Thursday, October 16, 2014

But what can I make off of it?

Ran across this yesterday, an older (2011) apology for organic farming by Eliot Coleman. Well worth the read. I found this paragraph especially relevant:
By being self-resourced, biological agriculture offers no foothold for industry, resulting in no advertising, no research and development, no buzz, no audience, no business. If everyone can grow bounteous yields of vigorous plants that are free of pests by using homemade compost and age-old biological techniques, there is no market for fungicides or pesticides or anhydrous ammonia. If a concept cannot be commodified, that is to say if it isn’t dependent upon the purchase of industrial products, industry is antagonistic and the idea gets short shrift in our commercially dominated economy.
<idle musing>
When everything is reduced to "how much is it worth in cash?" you lose a lot...like the essentials! Some (most?) things that are worthwhile don't have a cash value that you can redeem at the local bank...
</idle musing>

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