"The only difference between a bad meal and a good one is about 24 hours."or

"Don't criticize agriculture with your mouth full."By John L. Upshaw, Farmer

Claude, TexasFeb 11, 2015

Part I At first I was thinking more nuts and bolts, hands-on type practices to pass along. I'll try to get to that, but after watching [John Green’s piece on] the agriculture revolution, my thinking turned more towards the philosophical. I was taken back a bit by the concept of agriculture being an option. He did point out some good advantages to agriculture apart from just food, like stability, doctors, schools, homes......  But the disadvantages he pointed out begin to betray some very fundamental differences in world views. It made me aware of how integral my, or our, world view is to agriculture as we know it. It comes down to how you look at that Book we've been following all these years. Since a faith POV is allowed, I can roar. A good example of my point of view comes from Animal Science 1011; the teacher read us God’s directions for animal slaughter from the Torah, right there in a state college. We follow those practices today because they work, are sanitary, and humane.

I can see somewhat how agriculture could be considered optional, especially from a secular humanist view. Hunter/gatherer is somewhat idealized, but not sustainable if, as he claims, it leaves more time for other activities. We see the result of that in cultures today, usually in the form of starving children. Slavery and oppression can be blamed on agriculture, if you don't acknowledge man's original depravity that affects all areas, not just Ag. Take a look at the role of the woman in hunter/gatherer tradition. After the man killed the animal, all the gutting, skinning, cooking, hide-processing, as well as taking care of the children, fell to the women. From the perspective of our world view, Ag is not optional. It's integral to God's creation and purpose for man. Gen. 1: tells us God created vegetation, seed, fruit, after their kind before he created man. -God was the first, first Farmer –

Gen 2:8 "And the Lord planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there he placed the man who he had formed."  

Gen 2:15 "Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it."  

o We have to just imagine what cultivating and keeping meant before the fall, but we sure know what it is after.

Gen 3:17-19 "Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field; by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground."

o One important overlooked phrase is "Shall you eat." God seems to say,

"It's not over, don't give up. It's just going to be a lot harder now. Work will now be WORK!"  That has not been rescinded. Even with our climate controlled, work saving equipment, my hat has strata of crusty white sweat blending into a dark band where the dust collects on the sweat. Believe me, when your broke down, the crop is in jeopardy, and you have payments due – you sweat! You have weeds and thorns.  I don't want to go back to looking at the south end of a northbound mule though.

1 John Upshaw is a graduate of West Texas A&M University.

 "It's not over, don't give up. There's metal ore buried in those mountains. Go dig it out. Use it. Study what I've created and learn about Me and live." As you know, early scientists believed in God and believed they could learn about Him through science (gasp). As well, they could improve quality of life, including supply and quality of food and health. Exactly what God had in mind for man before the fall.

 I'll get on to how the affects what we do today and why.

Part II

So the acceptance or rejection of the fall and curse becomes a very relevant issue of contention. Do you worship God or is your god just His creation; the environment. Everyone, myself included, wants wholesome natural food, as it was intended. God wants that most of all. Then the curse comes along and it's feeding time 24/7. If one embraces that as fact, it changes the definition of 'natural'. Natural is now not necessarily good, it's just natural. Nature is now corrupted. You can say "I have a cold" and I could respond "Oh that's natural." Clostridium botulinum bacteria produces one of the most toxic chemicals known to man, but it's natural. Mold and fungus are natural. Why does God say to wash your hands before you eat? Because your hands may have a lot of natural bacteria and other harmful things on them. I think this is one of the major focal points of the scrutiny put on our food production. Granted there is plenty of abuse and ignorance, and it does need monitoring and regulation. Americans are very particular about their food supply and seem to want it all. Natural, wholesome, untouched by man, no chemicals or preservatives, yet no disease or worms. We want our perfect life with our ranch-ette in the country without the intrusion of Ag. This becomes a big problem when a good portion doesn’t’ acknowledge a fallen state. They worship nature and think it is inherently all good until we tamper with it. Much rumor and speculation is believed as fact. Most couldn't name any chemicals or preservatives, they've just been told they are all bad, but they haven't had to eat much moldy bread or apples with worms in them. After just a few days of that, or no food at all, and I say this tongue-in-cheek, that bad chemical laden, full of preservative food, starts looking better. I'll try to include a bit about our standards for what is allowed in our food supply later, but rest assured the standards are very strict and what is allowed very low. So, despite the fall, we can still produce very high quality food. It's just that now, if it's good, everyone wants it. Bugs, bacteria, fungus, animals. The line is long and the head of it starts right at the crop.  Pesticides One common misconception is that pesticides means insecticides. It does but it also includes any organism considered to be a pest. I can grow wheat one year and maybe milo the next. If volunteer wheat comes up in my milo, that same wheat I wanted to grow last year now becomes a pest. The list is long and distinguished, but there is no end to the number of weeds (the thistles and thorns that God promised) that will infiltrate a crop. Then you start on the bugs and disease. For most of the history of agricultural production, there were no herbicides, fungicides or insecticides. There was also a great compromise in, not only supply, but also quality. That's OK, there weren't as many people. Pesticides are a valuable tool in allowing us to keep up with what we want to do, and still keep up with the food for the extra people.  Most people would be astonished at the cost, time, and research that goes into getting a single product labeled for use. Millions of dollars, years of testing, strict standards on allowable residue, harvest

interval, handling restrictions, and application procedures. Would that we didn't need any of it, but it's a fallen world.   Integrated Pest Management (“IPM”) Integrated Pest Management is one of the buzz words that has appeared over the years. Contrary to rumor, farmers don't want to go out and soak down their crops every day with chemicals because.......duh.......THEY COST MONEY! I've never been one to boost un-needed chemical applications and I made a living dusting crops. Many times I would find myself advising against an application that I didn't think would help a farm or situation. Then later on, I knew they would trust me if I thought it was needed. IPM is a valid concept and should be promoted, but it is a very beautiful thing when it is economically driven. I would go out and look for beneficial insects. More than once I've waited on them and saved the cost of spraying without crop damage. Much is researched and new things learned every year about farming practices that reduce weed pressure and eliminate the need for herbicides. But these products don't automatically mean tainted food. We avoid them because they cost money. Sustainable Agriculture Another economic duh type buzz word. Not to diminish the need for education and research, but duh! It's all about economics. I've seen it over and over. The abusers who rape the land, double crop, and take and take without rotating or putting anything back don't survive. GMO Genetically modified organism. I don't know enough to say much about it and not enough is known long term to say if all the fears are justified. What we do see though is the same uneducated hysteria that goes with anything not "natural". Most of the GMO process is simply splicing in a part of a gene into the plant DNA that gives it a certain trait. Roundup ready is in the widest use for most of the corn, soybeans, and cotton. It doesn't change the original genetics or cause it to glow in the dark. It just makes it resistant to the herbicide Roundup. You can spray Roundup over the top of it and kill all the weeds and leave the crop. Roundup is non-selective so it kills any plant it is applied to. The biggest problem has been that Monsanto has kept the price of Roundup high enough that farmers try to save money and use it at a lower rate. Any weeds that do survive, and some do, will produce resistant offspring. The list of weeds that Roundup won't kill is getting longer and it looks like we won't have the widespread effectiveness of that product much longer. Monsanto has been a brutally greedy company and may have killed the cash cow. Dryland farming in the Texas panhandle hasn't been a fit for any GMO crops because we mostly produce wheat and grain sorghum. There are no GMO varieties of wheat in use at the present, even though it is getting blamed for all the latest gluten hype. Grain sorghum has two problems for GMO that I won't go into here. Suffice to say, we use no GMO in our dryland farming here. Woops, there is some dryland cotton, but irrigated farming is where the GMO is big. I will say though that the public has had a similar response to GMO that is has had to most other innovations and tools to increase production. We want natural, plentiful, cheap food and in ignorance, we take for granted what is required to keep up with an ever expanding population on fewer acres. Two decades ago, an 11 billion bushel total US corn crop was considered to be record production. It was just over 14 billion in 2014 and '15. Nuts and Bolts 

This brings us to some nuts and bolts. New practices are developed every year which enhance yield and have nothing to do with chemical products or GMO. Much of that has to do with preserving moisture and improving soil health. Things like using cover crops and rotation practices. The primary and most effective motivation for new practices is economic. Even though most farmers want to be as "natural" as possible, it still comes to the bottom line. My view of agriculture from here is a tiny myopic snapshot of the world situation, yet nearly all of it is exactly the same as it was thousands of years ago. Moisture is the limiting factor in most situations, and when we get it, it is more than we can use at the time. Threshing grain is exactly like it has always been. People used to manually beat grain out of the crop and toss it up and let the wind carry away the chaff. That's just what a combine does today. It’s hardly recognizable, but that's what's going on in a modern $350,000 machine. People used to drag a stick or metal share through the ground because it was easier than pulling up each individual weed. (Gen. 3 again)  Even though it is in an air conditioned cab, that's just what a tractor does, just faster with less effort (until it breaks down). The shift here has been away from frequent tillage with a disk plow that turns organic matter under the soil and more towards a sweep or blade that runs underneath and leaves residue on top. Recently we have been able to use Roundup or a mix in with it, and reduce tillage drastically. The goal is the same as sand dams; preserving moisture we do get, so it will be available later. Reduced tillage decreases rain runoff and loss from wind as well as reducing soil compaction and increasing water infiltration. Good example: Growing up out here I used to consider 8-10 bushels per acre about average for wheat. There were no hybrids for grain sorghum, at that time, and 1000 pounds per acre was about average. 3000 lbs. was considered a once in a lifetime crop. We used to use a disc plow on everything. Most acres were planted to wheat every year with an occasional fallow. Grain sorghum was a catch crop on maybe a tenth of the acres. Those have been about the only primary crops we can produce with our climate. It's too dry for corn or beans.  Plowing slowly shifted from the disc to the sweep. Though wheat is not adaptable to hybrids so far, much improvement has developed in grain sorghum (milo) through hybrid and selection. I went to a wheat-fallow-maize rotation about 40 years ago and as Roundup became more economical, I began to reduce tillage. Typically, after wheat harvest, I try to leave the stubble unplowed for the summer and winter. Snow is a significant source of moisture for us and usually winds up blowing off. The stubble helps hold it in place. If possible then, I'll plant milo right in the unplowed wheat stubble. That is harvested in the fall and crop residue is left that winter and the next summer to be planted to wheat that fall. More tillage is usually needed going from maize back to wheat for a number of reasons, so we're not no-till, just reduced till.

So just from those three changes, slowly, over decades; changes in tillage, improved varieties, and crop rotation- typical wheat yields are in the 20-25 bushel range, and milo is pretty disappointing if it's less than about 3000 lbs. As Roundup becomes less effective, I'm seeing a shift more back to wider use of tillage in the next 10-15 years, but I don't think that will have quite the impact here as in other parts of the country. We use very little insecticide in dryland production here. We just usually don't need it. There again, it's economics. I'm going to have to just stop here so I can get something to you. I could write a book. I didn't put anything in about equipment since there is so much on YouTube and Google. I hope some of this will be useful for your classes. 

Eat your veggies, John.