Subject: The value of farming

From: [email-masked]
Date: 9 Jun 1996 21:08:49 GMT

It looks as if you chaps are living in the past.  In this modern era
of supermarkets, are farms really necessary?  Think of all the land
they waste that could be used to build homes for the homeless, etc.

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From: [email-masked]
Date: 9 Jun 1996 23:29:35 GMT

Us chaps are not living in the past.  Think about the statement you have 
just made.  Where in the world do you think supermarkets get their 
products?  There is not one thing in a supermarket that is not grown or 
raised on a farm of one kind or another.  If you want to house the 
homeless how about building houses in the city?  Property values are 
lower in the city.  Also, if these people are homeless, they probably do 
not have transportation to get to and from their jobs which are most 
likely in the city.  If you build them a house in the country, how would 
they get to their jobs?

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From: Oz <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 10 Jun 1996 06:04:14 +0100

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] writes
>they waste that could be used to build homes for the homeless, etc.

WOW! I've seen some trolls in my time but this has to be one of the most
blatant.

Anyway, I thought that was what deserts were for.

------------------------------- 
'Oz     "When I knew little, all was certain. The more I learnt,
        the less sure I was. Is this the uncertainty principle?"

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From: Teresa VanWagner <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 10 Jun 1996 04:59:38 -0500

> they waste that could be used to build homes for the homeless, etc.

Surely you jest and this statement was made to stir up a little 
discussion concerning the general public's lack of knowledge about where 
food REALLY comes from!?
-- 
.............................................................
[email-masked]	|        
Teresa VanWagner|  	Visit VanWagner Dairy on the WWW
VanWagner Dairy	| 			at
P. O. Box 909	|   	     http://digital.net/~tav
Sparr, FL 32192	| 
..............................................................

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From: les <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 11 Jun 1996 00:57:03 +0100

>they waste that could be used to build homes for the homeless, etc.
Ah yes, I can see our UK system of education has done some fine work
here.  I wonder if you'll manage to get a job as a comedian?!?
-- 
les

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From: Mike Sloane <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 13 Jun 1996 15:47:52 -0400

> here.  I wonder if you'll manage to get a job as a comedian?!?

I suspect that our collective legs are being pulled. 

Mike

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From: [email-masked] (Karen McFarlin)
Date: 14 Jun 1996 14:22:07 GMT

> they waste that could be used to build homes for the homeless, etc.

There is a connection between agriculture and homelessness and
unemployment. In the United States it's called the "Corporate Farm".
Industrial farming has displaced hundreds of thousands of people. The
decline of the factory economy accounts for even more.

Most of the city people I know would starve in the country.

Robert

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From: [email-masked] (David Scott Libby)
Date: Fri, 14 Jun 1996 10:58:26 GMT

Read on if you feel like engaging in a sort the world out type
conversation.

>> they waste that could be used to build homes for the homeless, etc.

If you take a moment more to consider what you just wrote you may
realise that would have something of a food crisis if we didn't have
farms.

>decline of the factory economy accounts for even more.

This is also true to the UK.

When I first saw Laurence's note, my immediate reaction was to scoff
but that would have made me somewhat of a hypocrit (like Oz, Hi there
Oz). 

If we de-mechanised our farms it would create an immense amount of
employment and a lot more people would have a reason to live in the
countryside. There would be work for people. 

The snag is farming is hard work and the English are currently
in a state of lethargy and apathy.

After previously dominating the world England is in repression. The
success of our country is presently judged on whether consumers are
buying and the success of the National Lottery. This is a shallow
view. People often shop as a form of therapy or escapism and we
should have realised by now anyway that the attainment of matter
doesn't yield sustained happiness. As for the lottery well....

Companies like Nynex and the Sky network are suppressing people
through TV and gradually eroding away any sense of dignity or
aesthetics wee may have. 

>Most of the city people I know would starve in the country.

That's why it's so important that we return our economies to an
agrarian system. For our societies to be truly secure the
agriculture must be wholesome and rich (and I'm not just talking about
money). Imagine if the majority were living off the land. Those who
weren't could then be easily and cheaply supported. It's got to
happen really. 

At the moment there are more advisors than there are farmers in the
UK Agriculture industry! Spray, spray, spray!  

So let's get to it! Calling all those of you out there with your
hearts in the land let's go for it. It's not so hard really. What
have we got to loose. Organic farming's very simple you just put back
what you take out. What we loose materially we will gain threefold
socially and spiritually. 

Organic agriculture has taken off in this country, but there are
many who wish it too remain a niche market. The more of us who get
involved, the quicker the prices will come down and the quicker it
will grow. There is absolutely no way that the demand will reduce.
Especially while the repurcussions of chemical based agriculture
continue to rear their ugly heads. BSE, BST, Listeria, Salmonella,
antibiotics are running out fast, pesticides, it's all mounting up
and the longer we delay facing up to the reality of our mistakes
the more painful the results will be. 

Dave (the shameless nutter) Libby having a most enjoyable ramble.

********************************************************
David Libby:  112 Kedleston Rd, Derby, DE22 1FW, England
Tel: 01332 736775, Fax too but please ring first.
********************************************************

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From: [email-masked] (bigbad)
Date: Sun, 16 Jun 1996 06:53:14 GMT

>> of supermarkets, are farms really necessary? 

Just remember--and never forget--If you eat YOU are involved in
agriculture.  

A "supermarket" might sell you the food, but I am the one that feeds
you.  (he says as he tries to weather the worst drought that anyone
can remember)

                                       Bill

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From: Bella Kinney <[email-masked]>
Date: 16 Jun 1996 17:17:31 GMT

>Most of the city people I know would starve in the country.

 Frankly, I feel that farms are far more neccessary than (for example) 
golf courses. Just think of all of the homeless folks you could build 
homes for on all of those useless golf courses, selfishly kept only for a 
few bourgeous types in loud bermuda shorts to drive three wheel carts 
around in while tossing little balls (and occasional bags of unusual 
flimsey clubs) into artificial ponds while bellowing obscenities. Besides 
when the Corporate Demiurges lay waste the midwest and deplete the 
Ogalala Aquifer (thus rendering irrigation more expensive by an unknown 
factor), when all of this hits the fan and is exacerbated by changes to 
the weather due to the greenhouse effect... What do you plan to eat? 
Remember you just turned all of the farmsteads over to "homeless people". 
    I've been homeless (it wasn't nice at all) and I would dearly love to 
have a farm (indeed I intend to); but, I want it as a farm, not as a 
internment camp for social misfits. I wish to grow food and herbs 
organically as well as run some livestock on. One of them golf courses 
would do nicely, I could raise trout in the swimming pool and turn the 
country club restaurant into a church for our religion. 
    But the farms? Let 'em alone, we need "em and the folks who grow 
crops on 'em, who else will preserve the ways of our forefathers for our 
decendants but hard working farming folk!   Bella