Welcome Federal Trade Commision (FTC)
Like SANET-MG, it's parent SAN, it's parent SARE, it's parent United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA), you at the FTC are a branch of the United States Government given mandatory
duties by acts of congress passed as laws.
One of your duties is to regulate claims made in public either FOR a commercial enterprise or ABOUT
a competitor to a commercial enterprise, and amongst your investigatory powers you have subpoena
powers to compell reluctant witnesses to disclose records.
If the FTC is not here already, they they will be soon. Look how fast the United Nations (IBS-GEN)
appeared after one single message about "Microfarming in the Phillipines" was published.
Recently there have been a number of claims published here, preserved in archive transcripts. Some
claims have been made by myself. Some have been counter to my claims. Some have been independently
made by others. There are issues raised about the truthfulness of these claims. In order to aid you
to get to the bottom of the truthfulness of claims made with the least waste of time or effort, I am
providing sources of internet verifications easily available to you or anyone.
I have made a claim that people can obtain a decent median livlihood from microfarming on 2-to-5
acres of land in decent climates. This claim is made in a set of essays, with additional details,
also archived at the following URLs:
http://lifesaviors.nav.to/microfarming/microfarm1.txt
http://lifesaviors.nav.to/microfarming/microfarm2.txt
http://lifesaviors.nav.to/microfarming/microfarm3.txt
http://lifesaviors.nav.to/microfarming/microfarm1.txt
http://lifesaviors.nav.to/microfarming/microfarm1.txt
In addition to these claims, I have elaborated on details of implimentations, internet links to
references and information resources, opinions and commentary exercising my Constitutional Right of
Freedom of Speech within the limits of refraining from infringing on the rights of others.
An alphabetical Sorted list of these published internet pages, with URLs, is posted at:
http://homepages.msn.com/VolunteerSt/lifesaviors/Sorted.txt
I do hereby swear under the penalty of perjury that I have not knowingly published any false or
misleading claims in any of these pages.
Since some of my claims were challenged by competitors SELLING a competing service or product, I
would like to offer internet weblinks of confirmation sources. Some of these sources are 501(c)(3)
non-profit organizations whose records, including financial records, are open to public scruitiny,
so it is easy to accertain facts without subpoena delays in these cases.
http://solstice.crest.org/sustainable/ecology_action/index.html
This site keeps a description of "Biointensive" agriculture, which has 27 years of established
experimental programs to increase productivity on small amounts of land. Experimental results have
confirmed that a family of four can eat a whole (vegetarian) diet from one-sixth of an acre of land.
This can be multiplied to 24 persons can be sustained on one whole acre of land. My claim that 30
customers of a microfarmer can be supplied on 2-to-5 acres is conservatively within this
scientifically verified parameter. By adding small livestock and some improvements to these methods,
it is a truthful claim that a well-balanced diet can be provided, supported by many more results
than just this experimental site.
http://solstice.crest.org/sustainable/ecology_action/How.html
Is a book published by author John Jeavons which describe the methods he uses to obtain the results
described above. 350,000 copies have been sold, and the book is available in eight of the world's
languages. The biointensive method has been praised by one former Secretary of the USDA, and foreign
governments have invited biointensive teachers to bring their agricultural knowledge. Biointensive
methods are used in 110 countries.
http://www.growbiointensive.org/
http://www.growbiointensive.org/biointensive/Ecology.html
http://www.growbiointensive.org/biointensive/Outreach.html
Is the homepage of Ecology Action, where claims have been made and scientifically verified. I have
relied on the integrity of the people making these claims, and my eyewitness visits to biointensive
sites.
John Jeavons has made public published claims that one example biointensive gardener in Berkeley,
California has made $50,000 income cultivating 1/2 acre of land selling specialty vegetables to area
restaurants. While his claim is not unrealistic considering the productivity of the methods and the
affluence of the buyers, I have not relied soley on this (probably) exceptional example.
John Jeavon's, Ecology Action, and Biointensive growing have been the victim of deliberately
deceptive disparagements by competitors SELLING an alternative competing system as can be located in
the archives of SANET-MG messages.
http://www.minifarms.com/ken/rba.html
Is a website maintained by Ken Hargesheimer, using biointensive Raised Bed Agriculture (RBA),
minifarming and miniranching, and teaching it on three continents. In personal correspondence he has
stated that persons have used RBA commercially producing $15,000 per acre, and up to $30,000 per
acre (value added).
Ken may be reached at minifarms@aol.com, except that his website published travel agenda shows that
he is in (or soon will be in) Venezula teaching minifarming and miniranching.
Persons whom have admitted being salespersons-affiliates for competing systems have made false and
deceptive claims disparging the biointensive, RBA, minifarming systems, causing injury to interstate
commerce and a detriment to the spread of accurate and truthful knowledge which has proven benefits
to American citizens. I have countered these false and malicious deceptions, but it is YOUR JOB, not
mine, to keep the playing field fair for the benefits which competition brings to innovations.
I have intervened as a temporary measure until congress's will in acts of lawmaking can be enforced
to halt the unfair and fraudulent competition tactics being seen in public places.
One of the claims I have made, based on confirmable personal knowledge, is that "Permaculture(tm)"
certification is not necessarily based on agricultural commerce. I have said that a person can be
certified to be a "Permaculture" instructor, certifying others to be "Permaculture" instructors, ad
infinitum, without any of the people in the chain ever being engaged in agricultural commerce
selling any foods. Since some (many) Permaculture "education" centers are 501(c)(3) tax-exempt
organizations, their activities, and all sources of income (including seminar sales and
agriculture-related incomes) are public records you can inspect.
I have visited such educational centers, and became convinced by the persons whom explained their
activities and answered my questions, that there was zero-income from agriculture-related product
sales. I will provide addresses of tax-exempt places I have visited to authorized investigations. My
statements were based on voluntary information provided, and my inspection of the amount of land
under cultivation, and can be confirmed by a look at the records.
It became clear to me that immediate action was required to prevent injustice by false claims and
defamations from persons with pecuniary-reward as their motive. The statements I made were
consistant with that spirit. I have nothing against an educational institution from being
educational instead of commercial, but when brand-name product boosters denigrate competing systems,
and make untenable claims for their own system, I exercise my rights to publish the truth as I know
it.
For example, recently it was published that my own ideas were drawn from "Permaculture". I have
documentary evidence that this is not true. There are published photographs from "Life" magazine,
reprinted in "Reader's Digest" magazine from the late 1960's showing a garden of intensively planted
organic garden beds. This precedes the birth of Permaculture by well more than a decade.
These magazine issues are undoubtably stored in the Library of Congress.
The place was named "Morningstar Ranch" of which there are several websites and ongoing interest
groups. The place was frequently covered by the press, diversly ranging from Canadian Broadcast
Center (CBC), British Broadcast Center (BBC), Playboy magazine, and many articles in newspapers in
Santa Rosa, San Francisco, and Berkeley, all in California. I am afraid it is too late to rewrite
history that Permaculture invented the micro-farming system I have described. I did not start nor
design the gardens at Morningstar Ranch, but I worked on them
Falsely trying to claim credit, and imply plagerism, is further refuted by another collection of
published documents. Between 1972 and 1974 I was associated as writer and contributing editor of a
publication called "The Tribal Messanger" in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. During that time I was
photographed in pictures published showing me visiting Steve Baer's solar home nearby. I frequently
contributed articles on solar orientation, being water-wise, back to the land, and ecology news
reports. Other articles I wrote included up to 30 book reviews of indoor gardening, hydroponics,
greenhouse gardening, herbal-flowers-vegetable gardening, preserving foods, value added, in a single
issue of the publication.
Issues of the Tribal Messenger were sent to various New Mexico public and university libraries, as
well as to libraries around the United States who were subscribers. The
publisher (Sun Publishing Company) in Santa Fe, NM, undoubtably still has archival hardcopies, and
microfilm editions were made by Bell & Howell Corporation and sold to libries around the United
States and foreign countries. The documentation is clear and unimpeachable that I had access to the
same information later collected and sold under a brand name of "Permaculture". It is unfair
competition to make false charges toward me that I took from Permaculture what was already public
knowledge proven to have been in my possession at an earlier date than Permaculture even existed.
So it seems that I can bring hard evidence, tangible hardcopies, that I have had to defend myself
against reckless disregard of the truth, and false charges and insulting innuendo. The fact that
four individuals, all espousing "Permaculture" superiority have denigrated competing systems in a
time span of a few days requires explanation. I can not, however, explain their behavior, and they
should account for it themselves.
The deterioration of the competitive environment injures all citizens, those whom provide innovation
and improvements of efficiency, and also those other citizens who benefit from the creativity
provided by innovators reducing costs or increasing quality. The FTC is created to hold the
eager-beaver proponents from causing injury in their zeal to SELL their product. Of course I know I
have private civil law remedies available to me if I feel that my rights have been abridged, but I
shouldn't have to be suing people all day long because they accuse me of false claims or themselves
make false claims. Congress told you to sue them. That's the law.
For those reasons I welcome the United States Government FTC intermittant monitoring of this channel
of communications.
Sincerely, Lion Kuntz
EMAIL: LionKuntz@aol.com
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 11 2000 - 22:02:11 EDT