Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[dan conine <dconine@bertramwireless.com>]

I agree with both Mitch and Mark and Paul on this for different reasons. 
The discussion of the Greer farm is very important. We have a System of 
systems that has sucked a lot of resources out of the ground and out of 
humanity for the sake of competitive profit-based thinking. Profit is an 
important part of farming, but how we measure profit is not just with 
money. In the case of the Greers, as in my case, the profit is being 
paid to the soil and the land for the time being. Resources are being 
extracted from globalization and inserted locally while the global 
system is failing. Think of it as a salvage operation. There are ways to 
make a monetary profit, such as Paul has shown, but they don't always 
work in specific locations.
As much as people need good vegetables, and as much as I have good land 
to grow them, it is difficult to justify my not raising dairy cattle in 
a dairy saturated area simply because that is what the infrastructure is 
set up for here. "When in Rome...." etc.
If profit was the deciding factor, I would have 2000 Holsteins and a 
boatload of BGH in the fridge.

The Greers probably didn't get much of a 'feel' for the farming they 
wanted to do from the seminars they attended. They followed the 
philosophy of 'networking' that has served them well in business. I 
suspect that they don't know their neighbors as well as they thought 
they would when they started, and it is slowing them down from making 
profits. In my area, if you aren't a cousin or brother or sister of 
someone who lives here, you won't find out what is going on in the local 
area. No matter how much time you spend down at the feed store or the 
local store, you still don't get told the things you need to know for 
your family to be part of the whole community. I've been on this farm 
for 12 years and would chuck it in a heartbeat for a fraction of the 
value if it meant a place with some real sense of community purpose. The 
only thing that this area believes in is Da Green Bay Packers.
The part about re-localization which everyone seems to forget is that 
your local area might not be a decent place to live when you look 
beneath the facade of a small town. The local hardware store might be 
run by a jerk that you never want to do business with. The local church 
might have snake pits and poisoned kool-aid. The town council might be 
run by the only guy with a liquor license and who owns the only grocery 
store.
Don't be hoodwinked by your own idealism. Small towns are as cutthroat 
as cities, if not worse.

As for what is wrong with their picture, I do have a pet peeve against 
Agri-tourism. What's next..Manure-tourism? In a world where people have 
a hard enough time figuring out what is important to the future of the 
human race, do we really need farming exploited as a novelty item like 
plastic dog poop from China? If people want to find out what farming is 
like, they need to be out killing stuff and cleaning up shit, not 
"gathering eggs and offering treats to the animals".

Dan C.
Belgium, WI
> Message: 15
> Date: Sun, 19 Apr 2009 07:13:43 -0500
> From: Emery Mitchamore <emitch@att.net>
> Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Trading city life for an East Texas
>
>
> That's kind of what I expected.  Since my own situation is somewhat  
> similar to theirs (though less so), my reaction was that "profit" is  
> not their objective.  After a lifetime in conventional business, such  
> a lifestyle has many attractions beyond profit.  They are learning,  
> growing, contributing to their community, and building equity in a  
> diversified enterprise.  All good things.  They may or may not seek to  
> simplify and become more efficient (and profitable), at some point,  
> but I really don't see much "wrong with this picture".
>
> On Apr 19, 2009, at 12:08 AM, mdnagel@verizon.net wrote:
>
>   
> > Ten years and they haven't turned a profit?  Hit head against wall  
> > and repeat...
> >
> > Tilling, going with "modern" agricultural practices at a small scale!
> >
> > I'd also state that they are way over diversified.  Seems that this  
> > clouds them from proper accounting of individual activities.
> >
> > And attending a lot of seminars and reading books... money would be  
> > better spent hiring some knowledgeable people to help them get  
> > proper traction.  Also, it doesn't sound like they've got a clue  
> > about their market: who, what are they serving?
> >
> >
> > -Mark Nagel
> > Everett, WA