>Your political goals are laudible but do not enhance the short term survival
>of sustainable farms.
Yes, that is true. Changing the economic context is a long-term not
short-term political project, although if enough people started now,
it can also have short-term impacts (if the govt, for instance, were
convinced to show bias for organic/ecological family farms instead of
chemical corporate megafarms).
>better managers, which does not necessarily mean shunting costs onto others
>(externalities). Better management can concentrate on cutting costs
>(reducing inputs) or increasing certain efficiencies, or better marketing,
>wherever lie the owner's talents.
I agree, improvements can be made in this area. In a very competitive
situation however, those who make such improvements but don't shunt
costs to others will still lose out to those who unfairly pass on
their costs to others because the latter can drive prices lower. I am
not saying "therefore let's not be good managers", but only asking
people to *also* look at the biased economic context which needs
changing, otherwise organic/ecological farms will always be working at
a disadvantage.
As to Bart's point that all primary resource producers work under the
same disadvantage, I disagree. Corporate mining and logging megafirms
and industrial megafarms wallow in govt support and subsidy (with
variations per country obviously) seldom enjoyed by small family
operations. Bart's false arguments draw attention away from the
economic context, while I'm trying to focus on it.
As to Steve's farm, I make no judgment. The accounts say it's very
good and very sustainable. I believe them. I can just imagine how much
better the farm can be, and how many more farms can be economically
viable under an economic context highly supportive of instead of
biased against ecological family farms.
Roberto Verzola
Philippines
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