FW: RE: Real farms?

From: Andy Clark (aclark@nal.usda.gov)
Date: Mon Apr 17 2000 - 15:29:49 EDT


Forwarding a message from Jane Jewett (carbon copied).

Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2000 18:36:11 -0500
To: sanet-mg@cals.ncsu.edu
From: Jane Jewett <jewet006@tc.umn.edu>
Subject: RE: Real farms?

I have a 120-acre farm in Northern MN that was family property, and I am
trying hard to be a good steward of it. I raise cattle because they are good
converters of vegetation that no one else wants to eat into high-quality
protein, and they are less susceptible to predators than sheep. I raise a
small number of hogs because they are a desirable direct-market product in
this area and I can raise them on land not utilized by the cattle. I have
thought of many reasons why I have low income from this farm, but I must
admit that "addiction to luxury" is not one that had previously occurred to
me!

>From: Lion Kuntz <<lionkuntz@email.com>

>To: sanet-mg@cals.ncsu.edu

>Subject: RE: Real farms?

>You and I do not agree. In my opinion, cattle, dairy, pigs, goats and large
pastures are for rich

>farmers who can afford the luxury of all that expensive land, taxes and
equipment. You describe

>feeling that luxury is worth the reduction in your net productivity as
measured by cash income. I

>forgo the desire for that luxury, and I will buy your milk at the store,
but I am sorry that your

>addiction to luxury limits you to the small income you seem to think is the
limit imposed on

>EVERYBODY. You created your limitations, and I have reminded you that
others do not feel bound by

>them.

Jane Grimsbo Jewett

Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture

Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics

University of Minnesota

218-845-2832

jewet006@tc.umn.edu

******************************************

The best manure for the land is the owner's footprints.

        ---Aristotle, <italic>Economy</italic> (paraphrased)

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