Homestead mailing list

[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

On Oct 15, 2007, at 2:48 PM, Don Bowen KI6DIU wrote:

> Time Magazine has a fluff piece on people retiring to farm in this  
> weeks
> issue.  It does not say much until they got around to quoting an un  
> named
> USDA official.  They say hobbyists get far less yield per acre than  
> the
> lifetime pros and in times of food shortages they could further  
> crimp the
> supply.  We all know yield per area with intensive techniques is far
> greater than industrialized methods and that this is the UDSA  
> supporting
> those industrial farmers.
>
> I have tried to write to Time but I have to wait for the disgust to  
> recede.

Follow the dollars.

But . . . the total of organic farmers, CSA's, home gardeners and  
other small-scale producers could not under present conditions begin  
to feed the country in spite of higher yields of better-quality  
produce. Fruit, vegetable, grain and meat consumption levels are now  
sustained only by huge producers using massive inputs of oil-based  
fertilizers and expensive equipment. A transition back to small-scale  
farming is not going to happen unless the energy sky were to fall.  
About half of all Americans actually prefer to live in cities. To  
feed them with small-scale producers nearby would require a solid  
ring of gardeners. But the land immediately surrounding cities is no  
longer affordable for small-scale farming.

We deserve what we get even though much of what we want is due to  
ignorance. Most prefer things as they are. I need to often shake  
myself back to reality with numbers. For instance, how many Americans  
are really living as those on this list do or aspire to?

An agrarian society was once the ideal. For America today, it would  
mean going backwards.

Btw, don't trap yourself in your letter; yields possible through  
intensive gardening are not the norm for home gardeners. They wrote:  
"Hobbyists get far less yield per acre than the lifetime  
pros . . . ." I think that is most often true. What would be equally  
true is that serious small-scale producers seeking maximum yields  
could, acre-for-acre, out-produce the big boys. On some crops. Not  
sure if I would ever want to go for 200 bushel-per-acre corn.

Thanks for bringing the article to our attention, Don.