permaculture

["Paul Park" <parkplace@kootenay.com>]

Yes, that is the article I was reading.  His statement:
"A viable neighborhood is a community; and a viable community is made up of
neighbors who cherish and protect what they have in common."

resonates with me.  It seems to me that the more local our economy becomes,
the more likely we are to protect what we have.  I think this may be why
Joel Salatin's relationship marketing makes so much sense to me.  His
customers come to the farm to pick up their food.  They are free to roam the
farm, to see how he treats the land, what he feeds his livestock, how he
lives, etc.  His customers get to know him and he them.  There is no need
for an independent certifying body to tell the customers the food is safe.
They can rely on their own senses and feelings.  I visited a CSA near
Calgary where many of the members did some worksharing in the garden.  What
better way to know your food is wholesome.

One related issue I've been thinking about is how to keep the land fertile
when I produce a crop for sale off the farm.  Many of the farms in the
valley sell cherries to Europe, sending the fertility of the land here to
the sewers and landfills of Germany, while we import nutrients when we buy
oranges from Florida.  On a personal self-sufficient level, I can see how
with composting, humanure etc. we can keep most of the nutrients on the
land.  Once I start to sell produce, it seems I must add nutrients from
outside to maintain what I have.  These nutrients will of course come at
some cost, either in energy, money etc. and will be depleting other land
elsewhere.  I know some believe that healthy land can produce nutrients by
alchemy, for want of a better world.  Does anyone have information on this?

We were in Alberta, but we're in British Columbia now.  I've ordered a
couple of Wendell Berry's books through inter library loan.  I'm excited to
see more of what he has to say.

 peace

Paul

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "GlobalCirclenet" <webmaster@globalcircle.net>
To: <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, September 17, 2004 10:23 PM
Subject: Re: [permaculture] PCD course prices



Got to talk with Wendell Berry twice in Santa Fe, NM, great writer, great
farmer. Taught college English.
You're probably reading from
http://www.oriononline.org/pages/om/archive_om/Berry/Local_Economy.html

You in AB or SK? In that huge river valley in the magazines?

paul@largocreekfarms.com

   Man, despite his artistic pretensions, his sophistication, and his many
accomplishments, owes the fact of his existence to a six-inch layer of
topsoil - and the fact that it rains. -Anonymous
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