Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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

>From all I've ever heard voc ag just isn't producing farmers. And show
animals is a waste of school money. I've seen this since I took it in high
school in the '50s. I think you're right; new farmers are coming from
outside conventional agriculture. And I'm convinced conventional
agriculture, with resource depletion and rising costs, is going to reach a
tipping point and upend our whole food system at some point. All the forces
are in place. 

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

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

On 11/27/2007 at 5:27 PM Ken Hargesheimer wrote:

>Mostly I see it framed in a shortage of farmers
>   
>  This is the first time I have read such a statement.  That is the most
>truthful statement I have read in years.  I have been a substitute teacher
>for 11 years and many weeks spent in vocational ag.  Lubbock is cotton. 
>The high school where I sub has 702 students.  125 in VA.  2 "interested"
>in farming.  But remember this:  many, if not most, of the new comers to
>farming are from outside "agriculture".  Most of the insiders have a
>mindset against organic and no-till.  The wife of a cotton farmer told me
>"he will not stop plowing".
>   
>  Ken Hargesheimer
>  
>
>"E. E. Mitchamore Jr" <emitch@att.net> wrote:
>          Lomberg's book was printed in 2001, before the latest run-up in
>prices.  Since my first email on the subject, I started his chapter on
>energy, and was amused to see his prediction of $17 - $30/bbl oil through
>2020.  The current price increase doesn't make him a complete idiot, any
>more than Brown's earlier predictions of failure that did not materialize.
> It does, however, emphasize his assumption of continued energy
>availability for agriculture.  That seems unlikely, if not because of
>absolute scarcity, then because of our crazy economy.
>   
>  Is there a good analysis of a global transition to sustainable
>agriculture?  Mostly I see it framed in a shortage of farmers,  rather
>than a shortage of land, water, or anything else (though there are clearly
>concerns about all those things).  It's a lot easier to see steps that we
>can take for ourselves and our families, but what about the world at
>large?  Is there any possibility of a smooth transition?  Looks like we're
>running full speed until some disaster intervenes.
>   
SNIP