Its raining here and i'm beginning to get cabin fever. The
predictable outcome is a mild rant <grin>. Skip this post if
not in rant mode.
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Sustainable Agriculture (essay)
For the last year discussions on sustainable agriculture
have been struggling with economics. One group keeps claiming:
if you can't farm profitably then it isn't sustainable.
I've tried to understand this viewpoint without any success. I
see the people have advanced degrees and many of them are farmers.
Still, i think this statement is one of the most illogical statements
around. How is it possible that so many people could see this as
true and i find it to be total nonsense.
The answer (i think) has to do with culture. If you view agriculture
form within the dominant culture then agriculture must change to
survive. If you view agriculture from the earths perspective then
it is cultures that must change to support sustainable agriculture.
Any school child can see that a government could make rules and force
agriculture to be unsustainable. It is happening around the world
today. Third world nations are encouraging crops that can be exported
to bring capital into the country. The impact on ecology or other long
term consequences are not always considered. It is making sustainable
agriculture difficult and possibly impossible.
This is another example of "cultural immersion". Those
inside a culture have a narrow viewpoint and can't get out of the
box. They would rather change the definition of sustainable agriculture
to be what is possible within that culture. Awareness that this
means a different definition of sustainable agriculture as different
countries make different rules, seems logical to them.
So..., is sustainable agriculture tied to culture/politics/economics or
is it separate. Probably, it has a small connection and we should accept
that culture/economics will always have an influence. Also we should
recognize that things are way out of balance today, and those who
say economics defines "sustainable agriculture" are in a cultural box.
These words apply to most areas where nature and culture meet, including
organic agriculture, forestry, gardening, parks, and ecopath's.
jeff (Thankful to have someplace to rant about chronic problems,
and sorry about sounding somewhat critical of others)
