Monday, May 19, 2008

Slash and Burn (heavy emphasis on Burn)

Growing concerns in Belize






Within Central America is the natural propensity to farm with methods handed down through time. Fanning the flames of heritage are increases prices in things like rice, corn, cooking oil, and related products.
There were, last night, thousand of fires burning across Belize in preparation for the Rains and growing season. Some... ...not so easily contained, spread ... ...like wildfires across the country. These photos are of areas within one hundred feet of my home., contained only by a string of buckets filled with water, thrown on with drinking cups, and the wild swinging of machetes, into the remaining tall grasses.







Timestamped, these photos show the fire lasting twenty hours, having restarted with the morning winds, on the morrow.















They are burning my own corn, as well as my cattle pastures, and all the things I planted with more North American traditional methods.






























The Morning after...























And the ensuing hours.


No comments: