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Subject: Re: Why grow organic food?
From: "Hidden" <No@thank.you.com>
Organization: RoadRunner - Central Florida
Date: Tue, 09 Jan 01 08:27:39
Message-ID: <MOD$010109.959@rec.gardens.ecosystems>
References: <MOD$010108.6283@rec.gardens.ecosystems> <MOD$010108.21119@rec.gardens.ecosystems>



"Tricia 9" wrote :
>
> I am not sure the conclusion drawn that European farmers did not know to use
> fish to fertilize because the Native Americans taught them so is valid.
I agree. But my contention was that it was not -widely used- or else the
settlers would not need to be taught. Surely some one had noticed that the
old pile of fish scraps had a ring of increased growth around it.

> I
> believe the first immigrants were townspeople who probably were woefully
> ignorant about a lot of survival skills.
You might want to check on this.

> And I'm not so sure the forest floor is an especially furtile soil.
Much more fertile than previously over-used fields, those over used
fields turning into the towns or hopefully the forests of tomorrow. That is
what Nomadicism and Expansionism are all about.

> Then again the "honey pots" of China have been in use for thousands of years.

This is one of the things that makes "Organic" methods seem
unsanitary.

While I agree that there are some methods and concepts that we need to
revive from the honored past, I just wanted to point out to the starry-eyed
that all was not as rosey and enlightened as we often like to think. Life
before about 75-150 years ago was more labor intensive than we can imagine
and superstitions were a common refuge from ignorance and did little to
acutally put potatoes on the table.

(Note to those also growing much older, I almost sent this with the
phrase "Life before about 50 to 100 years ago"... then I remembered that
this was not the 70's anymore...)