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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] 1491: pre-Columbian eras

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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  • From: Dan Conine <dconine@bertramwireless.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] 1491: pre-Columbian eras
  • Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2007 15:08:02 -0500

>
> Message: 3
> Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2007 19:21:43 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Johnny Stansell <jgstansell@yahoo.com>
> Subject: [Livingontheland] (no subject)
> To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
> Message-ID: <642465.76892.qm@web33709.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> I have seen discovery channel shows that said the peoples of South America
> pretty much destroyed their environment from unsustainable practices. Wish
> I could remember specific shows.
>
> Johnny Stansell
>
>
Mann addresses this in a couple of ways in the book. In one sense, we
have all been taught about the 'slash and burn' practices, but it turns
out that slash and burn isn't all that practical without steel tools,
and is a more recent development, possibly even imported from Europe.

Also, changing the environment isn't the evil threat that
preservationists would think. Much of the SA tropical fruit forests were
actually planted and created; they didn't naturally just spring up. The
earliest Dutch settlers found the NA natives burning everything to keep
out the underbrush, and shaping the landscape, but it didn't destroy it.
It created one that was more friendly to grass-eaters and hardwood
trees. It can't compare to the destruction of commercial tobacco and
cotton farming that came afterward, described graphically in "Mr.
Jefferson's Lost Cause".

As usual, take everything with a grain of salt.

Dan




  • Re: [Livingontheland] 1491: pre-Columbian eras, Dan Conine, 03/15/2007

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