The Rural Voice, 1996-01, Page 10FALCONER'S
of aodorich
84 Kingston Street
Goderich, Ontario N7A 3K4
Phone: (519) 524-9671
Fax: (519) 524-6962
CABLE
• Galvanized Aircraft
Cable 1/16" to 3/8"
• Wire Rope 3/8" to 3/4"
• Stainless Steel Cable 1/4"
• Clear Coated Cable 1/8" - 3/16"
ROPE
• Polypropylene - 1/4" to 1/2"
• Nylon 1/4", 1/2", 5/8", 1"
• Hemp 1/2", 3/4", 7/8" 1"
CHAIN
Grade 30, 3/16" to 1/2"
Wide range of thimbles,
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Above are stock items
Other sizes and grades
available by order
519-524-9671
New Growers Welcome!!
ONTARBIO CO -Op has:
facilities for storing and
processing certified organic
cereal grains and beans
expertise in marketing organic
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a growing demand in expanding
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product development ingenuity
cropping information for
growers
For information about
becoming a member
of our Co-op contact:
ONTARBIO
ORGANIC
FARMERS
Co-op INC.
R.R. 1 Durham, Ont. NOG 1R0
Tel. (519) 369-5316
Fax (519) 369-3210
6 THE RURAL VOICE
Keith Roulston
Farmer or factory manager?
A series of articles in a dairy But working from an economic
model, we have created problems that
we then must try to solve with even
greater manipulation. As farms grew
from small plots, for instance, we
enlarged fields of the same types of
plants: monoculture. This invites
pests that feed on those plants and
improves the environment for
disease. If the economics change, our
solution is to make the fields still
bigger, which makes the crop an
even more inviting target.
Now we must turn to pesticides to
control the problems. But Pesticides
are non-specific. They kill lady -bugs
and predators that eat the pests. They
harm the earthworms and earth
insects which improve the soil. And
because of the higher costs, we have
to farm more land to make the same
amount of money.
As we expanded, we often took
out fence rows and the lines of trees
that went with them, in the name of
efficiency. But now, often led by
farmer -researchers, we have
discovered that in fields sheltered by
windbreaks, production actually
increases. As well, erosion from wind
and water decreases and earthworm
and microfauna population increases
in the soil. Economics also said grow
corn on corn. Farmers and soil scien-
tists eventually saw the folly of that.
Industrialists sec no end to the
efficiencies of scale but there are
some things that can only be made so
efficient. No matter how many
machines you put in a classroom, for
instance, the intimate relationship
between a teacher and pupil will
always be the most important clement
of education. Shoving more students
in a classroom decreases efficiency,
not increases it.
Likewise, farming is the intimate
relationship between man and nature,
between a farmer and his or her soil
and animals. Nature can be manocuv-
ered, but it can only be pushed so far.
We need to look at agriculture as
a complete system, not as isolated
parts. Economics can't be allowed to
rule in isolation from biology.0
magazine recently urged farmers to
consider not growing their own feed.
The investment in equipment could
be better spent, the articles said, and
the time a farmer
spent in the field
could be put to
more profitable
use in the barn.
The recom-
mendations are
part of a contin-
uing trend over
the past 50 years
toward industrial-
ization of agricul-
ture: the separ-
ation of each
element of a job
from the whole
system and the
adoption of the
most economic way of doing each
job.
No one can deny the gains
agriculture has made in output
whether from crops in the field or
animals in a barn by adopting such
mass production techniques. No one
can also ignore the fact there have
been mistakes made along the way.
Dr. Val Behan -Pelletier, when she
addressed the Ecological Farmers
Association of Ontario about soil
microfauna last November, spoke of
the dangers of studying one branch of
science in isolation from the others.
Studies on the effect of pesticides
that showed an increase in the
number of tiny insects in the soil after
pesticide use failed to notice the
variety of insects had decreased.
Numbers of some species went up
because their predators were killed
off, causing a situation that could
harm plants growing in the soil.
For decades the "science" of
agricultural economics has been
operating in isolation from the
science of biology on our farms. Just
as few farmers even think of those
tiny soil insects that are so important
to the fertility of their soil, so the
"industrial" model of farming doesn't
recognize the limits of nature: or if it
does, wants to overcome it with
everything from chemicals to genetic
manipulation.
Sometimes
image means
clout
Keith Roulston is editor and
publisher of The Rural Voice. Ile
lives near Blyth, ON.
r
ii