Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Dan Conine <dconine@bertramwireless.com>]

The problem with most of these types of analysis is that they treat 
everything as though it is a one-way production line (As we all have 
been trained since kindergarten in the U.S.) which feeds us from the 
'bounty of the earth' and that's it..

The reality is that in most of the things we do, we are ignoring our 
individual physical usefulness to our lands or excluding it from the 
thought process. For example: Eating local vs. mass-production at a 
distance seems like a no-brainer when we think in terms of food as part 
of our life, but when we think of it as a purchased 'thing' from 
someplace, then the 'most efficient' means of production is easily 'the 
best' in terms of resource use.

But it isn't just immediate physical resources we need to be concerned 
about. It's the responsiveness of people to each other and to the needs 
of the environment (especially the soil) and the education of people 
from person to person. If dairy farming produces too much methane, and 
we want to change, it is much more positively done when people who use 
dairy products can go to their farmer and ask him (or volunteer) to 
change what is produced on the farm. It is nearly impossible to end a 
5000 cow farm system with a few concerned consumers. The milk would 
simply be shifted to schools or welfare programs because the dairy 
industry would lobby congress. OTOH, the local farmer would probably be 
glad to stop getting kicked and crapped on if you promise to buy veggies 
and help with the labor.

THAT's the importance of local vs. long distance and small vs. large 
farms. It isn't always about money or science, but relationships do matter.

All of those 'efficient' transportation systems require large 
investments of money. Any use of money instead of direct barter creates 
a demand for banks, government, security, etc. Only recently have we 
become so accustomed to the easy flow of electronic money that we don't 
question who benefits just from that flow rather than actual useful 
activities by human muscles and minds. Also gone is any real feel for 
how much money should be applied to useful value. The 'free market' 
system has never really worked: recent governments simply inflate away 
the errors in the system by printing enough money or allowing enough 
debt for the problems to be shifted into the future. It's all about 
promises to pay promises to pay promises, but nobody stops and recounts 
the needs and the available usefulness vs. the floating electronic 
dollar bills.


Dan C
Nature Creek Farm