Misha good use of that nickel and keep us posted on the research after all
that
is what Sanet was set up to do. .
One thing I heard that made cents to me last year was from a talk by Dr.
Elaine Ingham (Oregon State University) a member of SARE so I guess it might
be ok to talk about it here on sanet. The talk was to show farmers a
sustainable way to grow strawberry after they lose methyl bromide . And they
will. It seem after years and years of sterilizing soil that now that it
comes
time to stop using methyl bromide the farmers were worried because they now
can
not grow strawberries with out it. She showed these farmers an economically
viable,environmentally sound and socially responsible way to bring their land
back to life. The longer they wait the harder it will be. Most the farmers
did not want to hear it as they want to keep their poison and that is that. I
guess everyone can justify anything in their own minds eye. She did the
research and from what I got from her talk it will take a lot of compost and
inoculated compost at that and lots and lots of it as the longer farmers were
using MB the longer and more compost it will take to get back to a living soil
. the farmers that want to change will be way ahead of the game when the ban
goes into effect as they will still be able to grow good strawberries Dr.
Ingham show it can be done. if fact Ms. Ingham got the same economical gains
without using MB. It was not easy but after years of abusing the soil no one
said it was going to be easy to get the earth back to sustainable. I was
under
the impression that SAN The sustainable Agriculture Network was here to
provide
policy direction, identify information needs ,facilitate information exchanges
in support of sustainable agriculture . Would you all say that Sustaining
Soil
Organic Matter is a big part of sustainable ag? Also I found very
interesting
the talks about turning you farm into an insectary and have growing a good
supply of pollen and nectar for beneficials . I like talks about the web of
life from the ground up . There is a lot of work being done and I want to
thank SARE and sanet for getting the information out. If folks want to post
information about economically viable,environmentally sound and socially
responsible growing I would like also to hear it . I never could understand
the
argument that because there is poison in nature it is ok to make tons of man
made poison and pour it on our food supply ,water supply and in our air as is
being done now . This poison in nature should not justify man adding to the
soup with man made poison by the tons . this just does not make cents to me.
Organic may be a key to sustainable farming don't sell it short it has worked
for over 6000 years and is not just a philosophy like the USDA would have you
think but a true and very old proven way to grow food . All I can say is if
using pesticides safely is ok and does not get off the farm then a lot of
folks
must be using it wrong because it some how is getting into our water and air
and food . you know it and I know it . It is part of the food/chemical/risk
thing and we are the white mice.
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