Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[dconine@dotnet.com]

Thanks, Bobby. I know exactly what you mean. I also get disappointed at the 
Organic meetings when they are dominated by academics and 'groupies' who seem 
to want to do more show than work(the more they show, the more grant money 
they get). 

I had a letter published recently in the Milwaukee Journal, and I've talked 
to Senator Feingold's staff about the futility of ethanol programs. If 
anything, we should simply encourage farmers to use corn for heating fuel, 
rather than distilling it for vehicles. They save the fuel by not shipping 
it, and they don't have to buy petroleum fuel. Instead, we are using 
petroleum to build the plants, ship the corn, grow the corn, and drive 
vehicles as though nothing is wrong with driving in the first place.

Too much of a rant, sorry. 

That's why I always put the quotes on " 'non'-profit agencies" ;-)

>From my letter to the editor: "Farming isn't about entertaining people with 
>pretty animals, and it isn't about filling corporate/government coffers. 
>Farming is the interface between the soil and the food we eat. If we don't 
>take care of the soil, there won't be any nutrition in the food. 
>Corporations don't care about the nutrition in the food because they can 
>sell you vitamins when you are sick.
The problem with ethanol is what it does to the soil, not what it costs. We 
have spent the last century replacing people on farms with petroleum. We have 
to put them all back BEFORE the land is gone. If you want Change, keep it in 
your pocket, buy less, buy local."

Dan C.
Belgium,WI

> From: Bobby G <bobbyg53211@yahoo.com>
> Subject: [Livingontheland] Farmer Coops Conference: no mention of
>       sustainability, soils etc.
> To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
> Message-ID: <834051.31507.qm@web51613.mail.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
> 
> folks, looking around for information relevant to our
> project here in Wisconsin, i came across a bulletin
> for a conference last fall of farmer cooperatives,
> held in the midwest:
> 
> http://uwcc.wisc.edu/farmercoops06/index.html
> 
> i was rather disappointed to see that the conference
> focused on "biofuels" and their "opportunities"
> without even mentioning (not that i could find) the
> crucial sustainability questions about rebuilding
> soils and protecting water resources.
> 
> the other fairly disappointing thing--and i'm seeing
> this in all the groups focused on "sustainability"
> that i've been attending--is the domination by
> academic people in these kinds of groups.
> 
> so you have a farmers' coops meeting where most of the
> workshops and presentations aren't by farmers, but by
> department heads from various well-funded (by
> agri-business no doubt) universities.
> 
> very disappointing...
> 
> bobby g
>