“The art music of the West has developed through out its history by means of individual geniuses, and out of the soil supporting them; non-Western musicians were born, and grew like the grasses of the field.” MeanArtIndividualBornFieldsGrewGeniusMusicianWestWesternGrassSoilArt Music Author:Toru Takemitsu
“Unkindness to anything means an injustice to that thing. If I am unkind to you I do you an injustice, or wrong you in some way. On the other hand, if I try to assist you in every way that I can to make a better citizen and in every way to do my very best for you, I am kind to you. The above principles apply with equal force to the soil. The farmer whose soil produces less every year, is unkind to it in some way; that is, he is not doing by it what he should; he is robbing it of some substance it must have, and he becomes, therefore, a soil robber rather than a progressive farmer.” IfsWayShouldTryingYearsKindMeanI CanHandsForcePrinciplesLandProduceCitizensEqualInjusticeSubstanceSoilProgressiveFarmersUnkindRobbersRobbingUnkindness Author:George Washington Carver
“If in the human economy, a squash in the field is worth more than a bushel of soil, that does not mean that food is more valuable than soil; it means simply that we do not know how to value the soil. In its complexity and its potential longevity, the soil exceeds our comprehension; we do not know how to place a just market value on it, and we will never learn how. Its value is inestimable; we must value it, beyond whatever price we put on it, by respecting it.” IfsKnowsHumansMeanDoeValuesKnow HowEconomyLandFieldsValuableComplexitySoilLongevityExceedComprehensionSquash Author:Wendell Berry
“The farmer and the farm, like "the environment," are looked upon, for example, as means to offset trade deficits. The farm is a place where we can externalize costs. The cost of pesticides to the farmer and the cost of the pesticides to the soil and groundwater are regarded similarly by the public: "a serious problem that something ought to be done about." But the problem is more fundamental than this glib statement would indicate, for soil pollution is an expense of production. So are pesticides and nitrates in our farm wells. So is the loss of farmers from the land.” WellsMeanDoneProblemLossEnvironmentLandExampleSeriousOughtCostFundamentalsTradeProductionsStatementsSoilExpensesFarmsFarmersPollutionDeficitPesticidesGroundwater Author:Wes Jackson