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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Future Organic Farmers of America

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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  • From: <mdnagel@verizon.net>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Future Organic Farmers of America
  • Date: Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:14:47 -0500 (CDT)

I recently subscribed to The Stockman Grass Farmer
(www.stockmangrassfarmer.net) and have found its advice to be unequaled in
common sense.

The editor -Alan Nation- in the last volume stated that one has to view one's
operation as profit per acre (accounting for each separately used/managed
acre) and not output per acre. Also, and this will make people here happy,
he stated that the goal is to maintain or improve soil fertility.

The more I read up on what these grass farmers are doing the more I'm
convinced that a symbiotic environment in which crops (grass or otherwise)
and animals work together is the way to go. Clearly, however, it takes a
little bit of land, though not necessarily as much as one might imagine.


-Mark Nagel
Everett, WA


>From: Tradingpost <tradingpost@lobo.net>
>Date: 2008/07/03 Thu PM 02:49:33 CDT
>To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
>Subject: [Livingontheland] Future Organic Farmers of America

>
>I see what you've answered to Ken there, but I'm going to throw cold water
>on it. You want to grow several acres of organic vegetables, but you don't
>have the equipment for that much area, you don't want to use manure, you
>don't have the rainfall for cover crops to build soil OM, and you can't take
>it out of production to build soil. I'd say you've answered all the
>questions. You're asking how to do it when all options are ruled out in
>advance.
>
>So you're dryland farming acres of vegetables conventionally, using
>machinery, fertilizers, and probably herbicides and pesticides, without
>replenishing organic matter in the soil, losing topsoil to wind erosion, and
>most likely your costs are eating up your sales. I'd sell out and move
>somewhere better for growing. There are plenty of places in this country
>where people simply shouldn't farm at all. Farming in those places just
>degrades the soil and bankrupts the farmer.





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