Re: "America's farmers" - Am. Cyanamid ad
Phil Soderman (sgrower1@coyote.rain.org)
Mon, 14 Feb 1994 13:21:52 -0800 (PST)
Sounds like a good idea but you are going to be the one selected to
explain to all the people in the cities and colder parts of the US why the
have to eat cabbages and potatoes. Because we can grow such a variety of
fresh produce and can transport it to consumers I believe that we have a
healthier society. If we go back to decentralized farming like it was in
the late 1800's and early 1900's we will have to accept all the problems
that go with that lifestyle. We will create more jobs, but 35% of the
people will HAVE to work on farms. A lot of that type of farming was
subsistance farming, with limited assets, no mechanization, variable
yields, great uncertainy and produced on much better soils than are
available today. So decenteralize the cities, force people to move to the
country, cut off their food supply and force them to farm. Give them
50-100 years and it might be back where it is today. Good luck Phil Soderman
On Mon, 14 Feb 1994, Matthew Lehman wrote:
>
> On Wed, 9 Feb 1994, Phil Soderman wrote:
>
> > chemical fertilizers. But somehow someone in this country still has to
> > grow enough food to feed all of the people who don't or can't farm.
> > Somehow the food produced still has to get to market.
>
> So why not take the obvious solution and decentralize farming. That's the
> only way sutainable agriculture is going to work. Agroindustry does not
> have the time nor the desire to put more man hours into production.
> Reducing the amount of chemicals and applying more sustainable principles
> along with organic practices is something that needs to be done on a
> smaller scale. The small scale gives rise to more distribution
> oportunities with much less transportation.
>
>
>