Being able to read these posts and this type of information is a great benefit of participating in this group.
>I'm in southeastern Michigan (USA) and farmers, being the independent >and often bullheaded lot they are, just don't want to believe that you >can do it any other way. > >I have a 5 acre hay field which I let my neighbor work for 2 years. I >told him we did not allow pesticides or herbicides of any sort and he >told me that he thought it would be a pretty poor alfalfa field. He >thought that the leaf hoppers would decimate the alfalfa. When he came >to bale he was surprised as there was minimal damage to the crop. We >were talking later and he asked me why his fields were hit with the >leaf hopper and mine not and I remembered Yasanobu Fukuoka's >description of his fields in the morning with the dew sparkling on the >spider webs which covered his fields. Just like the cobwebs sparkling >in the dew in my hay field. The spiders did the work. A natural >balance. A comment somewhat related: I remember an occasion back in >the '80's when I was talking with a group of old farmers all of whom >had happened along and pulled their autos over to speak with me and my >landlord. There was a drainage tile coming out of the field with >water running out of it. My landlord said that he could remember >being a child and drinking out of that tile but given the chemicals >used on the fields now he wouldn't even rinse his hands off in that >water let alone drink it. Everyone agreed with him. I was the >"youngster" in the group only in my 40's so I just kept my mouth shut >and listened. :o) > >I also heard on Public Radio about a long study, somewhere between 10 >and 20 years-memory fails at the moment, where it was shown that >organic farming on a family farm (40 acres +) gave crop yields at or >above the natural average. Unfortunately I was in the auto in traffic >and could neither tape the program nor write down any information. > >I live close to the Amish and have many friends among them. They have >shown that one man with a good team of horses can take care of 80 >acres and that horses are even better than tractors in many instances >particularly when the fields are wet and tractors cannot get into the >fields. One interesting note. The Amish, with certain limited >exceptions, have stayed away from combines and thresh instead. >Combining takes one person to drive the tractor and another to drive >the truck while threshing takes many people. The reason the Amish >thresh is to build community and co-operation. The family and >community aspects are much higher up the totem pole than the economic. > >Happy Happy, > >Gustl Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/biofuel/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
