Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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

On the other hand:  I'm reading The Omnivore's Dilemma which includes a good description of Joel Salatin's work.  I think you would agree that he is a remarkable example of well-directed intelligence.  So, being smart is not a bad thing.  The key is the right kind of education, and I think this list is doing some good in that direction.

 

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

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

From: Harvey Ussery

To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org

Sent: Thursday, October 04, 2007 2:21 PM

Subject: [Livingontheland] The limits of intelligence (was: generating hope)

>
> I understand the comforting appeal in the idea that we can change the world and manifest whatever our hearts desire by believing that what we want is already true. But unfortunately some of the otherwise most intelligent people I know are stuck in ignorance and denial because of this belief.  ~Doug
>  
 
Taking this thought in a slightly different direction: Being intelligent
(and we could throw in well-educated) is no guarantee that one will "get
it right" where the Big Questions are concerned. The vast majority of
people these days grow up completely divorced from the growth of food,
therefore they cannot possibly think correctly about critical issues of
agriculture, soil loss, runoff pollution, food quality, on and
on--however intelligent they are. Indeed, I will hazard the statement
that, so long as one is estranged from the realities of food production
and the natural systems in which it takes place, then the *more*
intelligent one is, the more likely one will come up with
well-intentioned but disastrous solutions to the manifest problems
deriving from a misguided and polluting agriculture.

~Harvey

--
Harvey in northern Va
www.themodernhomestead.us

"How we eat determines, to a considerable extent, how the world is used."  ~Wendell Berry

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