Planners of the World Unite!

[el Guapo]

I just got back from our Kansas State APA Chapter meeting where I had the pleasure of meeting my first set of hard-core communist farmers. These gents were working on developing the crops that farmers is the future would plant after the current economic model falls and the worker’s paradise fills the vacuum. Yes indeed, I paid good money to listen to a lecture on the evils of the current system from a botanist and a soil scientist who may someday provide me or my offspring with a meat-free diet of wholesome grains while we enjoy the benefits of a worker’s paradise. In the new model, people will farm small tracts of land with renewable energy sources like donkeys, and oxen while their urban brethren live in towers and work in the people’s production facilities. Perhaps someday my progeny will adore the Great Leader like those currently lucky enough to live in Pyongyang.

The program, as printed on the agenda, was entitled “Natural Systems Agriculture – Learn how farming is becoming natural – Presented by the Land Institute (http://www.landinstitute.org)” Instead of the technical details of sustainable farming we were subjected to a diatribe on the evils of capitalism and how the system will someday collapse and a new equality will emerge. The Young Pioneers could not have been more effective presenting the same material.

I will now seek to destroy APA from within. Others of a like nature please contact me so we can form action cells throghout the world. Let the counterrevolutionary actions begin.

 

[Dan]

I may be a damn liberal, but if I hear another person say "but communism works on paper" ... grrrrr ...

Yes, collective agriculture can work, as is the case with kibbutzes in Israel, and to some extent with co-ops in North America. Yes, sustainable agricultural practices work; I've even heard about farmers that are making decent profits using animal-drawn plows. Still, repackaged communism, no matter how you wordsmith it, is still repackaged communism. If it's voluntary, by all means go for it. Don't force such a system on the rest of us, though.

What you've described sounds a bit Khmer Rouge-ish to me. Not that the APA should be censoring or promoting any concepts that reflect a particular political or ideological stance, of course ... I just don't like the "Natural Systems Agriculture" concept.

 

[Cardinal]

Yeah, sure I grow my own asparagus, strawberries, gooseberries, grapes, spinach, lettuce, canteloupe, acorn squash, green beans, wax beans, purple beans, peas, carrots, rhubarb, raspberries, blackberries, sweet corn, sunflowers, parsnip, tomato(e)s, broccoli, cauliflower, blueberries, onions, peppers, pumpkins, brussel sprouts, and muskmelons like most people do, but I'm not about to become a farmer.