Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Harvey Ussery <harvey@themodernhomestead.us>]

> Asian "traditional" farming with intensive poultry might be a danger in 
> continuing development of flu strains.  Or maybe on your local land?
>
> The second important message is that while wild birds do occasionally spread 
> Bird Flu, primary vectors are the large numbers and concentrations of 
> domesticated birds, in CAFO's and intensive farms.
>
> The best solution is a the "veggie" option, still.
> Zack

Nonsense.

Repeating this mantra that everybody "knows" to be true doesn't make it 
so. As for bird flu, it's almost a non-issue in small, sensibly managed 
flocks. Some years ago, as they were bulldozing millions of broilers in 
the Shenandoah Valley, backyard "flocksters" like me and producers for 
local markets like Joel Salatin and Tim Shell continued husbandry as 
usual, without the slightest fear of wild birds and flu and contagion, 
and none of us--or any other producer in the Valley practicing sensible 
husbandry--had the slightest problem.

And as for other aspects of agriculture: As Mark pointed out, there is 
(just as in nature) an inherent synergy between livestock and crops, for 
maintenance of soil fertility and for diversified farms as closed 
systems. Show me anywhere in nature you don't see a mix of plant and 
animal as a key part of the ecology. Isn't sane agriculture almost by 
definition one that imitates nature? Show me a traditional system of 
agriculture anywhere on the planet or in history that didn't incorporate 
both animals and plant crops.

Row cropping on the scales necessary to "feed the world" with "the 
veggie option" exclusively is destructive of soils, and continues the 
loss of soil carbon to the atmosphere. Clothing vastly greater areas of 
agricultural soils with grass would heal the soil, reduce loss of 
species, sequester atmospheric carbon in soil, eliminate a lot of 
pollution of water systems, and more.

"The veggie option" sounds not only virtuous but a more efficient and 
practical answer to the agricultural dilemma. I don't buy it.

~Harvey

--
Harvey in northern Virginia
www.themodernhomestead.us

The building of new topsoil depends on us, and our future depends on building 
new topsoil. This is the greatest challenge facing modern agriculture.  
~Christine Jones