[Sca-cooks] Organically produced foods

[johnna holloway]

Having grown up on a relatively small
farm in Illinois and having inherited
portions of not one but two farms, let
me tell you that there is no such thing
as sustainable agriculture at the small
farm level... sustaining our family farm
that has been in the family for almost
170 years requires that my brother and his
wife both work at full-time jobs in order
to be able to afford to farm. Had my father
done the right thing to save the farm, he
should have disinherited my sister and I,
and left it all to my brother. That might
have produced enough income for at least
one of them to quit their jobs. Have you
priced what a John Deere combine or tractor
costs? How about the grain drill for no-till?
Try $125,000 up, $100,000 up, $35,000 up?
Gee let's price a plow, disk, harrow, etc.
Let's see what does the truck cost or the
grain bins? Taxes... insurance...
If you think that you can make a living at
it, then by all means why don't you move to
the country, pay $3000 per acre for the
land to farm and try it yourselves. I am
sure that "organic" can pay the way...

Johnna Holloway     Johnnae llyn Lewis
(who is still proud to be a farmer's daughter
and grand-daughter etc. etc.)

Mary Denise Smith wrote:
> Magdalena is correct in all her points, and I would add that sustainable
> agriculture is most efficient at the "small" or "family" farm level.
> These farms can certainly be large (compared to a backyard garden!), but
> they are not the mono-crop monsters that the huge multi-national
> conglomerate farms are.>
> Of course, for those interested in historic foodways, food produced
> without benefit of DDT, genetic modifications, et al is more "period
> correct" anyway!> MD/Marged