Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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

Here's another view.....I own a 80 acre farm in central Illinois which has
been in my father's family since 1869.  I will NEVER sell it and have
entailed it so future generations will find it difficult to sell either.
The same family has lived on my farm for FOUR generations, though not owning
it.  About two years ago the farmer had a heart attack and died at 47.  The
wife continued to live there for a couple of years but the grown son was not
really interested in being a good farmer.  I had to ask her to vacate and I
have spent $40,000 and 2 yrs reconditioning the house.  I have a neighboring
farmer who farms the land.  By Sept lst I will be interviewing possible
tenants.  If any one might be interested, e-mail me
privately.....Merrythought Farm,  AR

Barbara
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
To: <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2006 10:23 AM
Subject: [Livingontheland] with ownership comes responsibility/ commune
wayof living


>
> And I respect your lifetime of experience and knowledge. I didn't make it
> clear enough that intentional communities are fine by me, people can make
> any living arrangements that suit them. What I took issue with was the
idea
> of the hippie commune, all things in common, nobody responsible - an
> untenable lifestyle because only a handful survived at all. Specifically
> their claims they were the wave of the future, the only right way to live.
> Like, food grows itself without work.
>
> Understand I'm not sneering at ICs with 3 or 4 members; how others choose
> to live isn't my business. What they call a family isn't for me to say.
> But that list is calling everybody that lives with someone else they're
not
> related to an intentional community, from college dorm arrangements to
> gated developments. They watered it down so much it's completely
> meaningless. What's the point then? That could include millions, most with
> nothing to do with living on the land.
>
> But my view is, ownership of land and natural family is the best
> arrangement to encourage  stewardship of the land. Others can disagree,
> obviously. Joel Salatin said the definition of a successful farm is one
> that your children will want passed on to them. He's well known as a very
> successful 5th generation farmer on the same land. Family ownership of
land
> has been traditional worldwide for ages and it's not really financial or
> corporate capitalism as we see it today. Extended families on their own
> land predates modern capitalism by millennia. It's natural.
>
> It's my position that only with ownership comes responsibility. It's no
> guarantee of sustainable farming or success. But an artificial family
> owning agricultural land in common is a prescription for problems because
> they can (and do) come and go at will. They have no stake in the future of
> it, little incentive to improve the land. They may not even be around next
> growing season. Agricultural ICs without natural family ownership simply
> don't function to honor and preserve the land for future generations.
> That's what I see.
>
> I'm with Joel Salatin on this one.
>
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2006/05/no_bar_code.html?welcome=tru
> e
>
> paul, tradingpost@riseup.net
> ---------------
> The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all
> our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to
> foster its renewal is our only hope.
>    - Wendell Berry
> *********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********
>
> On 7/18/2006 at 8:11 AM Uriel wrote:
>
> >Paul,
> >I have enormous respect for the job you do with this list in expanding
> >all our knowledge of living on the land in an intelligent and productive
> >way. But I must question how well you understand the community movement.
> >Having been involved with community for 35 years I've seen a lot and
> >think I've gained some understanding of why communities seem to have had
> >limited success. The biggest single handicap that I've observed (and my
> >own prejudice shows here, I'm sure) is that in order to live in
> >community you have to be able to relinquish many of the concepts of
> >ownership and control that are basic to capitalist philosophy. I do
> >believe that we are seeing the beginning of the demise of international
> >corporate capitalism and that its collapse will result in many changes,
> >eventually, in how the survivors view those concepts.
> >
> >BTW, you sneer at communities that only have 3 or 4 members. Do you
> >sneer at families that have only 2 or 3 children as failures to
> >reproduce more abundantly? We in community have the luxury of choosing
> >our families and it's an ongoing process that can lead to immensely
> >rewarding experiences and relationships. I would not for anything trade
> >it for the confining environment of the nuclear family that has devolved
> >from the traditional extended family tribal grouping. It is that sense
> >of the tribe that many of us are searching to reproduce as best we can.
> >
> >Uriel / SW Missouri
> >
> >TradingPostPaul wrote:
> >> Doing more checking to see if there are agricultural ICs I missed in
the
> >> past. Going through the "A"s, I find  Alpha Farm at Deadwood, Oregon,
> and
> >> it looks promising. Been around since 1970. Then I scroll down and see
> >they
> >> have a grand total of 4 adults.
>
>
>
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