Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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

We're trying to see ahead of the next curve here. We can put a finer point
on it. We don't have a crystal ball but we know that the factors driving
prices are now converging. We not just talking silver living but how to be
part of the solution instead of part of the problem. 

Yes, ethanol is taking more and more land out of food production. But it's
also demanding more fossil fuel fertilizer and that forces costs up for
conventional food farmers across the board. The ethanol-food squeeze is
however only part of the problem. 

The cost of fossil fuel fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides,
plus cost of tractor fuel and truck fuel have already been rising steadily.
There's a fact, not a prediction. On average, food travels 1400 miles to
our table. Agribusiness is vulnerable to all these costs. Wheat farmers in
Wash. state are giving up when it costs more to grow than they can get for
their wheat. Big farms cannot control those costs. We also know fossil fuel
supplies are no longer keeping up with demand, so all costs depending on
fossil fuels will continue to rise. That includes heavy equipment of all
kinds. And it looks like financing for equipment is drying up fast as the
economy slides deeper into recession. 

Question being, how small do we need to get below the radar and not be
vulnerable to these rising costs? As one example, I was able to start on
the acre that came with the house we got last year, very cheap but not too
far from markets. No extra land cost. Use the land you've got. Garden
tractors or big tillers are a timesaver but with the other startup costs I
passed on that this year. No equipment to finance or pay off. Going no-till
anyway. I don't buy fertilizer or pesticide, but get loads of manure cheap.
I do pay for amendments like bone meal, alfalfa meal, fish emulsion,
seaweed concentrate, but they're small quantities at relatively low cost.
Greenhouse materials we got locally - before lumber goes up again. UV 6mil
is going up, can't help that. We grow from seed so we don't break the bank
for those outrageous starter plants at the big box stores. We're on a well.
 And gasoline? Well, we sell at markets 15 miles away and 40 miles away, at
30 mpg for the Toyota van we use for everything else too. Doubling the
price of gas wouldn't keep the markets from being profitable, since all
other costs are low. 

As food costs rise the average family will find other costs rising as well.
The nationwide shortage of affordable housing for millions is about to get
a lot worse. There's ten trillion dollars worth of mortgages outstanding
right now, and one trillion of that is ARMs scheduled to reset to much
higher mortage payments before this year is out. I could go on from reports
but the direction is clear. An awful lot of people are going to choose
between food, shelter, medicine, whatever. 

By getting smaller, we also make room for many more growers of all kinds,
instead of megafarms gobbling up everyone in their path. And they will need
employment - self employment. By growing for market or just the family,
some may find the sun, fresh air, and exercise cutting down on their need
for $100 bottles of prescription drugs and health club memberships. And
providing healthier, local food could be a lifesaver for millions.  As Barb
says, "free health insurance with every purchase".

We see the news, but how many people think through the consequences and try
to  see where we're headed? I'm not painting the worst case picture by a
long shot.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

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

On 8/28/2007 at 2:07 PM Harvey Ussery wrote:

>>
>> Laying aside the issue of all that injustice - that's just one more
>reason
>> to expect food production to become more profitable. But not all food
>> production. As supermarket food rises from higher production costs and
>> transportation fuel costs, the sustainable small grower will find
his/her
>> costs staying level while the retail price of food keeps going up. If
>> you're not shelling out more and more for fossil fuel-based fertilizers
>and
>> pesticides and heavy farm equipment, your costs don't go up. If you're
>> growing on small acreage or less, the rising cost of land for ethanol or
>> development won't affect you.  ~Paul
> 
>Paul,
>
>Thanks for a most interesting take on this often noted problem (of the 
>way the table and the SUV are increasingly competing for agricultural 
>production). Actually, as you point out, it is highly commoditized--and 
>heavily subsidized--foodstuffs that are going to see the steepest rises 
>in cost as the ethanol idiocy spreads. If cost of more sustainability 
>produced foods does *not* go up, for the reasons you mention, then that 
>could give a boost to the latter.
>
>A silver lining in every cloud.
>
>~Harvey
>
>-- 
>Harvey in northern Va
>www.themodernhomestead.us
>
>Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our
>deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a
>sterner sense of justice than we do.  ~Wendell Berry
>
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