I went to Eastie Farm for a field trip on February 10.
It is located in a residential area, a small farm tucked between houses. We can learn　about the effective use of rainwater and waste, and environmentally friendly farming practices, all of which are part of their efforts to create a sustainable society there.
About 97 percent of the water on earth is seawater, and about 3 percent is freshwater. Of this water, only 0.01 percent is usable for domestic purposes such as drinking water and economic activities. But rainwater is freshwater and useable for our life. They use rainwater accumulating on the neighbors’ roofs on this farm. It is used to grow food. This also helps to avoid floods and droughts. They are making the most of nature’s gift of rainwater. In addition, they use food waste such as vegetable peels and seeds. They reuse food waste to make new fertilizer by doing a process called composting. This process requires a bit of stamina and patience, but it does not require expensive tools or advanced techniques. Also, the fertilizer produced by composting is rich in nutrients and healthy.
I think it’s great that we can take something seemingly useless and use it to create something new and nature-friendly. It was a small but wonderful farm that cooperated with the local community, utilizing the cycles of nature and aiming for a sustainable society.
Rio Takase
