor" countries, you have contributed to shutting down a "more environment friendly" factory and put more people on welfare and at the same time you have helped open up a new and "unregulated environmental disaster" in other "developing" countries. You have also contributed to a "population explosion" in those slave labor countries and helped them and their ideals rise to power in this century. Don't get me started. This site is supposed to be about sustainable living and my favorite subject "wild plants", particularly wild food plants and I am now studying herbalism and in a life time apprenticeship program with my friend and mentor the Southern Herbalist, who learned from his mentor Tommie Bass. This blog is to try and keep me focused in those areas, although I might accidently drift into the political or religious spectrum momentarily from time to time.

I tie Genesis to my hobby for several reasons. Genesis (Eden) was the first home with edible landscaping. It doesn't get much simpler or more complicated than that. God created a garden full of edible plants, trees, animals and fish and Adam and Eve were allowed to eat "anything in the garden" except for the fruit of one particular tree. Well, you know the rest of the story. They ate the forbidden fruit and God kicked them out of the "Edible Paradise" into the world where the edible plants were far and spread out requiring them to actually work for a living and begin to cultivate crops eventually forgetting the many of the wild edibles and even weeding them out.

Genesis clearly states that God made us in His image (you feminists will say Her image, BTW, I really don't think sex or color will be an issue when we get to heaven, but water and sunscreen might be an issue if we go to the other place) and Eden was a divinely made garden of edible trees, shrubs and plants "selectively" placed there. Landscape architects would tell you, “Eden was a place that was Divinely Designed".  I say to you, start now designing your own.

In the "Foraging Community", there are lots of plants that are "off limits".  They are either unpalatable or they are downright poisonous and some could even kill you. However, there are also thousands that are not only palatable (edible), but also delicious and nutritional.  Even many of the toxic ones are incredibly medicinal.  Probably 40% of today's medicines are made from plants.

So there you have it, the scope and purpose of this blog; education, encouragement of self-awareness (or awareness of surroundings in general), independent thought, self-reliance, and freedom from the “Food Monster” (the grocery store).

Ya’ll come back, ya hear?