i was out and about so i thought i would check on the field behind the big box stores and see what suburban agriculture was up to...if anything...and what i found surprised me...it was clear as i pulled up that the field had been planted...there were clearly uniform rows of green and weeds do not align themselves in rows...human intervention was at work...i suspected it was a soy bean field this year since it was corn last season and i was correct in that surmise...but past that things were different...i began to suspect when i saw all the corn cobs lying undisturbed by the bean plants...( i found at least one volunteer corn plant among the beans...the others will become more obvious as the plants grow and we will have more photos of mutant industrial corn....monsanto says they don't put a "suicide" gene in their corn but volunteers still don't look anything like their parents )...but what iced it for me was the neat rows of bean plants growing inside the upright corn stalks left over from last season's harvest...this is a no-till field and i have to say it is the first i have found around here in years of driving around looking at fields...it still isn't sustainable agriculture but it is a step towards a less erosive form of agriculture and, perhaps, a gateway to some form of permaculture down the line...someone may have been cutting costs on a leased field but if the economics fall into line with some conservation we find a movement towards effective change.
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