Book Info
Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms, and Fertility Mattered by Woody Tasch
Having a network of smaller farms, invest in our land and soil is beneficial to our society / community / probably economy.
Having a community of small farms is always good, but without government legislature, can we really establish an alternative system which go against the superpowers of capitalism? A billion company would be able to purchase tones of land and resources, while it was almost impossible for laymens like you and me to purchase a land and create a community farm.
I agree on this rationale, but the reality might not be as optimistic as it is portrayed in the book.
Soil erosion and depletion is seriously affecting the heath of soil, which cannot be compensated with the usage of chemical fertilizers. The whole complex mechanisms is still unknown.
The difference in approach is a difference in life views. The shallow view regards the natural world as consistingof mostly inadequate, usually malevolent systems that must be modified and improved. The deep-organic view understands that the natural world consists of impeccably designed, smooth-functioning systems that must be studied and nurtured. The deep-organic pioneers learned that farming in partnership with the natural processes of soil organisms also makes allowance for the unknowns. The living systems of a truly fertile soil contain all sorts of yet-to-be discovered benefits for plants - and consequently for livestock and the humans who consume them. These are benefits we don’t even know how to test for because we are unaware of their mechanism, yet deep-organic farmers are aware of them every day in the improved vigor of their crops and livestock. This practical experience of farmers is unacceptable to scientists, who disparagingly call it mere “anecdotal evidence.”
Interesting point, though the world is experiencing entropy, biological evolution seems to be more and more complex and fine-tuned. If that’s the case, then what is the possible reason behind? It can be very theological.
The concept of linear time carries with it the implication of an arrow of time, pointing from past to future and indicating the directionality of sequences of events… Scientists and philosophers have been sharply divided over the significance of the arrow of time. The conundrum, put crudely, boils down to this: is the universe getting better or worse? The Bible tells the story of a world that starts in a state of perfection — the Garden of Eden—and degenerates as a result of man’s sin. However, a basic component of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam is a message of hope, of belief in personal betterment and the eventual salvation of mankind…
The second law of thermodynamics introduces an arrow of time into the world because the rise of entropy seems to be an irreversible, “downhill’ process. By an odd coincidence, just as the bad news about the dying universe was sinking in among physicists, Charles Darwin published his famous book On the Origin of species… Biological evolution also introduces an arrow of time into nature, but it points in the opposite direction of the second law of thermodynamics—evolution seems to be an “uphill” process. Life on Earth began in the form of primitive micro-organism; over time, it has advanced to produce a biosphere of staggering organizational complexity, with millions of intricately structured organisms superbly adapted to their ecological niches. Whereas thermodynamics predicts degeneration and chaos, biological processes tend to be progressive, producing order out of chaos. Here was optimistic time, popping up in science just as pessimistic time was about to sow its seeds of despair.