Re: Farming

Nathaniel S. Bacon (nbacon@zoo.uvm.edu)
Tue, 25 Mar 1997 11:57:56 -0500 (EST)

There are too many examples of small farmers who are not
conservationists, and larger farmers who are, to make blanket statements
about size and farming responsibly. Granted, we see many examples of
large farms with significant environmental problems, but I think many
smaller farms have corresponding impacts on a different scale. What is
the aggregate impact of these farms?
We need to have conservation standards which apply to farms regardless
of size. If larger farms are truly more harmful, then they should be
regulated/given incentives on a basis more objective than their size.

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Nathaniel Bacon
360 South Winooski Ave, Apt. E
Burlington, VT 05401
(802) 862-7701
nbacon@zoo.uvm.edu

On Tue, 25 Mar 1997 MARCIEROSE@aol.com wrote:

> Steve,
>
> I see Richard's argument falling apart on the word "farmer."
>
> A management company located 300-3000 miles away from the land they lease has
> no real corporate imperative toward stewardship. If the economics of farming
> no longer work because of soil degredation here, the company will simply do
> the same thing to land elsewhere of shift their "core business" from
> land-based to service-based (consulting.)
>
> To me, corporate agribusiness is different from farming. When the ability
> to personally look into all corners of your land on a daily basis is gone, so
> is stewardship.
>
> Marcie
>