Dear Allan, Your point is taken seriously by me. I got into farming because I wanted highest quality and I could see no one was into it. I want to make money but I didn't put it first. Nevertheless since my premise was to make my farming pay its own way as proof of its efficacy, money was high on my list.
Still quality was first and I would have done alm0ost anything to achieve it. Paradoxically what I have found is that producing highest quality requires ceasing all bought inputs. Highest quality requires using the CHEAPEST of all methods, no fertility/disease (outside of my field broadcaster) inputs. With a field broadcaster one can produce food cheaper than any other method, because inputs are so much lower than any other method. Likewise with rain. Irrigation costs money, and the water quality never measures up to fresh rain. I've used my irrigation once in the past 13 years and that was 8 years ago. I've found that making rain is so cheap, practical and reliable that I will never go back to irrigation ever again. Why should I? Well, I personally WOULD irrigate if it produced higher quality, because I'm all about quality. But it does not, never has and cannot. Heck, I'd use muriate of potash if it produced quality, but it is ALWAYS a shot in the foot. The only way to get the highest quality is to get rain, and it is CHEAP! Radionic rain making amounts to doing almost nothing, and almost nothing is cheaper or more productive. So I pass the ball back to you and invite you to brainstorm with me how do I make this real to farmers? I guarantee they will make more money doing things the way I teach. How do I get the word out? Best, Hugh Lovel >>"Have a meeting for farmer on how to organize cooperative markets & >>2 people will come. >>Have a "class" on how to get 2 blades of grass instead of one & you >>had better rent a huge hall." > >Maybe I missed the point of the above, Markess, but in our area, tell >farmers how to make money fast (Joel Salatin, for example) and you'll >fill the hall. Offer to tell people how to heal the earth and create >foods of higher quality at the same time and very few are interested. >Take the BIODYNAMIC CONFERENCE for example: right down the road from >the BD Conference were TWO of the most famous organic farms in >northern Virginia. Both heavily attended Salatin (i.e. one has 5 >interns, the other 14 interns- almost all came for Joel), NONE >attended the BD Conference. Like Merla, these folks were offered free >passes so there would be no easy excuse to not attend at least >portions of the conference. Although they all implied that they would >be at the conference (heaven's - they didn't even have to cross the >street!), none attended. We had a similar response to the Sustainable >Ag video/discussion series. Very few interested in the philosophy and >principles behind growing food in cooperation with Nature. A few of >the big market people attended one of the presentations, but clearly >just so they could find out who I was and what I could do for them in >the short run. > >We got excellent exposure to the local farm community for all of >these events. We have a N. VA farmer's discussion list, to which >invitations and reminders were posted. I know the big mouths in local >fruit and vegetable growing. No one attended, although the head of >the market did make a reservation but eventually backed out. > >I'm talking market gardeners in the US' 3rd richest county. Little >interest in a larger crop. Little interest in better produce but a >lot of interest in selling more at better prices. > >My remarks above are in no way intended to malign Joel Salatin. His >is the great synthesis: a way of farming that makes the land better >and makes people more healthy while making more money for the farmer >in a 9month work year. Catch him at ACRES this year, if you can. > >Later > >-Allan Visit our website at: www.unionag.org
