Beyond the edible garden: Bio-defence capabilities for every backyard

We work hard to have and own the place we live in, and defend it from all kinds of threats as we value our homes, way of life, our little piece of paradise we created and call it our own. The same goes to health and wellbeing, as it is a foundation to everything else in our lives. We are ultimately responsible our own health and also in a broader context, our family and even the local community we live in.

As the world gets more crowded and humankind's unfettered growth goes on a collision course with mother nature, we are caught in an endless rat race, impervious to what is happening. And only when we slow down and start to look within, we realise that things are no longer status quo, we could be drifting dangerously towards destruction. The higher degrees of stresses in our lives are giving rise to illnesses which usually the body is able to overcome with ease. People are talking less, rushing more and there's a lower degree of tolerant and understanding behavior as people live closer to each other. Forces are unleashed and are at place, which are pre-programmed by nature to return our total human population into equilibrium levels. 

...only when we slow down and start to look within, we realise that things are no longer status quo..

I think that this is inevitable as long as the development of external hard knowledge does not move at the same speed as the development of the human’s mental and cultural capability to live in harmony with nature. Humankind, somehow, seems to be behaving like many diseases causing pathogens, devouring all resources of its host without regard for the future, and like many pathogens, when the host (planet) is destroyed, it will run out of food and will in turn, die off.

There are many ways for earth's eco design to regulate the human population . . wars and disease being just two. As we go about multiplying without regard for sustainable consumption of resources, we are creating a small but sure increase in temperatures world wide. This re-awakens diseases which were previously dormant, and also creates a dangerous environment in which existing diseases mutates easily and become more virulent.

The wise amongst us had already predicted what is coming. The news on the rise of the super bugs is nothing new. Yet, everyone is hoping that it is someone else’s problem. It will happen to someone else first. And we all know where that will eventually lead to.

No nuclear missile can stop this threat. Not the strongest amour or even the most sophisticated cyber defense  In fact, it is predicted (Four Corner’s program on Australian TV), if current research into antibiotics does not significantly catch up, the very pillar of which western medicine is standing on, will be shaken, perhaps catastrophically in the imminent and very near future.

Couple that, with the rising cost of health .. many are already going back to basics in ways that they know, because they know inside their gut that whilst mother nature destroys, she also provides. For every danger that she presents, she has a way we can stay safe from it. For every bad bacteria, there is a good one that can fight it or there are compounds in plants or non plants that can balance it. I believe that is why nature always exists in equilibrium overall.

.. with the rising cost of health .. many are already going back to basics, because they know that whilst mother nature destroys, she also provides.

In the end, the ignorant will receive their due consequences whist the initiated will strive to learn, to pick up where the old wise guard had left off, form alliances and same interest groups to use mother nature’s army to survive this otherwise formidable onslaught. This biological menace of many forms, is largely invisible. They are collectively called super bugs.

Many are going back to basics and restarting from there. Sometimes it's the age old tried and tested that withstands the challenges of time.

The alternative answers are in abundance. Traditional Chinese herbs have been proven time and again for thousands of years, as their system focuses less on handling the symptoms but looking at root causes in a different perspective. The Indians also have a wealth of knowledge on the power of plants. The traditional West is also not short of answers. 

The understanding of god’s army comprising of plants, sound understanding of the forces of nature, soil biology and the efficient cultivation of a backyard bio defense system is now an imperative. The edible backyard movement has tremendous opportunity to ready itself for its next rung up the ladder of survival, and that is to create a networked ecosystem of bio defense capability, planting herbs and plants of medicinal distinction to supplement or even take the place of the contemporary medicine, if and when it fails. Every Australian backyard should be a beacon of hope in alternative bio defense, in the tumultuous times coming ahead. 

I hope that I am wrong.

Godspeed,

KK Ong

Watsonia, Victoria

Jan 2013