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Re: David Leonard's definition of what is organic
Dear B Rateaver,
I find your style too vituperative and personally insulting for a
semi-professional newsgroup like this. You obviously didn't read my posted
apology for my poor choice of words which unfortately gave the impression to
some that I am an organic "basher" (not the case). I would say to you what
you have said to me:
>You should be more careful in your choice of words
Regards
David Leonard
In article <4m4v3k$dic@newsbf02.news.aol.com> brateaver@aol.com (BRateaver)
writes:
>How dare you call slash and burn an organic method!
> Outrageous!
>That is pure slander against a well knonw-well understood term: organic,
>utilized by Sir Albert Howard and J.I. Rodale.
>I grew up where slash and burn was the only way the inhabitants knew how
>to grow anything other than rice. My father showed real organic
>method--making compost in huge pits, large enough for whole trees, and
>with using manure, etc. The inhabitants never were willing to go to that
>much trouble, trying to re-use burned over land with true organic methods
>that he demonstrated.
>It was easier to just burn off more forest--the marvelous Madagascar
>forest that has more indigenous plants than anywhere else.
>Even in the semi-arid south of the island, he demonstrated organic method.
>Right alongside the river, he built up a berm of soil, strengthening it
>with reeds. Inside that bulwark, he had a "sunken" garden, (where the soil
>was dug out to make the berm), where he grew spectacular crops. I was 19
>and still able to curl up inside the outer cabbage leaves.
>For fruit trees, he dug cone-shaped pits (the point of the cone down) and
>planted the tree at the bottom of that hole. Around the perimeter of the
>cone, he inserted cuttings that would quickly root, grow leafy and shade
>the tree down below. He had so much of vegetables, that he could send
>them out to the coastal town of Ft. Dauphin, where anyone could almost
>effortlessly have a good garden.
>Slash and burn is the worst possible destruction in the tropics, as it
>engenders terrific soil erosion.
>Organic method does everything possible to protect soil, to build it up
>with massive amounts of valuable soil organisms.
>You should be more careful with what you say.
>B. Rateaver
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