Open
Land Use & Preservation
Two of the biggest and oldest
known ways of living on civilized Earth, are farming (it was always "organic"
until the middle of the last century, because it had to be - there were no
other types of fertilizers or pesticides), and having herds of animals
(ranching).
In the past, farmers and ranchers had to live in
harmony with nature. In a sense, they were pioneer environmentalists -
just by virtue of having to live with nature in a "working
relationship". Merchants were also dependent on the overall prosperity of the
farming or ranching in their area.
But for a while now, old ways of life,
multi-generational family farmers and ranchers, have been finding their land and
livelihood disappearing. Land is being
swallowed up by urban sprawl, development projects, and loss of resources like
water. Some multi-generation small family farmers and ranchers are suffering from poverty and losing
their farms.
Unfortunately, we can't turn back time, nor in
most cases, undo damage that's been done. But we can stop further
damage, and develop sustainable ways to live in modern times.
Some
laws have been passed to stop allowing urban sprawl, or to limit the size of acreage
that can be sub-divided, maintain National forest and BLM open land, and give
tax breaks for private rancher/farmer owners of large open acreage parcels.
Suspro
can help by teaching low impact land usage for both housing and farming. For
housing, we can teach how to build in ways that virtually leave the land as it
was found. For agriculture, we can demonstrate far more economical,
profitable, and less labor intensive production methods, that use a few
acres, rather than hundreds.
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