permaculture

["Pete Gasper, Gasper Family Farm" <farmer1@gasperfarm.com>]

I would quibble with that. Fish food is your main input to raising fish and 
is a lot made up of ocean harvested fish, what is broadly held to be an 
unsustainably taxed resource.

But my cows just eat the grass growing with sun and rainfall on the farm. 
And my hogs and chickens eat grain I or my organic grain grower grows right 
on the land.

Where is the defect? You're just pointing out there is more land involved 
than people think at first blush.

On 12/30/2013 12:17 PM, Toby Hemenway wrote:
> Yes, fish food inputs  are one weak point, for sure, just as are fertilizer 
> inputs or farm-animal feed in manure-based farming.... Feeding the animals 
> that provide manure, or generating permanent compost for crops, is the hidden 
> defect of all organic farming. John Jeavons and others have calculated that 
> for every acre of food production, 4 to 6 acres of compost or animal-feed 
> crops are needed to have a sustainable system.