permaculture

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

On 12/1/2010 12:06 AM, Toby Hemenway wrote:

> The Farm always had very high staff turnover, was terribly
> underutilized, never seemed able to really get off the ground, and
> was marred by constantly changing plans and directions because no
> manager seemed to be able to last there for more than a year or two,
> and often much less. This sort of chaos made it unlikely that good
> people would stay. Every time I was there, particularly for the last
> 3 years, there were always troubles of one sort or another going on,
> and it often looked like very little was being done there. Some good
> work was done there, but overall it was a money-loser that was
> completely subsidized by Mars, and couldn't have kept running without
> the large cash infusions that the corporation kept plowing into it.

What an incredible shame. They should have hired me to run it. It would 
be thriving now had they done that. Shameless plug... I would have moved 
it to North Carolina.

> The staff understood that Mars would eventually tire of pouring money
> into a losing operation, and yet they still never were able to make
> it profitable or make it look like a successful operation. Mars
> finally pulled the plug. They stayed with it an awfu lly long time.
> So I can't really blame Mars for tiring of getting so little for all
> the money they put into it. Without Mars's subsidy, it would have
> failed much earlier, as no small seed business could have possibly
> afforded to run such a place. I wish it could have been better run
> and been more successful, but it wasn't.

I am glad to hear the full truth about what happened and that Mars was 
not at fault (as far as we know).

> Remember that the research farm is only a small part of Seeds of
> Change. The firm itself is still operating in much the same way it
> always has. Most of the employees I talked with felt that being
> bought by Mars (which happened years ago), even though it went
> counter to the ideological beliefs of many of them,  turned out to be
> good for them, and made it possible for the company to develop. But
> some people didn't like it, for sure.

What a backward mindset, not to use available funding to the max, put 
personal issues aside and get on with the work. There's a big lesson 
there. I am glad the SoC is still in business and moving forward. I hope 
it evolves into something resembling its previous incarnation.

> But I will miss that farm. It was a sweet piece of ground.

I'll bet. What a missed opportunity.

LL