Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com>]

> From: John D'hondt <dhondt@eircom.net>
> I read you Dieter. Just want to
> remark that industrial farming also has it's 
> problems. ...

Industrial society has its problems.  Real big ones too!  I’m not defending 
industrial farming - far from it.  I’m just pointing to the fact that we have 
gotten used to a way of life with innumerable comforts provided by 
industrialization that most people will not do without.  I grew up on a small 
pre-industrial farm in the 1950s that was rationalized out of existence in 
the industrial boom years of the 60s – like millions of other farms all 
across Europe.  People dreaming about a romantic country life today have no 
idea of how hard farming was in those days.

Dieter

PS: The Alentejo region where I live is one of the poorest in the EU.  There 
are still a few old farmers practicing traditional pre-industrial farming 
even today - ploughing with a donkey.  But the young people don't want to do. 
 The population in this region keeps on falling - like it has been for 
decades.  The land is being abandoned and people move to the city or abroad 
to get jobs and live in comfort.  Can't blame them really.  For people who 
have never had electricity or a bathroom and who have spent their entire life 
in a small mud house, to live in a concrete block with a bathroom, 
electricity, etc. must seem like heaven.