Economic I - Land

A four-day tour into Economics!! Today - LAND

Okay, I wanted to stop my look at history for a few days.  Another item I have wanted to write on for a while is economics.

From the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, we have this definition of production:

“Factors of production are the resources people use to produce goods and services; they are the building blocks of the economy. Economists divide the factors of production into four categories: land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurship.

Let’s look at each one of these over the next few days.

The land is one of the two most basic factors of production.  Let’s divide the land into two subparts: agriculture and mining.  (I will NOT look at mining today).

Agriculture:

From the history of ancient man to the development of civilization, man has used the land for his use.  While I can’t quite name the first time a person planted wheat or other seeds, growing items has been a staple for years.

The other basic foundation of agriculture was for animal husbandry.  (And, yes, I had to look up that term!!)

“In the 1300s another word, “husbandman,” came to mean a farmer or a tiller of the soil, and the word “husbandry” widened to mean farming and agriculture in general, including the raising of livestock, poultry, and such. ... We still speak of “animal husbandry” as a branch of farm management” 

“The word “husbandry” has nothing to do with marriage, at least not in this day and age. And it had nothing to do with marriage when it entered English in the late 13th century.”

And, from the early chapters of the Bible “Cain became a tiller of the ground, and Abel a keeper of sheep.”  Even from this concept, we have farmers - growing crops; and those keeping animals (shepherds, ranchers).

As I sometimes do, I’m going to throw some Judeo-Christian views of agriculture into this concept - that of leaving the ground “fallow”.

“Fallow ground, or fallow soil, is simply ground or soil which has been left unplanted for a period of time. In other words, fallow land is land left to rest and regenerate. A field, or several fields, are taken out of crop rotation for a specific period of time, usually one to five years, depending on the crop.”

From Exodus 23:1-11

““For six years you are to sow your land and to gather in its produce, but in the seventh, you are to let it go and to let it be, that the needy of your people may eat, and what remains, the wildlife of the field shall eat” (Exodus 23.1-11). Biblically, how you tend your fields comprises part of your morality.

This directly talks of a “sabbatical year” for land.  For six years you can plant your land and on the seventh year let it go.  As I grew up, many farmers seemed to follow this example. They would plant corn (or soybeans) for six years and on the seventh year plant a legume crop like alfalfa or clover.  Rotation of crops seems to enrich the soil without the use of chemicals.  

Legumes put nitrogen back into the soil that is used by other crops.  If a farmer has both crops and livestock, the alfalfa, clover, or another legume crop can be used for cattle feed as well as put needed nitrogen back into the soil. 

As I grew up, many farmers put natural, organic fertilizer into the soil (possibly to the confoundment of their neighbors from the aroma).  By this, I mean “manure”. This also could be the case where a field was seeded with clover (that cows and animals would eat, digest and eliminate) the field would get nitrogen and soil conditioning.  

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But, back to the original topic of economic factors for production and the use of land for economic production, good treatment of land, such as a sabbatical year, crop rotation, and (if you will) organic treatments might fit into the Old Testament concepts for good farming.

Now (LMG and others), I am NOT a farmer, I don’t really know and understand modern farming concepts, but as land is one of the main economic factors, maybe a concern for the land should be part of our farming/food raising process.  

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Aside, it does seem like I go on tangents - but in terms of land as an economic force might raise some concerns for environmental studies and even global warming.  

Are we hurting our land?  I don’t know. Are we being good stewards of the earth?  

Moving to the second economic force - labor - tomorrow!!!

Hugs!!

Karen

(Okay - if I take this concept to heart, what can I (should I) do?)