>Date: Sat, 2 Mar 1996 11:39:28 -0800
>X-Sender: pweddle@pop.igc.apc.org (Unverified)
>To: benbrook@hillnet.com
>From: pweddle@igc.apc.org (Patrick W. Weddle)
>Subject: Organics
>Sender: pweddle@igc.org
>
>Very interesting "unfolding" of some of the alternate realities associated
>with organic farming. Indeed, I don't think one can disassociate a
>fundamental reality that "organic farming fervor" is tightly linked with
>economics. How many organic farmers are there who can sustain losing
>money? How many can deny an economic motivation? I suspect very few. Yes,
>it is easy to be organically "pure" in thought and deed if you can produce
>your crop both organically and profitably. Pity those folks like Bart
>Hall(?) and Paul Buxman who put their lives, money and farms where their
>philosophical mouths were, spent years attempting to do "the right thing"
>and were rewarded with the spectre of bankruptcy and the self-rightous
>wrath of their organic colleagues. In farming, reality bites hard. In the
>cases of Paul and Bart, the reality of sustainable agriculture necessated
>they move beyond organics. To their credit, the realization dawned before
>it was too late. I applaud them for rising above mere idiology and taking
>appropriate action to sustain their farms.
>
>I applaud the efforts of successful organic farmers as well. They work
>hard and they, like thier successful conventional farmer colleagues can
>turn profits in the face of much chaos and adversity. But, like many
>conventional growers, some organic farmers can and obviously do find thier
>production methods economically unsustainable. And everywhere I look,
>economics continues to be a viable, valid and relentlless component of
>sustainable agriculture.
>
>We in SA do each other a great disservice when we engage in bashing. Much
>better to realize the reality that organic farming is but one aspect, one
>component of the greater diverse effort to achieve broad agricultural
>sustainability. In SA, as well as in nature, there is strength in
>diversity. There are many niches for many approaches to sustainability.
>Feeding and clothing the masses in a sustainable manner, if at all
>possible, will be accomplished in a multitude of ways, some of them within
>an organic marketing context, most of it in other ways.
>
>At the risk of being a SA heretic, I believe that in SA there are few
>"sacred cows", organic or otherwise. Though many are idiologically
>committed to organic farming, organics is not a sacred cow. Hats off to
>all conscientious producers, organic and otherwise, who are trying to be
>good environmental stewards while sustaining their most difficult of all
>business enterprises, farming.
>
>Patrick W. Weddle Phone: 916 622-9061 FAX 916 621-3213
>Weddle, Hansen & Assoc., Inc. e-mail address: pweddle@igc.apc.org
>P.O. Box 529
>Placerville, CA 95667
>USA
>
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