Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com>]

> >after reading a lot of material about homesteading and
> growing all one's
> >own food, etc., it seems to me there *have* to be some
> non-local inputs

Traditional farming has been practiced without any external inputs for 
thousands of years in most regions of the World.  Even on poor soil, like in 
my region, there are still some traditional farmers like my neighbor who 
produce everything they need for living on their own land as their ancestors 
have for centuries.  My neighbor is 82, the other day he broke his foot while 
climbing a tree, put otherwise he is fit as a fiddle. No nutrient 
deficiencies, no lifestyle induced illnesses. He is still outside in the 
fields swinging his hoe most days.  There is everything needed for life all 
year round: grains, legumes, vegetables, fruits, meat, dairy products, wood 
for heating, clay and stones for building houses ...

The only difference between regions with poor soil and regions with rich soil 
is the size of farms.  In arid regions with poor soil, a 30 acre farm is 
small, while a traditional Japanese farmer may farm on as little as 3 acres 
of very fertile land.

Today, most people have become so used to consumer habits that they are 
incapable of viewing farming as anything but an extension of consumer 
society.  The recommendations of what we ought to buy for putting into our 
soil are mind boggling.  If it is not synthetic fertilizers and 
agrochemicals, then we are told to buy: hay, manure, compost, compost tea, 
minerals, sea solids, EM, mycorrhiza, inoculants, and innumerable other soil 
amendments.  This way farming becomes an expensive hobby.

Dieter Brand
Portugal