[BCFSN] BCFSN Annual Gathering Save the Date Jul 15- 17 2016

[gathering at bcfsn.org]

One day perhaps there will be a society that looks back at this time when agriculture could become something that 'didn't pay' and so the finest farmland would only have value when paved over. Or perhaps there won't be a society able to have that much perspective, because when we lose the connection with the land, we have lost the ability to understand fundamental reality. This is the reason I never could complete an Economics course at university - could not respect it since the day in a first year class when loss of farmland was raised as a concern (almost 40 years ago). 

The economic explanation we were to absorb was (paraphrased) "when land has a higher value for a different purpose, it will be used for that but when agricultural production produces more revenue, it will return to agricultural production".

Here was someone who did not know what he was talking about. Even a house with a yard around it (of subsoil packed down with a layer of grass, say) takes years to turn back into a garden as we learned through city gardening efforts. And we weren't starting at asphalt and hard-pack gravel. 

How much will be the cost of food when it is truly needed? You would not accept any amount of gold or money, nothing would replace it when your family needed it, as many people around the world now and throughout history have learned. But we feel so immune from reality. Wait until that immunity breaks down!

Maybe there can be a charge placed on agricultural land re-allocation, that is sufficient for the 'future inflation-adjusted' cost of removing the over-burden and then starting from scratch to rebuild agricultural land. I wonder what the estimate of scientific minds would be for the time that might take. Ha Ha. Better to make excellent farmland sacrosanct? Oh, that was tried here and apparently "it didn't work"....???

Agriculture looks easy from afar, because life wants to grow, and from tiny seeds comes so much productivity. But that is the productivity of our world, not farmer's or machines' work. 

I'm speaking to the 'converted' and doing a maudlin rant, I realize - but I appreciate the opportunity - and it's not my only action in support of agriculture. 

Marg Durnin, ex- and possibly still - farmer