Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Liz <liz@allslash.org>]

At 07:00 PM 12/15/2007, you wrote:

> 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?

Couldn't agree with you more. That's just one of the major 
shortcomings of modern agriculture. But it's what many farmers are 
accustomed to doing. Combine a fear of change with the marketing 
tactics of Monsanto and their ilk, and it's hard to overcome.

I personally think that market gardening is the only really viable 
alternative to agribusiness, or even the small to medium family farm. 
It bypasses banks, fertilizer and pesticide manufacturers, and to 
some extent even the commercial seed producers, if you can save some 
of your own seed. It's much more flexible than monoculture in its 
ability to respond to seasonal weather changes. As you've pointed 
out, it allows the grower to have a personal relationship with the 
consumer. It encourages the production of local favorites best suited 
to the area, since they aren't going to be shipped across the 
country. And it encourages community relationships too, I think. The 
small rural stores that I inspect almost always have some of "Mrs. 
Williams' cabbages" or "John White's sweet potatoes" for sale during 
harvest season. Everyone knows who grows the best tomatoes or the 
best peppers or cucumbers, and where to buy them.

In fact, there aren't many places with a farmers market because *all* 
the little stores sell produce that came from local farmers. The 
established farmers' markets in some of the larger towns are seen as 
places where the rich folk go, unfortunately. I expect that will 
change as supermarket food becomes more expensive. But I fear that 
what I call the pasta-and-pastry diet will continue to prevail 
wherever people's food budgets are being squeezed. It can be hard to 
justify buying fresh produce even when you know better, if you can 
take home twice as many bags of sugared cereal and boxed pasta mixes 
for the same amount of money. That's the fundamental problem--people 
have been brainwashed to think that stuff is food.

Liz in SW VA
http://life-as-a-spectator-sport.com