Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Liz <liz@allslash.org>]

At 04:26 PM 7/2/2008, you wrote:

>  In all of the articles and
> complaints, however, I have not seen anyone suggest that corporations be
> forced to provide transportation for employees (allowed to charge fees,
> of course), yet we make schools do it all the time. They can either pay
> more wages or send out a van....we'll see where it goes. I think I see an
> entrepreneurial opportunity for farmers: instead of driving school bus,
> they could be driving people to work in the morning and picking them up
> in the afternoon: and selling them vegetables at the same time. Win win
> win scenario.

Around here, that was pretty common. Not selling vegetables, but driving
a van around the county to pick up people who all worked at the same
place. An acquaintance of mine worked at the Dupont plant about 30 miles
from here, and every morning he made a circuit to pick up ten or twelve
other people to ride with him. I believe Dupont helped him with
maintenance costs, and the passengers paid a monthly charge to cover the
gas. People in more remote areas would drive in to a common point, like a
small gas station, and leave their cars there during the day while they
rode the van to work and back. Some of the many textile plants in the
area did the same thing.

But of course, those jobs are all gone now anyway. All the textiles, and
all the furniture except for one finishing plant (the Chinese workers
can't do an acceptable job of finishing, it appears, so the wood is sent
to China to be assembled into furniture, and then the furniture is sent
back to have the finish applied here). 

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