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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: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 17:13:03 -0500


I used the "lessons learned from being a church member" to illustrate a
point I was making in a previous paragraph. Just as the Christian
church sees as it's mission a mandate to communicate to a sinful world
the message of hope and salvation to those who will recognize their
sinful condition, repent, and reorient their lives to follow the
teachings and example of Jesus Christ, we as ecologically conscious
market gardeners and farmers have a mandate to communicate to those who
employ methods that those of us into "alternative agriculture" see as
unacceptable--use of agrichemicals, animal concentration and abuse,
support of agribusiness corporate institutions etc., a message of hope
for the salvation of their lives and farms if they will recognize the
things they do that are harmful, and reorient their farming methods to
ones that are more environmentally sustainable and in line with those we
are attempting to model and teach.

Just as church members frequently dissagree on how they should model and
teach Christian beliefs or how they should communicate their message to a
nonchristian world, people like ourselves tend to differ about what we
believe is or is not "sustainable" or how we should go about reaching
those in agriculture who follow the "conventional agribusiness mindset"
Just as Christians often accuse each other of being nonchristian if they
start to disagree over how they should work with the "unsaved", we may do
something similar if we see some one else trying to work with a
conventionally oriented agricultural institution to promote our agendas.

When differences occur, Christian people often split off into competing
denominations, try to surround themselves with those who agree with
their favorite points of view, and isolate themselves from everyone else
in an attitude of intolerance. Whether we identify ourselves as
Christians or not, we all have basically the same nature and tend to
behave in similar ways. It behooves us all to work at being more open to
listening to each other, tolerant of our differences, and willing to help
each other learn and grow. It always helps to recognize the qualities or
efforts being made by the other person which we can affirm and support
and build on that rather than getting overly upset and critical of the
negative things.

You can't show me a church where I could go and not get into fights if I
wanted to. On the other hand you could show me lots of chuirches where I
could do a lot of positive things if I can discipline myself to let God
control my sinful nature enough to work patiently with people. I feel
exactly the same way about my associations with whomever I care to
mention within "alternative agriculture circles" or "conventional
agriculture circles".

Am I making any sense?

Marlin Burkholder
from Virginia

On Wed, 24 Jan 2001 14:00:10 -0600 Bob Batson <rcb AT kc.rr.com> writes:
> At 12:03 AM -0500 1/24/01, Marlin L Burkholder <gleneco1 AT juno.com>
> wrote:
>
> >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.
>
> [snip]
>
> >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
>
> So what does the fact of your attending and being a member of a
> Christian (or any other religion) church have to do with
> market-farming? If being a "good" Christian is a requirment to being
>
> a farmer, then Pat Robinson is a GREAT farmer.
>
> Send all flames to /dev/null/
>
> --
>
> Bob Batson L 39 12 14 N 94 33 16 W
> rcb AT kc.rr.com Kansas City
> TCS - Mystic Fire Priest USDA Zone 5
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> Under the most controlled conditions, the experimental apparatus
> will do exactly as it pleases.
>
> ---
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