Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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

I've heard all the whines and excuses. Like we work hard to hold on to our
land, and we're not getting rich at it, so why shouldn't the government
help us? Or, if we didn't get price supports and all then we'd have to sell
out to the developers. And on and on. 

I don't recall hearing dry cleaners or auto mechanics crying over lack of
government money to stay in business. Isn't their work necessary too? 

The overgrown megafarms need to go out of business, mainly corporate farms
of thousands of acres (who get the lion's share of subsidies) or big
contract growers in hock to Cargill, ADM, Monsanto, or the banks. They
can't grow sustainably; with machine cultivation they can't possibly stop
topsoil loss and improve the land to its original fertility; they can't cut
out irrigation from dwindling groundwater and aquifers; they can't grow
without herbicides and pesticides and synthetic fertilizers, all from
fossil fuels; and most of all they can't get the credit they have to have
every year to buy seed, fuel, equipment, crop insurance, and labor - with
their (anticipated) crops as collateral of course - IF they don't farm
conventionally. I see no hope for this self-reinforcing cycle of
agribusiness. And no, it doesn't feed the world; the USA is now a net
IMporter of food. 

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

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

On 4/29/2007 at 12:20 PM Ken Hargesheimer wrote:

>"Kill ALL existing subsidies, NOW!"
>   
>  If a farmer has to get a government welfare check to farm, he needs to
>find another occupation.
>   
>  Ken Hargesheimer