227
July 23, 1989
Mr. Stanley Webb and Mr. Gary Webb
Webb Ranch
2720 Alpine Road
Menlo Park, CA 94025
Gentlemen:
For most of my life I have been interested in family farms
everywhere. I was born and raised in Western Canada. Almost
all of the farms were family farms. Most farmers had their
own gardens and raised much of their own food. Farmlands of
Western Canada were very fertile. I have traveled in Europe
looking for family farms. I found that small family farms
were common in Switzerland and some parts of Germany. In
France, I found out that monied people had bought most of the
good land, and the farmers themselves are mostly laborers.
Recently, in the Times Tribune, Lou Pappas had a wonderful
story about the farmers of Brittany in France. It is a
favorable climate. Almost all of the farmers have about six
acres. They avoid big machinery. They plow the land using
horses. They are part of a large cooperative of several
thousand of these small farmers. The coop accepts quality
produce only. They ship to about fifteen countries.
I have traveled in California looking for family farms. They
are difficult to find.
In this area, the one great jewel is the Webb Ranch. They
avoid using pesticides. This pleases people, but what
fascinates me is that they practice good husbandry. They
raise cattle whose waste products become part of the soil.
They avoid flood irrigation, which is damaging to the soil
and to surrounding areas. An example is Kesterton Reservoir,
which is supposed to be a wildlife refuge; however, the
runoff from flood irrigation has poisoned the water and the
land, with the result that wildlife is destroyed.
They have installed drip irrigation. They do some
composting. The proof of the pudding is in the eating.
Their produce is wonderful. Occasionally, one finds a boll
weevil in a cob of corn. That suits me. If corn is not good
enough for the weevil, it is not good enough for me.
Another thing that pleases me is that they make land more
fertile. They are soil builders rather than soil miners.
The soil in this area is not naturally rich. With good
husbandry it can be built up.
At one time, Palo Alto and the foothills was famous for its
apricots. Today it is difficult to find an apricot in the
stores that is worth eating.
People can still grow wonderful fruit in their own backyards
if they practice good husbandry. In my own small yard I have
a dwarf lemon that produces about 1,000 lemons a year. My
Santa Rosa plum produces about 1,000 beautiful plums a year.
My fig tree grows delicious fruit. My apricot tree is still
small, but the fruit is magnificent. I used to have big
flocks of robins and waxwings eating my profuse pyrocantha
berries. I have not seen a waxwing since the area was
sprayed with malathion--only an occasional robin.
The farmlands of California are being damaged, often
destroyed. This appears to be happening all over the world.
We as citizens must love the land or lose it. Everyone of
all ages should be concerned. All young people should have
the opportunity to spend some time working on the land.
People in factories should be encouraged to help with the
harvesting.
The automobile workers union and others talk a great deal
about job security. But without an assured food supply,
there is no security for any of us. In New York State, they
built their penitentiaries near the Canadian border south of
Montreal, Quebec. Near Plattsburg, New York, is the largest
orchard for Macintosh apples. The growers have given up
trying to use welfare people. local people. or inmates to
harvest the crop. They send airplanes to Jamaica and bring
pickers and, when the season is over, they fly them back.
The pickers make good wages, enough to keep them the rest of
the year in Jamaica. Billions of parents in California
expect their children to go through school and college so
that they will never have to earn a living by using their
hands, which is considered menial. However, humans are the
supreme tool using mammal. In the motor area of the brain, a
large area is devoted to hand movements and speech. All
children should have an opportunity to develop skillful hands
and the ability to communicate verbally. Millions of
children are handicapped because they do not develop hand
skills or the ability to communicate verbally.
If they are not fed good food, they will not develop a good
body and nervous system. All children should have the
opportunity to earn and learn when they are fairly young. If
they get the opportunity to help on a good farm or garden
project, it will be good for their skills as well as their
bodies. They may get an understanding of what good food is.
The Webb Ranch is unique on the West Coast, as far as I can
find out. Their mixed farming includes cattle. They avoid
flood irrigation, they avoid pesticides.
Thousands of acres of farmlands in California have become
alkaline flats due to flood irrigation, chemical fertilizers
and pesticides.
I realize that overpopulation can ruin everything, but we all
need better food. At present, we and the rest of the world
are heading for food riots.
A year ago, the Lions Club of Palo Alto put aside $4,000 to
reward good farmers and encourage the young to help with farm
work. I wanted to give $1,000 to Webb Ranch. I was told
that the Lions bylaws did not permit giving money to any
organization that made a profit. In our materialistic
society, how else can one reward people who are doing such a
great thing? I said that if I were the Queen of England, I
would give them a title of some sort.
When I lived in Western Canada as a boy, all the able-bodied
men in the village would help get in the harvest. During
World War I, I helped with the harvest. I was given a medal
entitled "Soldier of the Soil." I was paid $4 a day.
I still believe that all local citizens should help with the
harvest. Office and factory workers could be encouraged to
do so by making their wages tax free up to a certain amount.
This could also apply to students.
Many of our local companies have beautiful lawns. Many of
these lawns are loaded with pesticide. This may affect the
underground water supply. These poisoned lands may affect
people's health. I note that in Europe, many places use
sheep to keep the grass down.
Many lawns look like putting greens. There have been cases
where the maintenance workers have become sick from the
pesticide used on the greens. Birds have been poisoned for
the same reason.
I note that in Ireland, the peat bogs are being decimated.
Here, people buy peat that is dug up in British Columbia. It
is put on their lawns to add organic matter or a mulch. I
use garbage to add organic matter to the soil. This works
best if some organic nitrogen is sprinkled on the garbage.
If one is a peasant, they can use homo sapiens urea nitrogen.
College types can find other sources.
Part of our modern madness is the use of expensive exercise
machines. Jogging is also a strange new thing. If the
energy were used in producing better good and better home
cooking, the rewards would be greater.
Presently, society is destroying its future. It is all so
unnecessary. Webb Ranch and places like it are precious
jewels. They give us hope. They point the way. They deal
with reality.
The news media and other voices talk about calamity but
seldom offer solutions except to spend more money. But the
problems are caused by people, and people might solve them.
A pleasant speculation.
Yours truly,
Robert H. Little
