In article ,
Jan Flora wrote:

In article ,
John Bachman wrote:


The farmers here (NH) used to burn off their fields regularly. Burning
really spruced up the fields nicely, killing weed seeds and other
pests "reconditioned" the soil for the new crop. It was a nice,
organic time honored method.

But the environmentalists managed to outlaw field burning on air
pollution grounds. So now the farmers use chemical methods to control
weeds and other pests. This is a perfect example of the law of
unintended consequences.

Did those opposing field burning really accomplish anything?

JHMO

John

Alaska is being invaded by people who are opposed to everything,
even if they don't know what the f*ck they're talking about.

We're supposed to call the fire hall in town (22 miles away) if
we want to light our burn barrel now. Like that would do us a lot
of good. I've never seen our local fire department lose a foundation
yet.

By the time they get here, houses are a total loss and the guys
show up and water-down the smoldering debris and foundation,
make a big mess, destroy the yard and driveway, then strut around
like they did something important.

It's getting so people with common sense are outlawed from
doing what any man with a lick of sense would do.

Jan

I'm a long way from both of you (N. Calif.) but it is the same deal
here. When I moved here to Sonoma County, some 35 years ago, we would
chuckle about how our smog would blow down to San Francisco leaving us
to breath clean, fresh air. Fast forward and we can't get rid of it now.
Saddening to look east, towards Santa Rosa, and see an orangyish, gray
sky hanging over the valley whereas, if you look west, towards the
redwoods, the sky may have some low clouds or fog but it is clean, to
the naked eye.

Part of the reason I left So. California was that I couldn't breath the
air any more. God, we had beautiful photochemical sunsets back in the
60's but the air would eat the tires right off your car. There were days
I couldn't exercise because I couldn't take a deep breath. That and the
fact that the housing tracts of Orange County couldn't compete with the
rolling, oak covered hills of the Bay Area, made me pack my bags and
move it on north.

Well, the population of Santa Rosa has increased about six fold since I
arrived. The air quality, the salmon and trout and, the traffic have all
gone to hell. Now I can feel the pressure of having to get one of those
low emission, EPA approved wood pellet stoves. Children and, people in
middle age, are getting asthma. People with heart problems are getting
lee-tell, teeny-weeny particles in their lung, making it harder for them
to breath. What to do? Damn-it, the smell of wood smoke is one of the
few rewards we have in the fall. I love it.

I don't know the answer. I'm sure there are plenty of SOBs out there,
like Monsanto, who are trying to spin this (and are willing to give
campaign contributions to the right politician) in their direction. Best
we can do, as far as I can see (Oh lord, not another learning curve.),
is to find out what everybody needs and then try to accommodate each
other.

We used to have burn days here in Sonoma County but I haven't heard them
mentioned for years. I'm not a farmer so I haven't kept up with their
(and rightly, our's too) problems. Burning the fields has always been a
wise way to finish or start the agricultural year. (Can't just till them
under for compost, huh?)

We need our farmers. We need to change "price supports" back to the
"farmer supports" of the New Deal. If you ask Jan and John, I'm sure
they'll tell you that there is good money to be made in food. Just not
in the growing of it.

So I guess the only justification for this mind fart, that I appear to
be having, is that we should all have a right not to have our work made
more difficult than it already is and, we all should have a right to
breath clean air. But as Lenny Bruce used to say,"What should be, isn't
what is".

Good luck making any sense out of this.

- Bill
Coloribus gustibus non disputatum (mostly)