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>From: Ingrid Bauer/J-C Catry <[log in to unmask]>

>  And that decent life
>>is made possible by applied science and technology
>
> the improvement seen when we started to use chemicals was an artificicial
> boost to the lost of fertility that started to affect the soils since we
> started to till the ground. The problem is that this boost had a short live,
> depleting even farther the level  of fertility.

Ingrid, have you read THE ONE STRAW REVOLUTION by Masanobu Fukuoka?
(ISBN 0-553-24739-5) The author discusses small-scale farming with as little
intervention as possible, diversity in crops, and a natural way to enrich or
revitalize the soil. His crop yields are very high percentage-wise. He
discusses natural foods (yes it includes grains but also includes a lot of
other items.) When I moved into my house with its little
chemically-dependent lawn, I spread sunflower seeds all over the yard for a
long time to attract birds (and their droppings). My soil is pretty good
now. Fukuoka said to use ducks and geese for this but it's hard to find
ducks and geese in the city.