permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@bellsouth.net>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [SANET-MG] Educating Conventional Farmers
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:45:46 -0600
From: Douglas Hinds <cedecor@GMX.NET>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

Hi Saneters:

As we all know, agriculture is an activity whose success is based on
biological processes that occur in an ecological context (the soil,
humidity, air and sunlight), shared by myriad living creatures whose
participation is relevant to the outcome, beginning with the soil's
microorganisms.

And as we all know, conventional farmers (those using methods based
on agrochemicals designed to maximize profits for the manufacturers,
distributors and promoters of synthetic agricultural inputs that
create a dependency on their patented and often toxic products by
eliminating or diminishing the presence, activity and diversity of
the beneficial organisms responsible for the soils fertility, water
retaining ability, tilth, pollenization and disease and pest
control) unfortunately, don't understand this.

If they did, they wouldn't be conventional farmers for long, would
they?

So the purpose of this post is to ask: How can we fill in the
blanks? What educational materials -particularly Videos (especially
in Spanish), Charts and Pamphlets, are capable of making the
biological nature of farming so easy to understand that conventional
farmers will be convinced and ready to experiment with sustainable
technology (before making the switch for good)?

Preferably, audio visual materials that can be obtained via the
Internet for little or no cost.

Thanks in advance for pointing me to your favorite educational
materials.

Douglas