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market-farming - Re: Fw: Virginia Biological Farming Conference/Trade Show, February 9 & 10

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  • From: Marlin L Burkholder <gleneco1 AT juno.com>
  • To: market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: Fw: Virginia Biological Farming Conference/Trade Show, February 9 & 10
  • Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2001 23:07:20 -0500




The Virginia Association for Biological Farming (VABF) in
> conjunction
> >with Virginia Cooperative Extension, will hold its annual farming
> conference
> >and trade show
Interesting that they collaborate on this event with VCE, who fired
> one of its pro-biological farming agents for standing up to Dennis
> Avery in the (free?) press. Under these circumstances I don't see
> how
> they can, in good conscience, include the word Biological in their
> name any longer.

I am dissappointed and a bit offended by Lawrence Londan's response to my
post announcing the upcoming VABF conference to be held on Feb 9-10. The
purpose of this post was to announce this event to an audience of persons
who might be interested in the educational program we have to offer, not
to set the stage for an argument over who we should or should not be
collaborating with, or whether or not we should be identifying ourselves
as a "sustainable agriculture" promoting organization just because a few
people associated with an institution we were working with recently did
something contrary to our purposes.

I am an alumnus of Va Tech and have been fairly well aquainted with
several local VCE extension agents during my years of farming . Despite
the fact that both institutions are influenced to a considerable extent
by the conventional agribusiness system, I still found, first as a
student, and later as a farmer, that there are people in both
institutions who are supportive of our interests and willing to learn
things from us. We should be quite thankful that we are able to work
with VCE to plan and promote our conference. If we do indeed have a
message worth sharing, it should be aimed to those who need to hear it
the most, those who move and work within the conventioal agricultural
world.

I might add that for most of my life I have attended and been a member of
a Christian church. I have often been blessed and challenged by persons
outside my own denomination (or even within my denomination) who think
and operate differently than I do. I like to think that they in turn
have benefited by their contact with me. This truth seems to me to be
applicable not only in church, but also in all of life, especially in
forums where we have an opportunity to learn from and share with one
another like on email list serves and at agricultural conferences. One
of my more basic understandings of the purposes for church affiliation is
that "church is a place for flawed persons (eg. sinners, I certainly am
one of them!), and that it's job is to reach out to a sinful world with
it's message of redemption and salvation. One lesson I continue to
learn over and over. Virtually every church will have persons connected
with it who do things or believe things which are contrary to my idea of
what is appropriate for a church member. This reality does not keep me
from going to church.

Thanks for listening.

Marlin Burkholder
Glen Eco Farm
from the central Shenandoah Valley of Virginia

" Concerning most controversial issues, the truth is to be found
somewhere between what the extremists on either end are shouting, and is
usually spoken quietly and with conviction. It is up to us to find that
truth and to act upon it."

"'Truth' is 'truth' regardless of whether or not you, or I, or anyone
else, will believe it."

"Do not my friend, apply to me the labels 'conservative', 'moderate', or
'liberal'. I only ask you to allow me to be conservative when I need to
be conservative and to be liberal when I need to be liberal."

(authors unknown)


On Tue, 23 Jan 2001 11:00:15 -0500 "Lawrence F. London, Jr."
<lflondon AT mindspring.com> writes:
> On Tue, 23 Jan 2001 07:49:59 -0500, Marlin L Burkholder
> <gleneco1 AT juno.com> wrote:
>
> >,
>
>
>
>
> Lawrence F. London, Jr.<->Venaura Farm<->ICQ#27930345
> mailto:lflondon AT mindspring.com<->mailto:london AT ibiblio.org
>
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech<->http://www.ibiblio.org/permaculture
>
> http://www.ibiblio.org/intergarden/orgfarm<->http://www.freetibet.org
> PRESERVE AND PROTECT OUR LAND, SOIL, WATER, AIR & WILDLIFE
>
>
> ---
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