Text 18362, 66 rader
Skriven 2008-12-24 15:09:48 av Ruth Haffly (1:396/45.28)
  Kommentar till text 18320 av Dave Drum (1:124/311)
Ärende: Natural Farms
=====================
Hi Dave,


 DD> Not as far as I know. Although if one was to come across the owner at
 DD> the coffee shop and express an interest ....

 RH> If you knew what the owner looked like.  Probably the only one not
 RH> sporting the name of a big seed, farm equipment or fertiliser
 company on RH> his hat. (G)

 DD> Actually he's liable to be wearing a John Deere or a New Holland cap.
 DD> Deere makes equipment in all sizes. You won't catch him with a Kubota
 DD> or Mahindra cap, though. His motto is "Buy American!"

OK, but he's not wearing a hat advertising the latest seed hybrid or
fertiliser.

 DD> He's no dummy. And he's helped his oldest boy buy an adjoining acreage
 DD> which they are/have getting converted to natural, non-mega practices.
 DD> Which takes about three years or maybe a bit more.

 RH> IIRC, it's 3 years of growing pesticide free, then a few more years of
 RH> growing organic before an application can be made.  Then it's a while
 RH> before it is approved, having gone thru a number of checks in the
 RH> interim. The farmer is smart getting his son in on an adjoining
 RH> property now.

 DD> They aren't necessarily going for "organic" status. Just natural,
 DD> sustainable farming with the attendant quality of product that that
 DD> brings.

And in the proccess, it is pretty much organic.


 DD> It's just that it takes about three years of natural practices to
 DD> bring the soil back to life and make it productive after a long period
 DD> of single cropping and mega-fertilisation. One of the tip offs is
 DD> being able to go to any field and dig up fishing worms to use for bait
 DD> in the pond. Can't do that on a mega-farm because A: they wouldn't
 DD> have a pond and B: the pesticides and herbicides dumped willy-nilly
 DD> onto the soil have sterilised to the point that nothing but the single
 DD> crop they plant will grow. And then only if fertilised, pesticided,
 DD> and herbicided into doing its thing.  Bv(=

And that is why we have so much white flour stuff, with more artificial
stuff added to give nutrients and add preservatives. OTOH, the natural
grown stuff doesn't need chemical "enhancement".


 DD> Don't get me started on what has happened to "organic" since the
 DD> frimpin' gummint codified it and ConAgra decided that it could be a
 DD> nice profit node to do organic.

OK, I won't. (G)


---
Catch you later,
Ruth
rchaffly@earthlink.net  FIDO 1:396/45.28


... Generic, non-offensive, non-funny tagline... boring, eh?

--- PPoint 3.01
 * Origin: Sew! That's My Point (1:396/45.28)