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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] locally adapted varieties, was DIET FOR A DEAD PLANET

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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  • From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
  • To: emitch@att.net, livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] locally adapted varieties, was DIET FOR A DEAD PLANET
  • Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2007 20:58:13 -0700


I wasn't responding to any one person's position there. YMMV but personally
don't see corn as a good use of available space where I am.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

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

On 3/11/2007 at 6:19 PM E. E. Mitchamore Jr wrote:

>A good point that's often contentious: There are areas, called "brittle"
>by Holistic Management's Alan Savory, where grass is the best "crop". In
>those areas, with appropriate management, the best approach to food
>production is to raise grass-fed beef.
>
>I was NEVER advocating corn as a typical agribusiness crop; only as a
>useful part of a family diet and garden. Funny how easy it is for a
>conversation to get off track.
>
>E. E. "Mitch" Mitchamore
>www.hillcountrynatives.biz
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: TradingPostPaul
> To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
> Sent: Sunday, March 11, 2007 4:55 PM
> Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] locally adapted varieties, was DIET FOR A
>DEAD PLANET
>
>
>
> In west Texass I believe it's only grown in those monster irrigated
round
> fields. But the multistate Ogallah Aquifer is depleting, and farmers on
>its
> fringes in eastern NM and OK have had wells go dry permanently. Without
> water they're out of business and their investment in land is just gone.
>SE
> in the coastal blackland it probably gets enough moisture without
> irrigation. I never saw much corn or any other row crops in NE Texass.
>But
> it's not always a matter of whether it'll grow or not. A lot of land is
> better suited to cattle, or it turns out better economically to run
> livestock instead of cropping. Corn is a heavy feeder and the price of
> fertilizer and fuel keeps going up. The way corn is typically grown in
> rotation with soybeans helps with the nitrogen but still depletes
>topsoil
> and organic matter by cultivation. As it's currently practiced with row
> crops, we may have 40 or 50 years of topsoil left. Then we starve.
>
> paul tradingpost@lobo.net







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