Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Dan Conine <dconine@bertramwireless.com>]

Bob C. said:
> It is not one way, you must listen 
>  and be more than a bit humble. Nature will then reveal herself and you 
> will be in awe, astounded even. If earth chooses you to be a steward of her 
> treasures you are the receiver of a great richness of the fabric of life. 
> Bob C
Thanks, very well said.

My family also has several generations of farmers on land, but Grandpa's
land was subdivided, even though it was some of the richest land
available, due to greed in my father's siblings.
I am trying to start a new legacy on land that was abused in the Earl
Butz fashion, and it is obvious that this land was exploited for the
corn/soybean rotation. We have lived here 10 years, and it is still
referred to as "The Old "soandso" Place". SoandSo didn't care for this
land. When they couldn't pull a plow through the clay hills anymore,
they tiled the swamps and farmed those. When the swamps had too many
weeds, they sprayed atrazine and killed the stream. Once the stream was
dead, they moved it to accomodate the drain tiles better and 'straighten
out' the fencelines. The first time they tried to sell, they couldn't
because of fuel contamination that had to be cleaned up. By the time we
found it, the last 120 acres had been split into parcels. The local town
thought that there was too much land being subdivided before that, and
passed a law that houses couldn't be built on less than 35 acres.
Instead of slowing the rate of farmland loss, it accelerated. People
from Chicago, Milwaukee, and points unknown decided that they could all
afford a $400,000 drywall shanty on 40 acres, yet they won't pay more
for a tomato next door than they pay for a pink waterball in the
supermarket--yet.
There are two places where appreciation for good farming take place:
inside the cities, where they know they are dependent on the outside,
and on the New Farms(large and small). In between are the Suburbs and
the farms that support Suburbia as the American Dream. Some of those
farms are lucky, and they have several FEET of dark topsoil which
continues to produce, almost regardless of how it is abused. Some farms
are big, yet they do their best to till the soil with care, others are
small and abuse it. There are some 'best' practices, but there are also
'good', 'bad', and 'horrible' practices. Some are lucky enough to have
outside income to support the 'best' practices, some are lucky to have
customers who appreciate the best practices (Organic Markets, CSA's, etc.).
I'm not the best by any means. I hope that I can simply add more to the
land than I take away from it.
Criticism is one of my favorite tools, but I think everyone on this list
is trying to establish a practice of Net Creativity with their land.
I think also, that people who are still connected to commercial
agriculture through family or directly, need to understand that the
future of farming lies in educating the worst practicing farmers to
either change or minimize their impact on the commons. We aren't trying
to get legislation passed, or grant money. We are simply looking at the
land we own, and the land around us, and pointing to things that are
wrong and saying "that can't continue without affecting my land's
future". There are places in the Midwest where monocropping and
overproduction have gone on for a hundred years or more, but that
doesn't mean it is possible for it to continue without declining.
There are small organic farms that are dependent upon plastic mulch,
plastic housing, or heated greenhouses in order to maintain profits in a
petroleum-oriented society. This also can't continue unless new energy
sources are developed.
The current systems and population levels are dependent upon ignorance
of their true dependencies. Nobody is going to publicly announce a
population reduction or "lifestyle" reduction as resources run out. The
powerful will simply take advantage of the profit "opportunities" as
things fall apart; starting companies to build gas chambers, investing
in burial systems and decontamination equipment, getting laws passed
against free speech, building prisons and detention centers.
The Revolution will not be televised; it will be exploited.

Dan