POLITICS - Fuel oil from crops vs. sustainable agriculture

[Guest guest]

>So the economics of it

>> were not as important.

>

>We didn't starve but I thot we sure had poor ways. Course what does a

>teenager know? Dennis

Which is the tradeoff we've currently made ... more material

goods in exchange for less connection to land and family.

Also less starvation ... if you ONLY eat your own crops you

may starve some years. But the mechanization of so much

has changed the equation, and that in THEORY should mean

less work for a more comfortable life.

>A good farmer ate well, a bad farmer starved.

>> Privatization of land, water, etc. have changed the equation a LOT.>

>

><><><><>><><>>You could say so alright!And what about regulatio/laws?

>Processing and farming regs/laws and others as well. Nowadays a rural

>citizen has to spend thousands of dollars to replace the outhouse!!!

>Dennis

Land use laws really need to be simplified and made more humane.

I LIKE building codes, for example, and most builders don't

mind them, but they have gotten mind-boggling in complexity,

like income tax rules. There is no good reason for the complexity!

Or that they should be so expensive.

-- Heidi

[Guest guest]

>

>

> >So the economics of it

> >> were not as important.

> >

> >We didn't starve but I thot we sure had poor ways. Course what

does a

> >teenager know? Dennis

>

> Which is the tradeoff we've currently made ... more material

> goods in exchange for less connection to land and family.

> Also less starvation ... if you ONLY eat your own crops you

> may starve some years. But the mechanization of so much

> has changed the equation, and that in THEORY should mean

> less work for a more comfortable life.

>

>

<><><><Heidi, I may be missing your point here but mechanized ag is

expensive as the big tractors and tools to match cost $50,000 and

much more when new. And those tools are for so called no-till

farming which relies heavily on toxic chemical fertilizers,

pesticides and herbicides.In US anyway big machinery for organic or

biodynamic farming hasn't been mass produced (which would be

prohibitive anyway)and perhaps not invented yet. Of course the old

machinery from years gone by can be somewhat adapted when a farmer is

inventive enough and has time enough to build it.Dennis

[Guest guest]

><><><><Heidi, I may be missing your point here but mechanized ag is

>expensive as the big tractors and tools to match cost $50,000 and

>much more when new. And those tools are for so called no-till

>farming which relies heavily on toxic chemical fertilizers,

>pesticides and herbicides.In US anyway big machinery for organic or

>biodynamic farming hasn't been mass produced (which would be

>prohibitive anyway)and perhaps not invented yet. Of course the old

>machinery from years gone by can be somewhat adapted when a farmer is

>inventive enough and has time enough to build it.Dennis

I know little about farming, like I said! What I meant by " have it all " is

sort of that it can be spread out without everyone working too

hard or starving. I buy a lot of my vegies from a local farmer, who

has maybe 100 acres and a greenhouse. He works it with his

family and one tractor, organically. He sells direct to the public

and to farmer's markets. The food is wonderful. At his little

stand, other folks are now advertising and selling eggs, honey,

stuff like that. It's all affordable. I doubt anyone is making

huge sums of money but they seem to live a decent life, and

the folks raising the eggs are probably doing it as a hobby (hubbie

works, mom home with the kids and chickens). Another couple

of farms do grassfed beef. Between those farms we could eat

pretty well (plus the sorghum flour I buy mailorder). I can get

homegrown rabbits pretty reasonably too, and chickens have

been available in the past.

-- Heidi