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Re: Sustainable Spuds



> 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
> 


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