Page 6 RAIN December 1979 A HARD LOOK AT HOW·TO by Lloyd Kahn T_ime for a good stiff shot of criticism. Who's to deny that most of us in this hopeful business are occasionally guilty of a.t. cheerleading? It's hard not to sometimes. But people who go around pushing good dreams have a responsibility to make sure that big headaches (or little nightmares) don't result. The fallowing article by Lloyd Kahn, experienced owner-builder and editor of Shelter and Shelter II, grew out of a series of conversations we've had in the last few months. Drawing on his own learning exp·eriences, and casting a critical eye on the technological evangelism and misinformation that abounds, Lloyd argues that it's time to be much more demanding of ourselves and our work. People are depending on it. Undercurrent to this piece is the familiar theme that we should go first to those alternatives that are time-tested, tried and.true. ... Here are observations bound to spark some reactions. That's the point. ·- sA "What Went Wrong?" asks B~b Cooperrider in his recent article in Tilth on organic strawberry production. Cooperrider, a farmer, explains in <let.ail what happened when he grew an acre and a quarter of strawberries without chemical fertilizers or herbicides in 1978-79 in Oregon's Willamette Valley. There were all kinds of problems: "... the first discou.raging discovery. Even before we had the last plants in the ground the first planted rows were full ofweeds . .. but continued hot dry weather caused the fallowing berries to ripen much smaller ... so finally in early November I had to run the cultivator . through the patch even though the ground was already too we{ ... " Bob gives a complete rundown of the operation, tells what went wrong (and why) and what he learned, and presents a complete cash accounting of income and expenses from the two seasons' strawberry production. The reality turned out, as is so often the case, quite a bit different from the original vision. I kept thinking about the article after I read it; about why it seemed so refreshing. Amidst all the self-congratulatory how-to-do-it books and articles around these days, here's a guy admitting something went wrong. Not only that, but also how he thinks it could be done better next time. We need more honest reports like this. Conditions are more critical.now, and good information is vital. For more than a decade we have been swamped with accounts of how well things work. How to Run a Small Dairy on an Acre. How I Built My Energy-Efficient Post & Beam House. The Complete Book ofSolar Heating. And so forth. Bookstores are loaded with glowing accounts of how to do virtually everything. No problems! My new house/organic homestead/solar heater work great and here's how I did it and you can do the same. No one seems to be asking criticar questions. Has your new home design gone through five seasons? Would this solar heater work as well in other climates? Ju-st what appliances can you power with this $3,000 wind generator? Are you sure you can make this much grow_ing jojoba beans, year after year? These authors usually write of their experiences while in the midst of the project, often ·before there's been any time for a seasoned evaluation. Reporters apparently believe what they're told and don't ask hard questions..Editors and publishers seem more interested in book and magazine sales than in providing.reliable information to the public. And readers, many of whom are young and/or inexperienced and searching for something worthwhile to do, are left with a gloriously optimistic view of alternative food, shelter and energy production. I've suspected for some time that there's a lot less solid information in the last decade's how-to-do-it literature than meets the reader's eye. Lately I've been thinking that if we're to make any progress in providing 01,.1r own basics, _we've got to have reliable information. We've got to know What Went Wrong, so others won't have to repeat the same mistakes. Let me give some examples of areas that I believe could use a closer look;
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc4NTAz