Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

Dan, I looked up your Nature Creek Farm and you have quite an operation
going there
http://www.localharvest.org/farms/M9718
http://www.savorwisconsin.com/alllistings/detail.asp?recordid=361&table=prod
ucer
http://www.naturecreekfarm.com/


paul tradingpost@lobo.net

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 11/7/2009 at 7:13 PM Dan Conine wrote:

>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
>
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