Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com>]

We live in a consumer society.  This means that the consumer decides the 
future shape of farming by the choices she makes in the shop.  Neither the 
government nor the corporations have the power to change the status quo.  
They do have the power to influence public opinion, but in the end, they are 
just as powerless to change things as we are.

For example, if the sales director of a food corp. comes to the conclusion 
that 10 to 20 percent of his customers will not buy his product if it 
contains GMOs, that is a strong incentive to be GMO-free for this company.  
No company is going to risk loosing so many customers, especially, since the 
price advantage for GMOs isn’t all that great on the purchasing side.

This means that we don’t need to convince everyone.  A third of all consumers 
in favor of sustainable farming are more than enough to effect a change.  
This change is not going to come overnight.  If it does, it will be a process 
that takes place over several years or more likely several decades.  That is 
a timeframe which will give growers enough time to change to sustainable 
methods provided they start early enough.  Even if there are times when 
demand exceeds supply, in a market economy, the two will balance each other 
out over time.  A lot of farming knowhow has been lost in the change from 
traditional to industrial farming, and farmers used to farming by RoundUp 
will find it difficult to change back, but provided there is a market for 
sustainable produce it can be done.

Like you guys, I’m getting too old to keep on banging my head against the 
wall, but the raving and ranting about the government and the corporations 
that is so popular among alternative farming circles is not just beside the 
point but even counterproductive because it reinforces the fanatical image 
many people have of alternative farming.

The reality of climate change and environmental degradation is slowly sinking 
into the public awareness.  It is not possible not to be shocked by the oil 
gusher in the Gulf, the floods in Pakistan or the wildfires in Russia.  The 
importance of a biologically active soil is already harder to communicate, 
but when their own health starts to deteriorate most people will start to 
listen.  The problem really is how to make a watertight case for the relation 
between a healthy soil and a healthy body.  Members of this list may 
understand that there is a relation, either because of their own experience, 
intuition or because of one or the other study Paul so diligently broadcasts 
via the list.  But if there is one scientific study to prove one thing, there 
will be plenty of other studies to prove the exact opposite.  What is the 
non-scientist to make of that?  What makes matters worse is that the 
opposition isn’t sleeping either: prominent members of the food
 or big Ag establishment make regular announcements to the effect that 
organic veggies are not healthier than conventional ones and that there is no 
difference between conventional and GMO produce.  Who is the public going to 
believe: the director of a public authority with half a dozen academic titles 
to his name, or the fanatical raving from the alternative farming scene?

To most consumers the environmental disasters are still at a safe distance, 
and we all believe that it can’t happen in our own backyard.  We all share to 
a lesser or greater extent in the IGNORANCE and GREED that is driving this 
planet into the ground.  But once disease is starting to eat away at our own 
body, things take on another degree of urgency.  What we need is solid 
statistical data to proof the relation between industrially produced food and 
the degenerative disease that are on an increase in most industrial countries.

Dieter Brand
Portugal