Sorry I am late with this week's post. We were taking motorcycle safety lessons with our daughter Heidi. One of Heidi's crusades is to expose us to new experiences in our old age. It was a blast, and it was fun to learn a new skill.
Meanwhile, back on the farm...
We laid by another cotton field this week. One more field and we can park the tractors for now. Speaking of tractors, we finally got our tractor back from John Deere late Friday. Ruben was so excited he said, 'Thank you' and shook my hand. He was glad to be back in his old tractor.
Below is an column I did years ago for the Fresno Bee. I still stand by it. I know people are concerned about pesticide use. I can assure you that the people who prepare and process your food are just as concerned. When I talk with restaurant owners about food their first concern is not flavors and recipes, but food safety. When people ask me if I think our food supply is safe my answer is, think about it- one child getting sick can make national head lines. Is our system perfect? Of course not. Should we remain on our toes? Of course. But, I still think we have the safest, most affordable and abundant food supply in the history of the world.
How this farmer learned the value of pesticides.
September 17, 1996.
No one could want to farm without chemicals more than I do. When I came to the Valley from San Diego in 1981 I had dreams of small-scale organic farming and all the city dweller's prejudice against pesticides, herbicides and fungicides.
While I may not like them anymore than before I had learned that used properly, farm chemicals can be safe, effective and indeed one of the foundations of our modern society.
The 'fear industrial complex' of professional worriers has done a good job convincing the public that their food is poisoned and all farm chemicals cause cancer. No one stops to think, "If our food is poisoned, then why are we living longer, healthier lives than our ancestors?" The question each of us needs to ask ourselves is, "Are we better or worse off by the use of pesticides and the other tools of modern agriculture?"
Dr. Bruce Ames, a biochemist in Berkeley says, "I think pesticides lower the cancer rate." Ames bases his position on the fact that a balanced diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables will do more to prevent cancer than any risks from the chemicals used to produce that food.
Ames also notes that our food is full of naturally occurring carcinogens. A peanut butter sandwich is 100 times more carcinogenic than a fish full of DDT. A glass of cola, coffee or wine is a thousand times more carcinogenic than water form wells in the Silicon Valley that were shut down due to groundwater contamination. This doesn't mean we should ignore the health concerns from using pesticides. But, we must put our fears in perspective. As Dr. Ames says, "...the price you pay for living in a modern, industrial society is a few parts per billion of something in the water...Just eat a good diet and don't worry."
Real concerns about the use of pesticides are clouded by the nonsense of the fear mongers. It is appropriate that we assess farm chemicals for their safety to ensure public health.But, it is not reasonable to be prejudiced against or afraid of pesticide use.
The industry must continually show the public, its customers, that these chemicals can be used safely and that we take the public safety very seriously. The public must acknowledge that farm chemicals are one of the basic tools of modern society. As Dixie Lee Ray, the former Governor of Washington State says, "Sometime in the distant future, when the accomplishments of the 20th Century are recorded for posterity, it may finally be acknowledged that our greatest achievement, by far, has been the introduction of high-tech, high-yield agriculture."
High-tech, high-yield agriculture is at the foundation of our modern society. Those who believe we can have all the benefits of modern agriculture are wrong.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Summer Heat and Growing Your Own Food
Summer's back in town!
Hard to miss the 100+ days. I used to really complain about it, but then we had a chance to visit Florida and Virginia-that's hot. Here, no matter how hot it gets in the afternoon, it's always 30F cooler in the morning. In the hot and humid places it is always hot and humid. We would leave the hotel at 8am and be dripping sweat by the time we got to the car. Back to our summer heat...
Summer is not my favorite season. It is easier for me to warm up when I am cold than it is to cool off when I am hot. I endure summer and I look forward to Fall. I am extremely grateful for air conditioning, and for our blessed, cool mornings. I try to get my field and shop work done in the mornings and save office work for the afternoon.
We eat lots of cool meals like pasta salad this time of year. We also enjoy lots of fresh fruits. The yellow peaches are coming on now. Mmmmm yummmy. I love watermelon too. I have been drinking my coffee iced also.
Growing Your Own Food-
Summer gardens seem to be the topic of discussion this week. One book I was reading talked about it, I saw some newspaper articles and a Facebook friend lamented some problems in her garden. Last month I had a discussion with a community advocate about the virtues of urban gardens.
I'll be the first to admit there are few satisfactions like eating a home-grown tomato. I don't know about you, but I was never able to grow anything more in my gardens than a few salad garnishes.
The lesson I learned with my little garden plots when I was growing up in San Diego is that I eat a lot more food than I can produce in a garden patch. I started then to learn an appreciation for the system that produces our food. There are hundreds of millions of us and just a handful of farmers. Less than 2% of us live and work on farms, producing food for everyone else and enough to export too. That is pretty amazing. [Dixie Lee Ray has an amazing quote about that. Maybe I'll share that with you some other time.]
Too all you home gardeners- my sweat stained hat is off to you.
BTW- an update from last week's post on curve balls: I still don't have my tractor back from the shop. We are going to replace the engine [ ouch, that wasn't in the budget.] We hope to get the tractor back this week, which would be nice since we are almost done with our summer tractor work. The cotton is growing fast in this heat and it is time to lay the cotton by and park the tractors until Fall.
I hope y'all have a great week and I hope you can find a cool place to rest.
Hard to miss the 100+ days. I used to really complain about it, but then we had a chance to visit Florida and Virginia-that's hot. Here, no matter how hot it gets in the afternoon, it's always 30F cooler in the morning. In the hot and humid places it is always hot and humid. We would leave the hotel at 8am and be dripping sweat by the time we got to the car. Back to our summer heat...
Summer is not my favorite season. It is easier for me to warm up when I am cold than it is to cool off when I am hot. I endure summer and I look forward to Fall. I am extremely grateful for air conditioning, and for our blessed, cool mornings. I try to get my field and shop work done in the mornings and save office work for the afternoon.
We eat lots of cool meals like pasta salad this time of year. We also enjoy lots of fresh fruits. The yellow peaches are coming on now. Mmmmm yummmy. I love watermelon too. I have been drinking my coffee iced also.
Growing Your Own Food-
Summer gardens seem to be the topic of discussion this week. One book I was reading talked about it, I saw some newspaper articles and a Facebook friend lamented some problems in her garden. Last month I had a discussion with a community advocate about the virtues of urban gardens.
I'll be the first to admit there are few satisfactions like eating a home-grown tomato. I don't know about you, but I was never able to grow anything more in my gardens than a few salad garnishes.
The lesson I learned with my little garden plots when I was growing up in San Diego is that I eat a lot more food than I can produce in a garden patch. I started then to learn an appreciation for the system that produces our food. There are hundreds of millions of us and just a handful of farmers. Less than 2% of us live and work on farms, producing food for everyone else and enough to export too. That is pretty amazing. [Dixie Lee Ray has an amazing quote about that. Maybe I'll share that with you some other time.]
Too all you home gardeners- my sweat stained hat is off to you.
BTW- an update from last week's post on curve balls: I still don't have my tractor back from the shop. We are going to replace the engine [ ouch, that wasn't in the budget.] We hope to get the tractor back this week, which would be nice since we are almost done with our summer tractor work. The cotton is growing fast in this heat and it is time to lay the cotton by and park the tractors until Fall.
I hope y'all have a great week and I hope you can find a cool place to rest.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Curve Balls
In 2005 I wrote an op-ed about the curve balls I get on the farm. The opening paragraph said-
"We all get curve balls in life. We're busy enough dealing with the fast balls that come our way. It's the surprises, the curve balls that make life challenging. Some times they come so fast and so close we think they are all bean balls.
Just like in your life I get curve balls on the farm. It takes just one broken bolt or one flat tire to change my whole day."
Well, it is still true about curve balls on the farm. While I was driving cross country two weeks ago I got a call from Ruben that there was a noise in the tractor engine. I got the news late this last Friday- the crankshaft bearings on pistons one and three are both spun. That probably means an engine overhaul.
I can't tell you how much I would rather not have to do that right now. Engine overhauls are expensive and I need that tractor in the field this week. Actually, I needed it two weeks ago, I needed it last week and I need it this week. We have been on Plan B for two weeks now. At this rate I will get the tractor back about the time we are done with tractor work until October. Arrrgh. I hate curve balls.
Actually some of the best shop advice I ever got was from my Uncle Charlie who was a retired New York City Transit Cop and a great mechanic. He laughed one time and said you didn't have to be a great mechanic, just be good at service your vehicles. He said oil was cheaper than parts. I have been very diligent about servicing my cars, trucks and tractors since he said that years ago. Ask my kids- part of their getting their driver's licenses was learning how to change the oil in their cars and learning how to change a flat tire.
I guess I can't avoid curve balls like a down tractor when I really need it to be in the field. I am frustrated about the downtime and the expense right now. But, I did learn my lesson from Uncle Charlie and I am confident that all the servicing we do on our equipment has helped prevent more problems than we will ever know.
So, what are we doing on the farm this week? We'll keep water on the cotton. We'll also spray growth regulators on the cotton to help it mature a little faster since everything is so late this year. We'll kill grass in the blackeyes and water them again. Now that the wheat has been harvested we'll start working the wheat ground and get that ready for next year.
We did have our first cotton bloom this past week. That is always a good thing. The next month is when we really set the cotton crop. Cotton is two to three weeks behind average in our area. It was nice to see blooms in one field almost on schedule. We also had hull split int he almonds. That was only about a week late. All that beautiful cool weather this Spring did delay the crops. We should be harvesting almonds by the middle of next month.
Well, be careful out there- watch out for curve balls.
"We all get curve balls in life. We're busy enough dealing with the fast balls that come our way. It's the surprises, the curve balls that make life challenging. Some times they come so fast and so close we think they are all bean balls.
Just like in your life I get curve balls on the farm. It takes just one broken bolt or one flat tire to change my whole day."
Well, it is still true about curve balls on the farm. While I was driving cross country two weeks ago I got a call from Ruben that there was a noise in the tractor engine. I got the news late this last Friday- the crankshaft bearings on pistons one and three are both spun. That probably means an engine overhaul.
I can't tell you how much I would rather not have to do that right now. Engine overhauls are expensive and I need that tractor in the field this week. Actually, I needed it two weeks ago, I needed it last week and I need it this week. We have been on Plan B for two weeks now. At this rate I will get the tractor back about the time we are done with tractor work until October. Arrrgh. I hate curve balls.
Actually some of the best shop advice I ever got was from my Uncle Charlie who was a retired New York City Transit Cop and a great mechanic. He laughed one time and said you didn't have to be a great mechanic, just be good at service your vehicles. He said oil was cheaper than parts. I have been very diligent about servicing my cars, trucks and tractors since he said that years ago. Ask my kids- part of their getting their driver's licenses was learning how to change the oil in their cars and learning how to change a flat tire.
I guess I can't avoid curve balls like a down tractor when I really need it to be in the field. I am frustrated about the downtime and the expense right now. But, I did learn my lesson from Uncle Charlie and I am confident that all the servicing we do on our equipment has helped prevent more problems than we will ever know.
So, what are we doing on the farm this week? We'll keep water on the cotton. We'll also spray growth regulators on the cotton to help it mature a little faster since everything is so late this year. We'll kill grass in the blackeyes and water them again. Now that the wheat has been harvested we'll start working the wheat ground and get that ready for next year.
We did have our first cotton bloom this past week. That is always a good thing. The next month is when we really set the cotton crop. Cotton is two to three weeks behind average in our area. It was nice to see blooms in one field almost on schedule. We also had hull split int he almonds. That was only about a week late. All that beautiful cool weather this Spring did delay the crops. We should be harvesting almonds by the middle of next month.
Well, be careful out there- watch out for curve balls.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Fourth of July
Sorry about the late posting. I was on the road last week moving my son's truck from New York to California. Had a great road trip with an old college roommate and his seventeen year old son. Well, it was more like a cannonball run- we made it cross country in four days.
Here you can see Jonathan's truck parked in front of a restaurant in Texas. Crazy Texans, gotta love their style. I always love their hospitality.
We took the old Route 66 from St Louis on. Driving through the Midwest we saw a lot of corn, wheat and soybeans. Lots of dairies also. What I didn't see was a lot of fruits and vegetables either in the field, in the stores or in the restaurants. Just a reminder of how good we have it here in California. Hard to eat your fruits and vegetables if they aren't around.
I am not sure of what to make of something I noticed on the road. We had more bugs on the windshield between Bakersfield and home than we did from New York to Bakersfield. What's up with that? California farmers are accused of using all sorts of pesticides. I know it is not a scientific survey, but there is a huge difference. I think it reflects that California farmers actually use a minimum of pesticides and we leave a lot of bugs out there. Hopefully there are lots of good bugs eating all the bad bugs. Just something I noticed on the way.
Back on the farm the guys did a good job keeping the crops watered. The blackeyes have really bounced back after we knocked the aphids down. We have our first bloom in the cotton. That field is almost on time. The other fields are a bit behind. Almond hull split is behind also.
For the Fourth of July Sheryl and I were asked to post on another blog as parents of a soldier overseas. Sheryl did a great job. She brought a tear to my eye and I know the story. You can find the post at http://abc30.typepad.com/abc-30-blogs
Hope you had a Happy Fourth of July. Just a reminder, Ben Franklin was quoted as saying, "The American Revolution was not fought for freedom, it was fought for self-government." Think about it. Thank you to all who have served to preserve our freedom.
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