Do Over on Agriculture

The county where I live still has some working farms. Not surprisingly, they're located in specific regions with soil that was deposited 14,000+ years ago as the last wave of glaciers melted, so the soil is well drained and provides a good medium for growing corn and soybeans. It's really a function of the sorting mechanisms of melting ice and flowing water. If the land had fast flows of water, then the soil includes more sand and gravel than silt and clay. Lots of other land, like our property, has less than ideal conditions for crops like corn, however, it's relatively easy to improve soil, but it's probably not "economical" since the return on investment in farming is low.

However, if you ignore investment concepts, then any piece of land is suitable for growing crops, and can be improved year over year. Similarly, if you have lots of land and people involved in agriculture, you have a fairly self-sufficient society where food is really cheap.

Anyway, in our present economy, the systems most people rely on are controlled by top down management. People like Bill Gates and whatever group he's associated with drive policy and corporate systems. Companies like Monsanto develop systems that farmers use. Food is really cheap, and cheaply made (see crapflation), and requires few people to produce, and also is like a strip mining operation. The best most productive land is consumed. The sociopaths involved in those schemes are usually pretty careless about the outcome and unintended consequences of the systems they devise.

The pursuit of non-economic planning via cultural management, like the Amish, is the really the traditional method of organizing. In this case, a variety of non-monetary goals is pursued by a community of people, and their approach changes slowly over time and adapts to circumstances slowly.

As long as people chase dollars and pursue economic goals, they'll be the chattel of the bankers and their systems. If you think about what we're here to do, instead of how to make money, then you're free.