observations for each bed of crops put in. Additionally, factors such as the amount of compostable material available from different crops, quality of compost, nutritional quality of crops (changes in 'protein content), amount of.water used, and other factors have been studied. From these studies, various theoretical models have been created to show possibilities for supplying one's own income, complete diet, fiber for clothing, and wood for fuel. Among these models is the $20,000 from 1/10 of an acre projection. This model was constructed by calculating optimum yield per plant, optimum plants per bed, optimum crops per bed per year, and optimum number of beds_that could be cared for by one person. Optimum was based on highend data that John believed to be duplicatable. While this is clearly not a model of statistical prediction, it is a useful projection and one that I believe can be fulfilled in the near future. The thing that is needed is for gardening folks to do what the solar folks have been doing, and move out of the world of romantic notions and into the real world. As the letter in the same issue from Steve Baer pointed out, what is needed is for folks to take their good intentions, knowledge learned from scientific investigations, and hard work, and go out and try to make a business out of it. I believe that John Jeavon's work goes a long ways to creating a blueprint for this. If a conference, even one made up of wellknown folks, wants me to "buy" some other system of gardening, they're going to haye to do more than call the system that I use names and complain about how much hard work it is. They are going to have to.do the same sort of quantified research that John Jeavons has done, over quite a number of years, and come up with some data. To the attendants of the Farallones conference, I ask, what good does it do to try and discredit one of the fe"Y folks doing quantifiable research, especially when you've presented none of your own for comparison. •David Duhon Vinton, LA Dear Friends, I sure am glad I don't live on the West Coast. Your (Aug. I Sept.) articles on Permanence and Critiquing Intensive Agric_ulture ~ere about as unbalanced a piece of reporting I've seen-the result of competing radical agriculture institutions, I suspect (Fa~allones Institute versus Ecology Action of the Midpeninsula) . Basically, if one r~ads between the lines, one finds that the "old is bad" and the "new is good" according to your articles. John Jeavons' work is underrated and Bill Mollison's work is overrated. Very hip. Very faddish. Silly. Time will tell that Mollison's claims of economic return on tree cropping are as unrelated to experience as Jeavons' claim of $10,000 or $20,000 from 1/10 acre. Tree crops, like Biodynamic French intensive agriculture, are technologies that are still largely untested-exciting ideas and eiperiments are going on here, and it is just a damn shame that they should be presented as better or worse than one another. It is self-serving, in-house bickering that keeps q1dical technology frozen in a state of confusion among its proponents. The point of biodynamic french intensive and tree cropping is that they are affordable to poor people who have little money for machines and petrochemicals, they are environmentally sound, and they provide a basis for selfreliance in a world where most technology creates dependence. Both Mollison and ·Jeavons have made unrealistic claims regarding the cash returns of their technologies, and this is unfortunate-but unjustified claims like this certainly should not be the focus of interest in their work. Please pass this letter along to Michael Stusser and to your writter CC. I have not commented on Stusser's critiques: 1) "deep digging can have the effect of working against itself" (if done after good tilth is achieved), and 2) that organic materials may be hard to find. The first point is important for fanatics to hear, but most people I know who are into biodynamic French intensive December 1980 RAIN Page 3 are by nature conservative in their approach to developing soil balance and fertilitythey do as much as is needed and no more, and they go by their own experience with their own soil rather than following anyone's cookbook. The second comment is self-defeating and calls into qµestion what is meant by agriculture itself. Agriculture is not a "natural" system-hunting and gathering is the only truly sustainable form of food "production." It is true that urban and suburban people have a hard time finding lots of organic materials, but rural people do not (a point which is overlooked). Little outreach has been done to rural people, particularly people living in mountainous areas where there is little flat land for cultivation-another result of the bias of those who promote new agricultural technologies. Enclosed please find $15 for a one-year subscription to RAIN. !'think you've got a great magazine, and hope you'll use a little more sense in the thinking you'll promote about new agricultural technology. Best, Lindsay Jones Agricultural Marketing Project Jacksboro, TN Dear David and Lindsay I I want to respond to both of your letters primarily to head off criticism directed at the people and organizations represented at the conference/workshop described. It's my understanding that workshops like this are opportunities for people to gather, share experiences both good and bad, and generally raise their technologies a bit through critiquing each other's work. In this context, critiquing should not be construed as competition, but rather the opposite-cooperation. The people at Farallones who structured this event, and those of us who attended, were not hosting a dog race between B.F.I. and Permaculture. All of us had spent enough time trying to "grow our own" to be able to agree that "self-serving, in-house bickering" ends up being counter-productive. Evaluation, and most important, self-evaluation, are essential to any technology, including agriculture. There are no bonanza winners in advancing a science in this way. There is, instead, the opportunity to work together to explore information and resources and apply tliem as needed. -Carlotta
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