Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["E. E. Mitchamore Jr" <emitch@att.net>]

That's exactly the point, and it seems to me that both of those, and free-range eggs and organic or raw milk are better handled by a relatively small farm/ranch.  I'm seeing more of these kinds of operations in Central Texas, but not enough to meet the demand, especially from restaurants.  What's the deal?  Is it just too much work or investment?

 

There's a lot of grassland in Texas that is well suited to raising herbivores, but where it would be very difficult to sustainably raise annual vegetables or grain.  Some folks are successfully using Holistic Management principles in these operations, but there must be systemic barriers, because it's not happening enough.

 

E. E. "Mitch" Mitchamore
www.hillcountrynatives.biz

----- Original Message -----

From: TradingPostPaul

To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org

Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2007 2:57 PM

Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] why sustainable growing/ was Texas

Really it's not either or. Some would say everything in moderation. Plant
what will grow where you are, what you can keep in winter, what you already
like to eat. We're all going to buy or barter foods we don't grow for
whatever reasons. So not everybody needs to raise animals, as not everybody
needs to raise carrots or nectarines. The real environmental impact of
animals is the factory feedlots and acres of cage chickens, and we can eat
just fine without either. Eliminating factory farmed animals would reduce
our meet consumption to a small fraction of what it is, and no doubt we'd
be better off without all the toxics they involve. It would be pretty hard
for most of us to swear off all animal products. It would help if we could
afford only free range chicken and grass fed beef now and then.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net