What is LotFotL?
LotFotL is an acronym, standing for Living off the Fat of the Land. On the farm as in life, everything depends on something else. To thrive we all depend on:
- healthy soil
- balance within the boom and bust cycles of plants and animals
- seasonal weather patterns
- healthy economies in love, finances, environment, family, and so on
To live off the fat of the land is to live harmoniously as a member of a greater community. LotFotL appropriately participates in the soil community by:
- Increased soil health by adding organic matter to fields.
- Disease reduction in field by excercising proper rotations.
- Including cover crops and living mulches into field systems.
- Minimizing water waste through drip irrigation systems.
- Encouraging natural pest predation by maximizing beneficial insect populations
To “live off the fat of the land” then is to bask in your role in a system which feeds you so long as you feed it. It is the celebration, and the recognition that you cannot be you without these systems, without other beings, sentient and otherwise. Farming practices that are land abusive will inevitably lead to land that is lifeless, just as a household filled with anger and violence will cease to feel like a home.
We strive to apply systematic thinking to the farm, treating the land like the vast and complex space that it is. In building our relationship to the soil we are placing our bets that if we fulfill the role of stewards and caretakers of this supercomplex set of interactions, this system will reciprocate and care for us. But even if it doesn't, even if waves someday wash over our fields, or the sun bakes Earth's flesh to a crusty and crumbly and lifeless space, we will have acted from this place of intention, and will be better for it. To Live off the fat of the land, then, is simply to live.
