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  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Viewing SSE & Seeds of Change changes
  • Date: Wed, 01 Dec 2010 00:20:42 -0500

On 12/1/2010 12:06 AM, Toby Hemenway wrote:

The Farm always had very high staff turnover, was terribly
underutilized, never seemed able to really get off the ground, and
was marred by constantly changing plans and directions because no
manager seemed to be able to last there for more than a year or two,
and often much less. This sort of chaos made it unlikely that good
people would stay. Every time I was there, particularly for the last
3 years, there were always troubles of one sort or another going on,
and it often looked like very little was being done there. Some good
work was done there, but overall it was a money-loser that was
completely subsidized by Mars, and couldn't have kept running without
the large cash infusions that the corporation kept plowing into it.

What an incredible shame. They should have hired me to run it. It would be thriving now had they done that. Shameless plug... I would have moved it to North Carolina.

The staff understood that Mars would eventually tire of pouring money
into a losing operation, and yet they still never were able to make
it profitable or make it look like a successful operation. Mars
finally pulled the plug. They stayed with it an awfu lly long time.
So I can't really blame Mars for tiring of getting so little for all
the money they put into it. Without Mars's subsidy, it would have
failed much earlier, as no small seed business could have possibly
afforded to run such a place. I wish it could have been better run
and been more successful, but it wasn't.

I am glad to hear the full truth about what happened and that Mars was not at fault (as far as we know).

Remember that the research farm is only a small part of Seeds of
Change. The firm itself is still operating in much the same way it
always has. Most of the employees I talked with felt that being
bought by Mars (which happened years ago), even though it went
counter to the ideological beliefs of many of them, turned out to be
good for them, and made it possible for the company to develop. But
some people didn't like it, for sure.

What a backward mindset, not to use available funding to the max, put personal issues aside and get on with the work. There's a big lesson there. I am glad the SoC is still in business and moving forward. I hope it evolves into something resembling its previous incarnation.

But I will miss that farm. It was a sweet piece of ground.

I'll bet. What a missed opportunity.

LL




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