The Emergent Agriculture by Gary S. Kleppel

Author:Gary S. Kleppel [Kleppel, Gary; Ikerd, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781550925777
Publisher: New Society Publishers

If this country is to have a future in agriculture — if another generation of farmers is to take up the yoke from the current, aging, generation — then there must be stability and profitability in the business of farming. This is impossible, or at least unlikely, when the future of agriculture is tied to fossil fuels. Realistically, few farmers are going to achieve complete severance from fossil fuels in the foreseeable future, but the less modern farmers depend on oil, gas, and coal the more stable, secure, and profitable their operations will be. Farming is and always has been about moving solar energy to the plates of consumers. The closer we come to accomplishing that photonic transformation without the help of fossil fuels, the more profitable farming will be and the more secure our food system will become. Farmers produce living organisms. The sun has been energizing life on earth for four billion years. Oil has been in the picture for about a hundred or so, with questionable results. Plants and animals can be produced well, in abundance, and profitably without fossil fuels.

In January 2012, I met with Kristin Kimball at the Northeast Organic Farming Association meeting in Saratoga Springs, New York to discuss the use of draft horses on the 600 acres that she works with her husband Mark and with the help of a dedicated and intrepid team of farm hands. She told me that they are still using tractors but that their goal is, ultimately, to have all of their equipment powered by draft horses and to have their tractors quietly rusting in the barn. I launched into my soliloquy about how we need to get out from under the yoke of big oil. I ranted about the economic instability associated with volatile diesel prices, and about how the rising cost of diesel is squeezing the profit out of agriculture. Kristin looked at me, perhaps a bit amused. “Besides,” she said, almost in a whisper, “It really is the right thing to do.”

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