Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Dan Conine <dconine@dotnet.com>]

Sure, I'll jump in.
> Organic means food is grown without bug killer, fertilizer, hormones,
> antibiotics or biotechnology.
>   
Nuh-uh. It means without synthetics that aren't on the 'list'. There are 
plenty of bug killers, fertilizers, antibiotics, and biotechnology in 
organic production. They just have to be on the 'natural' list. Just 
because something is on the list doesn't mean it isn't going to harm 
someone in the right quantity or over time. Most of the things being 
used because they are 'natural' haven't been tested in the same manner 
as the synthetics are. They are just GRAS (generally regarded as safe). 
Like fluoride and chlorine.

> Message: 7
> Date: Fri, 07 Jul 2006 08:57:52 -0600
> From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
>
> Any comments or criticisms on this? Before  I jump in ...
> -------------
>
> The makers of the high-energy, eat-and-run Clif Bar needed 85,000 pounds of
> almonds, and they had to be organic. But the nation's organic almond crop
> was spoken for. Eventually, Clif Bar found the almonds -- in Spain. But
> more shortages have popped up: apricots and blueberries, cashews and
> hazelnuts, brown rice syrup and oats.
>
> Even Stonyfield Farm, an organic pioneer in the United States, is pursuing
> a foreign supplier; Stonyfield is working on a deal to import milk powder
> from New Zealand.
>   
WTF??? We have more milk than we need in this country, that's why we 
have price supports, isn't it?
Someone really has to work on separating the real farmers in this 
country from the government-sponsored cult called "Organics". (Yes, it's 
a cult. They wear the hemp uniforms, drink the soy KoolAid, and sing 
organic songs...it's a cult)
The cult is turning into a corporation, and the government is enabling it.
Soylent Green, anyone?
> "If organic is something created in the image of sustainable agriculture,
> we certainly haven't accomplished that yet," said Urvashi Rangan, a
> scientist for Consumers Union. "What people do have to understand is if
> that stuff comes in from overseas, and it's got an organic label on it, it
> had to meet USDA standards in order to get here."
>   
How, exactly, is importing foods with fossil fuel going to get us to 
sustainable? And what happens to the foreign cultures when we pull out 
after our farms are brought up to speed? Or is America just going to be 
the 'administrators' of a global cluster of Organicorp which shuffles 
our money out and their processed organic products in? Fine thinking if 
our economy holds up the way it is, but I'm sure the peak oil economics 
will have some influence on how that plays out. The Organic cult is a 
luxury which we can't afford. It only adds to the giant sucking sound of 
money that should be spent in local communities being spent overseas or 
being put in offshore bank accounts for ex-USDA civil servants.

> Caren Wilcox, the group's executive director, described how an Illinois
> farmer showed up in May at an industry show in Chicago.
>
> "He said, `I want to get certified. Help me,'" Wilcox said. "It was a smart
> thing to do, but the fact that he had to get into his car and go down to
> McCormick Center says something about the availability of information."
>   
This is a widespread problem with all farming conferences. They always 
seem to be at the most expensive hotels in cities. The 'discount' is 
never as much as I can get on a AAA card. What's up with that, anyway? 
Apparently, these conferences are designed for people who already suck 
money out of the government on a larger scale than the local community 
should be concerned with.
Anyone concerned with the sizes of these companies involved in certified 
organic promotion at all?
I guess I'm just an anachronism in thinking that things which involve 
crossing county lines usually involve using fuel to do something that a 
neighbor could be doing.
> In the meantime, manufacturers like Clif Bar and Stonyfield still prefer to
> buy organic ingredients, wherever they come from, instead of conventional
> crops in the U.S.
>
> "Anybody who's helping to take toxins out of the biosphere and use less
> poisonous chemicals in agriculture is a hero of mine," Hirshberg said.
> "There's enormous opportunity here for everybody to win, large and small."
>
>
>   
As long as they are profit-motivated, maybe; and only as long as the 
disposable income of the suburbs holds out until the magic hydrogen cars 
save us.

Dan Conine
Belgium, WI