Man, I can't believe how narrow minded some people can be, SOR! This
"agriculture" forum is about a lot more than giving recomendations
about proper cover crops or where to buy a grain thresher. It's
about agriculture in the context of the whole human being and in the
context of nature. It requires a lot of "outside the box" thinking.
It also requires decision-making that might not always make sense
given current market signals. When all your decisions are based on
straight forward short-cycle market signals (if it makes money: go,
if it results in a loss of cash: stop) then you don't need discussion
of ethics, morality, and spirituality and religion. Without any
deeper understanding about human motivation or the moral and ethical
consequences of your actions, you might as well say something like
"get big or get out." You might conclude that small farms are
anachronistic and not worth saving. You might decide that
agrochemicals, GMOs, vertical integration of markets, and large scale
monocropping is the way to go. Yes, I'd say that the loss of dialog
about morals and ethics has much to do with the current farm crisis
and many other environmental and social crises which exist.
Honestly, I don't think that the thread on religion/spirituality,
morals and ethics here has been random or irrelevant. If you're a
busy farmer with time only to read the cover crop and grain thresher
posts, then do some judicious deleting. Clearly, there are a lot of
people who can see how a discussion of ethics and spirituality fits
with sustainable ag. We're not discussing how many angels fit on the
top of a pin, we're looking at the very motivation and moral impetus
that leads people to support and carry out sustainable farming even
in times of adversity and social disdain. Anita
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