Humans really do not understand Nature. That doesn't mean we can't walk hand in hand with Her, it means we have to be mindful of any unintended consequences from our actions. Remember, what we see of Nature above ground is a small fraction of what goes on under ground. Down there, in healthy soil, is a powerhouse of biota working in synergies incalculable. "Working the soil", that is, turning soil and ploughing are all signs we do not understand what is going on or what we are doing. That these practices have been occurring for millennia are signs of the strength and forgiveness of the under ground systems. The Change Underground System is designed to support, reinforce and assist the underground systems that we may reap a harvest without destroying those systems. In effect to produce food fit for human consumption.

 

It is worth considering how we humans were trapped into the cultivation of wheat (and in all probability into rice, maize and potato cultivation). On the vast plains of the Fertile Crescent grew and still grows what we might call proto wheat. Hunter Gatherers discovered that the seeds of these proto wheats could be harvested by running a hand over the ears, catching in a bowl held underneath, the freed seeds. This must have seemed an unending source of food, ready for the taking. This first harvesting was the beginnings of our entrapment by wheat. Over time and over growing numbers of harvests, an evolutionary selection pressure was being applied to the plants. By eating the free falling seeds, humans were selecting for those seeds that did not fall easily from the seed heads. These were able to reproduce as they always had but without the competition from the freely falling seeds. The non shedding tendency of these seeds eventually became the norm for certain populations of wheat plants. The humans relying upon these plants had two choices. 1) Collect the plants and bash the seeds free or 2) Find an alternative food source. Clearly enough of these humans chose the first option. Once the plants have been removed, the seeds needed to be replanted for another crop. Wheat had trapped humans into perpetuating its genes. Clearly there are advantages for humans in this relationship. Cities, civilization, football, motorcycles and laptops are the end result of this process. However there are also disadvantages. Unless the straw and a nutrient equivalent to the harvested seeds are returned to the soil, it will eventually be unable to grow the wheat. In effect, the underground resources are depleted.

 

It is interesting to note that Australian Aborigines also collected local grains, notably native millets. Their method of harvest, pulling plants, stacking them to dry and returning some time later to harvest the grains did not put significant evolutionary pressures on the grains. The piles of millet that provided the food source also left behind sufficient, unselected evolutionarily, seed to maintain the population of millet plants in their unaltered state. This is instructive. As wheat was adopted across Europe curious changes appear in the archaeological record. Instead of sampling smallish amounts of many food stuffs, that is, anything edible that grew upon, crawled, hopped, walked or flew across the landscape, humans came to rely upon one staple: grain. Change in skeletal remains as the wave of farming rolled across the Mediterranean is evidenced in average male adult heights dropping from 185 cm to 155 cm. That's correct dropping.

 

With these examples in mind, the driving ideas behind The Change Underground System are to avoid unnecessary and damaging evolutionary pressures and to return to a much wider Hunter Gather inspired diet. Now not everyone will want to eat grasshoppers, wrens, mammoth and gazelle but we can all eat a wider variety of vegetables, fruits, grains and herbs. We can also engineer into the system more diverse animal food sources. While the system only discusses five species of animal, there are many breed variations within these species that will add diversity to our diets.

This site is divided as per the table below. You can also directly access individual pages by the tabs to the left of each page. Any thoughts, ideas or suggestions are all most welcome here.