Roberto Verzola wrote:
> Steve,
>
> >Anyone who is sustainable has to be economically viable. Right? Do organic
> >farmers not need to make money to survive? The ecological part of
>
> There are farms which are moving towards ecological sustainability
> (which is what I perceive to be the pinnacle/ideal of organic farming)
> but they are not economically viable (and therefore outside your
> sustainability circle) for at least three reasons:
>
> - The damage to the ecology has been so serious that to repair
> it, some form of subsidy is needed until the balance is restored; at
> that point the system can also become economically viable without
> subsidy. In fact, the current system today is *subsidizing*
> ecologically unsustainable fossil-based systems, making them appear
> economically viable.
>
> - The present system (laws, bureaucracy, inspectors) is greatly
> biased against ecologically sustainable practices in favor of
> fossil-based (chemical/mechanical) systems, making it doubly difficult
> for ecological farms to be economically viable (listen to Sal!)
>
> - Economic viability can be fudged, manipulated, misrepresented,
> faked through hidden subsidies, etc. because it uses money as measure
> rather than other measuring sticks which are more difficult to cheat
> (like energy - this is why the full-cost energy accounting is
> important).
>
> Because of the market system, making "economic viability" as the
> priority goal (pinnacle of sustainability, if you like) actually
> *selects for* ecologically unsustainable systems which can hide (ie,
> externalize) their ecological costs.
>
> Because of these factors, it is true that some organic farms may fall
> outside your circle of sustainability (ie, economic viability +
> environmentally-friendly). But then, the government should step in to
> provide subsidy until ecological balance is restored. After all,
> governments today are throwing good money into all kinds of subsidies
> for huge corporations running ecologically unsustainable megafarms.
>
You have some good points here. The concept of accepting subsidies in order to be
economical until ecological components return a profit is an interesting. The
only "subsidy" I ever recieved was for making grass waterways on our farm.
>
> Roberto Verzola
>
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-- Steve Groff"Enhancing the Environment" http://www.cedarmeadowfarm.com/ Cedar Meadow Farm 679 Hilldale Road Holtwood, PA 17532 USA
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Jul 03 2000 - 12:00:36 EDT