Agriculture Reference
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[116], (26)
Lines: 342 to 344
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Joel Rissman admiring the compost on his Illinois farm. (Credit: author)
An d I read everything two and three times. And it was interesting because
a lot of the stuff in that topic was the same thing that I see happening on
th e farm. Some chemicals cause certain weeds to grow, and that is the same
w eed problem - weed chemical relationship - that I was seeing there. I said,
'T his is crazy. I am paying for chemicals to get rid of weeds and they are
ca using other weeds to grow.' Everything in that topic was pretty much like
th ey came to this farm and wrote it.
“What really got me started was going to talk to my uncle, who owns the
fa rm, and I said, 'I can't make it chemically. I am either quitting farming
or switching to organic.' And he said, 'Well, don't feel like because of me
th at you have to use chemicals.' But I told him up front that it wasn't going
to be easy, that he was going to have to get used to seeing a few weeds out
there. He was raised by what I call the 'clean, green era' where you are judged
by how many weeds are in your field and not by how much money is in
your pocket at the end of the year.” And, of course, organic fields may have
some weeds, which was difficult at first, but his uncle “accepted it more and
more,” and the organic income was good. According to Joel, at least with
some crops, “it was better than my chemical income. And we didn't have
spectacular yields because of all the rain. So that is where I started. I told
[116], (26)
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