Mr. Robertson may have missed the point of my essay, “The Evolution of Farming,” which was not to impugn or attack his farming practices, necessarily, but rather to point out and celebrate the wide diversity of farmers, farms and farming systems in evidence today — from tiny, niche crop, “Mom and Pop” scale, “craft” producers, to more permaculture-inspired, integrated “edible forest” motifs, to various larger, more mechanized, traditional production-based systems.
I ended by stating: “luckily, solving our food and fertility problems is not going to be an either/or affair,” and that, “surely there will be appropriate applications for mechanized, production based agriculture, long into the future …”
And while I don’t support the proliferation of GMO seeds and feeds, (my concerns arising as much about the long-term health effects to humans and animals as to the impact on small growers and peasant farmers all over the world of franchised, unsavable seeds dominating the market and usurping native seeds and agriculture) I do, however, applaud farmer Ethan for employing low-till, cover crops and other sustainable methods to reduce fuel and pesticide use.
As to what constitutes a “real farmer” in today’s world — that’s become perhaps just a rhetorical debate. However, there is no debating the immense and growing passion, curiosity and focus present among our citizenry for all manner of farming, local food, permaculture, healthy cooking, food justice, etc. — whether for health, politics, connection to nature, community building, or otherwise — and that’s a very good thing!
Danny Botkin
Gill