Re: Sustainable Spuds

Rob Gordon (robert.gordon@central.sun.com)
Fri, 13 Sep 1996 10:35:06 -0600

> From almanac-request@amani.ces.ncsu.edu Fri Sep 13 10:23 MDT 1996
> Date: Fri, 13 Sep 1996 9:05:00 -0400
> From: "Marc Safley" <Marc.Safley@usda.gov>
> Subject: Sustainable Spuds
> To: sanet-mg@amani.ces.ncsu.edu (Receipt Notification Requested)
> X400-Mts-Identifier: [ /P=GOV+USDA/A=ATTMAIL/C=US/ ; 32396F2E.7F18.191A.000 ]
>
> The recent and ongoing potato discussion brings several questions to
> mind:
>
> 1. Could the Irish potato farmers controlled the blight if they had rotated
> their crops with barley or oats or some other Gramineae?
>
> 2. If organic agriculture grew out of a reaction to the increased use of
> agricultural chemicals in production systems, why can the description of
> "organic" be applied to any system that relies on non-synthetic inputs?
>
> 3. Wasn't the Irish potato famine really an example of unsustainable
> organic agriculture?

3.1 Didn't the Irish potato famine have a complex political dimension
which contributed to the harshness of its memory and which is mistakenly
overlooked when viewing the event as simply a failure of agriculture?

>
> 4. Wouldn't Bill Duesing make a great neighbor? I think so.
>
>
> Marc Safley
> marc.safley@usda.gov
>