Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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

Dan, I think we agree but you use some words that I think you define 
otherwise than I would.
Take your first sentense as an example :

> Yes, John, but that's only if we allow leadership to measure profits
> exclusively with money.

I have a great problem with the word "leadership". We are not being led but 
rather suppressed by some of the most evil corporations that have ever been. 
Monsanto, Big Pharma, the Military Industrial Complex and others are the 
government. And there is only one thing a corporation is interested in and 
that is profit. And they are well capable of killing anybody, you or me, who 
makes an attempt to not allow them something as essential as their reason 
for being.
It is time for a revolution and "it will be a nice day to die". (What Sioux 
Indians used to say before a battle)
John



> > From: "John D'hondt" <dhondt@eircom.net>
> > Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Big Ag hurts the small farm
> >
> >
> > I fear oil and big machines changed that a bit Dan. Small scale is still
> > more productive but not necessarily more profitable.
When profits are measured in benefits to the
> future of our children, Big Ag will always come up short.
> Money is king right now, but any particular empire follows a boom and
> bust cycle. Thanks to the cheap food of Big Ag, a lot more Petroboomer
> people are going to be affected when the collapse comes. That's the
> point that needs to be emphasized when the academic sycophants come
> around telling us how to care for the land.
> The farmer isn't a businessman: he isn't a tool: she isn't providing
> food even. The farmer's primary purpose is to act as the interface
> between people and nature. Without farmers, everyone is at the mercy of
> nature's tooth and claw existence, and nature is at the mercy of
> Consumption Droid Industry.
> Allowing a few food processing companies to pay for glorification of a
> few Extraction Managers (Big Farms) is a direct result of people falling
> for the Cheap Food is Good policies of an expansionist mindset in
> government.
> When the expansion of the Imperialists begins to retract, we'll have to
> make room for a lot of people and their re-education, and even so, we
> won't be able to help very many at all (percentage-wise).
>
> Dan C.
>
> On 10/11/2013 11:00 AM, livingontheland-request@lists.ibiblio.org wrote:
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Message: 1
> > Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2013 00:49:30 +0100
> > From: "John D'hondt" <dhondt@eircom.net>
> > Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Big Ag hurts the small farm
> >
> >
> > I fear oil and big machines changed that a bit Dan. Small scale is still
> > more productive but not necessarily more profitable. A few years ago we 
> > got
> > a letter from our Dep. of ag. in the letterbox explaining that we should 
> > aim
> > to expand. An example was given from a huge beef farm where a man and 
> > wife
> > team rounded up 450 beef animals per week by helicopter. They made just 
> > $5
> > of profit per head but that still made for a few thousand $$ per week. We
> > were told we had to aim for something like that.
> > And indeed big farmers make small profits per head on huge numbers and 
> > the
> > whole system is further geared to benefit them. For instance, we have a
> > compulsory annual Tb test. A farmer with just 4 cattle will pay something
> > like $160 for this or $40 per head. A man with 400 cattle will pay $300 
> > or
> > less than $1 per head.
> > No wonder so many small ones are squeezed out of business. However, if 
> > oil
> > gets too expensive it are the big ones that will get it in the neck while
> > the small farms may survive. The question is how many small farms will be
> > left by then though.
> > John
>
>
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