dmk@bunker.UUCP (David M. Knight) (12/01/83)
As far as I know, the RAA is not, nor does it claim to be, a "research outfit". Their apparent charter is to convince commercial and small farmers to go "organic" (regenerative agriculture is another name for that) or, at least, reduce their use of agricultural chemicals. They have about the same line as Organic Gardening, they just aim at a different audience. I happen to agree with their philosophy, in general, but often get disgusted when people wax fanatical about it. For many years I have had a subscription to either Organic Gardening or New Farm. The New farm is very informative about how to beat the high cost of commercial farming on any scale, farm finances energy/soil conservation etc. They have an articulate and well educated staff who often write about their research. Most of the research is directed at finding ecological but effective alternatives to the chemical industry's simplistic sales pitch : "you can solve all your problems with another ton of this or that fertilizer and a spray of this or that herbicide/pesticide". A recent issue published the results of their Soil Testing Lab study. The point was made that samples of the same soil sent to 50 labs would result in almost 50 different and WILDLY different fertilizer recommendations. Certain labs consistantly recommended heavy applications of N P and K The tone of the magazine is much more down to earth (no pun intended) than many of the other Rodale pubs that seem to cater to the health food fanatics and vitamin pill poppers. I enjoy the New Farm and can apply some of what they say in my life. My wife and I have a small farm and we raise most of our own food including beef, pork and lamb. We do this because we enjoy gardening and raising livestock, not because we fear the dreaded additives and pollutants or believe that super-market vegetables (grown with "chemical" fertilizer) is, somehow, of inferior nutritional value. We do bake all our own bread, because store bread IS inferior, and use a minimum of store bought "processed" food to limit the intake of extra salt and sugar. While I do not consider sugar (refined or otherwise) to be any great evil, I do like to know when I am eating it. You are probably aware that only "non-profit" organjizations can solicit tax-deductable donations. In that sense the RAA is "respectable". However, if you are looking for a "scholarly publication", you should probably look elsewhere. The publishers are hoping to address the issues at the source, rather than change the ways in which intellectuals perceive them.