Homestead mailing list

["Don Bowen" <don.bowen AT earthlink.net>]

As we all know the price of food is rising faster than at any time in recent 
memory.  We all know the reasons, increasing oil costs cause rising prices in 
growing, processing, and delivering food, world wide climate change causing 
droughts in food producing areas, increasing incomes in developing nations 
changing eating habits, and the criminal act of putting food in our fuel 
tanks.  Two articles I read this last week, one in Time Magazine, and one at 
http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2008/05/paul-collier-re.html,
 portend a trend that we should be wary of.

Both give accurate reasons for the problem but support the wrong fix.  They 
push for more fertilizer, higher yielding seeds, and more water.  Neither 
advocate better farming using less energy intensive methods.  Both articles 
push for business as usual and more of the same and neither looks at 
alternate methods.

Iowa farmers are complaining about the rising costs of fertilizer and Asian 
Rice farmers are having problems getting fertilizer.  The Iowa farmer was 
worried that the current high prices he was getting for corn were not 
sustainable and that when things settled he would be in financial difficulty. 
 The Vietnam farmer was worried about feeding his family.  Fertilizer is made 
mostly from Natural Gas and is transported long distances so there will be 
little relief there in the future.

Higher yielding seeds come from research into plant genetics.  Starting with 
the studies by Mendel on peas and on to genetic manipulation by using viri to 
transport genes from jellyfish into plants.  Hybridization has reached a peak 
and leaves whole plant families vulnerable to pathogens. Direct genetic 
manipulation is fraught with danger and has not lived up to promise except to 
allow sales of more chemicals.

More water is a real problem in many parts of the world.  Climate change is 
changing rainfall patterns and population growth and shift is placing heavy 
strains on existing water supplies.  To increase water to crops is to 
increase irrigation from deep aquifers and distant surface water, both 
requiring expensive pumping energy.

The answer is not bigger farms using expensive patented seeds with more 
chemical and energy inputs.  There are many answers but with the constant 
noise from the established farming system those methods will have problems 
getting aired.

Don Bowen      KI6DIU
http://www.braingarage.com/Dons/Travels/journal/Journal.html
>From don.bowen AT earthlink.net  Sun May  4 10:55:56 2008
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>Homesteaders who raise animals may wish to
>consider growing their own grains.

II have read that Gene Logsdon is reissuing his book on small scale grain
growing.

Don Bowen      KI6DIU
http://www.braingarage.com/Dons/Travels/journal/Journal.html