Forwarding... from David Stanley.
____________
From: "David Stanley" <sgipm@mail.ccsinet.net>
To: <sanet-mg@cals.ncsu.edu>
Subject: RE: sanet-mg-digest V1 #1807;"sal" <sals@rain.org>
Several points:
Most people, and farmers, are not evil but merely act in what they perceive
as their self interest. If you want to affect a neighbor farmer to respect
your way of farming, you need to establish some human to human contact that
is based on equality and mutual respect: You need to make a choice between
affecting their behavior and being able to complain about it.
You should also abandon any organization that would cut-off your livelihood
should something out of your control affect your status within that
organization (your level of un-cleanness). If such an organization persists
in this un-just behavior, they should offer crop insurance as compensation,
and categories of minor "un-cleanliness" where you would still have some
market while you get back on your feet. Otherwise, your neighbor ain't the
real enemy.
Most "conventional" farmers are victims of 150 years of cheap-food policy
meant to "optimize" their profits (give them just enough to hang on, the
rest goes to the input salesmen). In fact, it is identical to drug
addiction where only a few souls are capable of quitting cold turkey without
professional help or a well structured plan. One could argue that present
organic growers are this self-selected bunch, and their ranks will not grow
unless they attract and reach out to those making the transition.
I work with conventional farmers, using IPM as a way to start the process of
withdrawal from pesticide addiction. My clients choose how far to go and
many have gone far. I do not preach but I do hammer on the financial
benefits of reduced inputs, especially emphasizing the preservation of
natural enemies, pollinators and soil life. These I call "assets",
primitively valued at the amount of pesticide and tractor time they can
save, and show to clients at each visit so they can take ownership (and
can't avoid the reality of their existence). Experience shows that even
conventional growers, unless they are real stupid, will not annihilate their
own property once discovered.
Any organic growers nearby (there are none) would benefit as this process
unfolds (unless their main purpose in life is to complain about the un-clean
in their midst, in which case, I would be removing their reason for
existence).
I advocate (perhaps futilely) a radical change in the US agricultural
support programs, from ones that relentlessly promote cheap food (done), to
ones that promote a stable food supply by preserving farmers. This can only
be done by changing Extension from an organization obsessed with yield to
one obsessed with farm profit. This would remove the emphasis on inputs by
systematically removing those that add unjustified costs and drive down
farm-gate prices.
In such a research paradigm (I hate that word), all inputs would be
evaluated, and the present assumption that present practice is in any way
optimal would be abandoned (because dropping prices remove the profitability
assumptions in place at the time of first adoption of new inputs). Those
inputs, that when removed, lower costs more than the value of yield
reduction, would become the subjects of educational outreach. The emphasis,
and I risk being burned at the stake, would be on small increments of yield
reduction, justified by increased profits, that would globally reduce
supplies sufficiently to raise prices for the farmer (once widely adopted).
Yield-neutral cost reduction would be left to private industry (me). The
key would be finding attractive targets at present prices to get the ball
rolling. These would probably be broad spectrum biocides that usually cause
resurgence in target pest populations and that cause secondary pest
outbreaks (which go unaccounted for on the books and hide as "acts of God or
Nature", even though definitely human(management)-inspired).
Ignoring affects on the environment (and neighbor farmers), the cost of
these biocides to the using enterprise is habitually misallocated for the
reasons listed above. Accuracy here would reduce their use, even by "evil"
farmers.
So, instead of whining, invite your neighbors out to lunch this winter and
attempt to discuss some of these points. Give them the facts (the science
based literature is there) and see how far you can get in an atmosphere of
mutual respect.
sgipm
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