Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["John D'hondt" <dhondt@eircom.net>]

Paul, here in Ireland the days that you could sustain yourself by producing 
and selling any kind of food are long gone. It began to go pear shaped after 
the last WW and it has been going down hill ever since.
Producers were forced to try and produce below the world market price which 
was always a sick proposition for Europeans (and other non Americans) since 
we have been paying at least four times as much for our oil than you for 
ever. (a gallon of petrol costs between $8-9 here in Ireland and over $ 10 
in Germany at the moment)
When I started farming some 25 years ago there were on average 400 small 
European farmers giving up every day and that was for the same reasons that 
it is even worse now to try and make a living from selling food. In real 
terms food prices have been dropping here for some 70 years.
If you want to make a living from selling lettuce, eggs or lambs, you better 
produce them in the thousands or hundreds of thousands since you can not 
expect to make more than a few cents per piece and quite often you will have 
to sell below cost to sell at all.

There were many organic growers selling vegetables on the Bantry Friday Mart 
20 years ago but they have all gone. Much more money in giving courses 
telling other people how to start growing organic vegetables, graft apple 
trees, build a clay oven or do basketry. And I have explained the reason 
above.

Does not mean it is not a good idea to try and be self sufficient. We have 
from the beginning involved our children in the farm and with plentiful 
super organic food they grew fast and strong and capable of taking any job 
going. If they did not like the job any longer they could always be certain 
of a full belly at home while looking out for something else and better. We 
are feeding three generations here at the moment and can these grand 
children eat!
My son especially is a bit unusual these days He can lift more than a 
hundred kilos and run with it and he has no fear of heights and he can do 
work usually faster with hand tools than an inexperienced person with a big 
machine (although he can work with big machines too and is even good at 
repairing them). Only thing is that he needs high class sustenance in large 
quantities. I have seen 8-9 Lb of meat disappearing in a few minutes as a 
snack. And why would I worry about that seen the pitiful price I would be 
able to make if I could sell that same meat.

Lets start with that.

John

To be sustainable, the growing system must first sustain the grower.

This site is about the Hitts who apparently make a living selling what they 
grow. Their story is interesting for their evolving strategies for growing 
and marketing.
http://www.sare.org/publications/naf2/hitt.htm

This is my main concern - how families in various climates can grow 
sustainably and make a decent living at it. Information on this is hard to 
come by, possibly because so few have found a finacially sustainable model. 
I've looked into three cases but each leaves questions. My own system in a 
difficult climate can be profitable, but is probably not scalable or 
practical for many growers in this region.

I'm interested in anything on this topic and will pursue it as long as I'm 
able.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net
------------------------------------------

  "Clearly, our present ways of agriculture are not sustainable, and so our 
food supply is not sustainable. We must restore ecological health to our 
agricultural landscapes, as well as economic and cultural stability to our 
rural communities."
- Wendell Berry & Wes Jackson

  "All of the debts for society's century-long industrial fiesta are coming 
due at the same time. We have no choice but to transition to a world no 
longer dependent on fossil fuels, a world made up of communities and 
economies that function within ecological bounds. How we manage this 
transition is the most important question of our time."
-- Richard Heinberg

  "How do you move from a system which has built in destruction of the 
planet and built in devastation for local communities and local economies 
and transition back to systems which formerly worked and new environmentally 
sustainable systems? That's the project of our time."
- Jerry Mander

  "Many types of jobs will cease to exist: public relations executive, 
marketing directors, et cetera. I think work will be very hands-on, and a 
lot of it will revolve around food production."
   -- James Howard Kunstler, 2003





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