Throughout the Sustainable Agriculture movement there is a strong bias
against so called "conventional agriculture" and with good reasons. I have
also noted that a large number of members of the community decry the
Agriculture Departments of most of the major universities, and especially
the Land Grant Universities, for their position in support of conventional
agriculture. Many blame this on the chemical companies and other suppliers
of conventional agriculture inputs. Much of that may be true, but I
suspect that at least a few of the academians truly believe in what they
have been taught for the last 50 years or so and are simply repeating what
they know.
But for all the outcries against the academians in the agriculture
departments, a large number of the members here on Sanet and other
supporters of sustainable agriculture seem to have accepted without
question, the policies, positions, and theories of another department at
most (if not all) of those same universities. I am speaking of the
Departments of Philosophy. The purveyors of the Utopian Society theories.
But every one of those theories fail to take into consideration the fact
that we are human; subject to human emotions and frailties. I am not going
to try to go into a lot of detail explaining why these will not, cannot,
work. There are plenty of texts available which can be consulted for that
purpose.
To me (and I have noted, a few others here on Sanet), Sustainable
Agriculture means that the farmer must not only be a good shepherd of the
land, but must sustain him/her self and their family. Even in the most
perfectly sustainable farm, there must be outside inputs in the form of
supplies that cannot be produced on the farm. I do not believe that any of
you (even those living in communal farm communities) can produce every
thing you need (not to mention desire) within the farm or community. You
must obtain clothes, tools, transportation, and food items that you cannot
produce. Things like flour, salt, and such. And in a country of over 300
million people, barter is not going to work. And even if it did, that is
not socialism, but a modified form of capitalism.
Nuff said. Back to Lurker Mode.
--Dan in Sunny Puerto Rico--
dan.worley@mindless.com
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