Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Harvey Ussery <boxwood@nelsoncable.com>]

> Book Review: Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future 
> by Bill McKibben,
> reviewed by John Marsh  ~Posted by Douglas

I recently read DEEP ECONOMY and will add my recommendation to Douglas's.

One thing in the book that has stuck in my mind is the story of Mao 
Zedung and his directive to the countryside during the Great Leap 
Forward or similar grandiose push. "The sparrows are eating up much of 
the rice," he decreed, "so we'll harvest a lot more if we get rid of 
them." So millions of peasants were ordered to harass the poor birds 
non-stop, banging pot lids and the like every time they came to rest, 
sending them into panicked flight again until they died of exhaustion. 
The campaign was amazingly effective: Millions of sparrows were killed. 
And the next growing season, the bugs devestated the rice harvest.

It's easy to sneer at Mao and his bone-headed bird campaign, but he 
illustrates a point I made on the list recently--that once we get 
totally divorced from food production and the natural systems in which 
it occurs, even our "smartest" moves to ameliorate our perceived 
problems are almost guaranteed to make things worse. Sometimes a lot worse.

Everywhere I look at the folks calling the shots regarding American 
agriculture--agribusiness CEO's, secretaries of USDA and FDA, 
politicians--I see the face of Mao Zedung.

~Harvey

--
Harvey in northern Va
www.themodernhomestead.us

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