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Re: Small-farmer Sust. Agric. Economics-HONDURAS
>Date: Sun, 28 Apr 1996 17:43:42
>To: Danamx@aol.com
>From: David Leonard <davel@azstarnet.com>
>Subject: Re: Small-farmer Sust. Agric. Economics-HONDURAS
>
>In a message dated 96-04-23 16:53:19 EDT, David Leonard wrote:
>
>>For example, many campesino farmers in Central America continue using
>traditional "organic", non-chemical methods that are very ecologically
>destructive. Soil erosion and degradation are markedly accelerated by
>"organic" practices like slash andburn without adequate fallow periods,
>non-contour planting, severe overgrazing, and deforestation.
>
>At 02:44 PM 4/28/96 -0400, Ronald Nigh responded:
>
>>>I hate to be a pill, but these techniques do not meet any organic standards
>>>in any country and would never be certified as such. It very much confuses
>>>the discussion on "organic-sustainable agriculture" to mislabel these
>>>techniques (results of the agriculture of poverty and social inequality) as
>>>"organic" and then claim that "organic" is not sustainable.
>
>>>Ronald Nigh
>>>Dana Association
>>>Mexico
>
>
>David Leonard responds:
>
>Dear Ronald.
>
>I do agree with you and apologize for unintentionally stirring up and
further confusing the "organic" vrs. "sustainable" semantic debate. I
obviously didn't get my real point across. However, I think you may have
magnified any misinterpetation by snipping off most of the paragraph from
which those 2 "offending" sentences came.
>
>My comments were actually referring to the Inter-American Foundation's
request for micro-economic documentation on 2 types of small-farmer ag
systems in Latin America:
>
>1. Organic/sustainable models
>2. High-input "Green Revolution" models
>
>My intent was to suggest that the IAF's comparison analysis should be
broadened to also include traditional peasant farming systems. For example,
slash-and-burn farming is still widely used in some countries like Honduras
but is no longer ecologically sustainable where demographic pressures and
socio-economic injustices have combined to shorten the fallow period below
the critical limit for sustainability.
>
>Regards
>
>David Leonard
>Consultant in hillside farming systems and agro-nutrition
>
>
>
>
>
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