Michael Perelman wrote:
>
> Some crops like strawberries, which are one of the most heavily chemical dependent crops,
> require quite a bit of weeding. John Jevons many years ago wrote a book about how to grow
> all your own food in a minuscle crop with 20 minutes a day.
I once hoed strawberries for a brief time (when I was around 15). It was close to the most horrible task I have ever experienced. It was worse than KP in the military; worse than factory work on a gear shaver. I can't off hand think of anything much more onerous. But a few people growing their own food (on land $4000 per acre & up?) is trivial, and of no political importance in any industrialized nation. It might be (I think will be) of importance in some non-industrialized nations as they detach themselves from imperialism one or two at a time. As terrible as isolation from the world economy will be for such nations, failure to isolate will be (as Patrick Bond knows and keeps telling us) will be far more terrible in loss of life.
But it is really vicious to pretend that such subsistence farming is possible or desirable in a core imperialist nation.
Carrol.