Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Barbara Fischer" <cen12205@centurytel.net>]

Interesting to know that I am a "sub-par neighbor".  Funny how we always
think everyone is below us.

Barbara
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
To: <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, July 14, 2006 12:08 AM
Subject: [Livingontheland] The Future of Farming?


>
> Comments?
> paul, tradingpost@riseup.net
> ---------------
>
> excerpt from:   "Hope for the Future of Farming",  John Ikerd, University
> of Missouri
> http://www.ssu.missouri.edu/faculty/jikerd/papers/SFT1-hope.htm
>
> Things are not going well in agriculture. In fact, farming is in crisis.
> People will continue to eat, and someone will continue to produce their
> food. But farming, as we have known it, almost certainly is coming to an
> end. Agriculture is becoming increasingly industrialized - specialized
> and standardized with decision-making centralized among a hand-full of
> large agribusiness corporations. As farms continue to become larger in
> size, fewer in number, and increasingly under corporate control, at some
> point farming is no longer farming but becomes agribusiness.
>
> So what's the difference between a farm and an agribusiness? First,
> farmers work with nature. They attempt to tip the ecological balance to
> favor humans over other species, but still work with nature. Farmers
> recognize that the laws of nature must prevail over the laws of "man."
> Farmers depend on unpredictable weather and work with living systems that
> they can never expect to completely control. Farming is as much a way of
> life as a way to make a living. A farm is a good place to raise a family
> and farming is a good way to be a part of a community. The benefits of
> farming are not solely, or even predominantly, economic in nature. Farming
> carries with it a set of beliefs, behaviors, and customs that
distinguishes
> it from any other occupation. It's the "culture" part of agriculture
> that makes a farm a farm and not an agribusiness. The culture part of
> agriculture is being systematically removed through the process of
> industrialization.
>
> The agricultural establishment tries to deny the existence of a crisis.
> They say the demise of independent family farms is a sign of technological
> and economic progress. The experts enjoin family farmers to prepare for a
> place in the corporate contract labor pool as if this were their only
> option. The census definition of a farm has even been changed so as to
hide
> the precipitous decline in numbers of true farmers. In spite of the
> tinkering, the 1997 Census of Agriculture showed a 9 percent drop in those
> who consider farming their primary occupation between 1992 and 1997.The
> true American farm continues to disappear at an alarming rate.
>
> Crisis is chronic in agriculture, but the current crisis is different.
This
> crisis is not just a matter of farms continuing to become larger and
fewer,
> instead it is a matter of completing the transformation of agriculture
into
> an industry.
>
> With corporations firmly in control of the economic system, and seemingly
> in control of the political system as well, where is the hope for farming
> in the future? How can farming families hope to compete with the giant
> agribusiness firms? How can people who are committed to stewardship
compete
> with corporations that have no choice but to exploit nature? How can
people
> who are committed to being good neighbors and responsible members of
> society compete with corporations that have no choice but to exploit other
> people? Where is the hope for the future of farming?
>
> The hope for the future of farming is found in those farmers who are
> committed to rediscovering ways to farm that make sense, regardless of how
> it all turns out. Hope arises from their conviction that real farming is
> the only right thing to do and from their commitment to finding ways to
> continue doing it.
>
> Hope for the future is in farming, not in agribusiness. This does not mean
> that farmers should go back to technologies and methods of the past,
> although some may have merit for the future. Instead hope is in using
> technologies and methods that respect the fundamental nature of farming
and
> that keep the culture in agriculture, regardless of whether they are old
or
> new. Certainly, farming in the future must yield an acceptable economic
> return to farmers. But an acceptable economic return is not the same thing
> as maximum profits and growth. Farmers of the future must regain the
> realization of value that results from relationships among people -
> within families, communities, and nations. Farmers of the future must
> regain the realization of value that results from living an ethical and
> moral life - from being good stewards or caretakers of nature and of
> human culture. These are things that make sense regardless of how they
turn
> out - they are the right things to do. In these things there is hope.
>
> In reality, there is more reason to believe in the future of farming than
> in agribusiness. Agriculture has been around for centuries, while
> agribusiness is less than sixty years old. It's only in the past half
> century or so that we have allowed the economics of individual self
> interest to dominate, degrade, and ultimate destroy the ethical and social
> values arising from farming. Farmers have been coerced, bribed, and
> brainwashed into believing that the only thing that really matters, or at
> least the thing that matters more than anything else, is the economic
> bottom line. The hope for the future is that farmers are beginning to
> realize that their blind pursuit of profits is in fact the root cause of
> their financial failure. "Things are not going well in agriculture. In
> fact, farming is in crisis. People will continue to eat, and someone will
> continue to produce their food. But farming, as we have known it, almost
> certainly is coming to an end. Agriculture is becoming increasingly
> industrialized - specialized and standardized with decision-making
> centralized among a hand-full of large agribusiness corporations. As farms
> continue to become larger in size, fewer in number, and increasingly under
> corporate control, at some point farming is no longer farming but becomes
> agribusiness.
>
> So what's the difference between a farm and an agribusiness? First,
> farmers work with nature. They attempt to tip the ecological balance to
> favor humans over other species, but still work with nature. Farmers
> recognize that the laws of nature must prevail over the laws of "man."
> Farmers depend on unpredictable weather and work with living systems that
> they can never expect to completely control. Farming is as much a way of
> life as a way to make a living. A farm is a good place to raise a family
> and farming is a good way to be a part of a community. The benefits of
> farming are not solely, or even predominantly, economic in nature. Farming
> carries with it a set of beliefs, behaviors, and customs that
distinguishes
> it from any other occupation. It's the "culture" part of agriculture
> that makes a farm a farm and not an agribusiness. The culture part of
> agriculture is being systematically removed through the process of
> industrialization.
>
> The agricultural establishment tries to deny the existence of a crisis.
> They say the demise of independent family farms is a sign of technological
> and economic progress. The experts enjoin family farmers to prepare for a
> place in the corporate contract labor pool as if this were their only
> option. The census definition of a farm has even been changed so as to
hide
> the precipitous decline in numbers of true farmers. In spite of the
> tinkering, the 1997 Census of Agriculture showed a 9 percent drop in those
> who consider farming their primary occupation between 1992 and 1997.The
> true American farm continues to disappear at an alarming rate.
>
> Crisis is chronic in agriculture, but the current crisis is different.
This
> crisis is not just a matter of farms continuing to become larger and
fewer,
> instead it is a matter of completing the transformation of agriculture
into
> an industry.
>
> With corporations firmly in control of the economic system, and seemingly
> in control of the political system as well, where is the hope for farming
> in the future? How can farming families hope to compete with the giant
> agribusiness firms? How can people who are committed to stewardship
compete
> with corporations that have no choice but to exploit nature? How can
people
> who are committed to being good neighbors and responsible members of
> society compete with corporations that have no choice but to exploit other
> people? Where is the hope for the future of farming?
>
> The hope for the future of farming is found in those farmers who are
> committed to rediscovering ways to farm that make sense, regardless of how
> it all turns out. Hope arises from their conviction that real farming is
> the only right thing to do and from their commitment to finding ways to
> continue doing it.
>
> Hope for the future is in farming, not in agribusiness. This does not mean
> that farmers should go back to technologies and methods of the past,
> although some may have merit for the future. Instead hope is in using
> technologies and methods that respect the fundamental nature of farming
and
> that keep the culture in agriculture, regardless of whether they are old
or
> new. Certainly, farming in the future must yield an acceptable economic
> return to farmers. But an acceptable economic return is not the same thing
> as maximum profits and growth. Farmers of the future must regain the
> realization of value that results from relationships among people -
> within families, communities, and nations. Farmers of the future must
> regain the realization of value that results from living an ethical and
> moral life - from being good stewards or caretakers of nature and of
> human culture. These are things that make sense regardless of how they tur
n
> out - they are the right things to do. In these things there is hope.
>
> In reality, there is more reason to believe in the future of farming than
> in agribusiness. Agriculture has been around for centuries, while
> agribusiness is less than sixty years old. It's only in the past half
> century or so that we have allowed the economics of individual self
> interest to dominate, degrade, and ultimate destroy the ethical and social
> values arising from farming. Farmers have been coerced, bribed, and
> brainwashed into believing that the only thing that really matters, or at
> least the thing that matters more than anything else, is the economic
> bottom line. The hope for the future is that farmers are beginning to
> realize that their blind pursuit of profits is in fact the root cause of
> their financial failure.
>
> ... The greatest source of hope for the future is among farmers who are
> seeking and finding new ways to farm. They may claim the label of organic,
> low-input, alternative, biodynamic, holistic, permaculture, practical
> farmers, or just plain farmer. But they are all trying to build farming
> systems that are ecologically sound, economically viable, and socially
> responsible.
>
> These new American farmers focus on working with nature rather than
against
> it .
>
> They market in the niches and increase value by more nearly meeting the
> individual needs of their customers. They market through farmers markets,
> roadside stands, subscription farming or CSAs, home delivery, or by
> customer pick-up at the farm. They market to people who care where their
> food comes from and how it is produced - locally grown, organic, humanely
> raised, or hormone and antibiotic free.
>
> They may produce grass finished beef, pastured pork, free range or
pastured
> poultry, heirloom varieties of fruits and vegetables, dairy or milk goats,
> edible flowers, decorative gourds, or dozens of other products that many
> label as agricultural "alternatives." In general, new American farmers
> focus on creating value through uniqueness-- among consumers, among
> producers, and within nature. They link people with purpose and place, and
> by so doing, they create unique systems of meeting human needs that cannot
> be industrialized.
>
> Human life depends of farming, and life is simply too precious to live
> without hope.
>
> ( Published in Sustaining People through Agriculture column, Small Farm
> Today, May/June, 2001 issue. )
> See More John Ikerd papers on small farms
> http://www.ssu.missouri.edu/faculty/jikerd/papers/
> -------------------------
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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