It has been about 10 years that our self sufficient farm has been working... with animals especially draft horses which prove their worth many times over. I grow sunflower seeds for sunflower oil not only for human use but in the tractors if I do not get all the work done with the horses.
Getting enough income has been difficult since after university I decided not to pursue a career in the city but struck out on my own eventually owning a farm and never having a job.
AT 76 years old I still farm everyday... not even a sunday off!!! There is no rush for anything but things must be done on time. Today I had to finish cutting logs for a volunteer crew to move to the farm house...just was of building a community.
I must admit I love working with the horses...we know each other well and I really care for them. I may not be aware of what day it is but I certainly know who needs hay or brushing.
I do use an battery chainsaw but I also have the old time saws which I will show my community how to use and sharpen. When I grew up the men used to leave the village for winter and not come back till spring. The cut trees manually and worked with horses!!! and that was in 40 below weather. The nice thing about using an old time saw is that it takes two people to operate.
So many people are being faced with unemployment and lack of food so we get a number of people interested in our farm and I entertain them all.
Part of this conversation is determining the minimum level of living standards to ensure basic needs are met well. One way to find this would be to look at countries with a smaller ecological footprints than the USA or France let’s say, but yet have comparable health, lifespan, medical care, educational outcomes.
Despite living in a grassland (Tall-grass prairie edge with wooded riparian areas that likes to turn into scrub everywhere if you let it and it doesn't burn) I'm skeptical with the beef obsession over milk in specific. Yes the grass will get 4ft high even in a bad year while the garden and orchard struggle but for maximum calorie conversion I would think that dairy would win out with beef/meat as a side result. Yes that's more labor and hay making needed but if your priority is just converting sunlight to calories as best as possible and the rain is too irregular for arable row crop that would seem to be the way to go.
I may be a bit extreme here but I think covid showed pretty well that we don't really need about 80% of the jobs in our consumer society but healthcare staff are probably one of the ones we do want to keep! If farming labor and relatedly food processing work can be made to have dignity and pay well enough I think there is plenty of room to go from 1% farming to 15% or 20% before we need to force all the doctors to grow potatoes. Then again maybe I'm biased since I did try and start farm as an alternative to low paid job and that just ending giving me a second low paid job but one that I enjoyed more.
Well said!!!
It has been about 10 years that our self sufficient farm has been working... with animals especially draft horses which prove their worth many times over. I grow sunflower seeds for sunflower oil not only for human use but in the tractors if I do not get all the work done with the horses.
Getting enough income has been difficult since after university I decided not to pursue a career in the city but struck out on my own eventually owning a farm and never having a job.
AT 76 years old I still farm everyday... not even a sunday off!!! There is no rush for anything but things must be done on time. Today I had to finish cutting logs for a volunteer crew to move to the farm house...just was of building a community.
I must admit I love working with the horses...we know each other well and I really care for them. I may not be aware of what day it is but I certainly know who needs hay or brushing.
I do use an battery chainsaw but I also have the old time saws which I will show my community how to use and sharpen. When I grew up the men used to leave the village for winter and not come back till spring. The cut trees manually and worked with horses!!! and that was in 40 below weather. The nice thing about using an old time saw is that it takes two people to operate.
So many people are being faced with unemployment and lack of food so we get a number of people interested in our farm and I entertain them all.
mat
Part of this conversation is determining the minimum level of living standards to ensure basic needs are met well. One way to find this would be to look at countries with a smaller ecological footprints than the USA or France let’s say, but yet have comparable health, lifespan, medical care, educational outcomes.
I love my dairy pets this time of year, they keep me going with cottage cheese and cream for my coffee. Manure for the garden as well!
Despite living in a grassland (Tall-grass prairie edge with wooded riparian areas that likes to turn into scrub everywhere if you let it and it doesn't burn) I'm skeptical with the beef obsession over milk in specific. Yes the grass will get 4ft high even in a bad year while the garden and orchard struggle but for maximum calorie conversion I would think that dairy would win out with beef/meat as a side result. Yes that's more labor and hay making needed but if your priority is just converting sunlight to calories as best as possible and the rain is too irregular for arable row crop that would seem to be the way to go.
I may be a bit extreme here but I think covid showed pretty well that we don't really need about 80% of the jobs in our consumer society but healthcare staff are probably one of the ones we do want to keep! If farming labor and relatedly food processing work can be made to have dignity and pay well enough I think there is plenty of room to go from 1% farming to 15% or 20% before we need to force all the doctors to grow potatoes. Then again maybe I'm biased since I did try and start farm as an alternative to low paid job and that just ending giving me a second low paid job but one that I enjoyed more.
"for maximum calorie conversion I would think that dairy would win out with beef/meat as a side result. " totally in agreement with that.
Гуннаре, чудова стаття!
Даю посилання на доказ керування ландшафтом та істотної зміни середовища.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001670612100687X?via%3Dihub