You wrote:
>Farming is mainly managing a business, hmmm, well...that is part of
>farming.
I think Dale meant administration, rather than business, and
administration is more akin to management.
>The problem is, of course, our current crop advisors, even those
>paid with public money, are essentially furthering the agendas of
>chemical and seed companies, not those of farmers and consumers.
I assume you are talking about things here where we are, and would add
that most projects I've seen are designed to provide benefits for the
organizers of the projects, the project's group leaders (not the
same), the technical staff, the bureaucrats, the providers of
agrochemicals and the brokers; with practically no one involved that
so much as understands what it is that the farmers require, in order
to assure that something will be left over for them after all these
cash in.
In order to change that, 3 principle factors come into play. The
first is the values you describe, the second is market strategy and
the third, without a doubt, is administration. Otherwise, it's just
talk, politics as usual.
>It is these advisors who are responsible for what Ann Clark describes:
>Farmers, with apologies to those of you who are farmers, generally do
>what they are told.
Once again, no doubt you are talking about Mexico, where farmers were
cultivated for their votes and became dependent on the paternalism
that entailed.
>Organic agriculture is about the defense of farming as a way of life.
>If it were just about not poisoning our soil and food, it wouldn't
>have caught the imagination of farmers.
To me, the most regrettable aspect of organic agriculture is precisely
it's separation from the rest of the system, even if admittedly, the
system itself is on the wrong track. In any case, the way of life
needs everyone else in there connected to it.
>It is to real farmers, not to hippies, that we owe the fact that the
>organic option lies open to us today.
A lot of what were called hippies became organic farmers.
Douglas Hinds
CeDeCoR, A.C.
(Center for Rural and Community Development)
Cordoba, Veracruz
01 2 713 2888 within Mexico
dmhinds@acnet.net, cedecor@acnet.net
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