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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Organic delusions

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Alan Whitaker <alan@dunbrokeus.com>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Organic delusions
  • Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 07:26:31 -0500

Laura McKenzie wrote:

Dedicated organic consumers tend to buy locally and not at Walmart so the niche Walmart thinks it is going to corner will be a shaky one at best. Families thinking about buying organic and who see no problem with buying from Walmart might be tempted to buy organic but I don't think they will do so on a regular basis. I agree too that organic standards are going to be


Laura, here in Alabama, the extension service is responsible for setting up the farmers markets. They are doing this so they can administer the
FMNP (Farmers Market Nutrition Program). You might ought to call the extension service and talk to them about it. I'm assuming that you are in the northern half of Alabama, maybe close to Birmingham? Anyhow, I've been here in LA (lower Alabama) since 2000
and I can attest to the condition of the sorry soils. I'm attempting to farm vegetables on 18 acres of some of the absolute sorriest soils I've ever been around.
My first season here, I planted 9 acres of sorghum-sudan grass and let it get about 6 foot tall then disked it in. Thinking with a good-soil mentality, I figured
this would put a lot of organic matter in the soil. It did for about 3 months. After three months, you could dig in the soil and you couldn't find a trace of the
material there. Here in the deep South, we don't have the luxury of a cold winter to slow the decomposition of our organic matter. My soil has a CEC of about
3. Yes, that's 3. It ain't good and I have sure learned a lot about soils since moving here. This year is another dry year. The third out of 6 years. Then when we have a wet year, we get those nasty hurricanes that'll dump 8-12 inches and show you that
old oak in the back wasn't so tough after all. When I first moved here, I called the local farmers co-op and asked what they used for a plow-down here. They didn't understand the question. So I asked what they used for organic matter. They said they didn't carry anything "organic"...............the extension agent found out I was organic, and he asked me "I hear
you use soap to kill bugs?". They are clueless. I believe the problem here is that the soil types don't hold the organic matter long enough to help you out unless you are using a good amount of mulch. We don't have the luxury of a cold winter, and high CEC soils.
Alan Whitaker
Georgiana, AL




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