From sustag@BETA.TRICITY.WSU.EDU Wed Mar 30 09:19:34 1994 Date: Tue, 29 Mar 1994 20:24:07 -0800 From: "Tom Hodges (moderated newsgroup)" To: Multiple recipients of list SUSTAG-L Subject: Wes Jackson and Aldo Leopold (fwd) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 30 Mar 94 13:43:24 CST From: Frank Kutka To: SUSTAG@beta.tricity.wsu.edu Subject: Wes Jackson and Aldo Leopold My true heroes in sustainable/sensible ways of living on this land are Wes Jackson and Aldo Leopold. I have just found my materials concerning Wes, who started the Land Institute in Salina, KS. Here are quotes out of a paper he wrote with Jon Piper: "Our subject here is 'the problem of agriculture', not the 'problems in agriculture'. We proceed with the assumption that problems in agriculture are primarily derivatives of the problem of agriculture." (Wes sees the raising of annuals with high energy inputs and soil losses as part of the problem of agriculture, if I remember correctly) "Those who settled the North American continent brought with them visions of a European-style agriculture in which their familiar crops and livestock could thrive and satisfy markets in the homeland. Tragically, as the New World ecosystems were dismantled, stabilizing processes were decoupled, and species were extirpated before their roles in the ecosystem could be understood sufficiently. In short, as Wendell Berry has said, 'We have never known what we were doing because we have never known what we were undoing.' The few relicts of pre-Columbian vegetation that remain must serve as our best standards by which any agriculture touted as sustainable is to be judged." "There are problems, of course. Nature is ill-defined and natural ecosystems are dynamic. But the patterns and processes discernible in natural ecosystems still remain the most appropriate standard available to sustainable agriculture." Wes and the others at the Land Institute are currently beginning a region wide test of a perennial grains community (several cool and warm season grasses, illinois bundleflower, maximillian sunflower, et al.) which they hope will provide a sustainable and economical source of food. This community is based on the prairie dominants, rather than the ephemeral weed communities of rivers, which our current agriculture is mostly dependent on. Aldo Leopold wrote an essay called "The Land Ethic" back in the thirties some time. (This shows how out of date all of our sustainable discussions are: it is time to finally catch up!) He extended the ethics of the Hebrew Laws (love your community) and the Golden Rule (love your neighbor and enemy) to include finally the land community as a whole (love the land of which you are a part). Many times over he lambasted the uselessness of the county water and soil boards which wrote easy rules that all could comply with, but which did little to improve the situation. He predicted that the SCS and others would accomplish little because the land grant schools were so busy making trouble in the name of progress, and because you could skin your land and still be considered in good standing in the community. Since no one has trumpeted these two as THE leaders in sustainable agriculture I thought I had better. Both looked at the whole picture and came up with useful and instructive ideas. And both could see the silliness that has given us the current economic and agronomic thinking (such as "our current system damages the environment and uses irreplaceable energy sources, but it is the only way to keep the growing world population fed" How long can that go on?) Leopold's children are still living and some work still goes on at the old homestead, in fact the sustainable ag center at Iowa State is named the Leopold Center. Wes Jackson is happily still with us and his group is working hard to create a new and better agriculture outside the current set of mental limitations. Here are some references for both. Jackson, Wes. 1985. New Roots for Agriculture. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln Nebraska. Jackson, Wes, and Jon Piper. 1989. The necessary marriage between ecology and agriculture. Ecology 70(6): 1591-1593. Leopold, Aldo. 1951? A Sand County Almanac, with essays from Round River. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison Wisconsin. Frank J. Kutka, part-time Junior Scientist and farmer (218) 720-4262 fkutka@sage.nrri.umn.edu University of Minnesota Natural Resources Research Institue 5013 Miller Trunk Highway Duluth MN 55811 USA From sustag@BETA.TRICITY.WSU.EDU Wed Mar 30 10:10:18 1994 Date: Wed, 30 Mar 1994 06:01:29 -0800 From: "Tom Hodges (moderated newsgroup)" To: Multiple recipients of list SUSTAG-L Subject: Re: Wes Jackson and Aldo Leopold (fwd) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 30 Mar 1994 05:32:21 -0800 From: Charles Benbrook To: SUSTAG@beta.tricity.wsu.edu Subject: Re: Wes Jackson and Aldo Leopold (fwd) Fear not Frank, both Wes and Aldo have been fully discovered, not just by the sus. ag. community, but by many others. The definitive treatment of Leopold is Curt Meine's superb biography, done as a PhD thesis for the Univ. of Wisconisn, Land Res. Program. Curt is working now south of you, for the Crane Inst., or some such group. His book was pub. by Univ. Wisconsin press; I wrote a piece in the J. of Soil and Water Cons. on Leopold and sus. ag, which Curt helped me with. Paul Johnson, the current head of the SCS, is a devoted and deeply knowledgeful student of Leopold, and Wes I might add. There is the Leopold Center for Sus Ag res. at Iowa continuing to do fine work...and the list goes on. Wes's work on the ecology and the prairies has faced a more uphill struggle, since the very precepts of his work is so inimical with the dominant paradigm of modern agriculture. But still, Wes gets around, and his center is carrying out solid work, which more and more people are coming to believe in, as alternative models. There are many folks working close to the land that have made wonderful contributions to the science, art, and culture of sus. ag. Many wonder why has such progress, pointing so clearly to better ways to farm, been kept in such a small corner of American agriculture? Given the irrefutable evidence of the benefit of rotating corn and soybeans -- average 15% increase in corn yields, no need for soil insecti- cides except in rare instances, better weed control, etc -- why is 60% of corn and nearly as much soybeans still grown continuously? The same acreage could be planted, the same production, etc, etc by everyone rotating, but still the majority do not. Why? The answer is part of the answer to the question re why has the work of Leopold, Jackson, Bezdicek, Thompson, and many others had such modest impact on the majority of agriculture. In the years ahead, the sus. ag. community will need to match political and institutional innovation and leadership with its contributions down on the farm. Those benefiting from the status quo have made it clear they will not accept change without a fight. Change is scary. Someone we have to develop policies that make it less so. chuck benbrook