Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Tommy Tolson <healinghawk@earthlink.net>]

Thanks for another thoughtful post, Dieter.

I think the point of human evolution now is in becoming 
producer/consumers, rather than consumers.  Self-reliance is large in 
that consideration, but self-reliance is not the ball and chain implied 
by policy supporting consumers.  Self-reliance gives us the opportunity, 
and grounds, to create healthy, human-scale community which supports 
some level of sustainable specialization.

We consume, but we produce enough to, with each crop, build up the 
natural resilience of the land we work, which means, I think, that we 
consume only our part of the harvest, leaving enough to support the 
biodiversity that sustains the resilience of the land.  When we find 
comfort and fulfillment in being producer/consumers, we have evolved, as 
have many on this list.

But that does not mean being comfortable with the fact that "our" 
government's policies support the consumer, rather than the 
producer/consumer.  Until we attain a tipping point in cultural 
evolution - which may be near - the consumer is supported by policy that 
matters.

So sustainable models require policy support for producer/consumers at 
each level of government.  I think.

Smiles.
Tommy

On 8/16/10 2:52 AM, Dieter Brand wrote:
> As long as we are alive we’ll have to go on consuming.  The question is what 
> we consume.  Does the consumer choose locally grown sustainable produce grown 
> naturally through the interaction of sunlight and an organically fed soil, or 
> does she choose conventional produce grown in dead soil with mined inputs 
> from fossil fuels, natural gas, phosphorous, etc.?
>