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[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

This article speaks for itself.



Rural areas losing more soldiers in Iraq

By Douglas Fischer
STAFF WRITER
Article Launched: 03/17/2008 03:02:25 AM PDT
The full article from the California newspaper, Contra Costa Times, is  
at:
http://origin1.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_8601083
Nearly 4,000 service members have died in the war since fighting began  
March 19, 2003. Almost 2,400 of the dead hailed from cities and towns  
with a population of 80,000 or less. Meanwhile, 537 have died from  
cities larger than 300,000.
Put another way: For every 100,000 people living in a large city in  
this country, one service member has died in Iraq. For every 100,000  
people living in this country's smallest cities and towns, two troops  
have perished.
These disparities leave demographers puzzled. The war is splitting the  
nation. At a time when all Americans are expected to sacrifice, the  
roughly 64 million people living in the country's largest cities  
appear to be turning their backs on military service.
Oakland and Tracy - with 2006 populations of 397,000 and 80,000,  
respectively - offer a stark contrast.
In 2001, the last recruiting year before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks  
changed the American psyche, 135 recruits came from Oakland while 64  
came from Tracy. But, by 2006, with the Iraq and Afghanistan wars  
raging, Oakland had 89 recruits, while 91 from Tracy signed on.
The reasons anyone goes off to war are complex and often impossible to  
explain. On one side: pride of country, desire to serve, family  
tradition. On another: lack of options, need for cash, yearning for a  
better future.
Whatever the reasons, the military's recruiting message has always  
resonated better in rural areas.
Military moms almost without exception cite patriotism and upbringing  
as reasons for this. But sense of duty alone doesn't explain why more  
rural residents are entering the military, said Tim Marema, vice  
president of Whitesburg, Ky.-based Center for Rural Strategies, who  
has studied enlistment data and similarly concluded rural soldiers  
account for a disproportionately high share of casualties.
"When you look at the economic and death statistics, you just can't  
ignore that there's a huge economic opportunity factor. We've set up a  
system for our nation where our young people have to leave rural areas  
to participate in the economy."
For some rural residents, military service is a sure way out, Marema  
said. And that's unfair.
"For young people who want to choose the military, good for them. Our  
nation needs them," Marema said.
"But it shouldn't be a choice made under duress. It should be a  
choice, and, in the sense of fairness, we would hope all our young  
people would have the same opportunities as they look at how they want  
their lives to unfold."
> From Clansgian AT wmconnect.com  Fri May  2 21:06:05 2008
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Subject: Re: [Homestead] Tomatoes, to rotate or not to rotate
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In a message dated 5/2/2008 12:02:49 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
genegerue AT ruralize.com writes:


> >. "Tomatoes love to grow where tomatoes have grown." "You must  
> rotate tomatoes each year to stop disease."
>
> ...... It is my common practice to  
> prune off low branches as the plants get taller



It has taken me a lot of years and a lot of digging (no pun intended, not 
much any way) to come to my own semi-conclusions about this.

Over the years my plantings of individual crops have become smaller and 
smaller. That is, I still plant as many tomato plants, but there are not whole rows 
or beds of them.  The two exceptions to this are hard corn and potatoes.  
Almost everything else is planted in blocks of the 4' wide beds 1' to 4' at a 
time.  Along a 60 foot bed there will typically be 4 feet of cabbage, 3 feet of 
onions, 2 feet of spinach, 4 feet of snap beans, 3 feet of peas, 1 foot of 
radishes, etc. etc.   So using the exact same ground two years in a row is 
unlikely.

And yet, I have come to very much doubt that crop rotation in the small 
organic holding is gemane.  Take Gene's example of the tomatoes,  Early and Late 
blight are airborne diseases and rotation will do nothing to thwart them. 
Fusarim and Verticillium are deep soil born.  But it takes more than 5 years for the 
spore to pass out of the ground, so the same ground could  not have potatoes, 
peppers, eggplants, or tomatoes for five years to rotate out the disease.   

Soil borne pathogens on the soil surface can be thwarted by removing lower 
foliage.

Open air space and good organic plants will resit the diseases.  But I see 
little evidence that rotation does all that much good.  I am suspecting that 
crop rotation is yet another one of those things that is necessary in 
agribusiness operations that gets subliminated into the kitchen garden without examining 
very deeply that it is apropos or not.

James
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