Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

Hi, Tom. I hope it's understood I'm not looking for agreement; I'm looking
for progress on our most urgent agricultural problems and people who are
open to better ways. I've spent a lot of this snowed in time researching
online and through books, compiling evidence and references, and I've been
convinced ten times over on the profitability and sustainability of
intensive organic no-till. Please bear in mind I'm a hardcore skeptic and
it took most of my life to come around to this. I'm working with vegetable
crops only since orcharding and grains etc. are still outside my
experience. 

Very interesting to compare your and your neighbor side by side. Esp since
your costs are lower. I keep reading how conventional farmers are facing
higher and higher costs. 

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 2/3/2007 at 8:55 PM mtncats wrote:

>Hi Paul,
>   
>  I was registering some disagreement with Laurie Ann's post, had little
>to do with your original question.
>   
>  Hadn't addressed that before as I don't have much to offer.  While I
>don't share your degree of despair with the current food production
>system, I'm quite certain you're on track.
>   
>  I've recently had conversations with a local certified "master
>gardener", a neighbor I know well.  My soil is remarkably better than his.
> My crops are healthier.  I use no commercial fertilizers or pesticides or
>herbicides.  He utilizes all, particularly proud of his toxic pesticide
>license.  Clearly, my production cost is far lower.  Not to mention what
>he's doing to his soil.
>   
>  More disturbing, he has no interest whatsoever in doing things
>differently.  And part of his certification requires him to teach.  I pity
>his pupils/apprentices.  They would do better here, reading.  Then they'd
>have less to unlearn.
>   
>  My elderly mother was farm-raised.  Her father was the first in the
>(Michigan) county to purchase a tractor.  I never met him, but her lessons
>to me were the first I had to unlearn.  She is continuously amazed when
>she visits us.  Unfortunately she didn't learn, or has forgotten, how her
>father farmed.  She learned her techniques from others.  Likely someone
>similar to my well-meaning neighbor.
>   
>  Tom (in central Va)
>