Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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

You're right, Liz. But that raises the next question: how sustainable is
going back to the bank every year to keep farming in the first place?
Spending your life farming to repay debt (with interest) is a clever modern
invention, and incidentally gives the financial elite absolute control over
your food. Thoughts?

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

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

On 12/15/2007 at 5:25 PM Liz wrote:

>At 03:16 PM 12/15/2007, you wrote:
>
>>But even in a temperate climate where there may be proven
>>methods of no-till farming, farmers are often under economic
>>stress that preclude any experimenting with new methods.
>>
>
>Among other things, many farmers have to obtain financing at the 
>beginning of each season to purchase seed, fertilizer, pesticides, 
>new machinery, etc. The bank officer who has more or less routinely 
>granted a loan in the past may be much less likely to do so if the 
>farmer is "experimenting" with some new-fangled procedures. Add that 
>to the uncertainty the farmer feels about methods whose success he 
>has no personal experience with, and there is a lot of pressure not to
>change.
>
>Around here, I saw the emotional upheaval people went through when 
>they realized they could no longer depend on tobacco. Many older 
>farmers retired and sold their land to avoid having to deal with that 
>change, and that wasn't nearly as drastic as a complete change in 
>planting and tilling methods.
>
>Liz in SW VA
>http://life-as-a-spectator-sport.com 
>
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