Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

Well, there is a literary device known as hyperbole. What the finite planet 
cannot support is all nations consuming at the rate we do here and in Europe 
and other wealtheir nations. I've read that for that to happen we would need 
eight planet Earths to support all the consumption, and that's probably a 
good ballpark guess. For example we have 5% of the world's population and use 
about 25% of the world's fossil fuels. If China with over a billion people 
consume at the rate we do then there's no oil for the rest of the world. Then 
there's India and all the rest.

So basically I agree with Ken, the population isn't the real problem; in my 
perspective the root of the problem is wasteful consumption of the planet's 
resources. Organic, no-till has the great advantage of not wasting fossil 
fuels, of being mostly small scale, local, and sustainable. But fertilizer 
and pesticides come from fossil fuels, and prices of fertilizer have doubled. 
No-till cuts way down on the use of monster machines for cultivation etc, as 
well as the (enormous) energy cost of manufacturing most of the farm 
machinery for industrial agriculture. We should look at the big picture.

I see gasoline nationwide has hit $3.80 http://www.fuelgaugereport.com/ and 
oil topped $133 a barrel today, double a year ago 
http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/21/markets/markets_newyork/index.htm .

A good time to be organic, no-till. Grocery prices go up; my growing costs 
stay low.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

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

On 5/21/2008 at 8:47 PM mdnagel@verizon.net wrote:

>"Organic, no-till can regardless of how high the population goes and can
>do so forever."
>
>Ken, Ken, Ken...while organic, no-till is the correct direction, it CANNOT
>sustain a forever increasing population.  We live on a finite planet!  If
>we continue to fail to understand the importance of regulating our
>population we will surely guarantee a cataclysmic outcome :-(
>
>
>-Mark Nagel
>Everett, WA
>
>
>
>From: Ken Hargesheimer <minifarms2@yahoo.com>
>
>Permaculture cannot feed the world.  Organic, no-till can regardless of
>how high the population goes and can do so forever.     Prices for their
>classes. It is like the cost of Holistic Ranching workshops. Last one I
>heard about was $1000 for the weekend.  Is their motive their belief in a
>system or their desire for big bucks?   Just my view point.
>
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