Subject: Re: one-straw revolution
From: William D Hulet <whulet@uoguelph.ca>
Organization: University of Guelph
Date: Thu, 7 Aug 1997 16:39:17 -0400
Message-ID: <MOD$970807.2486@rec.gardens.ecosystems>
References: <MOD$970805.6422@rec.gardens.ecosystems>
On Tue, 5 Aug 1997, Bill Robinson wrote:
>
> It seems to me that as one goes from 'chemical' gardening
> to 'organic' gardening, some simply discontinue the use of
> materials that are considered toxic or environmentally
> destructive and they replace that material with one of lower
> toxicity; i.e., going from something like diazinon to something
> like Safer's Soap. The goal of killing some particular pest might
> remain the same and this replacement may or may not be require a different
> amount of work.
>
> I have the idea that going 'organic' also involves a greater use
> of environmentally friendly cultural practices. Hand weeding
> and the generous use of compost as a mulch rather than using RoundUp, etc.
> Really getting fussy and seeking out the right
> plants that are truly disease resistant other then using Funginex
> and so on.
The examples that are given in the _One Straw Revolution_ are of
drastically rethinking the basic ideas of agriculture. Fukuoka grew rice
without flooding his fields, plowing the soil, planting the seed, weeding,
or even removing the straw from the field. This involved a _lot_ less
work, and yet he was still able to out-produce his neighbours.
What this says to me is that an enormous amount of what people do
in agriculture is "monkey see, monkey do" without any understanding of
what is going on.
Another example is the way he found his vegetables growing like
weeds. We all see examples of "volunteers" in our gardens, but why do we
assume that lambs-quarter, dandelion, and burdock should establish
themselves without human intervention, but not the vegetables we like to
eat? Fukuoka simply saw that we produce the situations that what we call
"weeds" need to thrive, and decided to figure out what different
situations would allow "vegetables" to similarly prosper. He found that
by making some simple changes he was able to create situations where the
veggies took over and the weeds went all to Hell.
Part of the process is also understanding the nature of where we
live. When I was a kid we never even tried to grow vegetables from the
cabbage family because we knew the only way we could control the
butterflies that ate them was by using pesticides. Why bother? There
were a lot of other good veggies that grew well and never suffered from
pests. We also never had a problem with coons because my dad planted a row
of sweet corn around our woodlot especially for them.
>
> For what its worth, I don't use any pesticides - including those
> materials considered "organic" - and rely totally on the use
> of environmentally friendly cultural practices for pest control.
> I am reasonably satisfied with the level of control just plain,
> simple gardening gives but I also find it to be hard work. I don't think
> the "One-Straw Revolution" really addresses that issue.
>
The one "critique" that does make sense is the fact that big,
monoculture factory farms will never be able to use his methods. But I
agree with E..F. Schumacher that there needs to be a renaissance of
horticulture in our society, with a majority of people learning to grow
most of their food themselves. Otherwise, the level of environmental
knowledge will stay so low that democratic societies will continue to be
unable to make intelligent choices involving the future of the earth.
> Bill
>
>
>