Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] we'll have to confront the farm-labor crisis

livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Liz <liz@allslash.org>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] we'll have to confront the farm-labor crisis
  • Date: Sat, 31 May 2008 22:47:41 -0400

At 11:25 PM 5/30/2008, you wrote:

Let me get this straight - we can't even grow our own food?
In connection with this kind of mindset, a relative and I have been arguing politely over whether organic is just a lot of hype. He said that if everyone "went organic" it would force the US back to a 15-20% labor component for agriculture. In his eyes, that was automatically bad. It's really hard to overcome the brainwashing people have been subjected to. I reminded him that when I was a child, there was a large group of retirees who followed the seasons up and down the west coast, picking prunes, cherries and citrus as the crops ripened, plus high school and college students working on weekends and during their vacations. That 15-20% labor component looks pretty good when you're a kid needing a minimum-pay job, or someone on a pension or Social Security who just wants a bit extra to make ends meet.

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




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page