Guest guest Posted February 2, 2001 Report Share Posted February 2, 2001 Pancaratna ACBSP wrote: > 3) THe range of protected farm products should be diverse with some > lower-cost items bringing higher premiums. In other words the whole range of > food products would carry the protected farm label, pointing to the use of > oxen for cultivation as a step beyond "organic". I expect that. although the > difference between the cost of unprotected cow milk and protected cow milk > is quite high, there may not be as much difference between the cost of > produce grown with oxen and that grown by tractor. My Uncle Mike, a very successful Michigan hog farmer, visited us at Gita-nagari in 1986. He had also had a lot of business dealings with the Amish in Michigan, and liked them very much. He was impressed with Gita-nagari. At that time, there were about 12 teams of trained oxen, and they did everything -- plowing, cutting hay, hauling garbage, hauling logs, cutting firewood, hauling firewood, hauling guests, and hauling Their Lordships Sri-Sri Radha Damodara. Uncle Mike was impressed with that, and with the fantastic 5-acre organic garden maintained by the husband and wife team, Bhakti-Marga and Dhruva. He asked me about how much the oxen could plow. I said they could plow an acre or two a day. He noted that with his equipment, he could plant a hundred acres a day of wheat. He said that we could probably never sell wheat or flour as a result of the labor disparity between machine-powered and ox-powered production. He said that we should focus on vegetables, as the Amish did. I know he meant well with his advice. But I remember Srila Prabhupada's words just like a mantra: "Grow your own grain, produce your own cloth." In the short run, trying to fit into a capitalist economy, we may have to focus on ox-powered vegetables for the market. (Lagudi in Australia did quite well selling ox powered pumpkins.) But in the long run, in a real varnasrama village, we would be empowering our ox-powered farmers so that they could grow and grind grains. Just some thoughts. your servant, Hare Krsna dasi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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