> I think the reason many people began using the term agricultural
> producer
> rather than farmer is because it is more encompassing. In Nebraska we
> have
> farmers, ranchers, herdsmen, turf growers, seed producers, tree
> growers,
> etc.
>
One of my neighbors, D--, when I lived in Southwest Idaho, was a real
entreprenurial guy. He and his brother owned some land, but farmed more
than they owned. They grew potatoes, onions, clover seed, wheat,
alfalfa, alfalfa seed, carrot seed, onion seed, flower seed, sweet corn
seed (some real creative rotations are possible around there!). They
appeared to know what they were doing, and they earned pretty good
money. I was impressed. Other neighbors would rent land to them, and
work at regular jobs, maybe running cattle on the side. All this seemed
to form a community with a certain amount of resilience (I was an
outsider).
I'm not saying that everything was perfect, but it seemed to me that
informal solutions and diversity were important components of what could
be called sustainability in a community sense. I don't think that
everybody has to fit the mold of the "yeoman farmer". In fact there is
an important role for consultants and fieldmen, especially in those
parts of the country with complex arrays of crops. In that area, a lot
of the IPM is done by seed company fieldmen.
This network of agricultural......people, is important to sustainability
as a conveyor of values. Personally, I think the real "sustainability"
action is the gradual shifting of values in the "conventional" farming
community, rather than the (hypothetical) imposition of an exogenous
"alternative" agriculture.
Dale
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