by Karen Olson, former editor of the Utne Reader, on behalf of Permaculture Research Institute Cold Climate.
You may have heard this from Masanobu Fukuoka, the visionary Japanese farmer:
"The purpose of agriculture is not the production of food, but the perfection of human beings"
The trajectory of many martial arts and meditative traditions culminates in a settled, food-producing country life. The lifelong study of balance in physical and mental action can be seen as also a training ground for providing for one's needs in old age, sans Medicare, nursing homes, or intact family structures.