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Moderated e-mail conference on small farms and food security

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Mon, 17 Oct 2016 15:56:12 +0000
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[Note, the first line of Francisco Gurri's Message 42 began "Bazyli Czyżewski's observations (Message 22)..". Instead of Message 22, it should have been Message 7...Moderator].



This is Bazyli Czyzewski again. 



I would like to comment on Francisco Gurri's statement Gurri's (in Message 42):

""Small farms lack knowledge of ecologically friendly practices and lack ecological consciousness" rings hollow in a world were small farmers are leading an ongoing battle against GMOs, use of toxic weed killers etc. It also contradicts years of worldwide research into traditional knowledge and the sustainability of traditional subsistence strategies that have survived for thousands of years, and the communities of small producer's organization for the sustainable management of common resources."



I think we are talking about different economic reality. It is not a problem that small farms shall survive looking for a subsistance strategy but how to include small farms into market processes. I agree that subsistance farms live in harmony with the nature. But there are not such farms in Europe because farmers have growing aspiration in money-commodity economy. They wish to participate in economic growth and in consumption patterns from well-developed countries. They must improve productivity and they do so with any available methods which usually don't care sufficiently about environment. The environment friendly technology is too expensive for them, hence they use old machinery, obsolete fertilisers and all that stuff of industrial agriculture which have been abandoned in Western Europe.



I have never seen these small farmers leading in battle against excessive use of fertilisers and pesticides. I've seen farmers fighting for higher incomes which they are willing to spend on those fertilisers and old tractors, and whatever, to enhance production.



I would appreciate if you give me any references on the research proving that small commodity farms (not only subsistence) are more environment friendly than big farms in well developed countries, i.e. in Western Europe, Australia, USA, for example in terms of GHG emission.



And we have never had kolkhozes in Poland. Even in the former communist regime the individual farms dominated in agriculture.



Bazyli Czyżewski, PhD. (hab.)

Associate professor

Department of Education and Personnel Development

Investigator in Research Group of Macroeconomics and Agricultural Economics Departmnent

Poznań University of Economics

Poland

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Bazyli_Czyzewski

E-mail: b.czyzewski (at) ue.poznan.pl



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